The Movie Bit

Iron Man 2 International Poster

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:32:00 +0000

No war machine this time round, but this has oodles of intensity and a very dark and foreboding Tony Stark.

Descent 2 & The Box Reviews

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:50:00 +0000

I’m going to keep this incredibly short and simple. This weeks 2 big releases don’t even warrant a separate review!
Descent 2 is more of the same. If you like the original then you might like this as its a bit more gory and has a few more jumps.If you haven’t seen the original, then stay on the couch or go see something worthwhile like Paranormal Activity, Law Abiding Citizen or even watch the original which you should now be able to buy for the price of a cheap pair of underpants!

And now onto The Box. Is the lovely Cameron Diaz attempting to make some non-comedy movies? Recently we had My Sisters Keeper and now we have the box! And yes, its from the extreme talent that brought us the wonderful and abstract Donny Darko. Richard Kelly proved he was an immense talent and then brought us Southland Tales, which unlike alot of people, I rather liked. And then he turns up with his. It’s a tale of will a poor family down on their luck push a button that will kill someone they don’t know. If they push the button they get a million quid from Frank Langella. Of course, they push the button, and of course it comes with some consequences. This is all over the place and Richard Kelly seems to be going from amazing to what the fuck!

Unless your a hardcore fan of the people involved in the above movies, then your better off going to see something far more worthwhile! I’d actually watch paint fade then endure either of the above again!

Avatar LIVE on Facebook

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Submit your question for James Cameron and some of the cast on facebook
RSVP to the event and off you go. Its from 12pm to 1230pm yankee doodle time. Its PST, so that means for this neck of the Irish woods, its 8pm tonight! Wonder will anyone film a question nude!

Here comes Freddy again! Nightmare on Elm Street reboot Pics

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Not entirely sure why there’s a need to reboot the Elm St franchise, but here’s some pics via Brazilian website Omelete. I’m sure somebody will be excited…somewhere!

Iron Man 2 Poster

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:34:00 +0000

Is it even possible that War Machine looks cooler than Iron Man. Great poster! And its the first one out and just gone online via Yahoo! movies. Check out the mini gun. Seriously bad ass looking. Go on, its ok to drool!

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Vote, Vote, Vote

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Plenty of time left to vote as the closing date for our Movie of the Year Poll is Dec 16th, but if you haven’t cast your vote, get clicking!

Interesting seeing the voting trends at the moment, with a certain comedy topping the polls. Winner announced of course on December 20th!

Paranormal Activity Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:50:00 +0000

I think at this stage everyone and their badger has heard of Paranormal Activity. Its the movie that was made for $11,000 dollars, $15,000 dollars or 3 camels and a goat, depending on what you read. Either way Paranormal Activity is gone well north of $100 million dollars in the USA alone.

The idea here is incredibly simple. Boyfriend / Girlfriend live together. Girlfriend is followed by a demon. On occasion they hear a few things go bump in the night. Boyfriend then decides this is the best excuse to go an splash out on a fancy camcorder. Said camcorder is more or less surgically attached to his hip until he unhooks it and places it on a tripod to record the bumps in the night in the bedroom. And that's the story essentially. All done in the Blair Witch “found videotapes” style.

An unknown cast more or less improvise all their dialogue for the duration of the movie. And it never shows. There’s a great performance here for the 2 main characters and no matter how much I fought it, I couldn’t fail to get sucked in. Paranormal Activity does indeed suck you in, but it takes a bit to get caught up in it. Excluding the occasional bump in the night, the first 30 minutes are full of conversations with the happy couple. But once things get going, this movie comes at you like an out of control freight train.Its pure and utter psychological warfare on the viewer, mainly caused by a sound effects track that will have you wishing you were deaf. Your hair will stand on end and your arms will produce a mountain range of goose bumps that you never thought humanely possible. And by the final scene and the Spielberg suggested ending you will be thrilled its over and then wonder why you never brought a clean pair of underpants.

Paranormal Activity is an incredibly simple movie with little or no special fx and no giant monsters, but it is incredibly well done. Its been described as the scariest movie ever made and I have to agree. I never in my life of watching movies have had so many chills. And I mean ice cold, full body chills. So much so that I could have stuck an ice cube tray up my ass and made ice cubes. Paranormal Activity is much more than a movie, its an actual psychological experience. Just bring clean jocks!

