I had stayed away from this because the trailer just looked so bad, but I am a fan of Kevin Smith, so I rented this POS from Netflix and wish I hadn’t, because I want that 107 minutes back. This film is just plain horrible. In fact it is easily the worst thing Bruce Willis has ever done. This could be the worse action buddy drama ever made. I mean it is that bad! Just a waste of celluloid. What the hell was Kevin Smith thinking? This movie should never have been made!

Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are cops who have been partners for 9 years at the NYPD. The two screw up a collar and cause a shootout, so they get suspended without pay. This is bad because Jimmy’s daughter Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married, and he doesn’t want his ex wife’s new husband Roy (Jason Lee) to pay the $40,000 for the wedding, so he decides he has to sell a very rare baseball card he has. Paul meanwhile thinks his beautiful wife Debbie (Rashida Jones) is cheating on him with the neighbor, so he sets up a camera in a teddy bear. At the baseball card store the store is robbed by Dave (Seann William Scott) who also steals Paul’s gun, so the two set out to catch the robber. They get Dave, but find he has sold the card and gun for drugs, so they must search for them.

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Really an all over let down of a film. Sure it is epic, but the story and characters really fall flat, and they fail to go into the depth or even a true overview of confucian ideals, nor where they might have come from. This film glosses over any depth the story could have had. It felt like Chow Yun Fat trying to make up for not doing Red Cliff, but failing miserably instead. And it doesn’t help that Chow Yun Fat is dubbed into Mandarin here (as he speaks Cantonese). And while there is some detail in the first half of the film, where we see Confucius as a politician, the section where he is homeless and traveling doesn’t really go into depth of what they were doing, and instead just shows that it was hard, and makes the film not very enjoyable. Sure it looks good, but that is not enough to carry this film. Really a let down, I would stay away from this one.

The film opens with Kong Qiu [Confuscius played by Chow Yun Fat] as an old man remembering his life, looking out of badly digital windows. Then we got back to his period as an official in the Kingdom of Lu. He had been a mayor, but his ideals and disciples had turned the state into such a principled state, that the leader gets Chi Shun (Chen Jianbin) to give up his position as minister of Law to allow Confucius to gain that position and put his principles into affect. He first manages to save a burial slave from being slaughtered and killed with his dead master, and having the law changed to make the practice illegal. Kong then manages to get a treaty through with a warlike neighbor and get 3 cities back that had been taken in a previous conflict. He seems at the height of his powers, and according to the law starts to have the 3 walls taken down from the 3 powerful families fiefedoms, and this loses him his power, and he is banished from Lu.

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An alright update of the Robin Hood legend for modern times, that suffered a bit from being drawn out too long, and some story points that just didn’t make sense. Sure some of the characters were fun and enjoyable to watch, and the show looks great and has good music, but the Robin Hood legend works better as a finite story, since otherwise you question why they didn’t just kill off the villains (they gave a better explanation in the second series for the sheriff, but for others it got a bit ridiculous). It also suffered in having Robin and Marrion’s love story get so drawn out, and having Guy of Gisborne constantly come between them, it just made her seem cruel, and flighty. I guess the show was decent enough, but overall not too impressive.

Having been wounded as a protector of the King in the holy land in the Crusades, Robin of Lockley (Jonas Armstrong) returns with his servant and best friend Much (Sam Troughton) to Nottingham and his lands, to find everything is changed. The old sheriff has lost power to a new evil man (Keith Allen). The old sheriff’s daughter Lady Marian (Lucy Griffiths) is pissed at him because he chose to leave her for the Holy Land and war, and his hated foe Sire Guy of Gisborne (Richard Armitage) fights for her affections. Robin quickly has his lands taken from him, and becomes an outlaw, joining with other outlaws Little John (Gordon Kennedy), Will Scarlett (Harry Lloyd ) and Allan A Dale (Joe Armstrong) to fight for what is right, and to fight for their King. The Sheriff works with he kings evil brother Prince John, and wants to kill the King and take the land of England into Darkness.

