The first Ice Age was a riot, beautiful animation, great storyline and a cast of characters that cracked me up in every scene. Ice Age 2 however, was a bit of a let down. I’m not sure if it was just the high expectations or that the plot was missing some of the spark of the original. So it was with some trepidation that I went to see Ice Age 3D. Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for June, 2009
Ice Age 3D
On June - 29 - 2009
Family Bereavement
On June - 28 - 2009
Due to the recent death of a close family member, updates to FilmGuide will be intermittent over the next week or so.
Hannah Montana: The Movie
On June - 28 - 2009
When it comes to Hannah Montana: The Movie, you can be certain of one thing: it won’t be getting no Oscars. It’s a movie length version of the hit tween TV show featuring Billy Ray Cyrus and his singing, dancing, acting daughter, whose TV and movie role is that of Miley Stewart, an average school girl, with an average life. A life, however that becomes transformed with the addiction of some makeup (self applied no less) and a blond wig. Like Stars in Their Eyes, Miley instantly gets transformed into her onscreen and real life alter ego, Hannah Montanna. Read the rest of this entry »
Contemplating Revenge
On June - 24 - 2009
I’ve been mulling over my Transformers experience for half a day now – if you want to read my review, go here – and a couple of things stand out for me personally. The first was prompted by a workmates question: “Can I take my kids to it?” To which I responded that I’d taken my oldest daughter. He then asked the rhetorical “So it hasn’t got any dodgy content like the first one.” I immediately knew what he was talking about and had to back track a little, being honest and telling him that actually, it had more ‘dodgy’ content than the first. Which got me thinking…
Did Michael Bay really need to include sexual innuendos and humour in a film based around what are essentially children’s toys? If you’ve seen the film, ask yourself; did the inclusion actually improve the movie, or did it just make it more appealing to the adult male target market? Read the rest of this entry »
Let The Wrong One In
On June - 24 - 2009
A good movie poster, like a good movie trailer can make or break a films opening weekend. Which is probably why movie companies shovel a whole lot of money into promoting their films. Of course, money alone can’t help you if the person responsible for making the decisions hasn’t got a creative bone in them.
I’d heard the buzz building for Let The Right One In a while before I was captivated by the trailer, before I’d seen this fantastic poster. But there always seems to be more than one poster for any given movie, even the small independent ones. Generally there is one for America, and one for the rest of the world. Then there’s England, where they have a totally different format. It’s called a quad and it’s wide rather than tall. This can either be a nightmare or an opportunity for film companies. They can try and squeeze their existing poster into the new format, or in the case of Let The Right One In, try a totally different route. Read the rest of this entry »
Modern Warfare 2: Three Is Too Many
On June - 23 - 2009
Two-player is the “magic number” for co-op, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward has said.
The last Call of Duty game, Treyarch’s World at War, featured four-player campaign co-op and a bonus four-player survival Zombie Mode.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, due out worldwide on November 10, won’t have a campaign co-op mode at all. Instead it will have a two-player Special Ops mode, “designed to be replayed over and over again”.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com, Robert Bowling, director of communications/community manager at Infinity Ward, explained the decision, saying it didn’t want to “ruin the story by cramming co-op into it”. Read the rest of this entry »
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
On June - 23 - 2009
Ok, lets face reality, Michael Bay makes popcorn movies and he does a fine job at it. But as I was sitting in the Imax theatre waiting for the movie to start, I overheard some one say it was two and a half hours long. Now I was worried. Crammed into the Imax seating for that long would be a mission in itself, but my bigger worry was; could Michael Bay keep the momentum up for that long?
Of course, I should never have doubted Bay, his original Transformers was only 6 minutes shorter and that certainly delivered a punch. Revenge of the Fallen was filmed (in-part) with the Imax in mind. Several of the action scenes were filmed in Imax fomat, and as with The Dark Knight, this was an impressive experience. Read the rest of this entry »
Bride Flight
On June - 23 - 2009
This movie was inspired by the 1953 Last Great Air Race, London-Christchurch. The KLM (Dutch) aircraft which won the handicap race carried 40 Dutch Immigrants to New Zealand.
Bride Flight is the story of Majorie, Ada & Esther who are on the flight, travelling to New Zealand where they are to join their future husbands for a brighter future.
Also on the flight is Frank who is also seeking a brighter future in New Zealand. Frank was brought up in Indonesia and his hopes of continuing his life there were dashed with the atrocities his family suffered at the hands of the Japanese in World War II. Read the rest of this entry »