Movie of the Year 2009

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:32:00 +0000

Hey all, the first ever Movie Bit, Movie of the Year Poll kicks off right now. Movie of the year as voted by YOU will be announced on our final Movie Bit of 2009 on Sunday, Dec 20th - Corks RedFM!
So vote now either by selecting (3 choices) your top movies of 2009 on the big poll on the right, click the link on the very top of the screen or click here ! Movies that are currently not released will be added in the coming days.

Thanks for voting!

Law Abiding Citizen Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:57:00 +0000

The bad guy always gets killed or those he? Law Abiding Citizen stars Gerard Butler as Clyde Shelton who has to endure his wife and child being raped and killed in front of him by 2 burglars. Jamie Foxx plays Nick Rice who’s the legal department justice person. So after the the horrific Shelton family slaughter, only one of the bad guys gets the death penalty with the other getting a prison sentence. All this happens after Rice cuts a deal, much to the disappointment of Shelton, and quite understandably so.

From here on in, the guy that got the prison sentence eventually gets out after 10 years and its from here the movie continues. Mr.Bad guy meets with Shelton, a box cutter and an electric saw. And slowly but surely Shelton starts popping off judges and officers one by one as he is still upset with the justice department. He manages this from his comfy prison cell after he gets put away for the electric saw incident.

In between a few more deals which include steak and a fancy mattress, we learn what Shelton actually is and then he ends up in Solitary after using his steak for more than eating. From here, the story throws a few twists at you and the body count racks up as the movie rolls along to its exciting ending.

Law Abiding Citizen has a solid cast and solid performances but none of them are Oscar worthy. Gerard Butler plays the role of a scorned man quite well. He show’s little or no emotion after the family slaughter and has zero contempt for the legal system. That said, he’s not an instantly likeable character as you don’t feel a great deal of sympathy for him. This is routed in the fact that the actual murder and rape scene are more or less like a 15 second montage which isn’t exactly as graphic as it sounds. If that particular scene was extended to some degree I feel it would have added to the story and indeed made the viewer have more of a connection and sympathy with Butler. Foxx is solid here as well, again not an instantly likeable character, as a matter of fact you’ll spend most of the movie thinking he’s a self centred pig, which is testament to his performance. Colm Meany is here as well and turns in the usual Meany performance, solid as ever. At 109 minutes, this film trundles along quite nicely and is well shot. Theres a few tense moments to boot, including one great scene with a judge a mobile phone!

The story is well written, the idea isn’t bad either but we’ve seen a million revenge movies. Either way though, Law Abiding Citizen is an enjoyable thriller and while it’s not one of the years biggest movies, it certainly is worth a watch!

The Twilight Saga - New Moon review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:29:00 +0000

For many people (primarily young teenage girls) their world has stopped turning as the second movie in the Twilight series arrives.
Lets be honest here, If Jesus turned up and told the fans this movie was rubbish, it wouldn’t matter. This is a fan movie.

Essentially the story here follows on the love story of Bella and Edward. Between the jigs and reels, Edward (Robert Pattinson) and the rest of the family Cullen decide to up sticks and leave, as one of the school going family members has aged quite a bit. So poor old Bella gets the heave ho and she goes a little bonkers. Kristen Stewart to her credit, plays the completely obsessed ex girlfriend probably too well as her constant whinging gets annoying quite quickly. Either way, she ends up pushing her own boundaries and when she does, she gets glimpses of Edward telling her not to do whatever she’s about to do. She then goes off and starts hanging out with a potential love interest, who’s also a werewolf and subsequently starts hanging out with a group of werewolves. And look, these aren’t your ordinary werewolves' either. They’ve been eating a lot more than Pedigree Chum with rice and vegetables.

Between more mundane dialogue and attempts at extreme sports, Edward thinks she’s dead and goes off to the Vampire Mafia about killing himself because he can’t bare life without Bella. They disagree and he decides to go and reveal himself to the public as a vampire. If he does, the vamp mob bosses won’t be too happy and will kill him. Will Bella turn up in time? Will Edward die? Will a werewolf start dry humping somebody's leg?

New Moon at times look’s great. But, more times than not the special effects leave the whole thing down in particular the werewolves don’t look too convincing. That said, the cast are quite solid here, and Robert Pattinson is exceptionally charming and likeable. There’s more dialogue here than anything else though and bar the occasional werewolf scrap, the movie for me anyway, seemed to drag and drag to its incredibly cheesy cliff-hanger ending. Don’t get me wrong, this movie isn’t aimed at the average joe soap. This is directly aimed at the millions of fans worldwide and I have no doubt they will all squeal their way through the whole thing. And I can certainly appreciate that. If your not a fan though, as piece of film New Moon doesn’t really hold up. So there’s not alot here for your average movie goer, unless you fancy staring at teenagers and their rippling torsos!

