Because Everybody Else Has One

Lets just say that I found the 195 minutes of Titanic (which I saw for the first time today! And it was much less terrible than I was expecting! And I got to watch it on the big screen in the most comfortable cinema in the city! Unfortunately it was in 3D! But only barely! Review coming soon...) far less tedious and boring than Wrath of The Titans' mere 99 minutes. It also doesn't help that it's one of only three films being released this week - with one of the other two being a Tyler Perry movie (didn't see it, couldn't care less) and the other Margaret, a film that definitively proves that "fascinating" does not always equal "good". That's for later though... For now then, Wrath of the Bloody Titans... Also be sure to check it out Channel24 , where I have already been receiving hateful comments... from people who haven't even seen the blasted thing! Oh how I love the interwebs! What it's about Perseus embarks on a jour...

With 21 Jump Street out of the way, onto some other, often more interesting, films that came out this past weekend.  Carnage: Starting off with a film that is both the most flawed film of the week and the one I enjoyed most, Roman Polanski's Carnage . It's primary flaw becomes pretty obvious within minutes of the film, it is based on a play and, for all of his experience as a filmmaker, Polanski fails to fully translate a story that is fundamentally theatrical into something cinematic. As such, the "action" is somewhat static, the dialogue somewhat stagey and the characters somewhat hyper-real. With all that said though, Carnage is a complete delight from beginning to end. I know, I know, "delight" seems an odd word to describe a film called Carnage but, though there is a reason for its title, it certainly doesn't exactly encapsulate the feel of the film itself. A more apropos title would probably have been "Adults Behaving Badly" or someth...

Overseas critics seem to love it, South African critics seem to hate it, I am somewhat more mixed about it but 21 Jump Street is probably the big release this week so here's a full review of it. I do need to point out that I say in my review I mention that Hot Fuzz is the only decent buddy-cop film to come out for ages and, though it is the film to beat, I do have to also mention The Other Guys, which is simply incredibly funny. It's probably Will Ferrell's funniest performance outside of Anchorman and Mark Wahlberg is flat out hilarious in it. And yes, The Other Guys is also generally much funnier and much less compromised than 21 Jump Street as well. I actually meant to include it in my review but it totally slipped my mind until just a couple of hours ago. My bad.   Also up at Channel24 What it's about A pair of novice cops go undercover in a high school to infiltrate a drug ring. What we thought Considering its most unpromising of origins – a b...

I didn't post a roundup last week because I hadn't yet seen John Carter but, seeing as how I have no plans to check it out until it starts showing in 2D, I'm just going to shelve it for a while and review those films I have seen.  Project X: I missed the press screening for Project X, but because of all the anti-hype, I had to see what all the fuss was about and paid to see it last week. Would you know it, it was every bit as rotten as the most scathing reviews would have you believe. If not more so. I saw it at Nu Metro on a Wednesday so I saw it for less than half the price but I still feel bad for contributing anything to the profits of so vile an excuse for a film. Not only is it entirely without a single laugh, a problem that is enough to sink any so-called comedy, it's misogynistic, mean spirited, entirely pointless and features some of the most hateful characters to hit our screens since Adam Sandler decided to put on a dress and play his own sister.  A fil...

That's right! A brand spankin' new music review. Not a new album, you understand: it's damn near 50 years old, but a new review of an album that I never ever covered before - not even in my slightly embarrassing but enthusiastic Epinions days. And, despite being a fan of the dude for the last 8 (?) years and listening to him even longer, this is also my very first Bob Dylan review. What took me so long? Well, read on and you might get some idea... Bob Dylan is the one great '60s musical acts that I have always been terrified to write about. I still kind of am, to be honest. Quite aside for the fact that this humble Jewish kid from Hibbing Minnesota has very probably been the subject of more articles, reviews, books and scholarly papers than any other 20th century pop-culture icon, coming to terms with the mercurial genius of Dylan's music is not something to be taken lightly. "Genius" is a word that is thrown around far too indiscriminately these da...

Well, OK, actually it's a bunch of movies from this week and only War Horse from last week as I haven't seen the likes of Ghost Rider 2 (indeed, as a big a comics fan as I am, I haven't seen Ghost Rider 1 either), The Devil Inside or Elite Squad: The Enemy Within. Still, there are some notable films to talk about anyway... though, of course, not always in a good way.   War Horse: Taking a look through most film critics' opinions about War Horse, it's either a really beautiful and moving slice of old fashioned storytelling or an unbearable avalanche of manipulative schmaltz. Personally, I lean more towards the former but, honestly, it's really kind of a whole lot of both. There's no two ways about it: War Horse is immensely emotionally manipulative - it's just that it so happens to have been directed by Steven Spielberg, the absolute master of unashamedly tugging at the heart strings. It certainly has its weaknesses in that it is a bit overly long and...