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A smart and stylish BBC One television series dealing with a group of British Intelligence officers from MI-5 Dealing with with in country terrorist threats. The show really rests on the shoulders of the excellent Matthew Macfadyen (who was recently in The PILLARS OF THE EARTH) and the show is really about him and his team including Keeley Hawes who would go on to be so excellent in Ashes to Ashes. I kind of lost it with 24 because it was so ridiculous, but I quite enjoy this show, though Series 3 did fall a bit for me, as it felt like an entire series just designed to get rid of the 3 members of the original team, and slowing starting a new team led by Rupert Penry-Jones as Adam Carter. And while this did allow some more focus on Kelley Hawes and David Oyelowo, it didn’t really let the new team start to take off until the 4th series. The show is thrilling, and worth checking out, especially since the first 4 series (out of 7) is available as MI-5 on Netflix Streaming. There are some fun cameos by High Laurie as an MI-6 officer and Andy Serkis as a rocker which are fun to watch for as well.

The series starts out following Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfayden) and his team, Zoe Reynolds (Kelley Hawes) and Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo) working at the Grid in Thames House for MI-5. There boss is Sir Harry Pearce (Peter Firth)who always had their back if needed. They are later joined by intelligence analyst Ruth Evershed (Nicola Walker) who is brought in to spy on them, but they catch her and make her a permanent team member. The first season deals with not only the missions to stop terrorism, but also Tom dealing with being in love with a woman and her daughter, and having the relationship torn apart by his job, and his constantly having to lie to her.

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A darker high budget effects remake of the classic 1981 film that does not live up to it’s promise. The effects are good, but the story isn’t nearly as accurate to greek mythology here, more like they are just making it up. It has so much promise, but really it kind of falls flat. I mean why does everyone have long hair in the film, but Sam Worthington has a modern buzz cut? And it really is sad to see Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson so wasted. And many characters that are introduced, but have almost no parts, which makes the film seem badly edited. The one saving grace is the effects are fun to watch, especially the digital cities, but overall I was pretty letdown and very glad that I waited until I could Netlfix the blu-ray. I think my favorite moments was the cameo of the mechanical owl from the original film.

THe film starts with a voice over explaining how the three gods Zeus, (Liam Neeson), Poseidon (Danny Huston) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes) conspired to take Olympus, with the use of a creature created by Hades, the Kraken, but Zeus betrayed his brother, and when he took over Olympus he had Hades banished to hell forever. Zeus and the other Olympians lived off the love and prayers of the humans who worshipped them, but over the millennia, that worship has waned, and the Gods no longer have the power they once had. A fisherman named Spyros (Pete Psotlethwaite) sees a coffin come from the deep, and in it is a dead woman and her baby son. The fisherman adopts the boy and he grows to be a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington). The fishing is bad, and the are trying new places, and near Argos they see soldiers having declared war on gods knock down the giant statue of Zeus. Hades in response sends his harpies, which kill most of the soldiers, and also hit Spyros boat, killing him, his wife and daughter, sparing only Perseus. Perseus is found by the troops and taken back to Argos and meets King Kepheus (Vincent Regan), queen Cassiopeia (Polly Walker) and their daughter Aphrodite (Agyness Deyn). Queen Cassopeia describes her daughter as being more beautiful than any goddess. Hades meanwhile has convinces Zeus that they must scare the people back into prayer, and set the Kraken against Argos. Hades appears and kills the soldiers and kills Cassopeia. He recognizes that in fact Perseus is a demi-god and a son of Zeus, and threatens Argos to either sacrifice Aphrodite or the Kraken will take the city. Persues is imprisoned by Kepheus. Io (Gemma Arterton from Prince of Persia) a woman cursed by the gods to never age for not falling for the seduction of the God Ares comes and tells Persues who he really is. Zeus, in order to punish the king Acriscus (Jason Flemyng) changed into his form and impregnated his wife Danaë (Tine Stapelfeldt). Arriscus had his wife and her son locked in a coffin and cast into the sea, where the wife died. Acriscus was struck by Zeus and left as a monster. When Persues learns that killing the Kraken will allow him to have his revenge on Hades he agrees to destroy the Kraken and is released.

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I was looking forward to this film as the idea of people repossessing organs is a great idea (and I didn’t want to see the previous musical which had the same premise), but boy do I wish we had stayed away. This movie is all around completely awful. It is shot well, but that is all it has. The premise is good, but the pacing is awful and the story is not good either, and every character is so unlikeable that you never care for anyone. And the twist at the end is laughable, because it doesn’t add anything and you just don’t care any which way. This must have been a good script to get this cast, but it sure was a waste with this director because this is such an awful film it should never have been released. It is utter crap.