By the way, on the Movie Bit on Sunday night, I’ll be getting some words of wisdom from Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart!

2012 Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:10:00 +0000

The director who brought you a giant lizard trampling around New York and a giant Tsunami complimented with an ice storm is back and this time it really is the end of the world.
Roland Emmerich’s 2012 opens from this Friday. The world is ending as predicted by the Mayans and December 21st is the day its all coming to an end for mankind. And it’s nothing to do with asteroids, ice storms or giant lizards. The world is going to cook itself from the inside out and essentially the cement that hold’s all the tectonic plates together will weaken thus causing a huge shift of the continents. So Volcano’s and earthquakes abound in 2012. But all is not lost, as usual. Gigantic arks are being constructed in China as the world unites and attempts to survive. Well as long as your a head of state or have a billion euro per person in your family, then your more than welcome on board.

Cusack on his morning run

John Cusack plays Jackson Curtis who is a limo driver and of course he has an estranged family who seem to love their step dad more than their real dad. As thing’s kick off and California starts the cooking process, Curtis turns up to the family home in a limo and they all drive off as the whole neighbourhood falls into the fiery pits of hell or something. This is the first major set piece in the movie and it is absolutely breathtaking. You will cling to the edge of your seat, disbelieving that a Limo driver can drive a huge stretch limo through collapsing skyscrapers and so on. You will continue your disbelief as the step dad who only has a few flying lesson’s, manages to take off from an airport that is imploding on itself. All unbelievable and ridiculous, but maybe they are just a lucky bunch. Besides the luck and limo stunt driving, this is still an incredible scene with tonnes of detail going on. Either way Cusack and co plough through another few set pieces involving volcano’s and Russian cargo planes as they attempt to stay alive and try and get to China.

Drinks and snacks are now being served

Emmerich’s movies are not really known for the quality of acting, and its surprising to see John Cusack in a movie of this style. What’s even more surprising is that Cusack dials in his performance…from the moon. The only notable performances are from Chiwetel Ejifor (American Gangster) who plays one of the big wig scientist folks and Woody Harrelson plays a bonkers radio host quiet convincingly. Danny Glover keeps his head above water in a barely adequate performance as the president. Then again, this type of movie isn’t about quality of acting. Its about bangs for bucks and gigantic set pieces, and on that front it does deliver, once it finally gets going.

If you look out of your window you will see some of the rougher parts of L.A.

2012 clocks in at over 150 minutes and takes the bare bones of nearly 45 minutes for the end of the world to begin. If they dumped some of the ridiculous subplots they could have shaved nearly an hour off the running time. Even if they placed some of the sub plots with more global destruction, that might have lifted it some what. So putting that to one side and a plot that makes little sense, you are left with a movie that's really a showcase for the gargantuan power of CGI. And when Tsunami’s and Volcano's are wiping the place out, 2012 does indeed entertain and keep you on the edge of your seat. But that's about it. You just then wait around for the next set piece and repeat. And to be honest, the majority of the set pieces are shown in the many clips and trailers online. If you can leave your brain in the car, then you will just about enjoy 2012.

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS REVIEW

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Based on the book by Jon Ronson (Which I haven’t read), the men who stare at goats is all about men who stare at goats and attempt to stop their heart in the process.
As well as the heart stopping, they’ll also burst clouds, remote view kidnapped victims and..er..walk through walls. Its all to do with a secret US military operation revolving around Psychic spies, which as the movie will tell you at the start, is alot truer than some of you might think.

Ewan McGregor plays a small town journalist called Bob Wilton, who starts interviewing someone who claimed to be a Psychic spy. Following on from that, his one armed editor manages to steal his wife from him, and Wilton goes off to Kuwait / Iraq to try and prove that he is not an all snivelling, puny little man to his wife or ex wife. Enter a chance meeting with the uber Psychic Spy, Lyn Cassady (Clooney) Wilton convinces Clooneys moustached character to allow him to hitch a lift to Iraq, and then its where the stories start, all in a manner of tight and short flashbacks. Its during these moments, that we get a proper introduction to Larry Hooper (played brilliantly by Kevin Spacey) and Bill Django (who slips back into his “Dude” persona). I’m not going to give away the rest of the movie here, but all play far bigger roles than just being involved with a few flashbacks.
The Men who stare at goats rollicks along at a brisk enough pace and looks very well. Clooney is superb here and Ewan McGregor plays a great second best, almost at times out performing Clooney. Jeff Bridges spends most of his time reliving The Big Lewbowski and Kevin Spacey is solid as usual. Besides a strong cast, this movie has plenty of laughs and will keep you well entertained and thats it. It gets lost in the middle a bit and picks up again towards the end, which to be fair, I loved the final scene. It stinks of a Coen brothers movie and with the Clooney involvement and quirky story, you’d be forgiven for thinking it might well be, but its not and that becomes apparent fairly quickly. To be honest, after 93 minutes you won’t remember much about it, as its a little bit less than memorable and has the it could have been so much better factor, but it’s a watchable romp none the less which I did enjoy.

