Film Guide

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; most vampire films fail to impress me. Thirst however now sits comfortable on top of my favourite vampire movies of all time list, easily removing Let The Right One In from its coveted position.

Thirst tells the story of a popular priest from a small town, who after enduring the agony of seeing friends die, petition’s to be allowed to sign up for a medical experiment in the hope of finding a cure for this disease that ravages portions of the population. The Priest is one of fifty volunteers for the experiment that turns out to be a total failure, resulting in a one hundred percent mortality rate.

However, whilst attempting to save the Priest’s life, the doctors, some how manage to infuse the Priest with vampire blood, and the healing properties contained therein, brings the beloved Priest back to life, with one minor side effect; the Priest is now a vampire.

With heightened senses and superhuman abilities comes a darker, carnal desire, the desire for blood, and as is the cliché for vampires, a lustful fixation on the main female character, the bored wife of his childhood friend. Fortunately for the Priest (or un-fortunately, depending on which way you look at it) the bored wife has always had her eye on the Priest.  Read the rest of this entry »

Hayao Miyazaki never fails to breath fresh life into traditional animation. His movies not only capture the magic of imagination, but also manage to bring the screen alive with his colour saturated living animation style.

Ponyo is no different, yet some how streets ahead of what Miyazaki has created before. Inspired by a combination of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and watching his own five-year-old son comes a story about a goldfish (Ponyo) who wants to become human and a five-year-old boy that saves her life and unintentionally falls in love with her.

As with previous Miyazaki tales, Ponyo has a definite moral and environmental message contained within – but one that doesn’t try to preach to you.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Sony will start selling 3D televisions in June, joining a competitive industrywide push to convince consumers to embrace the technology for their living rooms.

The Japanese electronics giant, known for its PlayStation 3 game consoles and Bravia flat-screen TVs, will offer its fully capable 3D TV model in four sizes this summer.

The 40-inch and 46-inch versions will go on sale on June 10 in Japan, while the 52- and 60-inch TVs will be available starting July 16.

Although the company did not release a global launch date, Sony Senior Vice President Yoshihisa Ishida said the new TVs will hit stores in other countries around the same time.

The 40-inch 3D will cost about 290,000 yen (NZ$4,631) and the biggest 60-inch will retail at 580,000 yen (NZ$9,258).  Read the rest of this entry »

This has to be one of this year’s most highly anticipated cinematic releases. Even before the majority of media got to see it, there has been a lot of controversy on the web. From some intense and rather scathing reviews through to the threat from several key European cinema chains to boycott the release of Alice due to the short window planned by Disney between cinematic and DVD release dates. So it was somewhat hard to go into this film with little or no expectations. (Now I should point out that I watched this film in 3D on the Imax screen.)  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the summer of ’87. Dumped, with dreams of a European vacation in tatters, what’s a boy to do? Get a job at the crappy local theme park! And that is exactly what aspiring journalism grad student James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg: Zombieland) finds himself doing when the parental money pot runs dry. In need of college funds and applying for all manner of summer jobs James finds his literature degree of little help and is forced to take a minimum wage position at the titular Adventureland where his testicle punching junior school friend ‘Frigo’ works (a startlingly familiar feeling Matt Bush). Armed with only wit, naive charm, and a bag of pot gifted from his Europe-bound buddy, James sets out to negotiate a drear summer job at the bottom of the Pittsburgh twenty-something barrel. What he finds instead is a drear summer job punctuated with moments of love, lust, solidarity, betrayal, danger, and giant-ass pandas.

James quickly befriends, then falls head over heels for fellow “Games Games Games…” crew member Em (Kristen Stewart: Twilight) only to find their burgeoning romance full of complications. So too with the friendships that rise and fall in the space of an adolescent summer; leaving behind a trail of beautiful, angst strewn wreckage. Read the rest of this entry »

Firstly let me say that I have not been a fan of Robert Pattinson in the slightest, but then again I am not a cougar or a 16 year old girl. However I want to start off this review by saying oh my gosh, Robert Pattinson can actually act. I had kind of written him off as mr cardboard cutout. Now back to Remember Me. The general premise of this film is that stock standard flow of boy faces hard times and loss, meets a girl through a bet with a friend, falls for the girl, girl falls for the boy, both boy and girl face family issues that could break them apart or draw them together.  Read the rest of this entry »

I really don’t want to say too much about this film, so I’ll just give you the tag line tease: 6 Strangers, 2 Killers, 1 Paradise Island. Let the games begin.

I’d seen the trailer it looked like it would be your typical cheesy horror with a possible hint of sadistic violence.

And it had Milla Jovovich. That may have just been the clincher. But to be honest I wasn’t expecting much besides some action, a predictable plot and a number of ‘NO! don’t go there with him. You Idiot, he’s gonna kill you’. moments.

Well it had the action and the ‘moments’ but A Perfect Getaway is far from predictable, with plenty of red snapper (you’ll under stand if you see the film) moments it turns into an adrenaline laced thriller that will have you guessing all over the place as to who is actually the good guys and who is the bad guys.  Read the rest of this entry »