In the near future a corporation called The Union has created artificial organs, but they do not make money by selling them, instead they make more money by selling them at exorbitant interest rates, and when they people go 90 days past due they “reposes” the organs, killing the patient and getting their property back. Remy (Jude Law) is a class 5 repressor, the best of the best, matched only by his best friend and former partner Jake (Forest Whitaker). They work for the slimy Frank (Liev Schreiber) and do their job very well. Remy’s wife Carol (Carice van Houten) wants Remy to move to sales, because she hates his job, and threatens to leave him, though their son does still love Remy. Jake isn’t happy about Remy wanting to leave, as they have been friends since they were kids, and were in a tank in war together. Carol says Remy must quit, but he and Jake find a tanker ship filled with people with past due organs and they go in and take many people including some who had jammers which made them seem normal, though they killed them anyway and took their hidden organs. Remy wants to quit anyway, but takes one last big job taking the heart of a record producer, but his defibrillator malfunctions and he wakes up the hospital after a heart transplant, which he doesn’t want, but he cannot kill anyone anymore, as he thinks of his own heart.

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I unfortunately missed this show on TV, but thanks to my friend Chris started watching it on Netflix on Demand and quickly fell in love with this fantastic fantasy show. It has a great cast and an excellent story. In fact it was so good that I quickly picked up the books (which are huge) and am already on the third book in the series, and I just can’t put them down. The show looks fantastic the cast is amazing (and Bridget Regan is totally hot). It is really a shame that this show did not get the third season it so readily deserved. There is a fan site set up to try and save the, Save Our Seeker, and I have already written my letter to Disney ABC, and I hope it gets another season, but I am not holding my breath. Still this is an excellent fantasy show, with great characters and is really worth checking out (especially on Netflix Streaming). I quickly fell in love with this world, and my only consolation is that their are 11 books in the series with a 12 being written as well as one prequel and one in this world that ties in. My only complaints with the show is there are some flashback episodes which are nothing but filler, but the long novels do not have nearly enough story to fill these long seasons, so they had to make stuff up. Actually I would love to see features made of these books, which could be more accurate to the story (though I am not sure they could have gotten a better cast).

Richard Cypher (Craig Horner) is a woods guide living peacefully in the land of Westland, a land without magic, that is separated from the magical land of the Midland’s which used to separated from the land of D’Hara, but that wall has fallen. While out in the woods Richard runs into a beautiful woman named Kahlan Amnell (Bridget Regan) who is being chased by a Quad of Assassins. Richard helps her, and she uses her magic, confessors magic, which lets her take control of any person she touches (though only once every 2 hours) and they kill 3 of the Quad. The fourth though, goes and kills Richard’s father, and allies himself with Richard’s brother Michael (David de Lautour), who believes the Quad over Richard, and hunts him as a killer. RIchard meanwhile was bit by a strange plant and is only saved by his best friend, the old man Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander (Bruce Spence who is perfect here, though I always picture him from Road Warrior) who has hidden his identity, but secretly is actually Richard’s grandfather and also the First Wizard of the Midlands, who went into hiding, and who Kahlan is searching for. She wants the Wizard to name a true Seeker, who can fight against the evil of the D’Haran king and Magician Darken Rahl (Craig Parker). Zed names the true Seeker, the one he has been watching all his life, Richard, much to Kahlan’s chagrin, and gives him the magic sword of truth to battle evil.

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It is really too bad, because I was so looking forward to this film, but really it is such a let down. It is awesome to have all these action stars together, but the story is mediocre at best, and even the action is not that impressive, with not much gore (and with most of it being digital). Honestly this needed a decent script as well. I mean they go in at the end without a plan and the building they are in blows up, but does not blow them up? WHAT?!?!??!?! And while it is great to see Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger on screen together, but the scene is really a throw away and didn’t need to be here (though it does have some funny lines it). Overall this film is really a let down, and not worth all the hype.