Jennifer's Body

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:05:00 +0000

The horror genre continues its revival and its latest offering has the bride from Mama Mia and the mechanic from Transformers 2 getting gored up.

The story here is nothing spectacular. Megan Fox plays Jennifer who’s the stereotypical hottie at school except she hangs out with the geeky chick, played by Amanda Seyfried. Jennifer goes off with a local band in their van and comes back a little worse for wear. Turns out she’s possessed by a demon and needs to keep her little tummy full up, by eating as much boy flesh as possible. Needy (Seyfried) eventually figures out something isn’t quite right and in between a longish and drawn out lesbian sequence (which to be fair is great and..well shot) gets the lowdown from Jenn that she needs to feed herself and so on. Will Needy stop her? Will Jennifer eat all the men in the town? Does anybody care?

Jennifer's body is an attempt at doing a chick flick in the horror genre but fails on a number of levels. There is no character development and the acting is well below par for everybody concerned. Fox, in particular takes on a slightly different role from what she’s used to. Yes, she spends sections of the movie doing the typical eye candy stuff, but for the other sections she spends her time eating guts and being covered in blood and all things associated with being possessed by a demon. Her acting to be honest, is non existent and shows that you need a bit more than a decent ass to deliver something resembling a performance. But do you really want Megan Fox to turn in an Oscar worthy performance? Probably not! But lets remember, eye candy does not make for a good movie. Even this genre will never win too many awards, and there are some fantastic examples of how it should be done elsewhere!

The pace of the movie is quite poor and seems to quite sporadic in moving you to the predictable ending, which leaves the door open for a sequel, god forbid.

Jennifer spends most of her time in Jennifer's body being quite hungry and telling us she’s so empty. Well by the conclusion of this movie, you’ll know exactly how she feels!

Zombieland review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:03:00 +0000

Right, so yet another Zombie movie. Zombie movies are after experiencing a bit of a comeback over the last few years, but none of them are anything like this. Many zombie movies have gore, many have some humour, many have action but not many combine them all into one big pile of awesome!

I’ll be honest here, there’s no great plot to save the world in Zombieland. The story revolves around the search for a few Twinky’s and a visit to an amusement park. While these quest’s are going on, Tallahasse (Harrelson) and Columbus (Eisenberg) are killing as many zombies as possible. In all the usual ways, shotguns, pistols and oh whatever else comes to hand, from sinks, shears and rollercoaster's. They meet by chance on a deserted highway and shortly they meet up with 2 ladies played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin. I suppose from a story point of view, the guys have a disagreement with the ladies toward the end of the movie and there’s the inevitable shoot off and rescue mission. Predictable I suppose, but what a fantastic ride getting there.

No one is winning any Oscars in this one, well maybe the special effects and makeup crew who have heads and limbs exploding in great and gory detail. Excluding a couple of moments which are a bit long and drawn out and add nothing, Zombieland is pure, balls to the wall entertainment. Oh and it has a brilliant and unexpected cameo that is simply...brilliant. Eisenberg last seen in Adventurel and is the same as usual although I think Michael Cera has got the lonesome geek down pat. Harrelson is brilliant and will surely always be associated with this Tallahasse character.

Leave your brain at the door here, in case the Zombies get it and enjoy one the funniest and most entertaining movies this year! Zombieland promised so much from the trailer, and unlike alot of movies this year, it actually delivered much more!

Up Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:08:00 +0000

Pixar have raised the bar every time they release a movie, in story telling, in style, in visuals. You name it they’ve raised the bar for it. So how much higher can the bar be raised. Well Up, is raising the bar very, very high indeed….with no balloons attached either.

