Well New Year was lame as I ended up at home on my own with the flu 
2008 is shaping out ok so far though, mainly knuckling down with work (by day) and writing (by night). The last couple of weekends have been nice and quiet, which is cool particularly as my diary for Feb/Mar is starting to fill up with gaming events and SG meets. Hopefully I'll see some of you soon, but in the mean time, here are some more reviews:
I Am Legend is a pretty ham-fisted attempt to bring the novel by Richard Matheson of the same name to the big screen. The final product bears about as much reseblance to the book, as Will Smith's other project I, Robot bore to the Asimov original. To his credit, Mr. Smith's acting chops are excellent and he helps lend the first half of the film some gravitas, and an early scene where he is forced into the darkness to rescue his dog is literally nail-biting. However, things quickly take a turn for the worse, largely thanks to an utterly lame script. The CGI is ropey, but bearable. The real tragedy is that the premise and the tension is completely squandered, and the ending is far from satisfying. One to rent on DVD for curiosity's sake only.
No Country For Old Men is the latest fare from the Coen Brothers, a slow-burning thriller about the hunt for some stolen money taken from a drug-deal gone wrong in the desert of the American mid-west. I've noticed that the critics are lauding this film as the best thing the Coens have ever done, and that both Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones deserve to win awards for their performances. Personally however I thought the film was a little flat, and sorely missing the black, ironic humour that so liberally infests the likes of Fargo or The Big Lebowski. Javier Barden hardly says a word, which is not for me worthy of an Oscar, and although Tommy Lee Jones is excellent, it's the kind of character he can play in his sleep (I wonder whether the scenes of horse-riding was a particular request of his own). The thing that bothered me the most though is that (mild spoiler alert) three-quarters of the way through the film, the narrative skips completely like a broken record, and the film feels like it's competely missing several crucial scenes. I left the theatre scratching me head, wondering whether the print had been damaged, or whether someone had made a mistake...
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem follows in the footsteps of the frankly awful original Aliens vs. Predator film released in 2004. Thankfully, Requeim raises the bar considerably. Although it's effectively a by-the-numbers thriller that does pretty much exactly what you would expect without any real surprises, it is chocked full of scenes and moments which are evocative of the original Alien and Predator films which should please the hardcore following. Metro giving it only two stars was a little unfair, and I can only assume their reviewer was not a fan of the genre. If you *are* a fan, then it's well worth checking out, and it bodes well for the already-mooted sequel.
Charlie Wilson's War is the 'Hollywood-isation' of an apparently true story about a Texas senator who in the 1980s single-handedly turned around Washington and CIA policy to support Afghanistan against the Russians at the end of the Cold War. I was pleasantly surprised to find it much better, and funnier than I had anticipated. The tone is pitched perfectly, balancing the seriousness of the underlying material against the apparent absurdity of Charlie's own world as a Senator. It's also the best thing Tom Hanks has turned in for years, and he bounces along as if he is having an excellent time (no doubt helped along by the wealth of female eye-candy that surrounds him throughout). The film perhaps only puts a foot wrong right at the end, where it tries to acknowledge that the US dropped the ball after the Soviets were defeated without really getting into it properly - a rather serious understatement given the facts.
2008 is shaping out ok so far though, mainly knuckling down with work (by day) and writing (by night). The last couple of weekends have been nice and quiet, which is cool particularly as my diary for Feb/Mar is starting to fill up with gaming events and SG meets. Hopefully I'll see some of you soon, but in the mean time, here are some more reviews:I Am Legend is a pretty ham-fisted attempt to bring the novel by Richard Matheson of the same name to the big screen. The final product bears about as much reseblance to the book, as Will Smith's other project I, Robot bore to the Asimov original. To his credit, Mr. Smith's acting chops are excellent and he helps lend the first half of the film some gravitas, and an early scene where he is forced into the darkness to rescue his dog is literally nail-biting. However, things quickly take a turn for the worse, largely thanks to an utterly lame script. The CGI is ropey, but bearable. The real tragedy is that the premise and the tension is completely squandered, and the ending is far from satisfying. One to rent on DVD for curiosity's sake only.
No Country For Old Men is the latest fare from the Coen Brothers, a slow-burning thriller about the hunt for some stolen money taken from a drug-deal gone wrong in the desert of the American mid-west. I've noticed that the critics are lauding this film as the best thing the Coens have ever done, and that both Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones deserve to win awards for their performances. Personally however I thought the film was a little flat, and sorely missing the black, ironic humour that so liberally infests the likes of Fargo or The Big Lebowski. Javier Barden hardly says a word, which is not for me worthy of an Oscar, and although Tommy Lee Jones is excellent, it's the kind of character he can play in his sleep (I wonder whether the scenes of horse-riding was a particular request of his own). The thing that bothered me the most though is that (mild spoiler alert) three-quarters of the way through the film, the narrative skips completely like a broken record, and the film feels like it's competely missing several crucial scenes. I left the theatre scratching me head, wondering whether the print had been damaged, or whether someone had made a mistake...
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem follows in the footsteps of the frankly awful original Aliens vs. Predator film released in 2004. Thankfully, Requeim raises the bar considerably. Although it's effectively a by-the-numbers thriller that does pretty much exactly what you would expect without any real surprises, it is chocked full of scenes and moments which are evocative of the original Alien and Predator films which should please the hardcore following. Metro giving it only two stars was a little unfair, and I can only assume their reviewer was not a fan of the genre. If you *are* a fan, then it's well worth checking out, and it bodes well for the already-mooted sequel.
Charlie Wilson's War is the 'Hollywood-isation' of an apparently true story about a Texas senator who in the 1980s single-handedly turned around Washington and CIA policy to support Afghanistan against the Russians at the end of the Cold War. I was pleasantly surprised to find it much better, and funnier than I had anticipated. The tone is pitched perfectly, balancing the seriousness of the underlying material against the apparent absurdity of Charlie's own world as a Senator. It's also the best thing Tom Hanks has turned in for years, and he bounces along as if he is having an excellent time (no doubt helped along by the wealth of female eye-candy that surrounds him throughout). The film perhaps only puts a foot wrong right at the end, where it tries to acknowledge that the US dropped the ball after the Soviets were defeated without really getting into it properly - a rather serious understatement given the facts.
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
passion:
haha! handled it pretty well by trying to hit him in the face while running out of the room? lol. well either way i think the drama's pretty much over now. finally! 
tubesound:
Come in Hermes. Are you receiving, over?