The Expendables are a group of Mercenaries who fight for the highest bidder. They are Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his best friend Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture), Hale Ceasar (Terry Crews) and Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) They start by attacking some Somalian pirates and saving the hostages, but the junkie Gunnar goes too far trying to hang the pirates, so they kick him out. When they return Barney Ross goes to see his old friend Tool (Mickey Rourke) to see about work, and learns of a new job. Christmas goes to see his girlfriend, and finds her with another guy.

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I am a huge fan of Edgar Wright, but was a little worried to not have Simon Pegg or Nick Frost in it, and honestly I have gotten sick of Michael Cera, but I have to say my worries were unfounded because this is a great film. Fun witty, enjoyable and just plain bad ass all the way around. This film gets the look and feel of video games and really comes down to a sweet little love story. This is a must see film, and it is too bad it isn’t doing too well in the theaters because this is destined to be a cult classic.

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a down on his luck bass player in the band Sex Bob-Omb who seems to be irresistible to women, but his heart was badly broken a year ago, so now he is dating a a high schooler named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) who he has barely held hands with. Scott lives in a one room apartment with his gay best friend Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) right across the street from where he grew up. Scott sees and falls for a mysterious girl named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who he wants to be with At the bands show in a concert to win a record label, Scott is attacked by Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) who turns out to be the first of Ramona’s 7 evil exes who he must defeat to be able to date her!

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I had been hearing about this for a while, and wanted to see it, especially since Bong Joon Ho has shown some serious talent. This is of course a much more introspective film than the Host, but is in fact better made and all around an intense and good thriller. Well made and well done, I expect to see this film being picked up for a US remake before long, but see the original, it is well worth seeing. A really enjoyable and good film. A must see.

A older widow (Kim Hye-ja) lives in a small town working selling herbs and doing unlicensed acupuncture for her clients. She has a son named Do-joon (Won Bin) who has mental problems, and she does everything to take care of him and keep him out of trouble, but is not easy. A rich man in his car hits Do-Joon an takes off, so his only friend Jin-tae (Jin-goo) grabs him and they chase after it to get revenge. Jin-tae smashes the window off the car and steals the man’s gold clubs, but since Yoon Do-joon can’t remember what happened, he gets blamed and his mother is forced to pay off the man for the damage. When a local school girl is murdered, and some golf balls that Do-joon has written his name on are found there, Do-joon is quickly blamed. When they take him into the station he signs the confession, though he doesn’t think he did it, and the case seems locked and shut, but his mother sets out to prove her sons innocence.

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I have been a fan of Meat Loaf since I was a little kid, and have always wanted to see him in concert, though of late once I had the money the tickets seemed absorbently priced, but when we saw them for $10 on Goldstar we jumped on them even though Kelly was sick. And I sure hope they made back their money and made some money because this was an incredible show. Not only was Meat Loaf amazing (if his voice is this good at 62, how would have sounded in his 20′s), but his stage show was spectacular, I mean 2 huge balloon figures, fireworks, flames! This is an amazing show, and would have been easy worth $50 a ticket! I want to see him next time around too!

The started by stalking the stage with a pink guitar with a cancer awareness badge on it, and a tiny little amp that when it played it exploded into fireworks! Oh yea!

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I had stayed away from this series because the premise of dinosaurs in modern times has already been done and sounded just so incredibly lame, but having watched it I was blown away. This is a fantastic show with great characters and really top notch special effects! This show is 100% worth checking out. Well done and well acted. The 3rd Series did jump the shark a bit though, as the main storyline got sidelined, and killed off, and the whole thing kind of switched gears, but with Abby and Connor staying in the show, I will keep watching for sure. I am looking forward to the 4th and 5th series. I love having Netflix streaming! Great to be able to see the first 3 series streamed.

Professor Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) works at a university and ends up investigating some strange occurrences in the woods where his wife disappeared in the woods 8 years before. His assistant is Stephen Hart (James Murray) who was also in love with Nick’s wife. Also along for the ride is a eager grad student named Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts). Also in the woods is zoologist Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) who finds a prehistoric flying lizard, and ends up joining the team. They learn of holes in space time continuum where creatures are coming through. The government comes in and hides this, and makes them the lead team along with Claudia Brown (Lucy Brown) from the home office and James Lester (Ben Miller) a senior Home Office Official.