Carl Fredrickson has a lifelong dream to see the wilder parts of South America and in particular a pretty giant waterfall. So after a montage that will have you in tears, he ties an immense number of balloons to his house and takes off, just before he was due to go to the old folks home. Carl isn’t alone here though. Russell, a boy scout hides out under the porch when the house starts taking off and the 2 of them set off on an amazing adventure which involves everything from a bird called Kevin, the obligatory evil villian to hilarious talking dogs. And that's the story.

Up looks great, it seems to have an visual style that has evolved from an old Pixar short called Geri’s game. The performances are second to none here, with no expression left un-animated. I think its certainly one of the more mature Pixar tales and the stark contrasts between young and old reiterate this point. It has plenty of laughs and the characters, particularly the dogs are immediately loveable. Its rare that an animated movie can grip an audience emotionally, but, man does Up tug on the heart strings early on.

This is the best animated movie you will see this year and certainly the best of the last few years. I’d even say its one of the finest pieces of work Pixar have ever produced. The only problem I have with Up is it leaves you with an incredible urge to tie balloons to your house. Go see it, you won’t be disappointed.

Pete Docter, the director of Up will be talking to me exclusively on the show this Sunday night, from 10pm!!!!

2012 - 5 Minute Clip - Awesome!

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Get yer eyeballs round this..

The Invention of lying Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:55:00 +0000

Imagine a world where there is nothing but brutal honesty. Everyone speaks their mind. If they think your fat and ugly, they’ll tell you. The waiter in a restaurant takes a sip out of your cocktail, he’ll tell you. There is no such thing as lying or something that is not true. As a matter of fact they don’t even have the words for lies.Welcome then to the latest offering from Ricky Gervais. Incidentally, this will be the best review you will read or hear.

Mark Bellison (Gervais) is a writer who has a pretty bland life it has to be said. He’s over weight, albeit slightly and is not the most attractive bloke in the universe. He goes on a date with Jennifer Garner who tells him straight up that she wont sleep with him. From there he gets fired from his writing job and subsequently gets a knock on the door from his landlord, looking for this rent, which is 800 bucks. He has a day to get his stuff together and get out. So, off he pops to the bank to withdraw all his savings which are around $300. The banking system is offline and he asks to withdraw $800. As he does the system comes back online and the bank teller hands over the $800 as the system must have made a mistake. So he has told the first lie ever. And why wouldn’t anyone believe him. No one lies, everything you say is taken as Gospel. And that's the gist of the story basically. I don’t want to give too much away here, but he does go off and invent a few clichés like no sex before marriage and religion in its simplest form.

The Invention of Lying is quite a bland looking movie and at times it looks like a Public Service Video from the 70’s. But maybe this is just to indicate that the world might be a bland place if no one told lies. That said, you would think it would be a far brighter and happier place.As for the cast, well Jennifer Garner is out of place here. Her constant, horse shaped smile made me want to cringe every time she came on screen as the love interest. Jonah Hill plays a suicidal loser neighbour, and is subtly brilliant.I’m not a fan of Ricky Gervais to be honest, but he puts in a solid performance here and he will start tugging at your heart strings like King Kong, around half way through the movie. And its at this point that the movie moves away from the straight up comedy. It throws plenty of questions and what if’s at the viewer and then ambles along to its predictable ending. As a matter of fact I left the Invention of Lying questioning my own mortality and others around me, which is a bizarre feeling to get from a movie that is coined as a comedy. But that's no bad thing. Speaking of comedy, there is little here that will make you roar with laughter, but there is plenty that will force a half smile as it is quite smart and quirky from time to time.

The Invention of Lying plods along nicely and while you wont choke on your coke while watching the movie, it's; and this surprised me, a semi solid piece of thought inducing entertainment. Sure it has plenty of plot holes when you actually think about it, but you’ll only worry about these afterwards. Ricky Gervais may be an acquired taste for some, but the Invention of Lying makes him far more digestible than ever before.

The Soloist Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Robert Downey Jr, and Jamie Foxx team up here for a true story surrounding an L.A. times writer, George Lopez and talented, but homeless and suffering from schizophrenia Nathanial Ayers.

Lopez (Downey Jr) discovers Nathanial (Foxx) on the street where he is playing a 2 string violin. All Nathanial wants is to find the other 2 strings. Lopez ever on a quest for a story and with a deadline looming decides to write about this gifted musician. Over the course of the movie, the two become close, with the L.A. times writer eventually winning an award for his story. In between the awards and the closeness, Lopez organizes an audition and a gig per se, for Ayers, from which he subsequently runs away. From there there’s a strain put on their exploitative friendship and then the movie marches on to its predictable end.

Robert Downey Jr puts in a solid performance here as yet another journalist who Hollywood portrays as usual, down on their luck, disheveled and of course has an ex wife. Jamie Foxx puts in a performance that is just short of amazing with great range and scope and so much of his performance relies on the look in his eyes. So with two solid performances you would think the Soloist is one of the movies of the year.

Well a big no, unfortunately. Its not a bad movie, but I believe the problem lies in its direction predominately. With some fantastic performances from its actors, I’m afraid the director Joe Wright (who Is a decent director, Atonement for example) doesn’t keep this movie together at all. Some of the scenes are overly long with little or nothing happening in them. In fact many scenes could have had 10 seconds shaved off. The movie tries to be abstract at times and to be honest it doesn’t really flow at all. With a simple story and great performances this movie is too complexly shot, which is a pity as there is a brilliant movie trying to get out here, but in turn its only OK. The Soloist should make you feel warm and happy when it reaches its end, but instead your just left feeling cold and wondering what the hell just happened and how could this go wrong.

Surrogates Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:51:00 +0000

A new Bruce Willis movie always generates alot of excitement. That said Surrogates and the hype or rather lack of hype that comes with it opened this weekend.

Its the future and and instead of wandering around the place, some wise boffins felt they could make shed loads of money having robots wander around the place instead of humans. And of course they started with a military program first. So how does it work. Well people sit into an operator seat and connect up with a pair of funky looking shades and a few sensors. From there, they control their robot counter part or their Surrogate in the real world. All is well with the world crime rates are down 99% until one day a few surrogates get killed and in turn their operators, the real life humans also get frazzled when their brain melts.

So Bruce Willis’s character eventually has to go out into the real world with the use of a Surrogate to investigate what happened. And thats essentially it. A little who dunnit. But to be honest, you’ll have that figured out quite quickly.

And speaking of quickly Surrogates is only 88 minutes long which sent off alarm bells in my head. For such a complex idea, 88 minutes seems very brief. And it shows. The movie is well paced, but their is little or no character development, its ties itself up in knots at times and it might get very confusing very quickly and for the acting, well….The Surrogates come across as wooden and stiff, which is I suppose is how they should be. But I don’t think its by chance here. After you get over seeing Bruce Willis with hair, its quite obvious he is putting on an extension to his house to say he signed up for this. His performance is below average and for a futuristic Bruce Willis movie, this is no 12 Monkeys. More like 9 dead monkeys and 3 who a terminal. I love Bruce Willis, but what the hell is he doing here.

The other glaring issue is for a movie set only a few years into the future, the technology doesn’t seem up to par. Yes, robots looking like humans all tied into a central hub. Amazing, but then you see dodgy old digital cameras and crappy LCD TV’s. For a world so advanced it seems a little too bizarre. Its like the rest of technology got left behind for a few robots.

Overall Surrogates, is a big disappointment. If you can handle the poor acting, the poorer set pieces you might get a kick out of the ending. I know I did. But 10 minutes of tension and will he wont he, at the end of a movie, does not make for an overall good movie experience.

Gamer Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:25:00 +0000

So, Gerry Butler is back doing an action flick. Gone are the rippling muscles and spears ala 300 and in are the rough look with a few guns for good measure. Gamer opened this weekend and its a picture that's set in the future where social networking has evolved into reality. Essentially, people pay to control others who are implanted with some mind control cells. So from cyber sex to LOL'ing its all fair game. And speaking of games, gaming has also evolved. Players pay to play again and control real life humans who are on death row. If they survive 30 rounds or something they get a full pardon. In between all this, Cable (played by Butler) escapes and tries to get his life back.

And of course, Ger Butler is one of the inmates. Controlled by a young guy, what else. The hardcore gamers out there will like the little homage to games like Gears of War, where the movie uses similar angles of a third person shooter. While all this is going on, the connection to the player gets fuzzy at times and jumps and glitches all over the place, thus adding to the hindrance of watching this movie. Butler doesn't get much room to act and come to think of it, I'd swear Arnie had more lines in the original Terminator. Butler barely speaks at all through out.
The rest of the cast are no better. That said Ludacris must be thrilled to be able to clear the mortgage this month as must Butler.

Gamer is over stylized and the one or 2 homages cant rescue a movie that is flat and incredibly difficult to watch. That said, the ending though is great. Not the ending with the inevitable final boss battle, but the actual ending where the credits roll up the screen, signifying you've got your life back.

Adventureland Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:47:00 +0000

Adventureland is the latest offering from the man who brought you Superbad, Greg Mottola.
James Brennan is a recent college grad who has no job and considering its Summer the local theme park (Yes, called Adventureland) is open for business. So after ringing around for a few jobs, with no luck he finally ends up in Adventureland. Essentially being forced to do so after mommy and daddy experience severe financial troubles, thus hindering his plans to go to college in New York. So off he goes to get a job at said theme park, he uses weed to make himself popular as he is not blessed in the looks and personality department and in turn falls in love. He screws it up by a few honest, choice words and then its a case of will she or wont she take him back.
There's not alot you can do in a theme park, movie wise, but in fairness here this isn't about vomit inducing rides as the whole movie is glued together by its dialogue and characters, some of which you'll naturally gravitate to and some who you'll think are just gob shites. Essentially Adventureland is a coming of age story and all that goes with it. Love, lust and so on.

Invariably people may draw comparisons to Superbad, but this is a bit different. Sure, there's the drug usage but that's about it really. While Superbad was laugh out loud funny and more in your face, Adventureland is far more subtle and as a result it manages to raise very few popcorn choking laughs, but at the same time it will raise a smile or two. So don't go in expecting another stoner movie full of bodily fluids and so on. What you do get though is a movie that may tug on the heart strings a little as it may cause a few flash backs of your own early love life years, but then again there are plenty of flicks out there that will do the same. Pace wise, Adventureland plods along, and while it never feels too long it seems to take an age to get to its conclusion at times. The performances are where it does succeed at, in particular Jesse Eisenberg (The Village, the Squid and the Whale) who is thoroughly convincing as this misguided, quiet and shy teenager. At times you do feel for him as things go awkwardly wrong and his character is very likable. The rest of the supporting cast are all solid enough and especially Bill Hader and Ryan Reynolds, who are equally very watchable and convincing!

Adventureland is solid at times , with some great performances but for me, it doesn't really go anywhere. Its slow in parts and the story has been done many times, in different guises before, and overall it won't set you on fire and may leave you feeling disappointed, kinda like Pasta without any sauce! The characters and their likability are its only saving grace!

District 9 Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:34:00 +0000

Science Fiction has had a bit of a revival this year. First we had Moon and now we have District 9, from first time director Neil Blomkamp.

Aliens arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa of all places and they park their extremely large ship over the burg. But they don't bother getting out and wandering around. So in their wisdom the government decide, after 3 months of waiting, to cut their way into the spaceship. They cut their way in and find over a million aliens, all mal nourished and in appalling condition. The Aliens (or prawns as they locals call them) are provided with land and housing and quickly they turn the place into a slum, which is rife with crime, cat food and tyre eating! After 20 years of the public getting increasingly pissed off with the Aliens, the government and the company that is set up to manage the Aliens, MNU (Multi-National United) decide to evict them and move them further outside of the city. Wikus Van De Merwe (played by Sharlto Copley) is the man given the task of handing out the eviction notices. In the process of handing them out (accompanied by militia at the same time) he discovers a canister that sprays him with a black liquid. From here on in, he starts turning into…yes you’ve guessed it, one of them! He needs a cure, can he find it? Will an Alien help him or will he actually turn into a prawn? Will the humans be able to get the Alien weaponry to work? And so on!

District 9 was made for $30 million, and it never shows to be honest. Ok, we don't get to see too many aliens in one go, which is a bit strange considering there's nearly 2 million of them. But besides that, the whole thing is gritty and incredibly well shot. Those of you who are not a fan of the hand held camera (Bourne movies and so on) may get a touch of the old motion sickness, but it adds to the overall look and grit of the movie. The Aliens, the space ship and the slums all look very convincing and combine all this with news footage and archive footage ala Cloverfield, District 9 is a very fine piece of work. Sharlto Copley is superb as the lead character, and the rest of the cast are adequate enough.

There's a decent pace to District 9 and for the majority of the movie, it does really keep you on the edge of your seat as bodies are liquidised, heads go flying and Aliens down catfood in the gallons. You also start to feel a little bit of sympathy for the Aliens which is testament to some great story telling. This is a superb debut for Blomkamp and a very refreshing and original movie for 2009, given that we have had so many remakes, rehashes and reboots. Overall District 9 entertains constantly and this is certainly one of the best movies of the year!

Funny People Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:58:00 +0000

Judd Apatow and his third movie are about to hit the big screen tomorrow. Apatow, who’s past work includes the 40 year old Virgin and Knocked up, has once again gone into the Apatow stables and teamed up with the highly talented Seth Rogen and almost as talented Jonah Hill. And he has also dug out Adam Sandler to boot!

Sandler plays a big shot comedian turned movie star, called George Simmons. Rogen plays a deli guy trying to turn comedian called Ira Wright. Simmons has it all, big house, cars, women and so on. After getting a blood test done, he discovers that he has a form of cancer and there isn't much hope. He gets experimental medicine that has an 8% chance of success. Simmons wanders into his old haunt of a comedy club and see’s Wright doing some stand up. He likes what he see’s, phones him up and asks him to write him some jokes and become his assistant. Then Simmons gets better and his another chance at life which doesn’t exactly work out as planned.

Judd Apatow in my book, has always had clever and intelligent comedies. And funny people is another intelligent comedy. Sure there are laughs, not many laugh out loud laughs, but there are laughs none the less. As for the intelligent part, well this is where the movie falls down. It is far too clever for its own good, and in attempting to prove how clever it is, it goes on for way to long! It clocks in at 146 minutes and to be honest, 20 minutes could have been shaved off here. The first half of the movie is superb, its fast and tight paced with some great writing. The latter half, it stumbles and falls over itself and had me looking at the time at least more than once, wondering when and how the thing is going to end. And when it does end, it ends quite flat and quick. After giving over 2 hours of my life to a movie that over complicates itself in the latter half, I was expecting a little more from the ending!

As for the performances, Rogen is great, Hill is great and Adam Sandler is actually quite brilliant. He plays the part far better than anything else he’s done in quite some time, and I think this is partly to the fact that he is not the writer and / or director. He’s more at ease being directed and acting someone else’s movie rather than his own. Eric Bana needs a special mention too as his performance is very solid as well, and keep your eyes peeled for a tonne of cameos!

Ultimately, Funny People, while it is funny at times, is too long and while its clever and intelligent, its tries too hard to be a rocket scientist and gets boring and falls all over the place in the second half! Its a pity as Apatow would have a great third movie, as opposed to a half missed opportunity!

Inception Teaser

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:31:00 +0000

This certainly looks like Chris Nolan is gonna hit this one outta the park
Check the teaser trailer here

Inglourious Basterds Mini Movie Review

vicbarry@gmail.com (Vic Barry) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:06:00 +0000

There’s always a huge amount of hype surrounding a new Quentin Tarantino movie and for the best part the movie lives up to the hype, with an obvious exception or two, one being Jackie Brown. Incidentally, Tarantino started thinking / working on Inglourious Basterds just after Jackie Brown. So, after a best actor award at Cannes this year, and not much else baring the its too long criticism at the big French film festival, the latest Tarantino movie finally has arrived.

The story is straight forward. Lt. Aldo Raine (played by Pitt) heads up a, deep behind enemy lines, top secret bunch of lunatics (for choice of a better word) called the Inglourious Basterds. Their sole purpose is to put fear into Nazi’s and they do this by scalping and killing any that they find, but for good measure they leave one alive to tell of the horror! Ultimately of course, they want to kill Hitler as their main goal and in a movie that twists and turns fantastically, that's what they try and do.

From the get go, Basterds grabs you by the testicles or the equivalent for the ladies. It clocks in at just over 2 hours 30 minutes and it thunders along. I know the original cut is 15 minutes longer, but either way I’m not sure where the “its too long” criticism comes from. Tarantino produces classic dialogue, scene after scene and tops it off with what, has become, part of the Tarantino attraction. Violence. And when the violence happens, boy those it happen. Baseball bats go batting and scalps go scalping. But Basterds is far from an action movie. There is a great story here, obviously fictional but it sucks you right into the thick of it, partly due to great writing. The sets look stunning and given Tarantino being such a lover of old cinema, he certainly must have had a geek out field day with this. It just looks superb! The details are just fantastic. Particularly in the cinema scenes, Tarantino has left no detail unturned. From old cinema posters to projectors and a real old style auditorium.

Pitt delivers a funny and solid performance and the rest of the cast nail it pretty good! But, there is one exception. Christoph Waltz is mind blowing. He plays Col. Hans Landa and just about blows everybody else off the screen. An amazing performance, and one that may well get a supporting actor nod! Just superb!

I thoroughly enjoyed Inglourious Basterds. Quentin Tarantino has made, in my book, a huge return to form here! Do yourself a favour, don't miss out on one of the movies of the year!