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I was hoping for a lot more from Wu Jing’s directorial debut. I love that he is trying his hand, but this story is uninspired, and the score awful, and while the action is decent, their is not really enough to carry the film. And the realistic feel is hampered by a bit too much bad wirefu which hurts the film overall. Wu Jing is decent enough here, and the Eurasian Celina Jade is cute, but that isn’t enough for this film to be anything but forgettable. And this is another film that really suffers from the post handover film restrictions as you know what will happen to the “bad guys” no matter what. Wu Jing is certainly someone to be watched, as he is a possible Jet Li successor having gone through the same Wushu training and won the same national tournaments, but hopefully he can be in some better films soon.

Bo (Wu Jing) visits a restaurant and then heads to a rural island off of Hong Kong, where he goes and kills crime boss Chairman Ma (Kou Zhan-Wen) having first knocked out his men, who only saw that he was carrying a brown bag (which is actually a bowling bag). Bo heads back to the ferry, but it is stopped because of a typhoon warning, so he is stuck in the island. As Bo wanders around, he saves a woman named Hiu Wor (Celina Jade) when she falls out of a tree trying to retrieve her cat. The go back to her place, where he realizes she is a police office, and then head out to the one open restaurant to get some food. On the radio is a broadcast about 3 theives who are also eating dinner there. Hiu Wor confronts the men (led by Jackie Chan’s ex body guard Ken Lo), but gets attacked, so Bo must save her, and they head back to the police station.

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Skins was a show that my wife and I started watching streaming off Netlfix (the much inferior US release which had the music changed) and really got into the show, even if it is a much more intense version of a teenage soap opera. It was with trepidation that I learned that the 3rd series would feature a new cast going to take their A levels before going on to college. Quickly I found the characters were interesting enough to keep going with. We already knew Effy Stonem (Kaya Scodelario) and her best friend Pandora Moon (Lisa Backwell) and the rest of the cast made for an interesting show. I especially like the sweet Emily Fitch (Kathryn Prescott) and the troubled but sweet JJ Jones (Ollie Barbieri), but it soon became obvious instead of being about relationships this show was more about ruining relationships, with everyone seemingly doing everything to destroy their relationships, and that was when this was good. The Second series completely jumps the shark, adding in a serial killer, and a bunch of other nonsense that was badly written and unnecessary. When the final episode of Series 4 ended, both my wife and I were in shock that they could have so completely destroyed the show! I mean seeing James Cook doing synchronized dancing and having a major killer randomly killed by a serial killer! WTF!!!! And they weren’t even close to bringing many of the story threads to a close. It was like the show runner had a stroke and thought he still should have total control yet his brain wasn’t working correctly. That is how much of an incredible mess the 4th series of this show was.

The show starts with 3 best friends on their way to school for the first day, this is the unruly and womanizing James Cook (Jack O’Connel) the skateboarder Freddie Mclair (Luke Pasqualino) and JJ Jones (Ollie Barbieri) who has some mental problems, but is as sweet as could be. On their way to school they Elizabth “Effy” Stonem (Kaya Scodelario) on her way to school and all three fall in love with her. Effy’s best friend finds that she can’t handle just taking beauty classes, so she joins her friend Effie. Other students are the twins Katie (Megan Prescott) and Emily Fitch (Kathryn Prescott) who could not be more different. Katie always has a man and is very outgoing, while Emily is quite and is fact gay and is love with another student Naomi Campbell (Lily Loveless). Naomi though is straight, and hates that Katie is always giving her shit about trying to seduce her sister, when it fact it was the other way around. On the first day the school lays out new rules, and Effie makes a game of breaking them all basically telling Freddie and Cook that they can have her if they break all the rules. Cook quickly does, and has Effie in the school nurses office, leaving Freddie to pine for the woman he loves (and who Effie actually cares for, but is not willing to ever let her emotions get the best of her). They soon meet Thomas Tomone (Merveille Lukeba) a recent emigrant from the Congo. He is a good kid, and sweet and starts seeing Pandora, but they get in a lot of trouble first, both with a gangster and then with his mom who catches the kids all doing drugs and having sex, and sends Thomas back home for a while.

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It has been a while sing I can honestly say that Jackie Chan has made a good film, but he has done so here, and with a much different role. Sure he does some acrobatics and rock throwing, but no real fights here. And this isn’t a happy film either, but how can a serious take on the warring states period in China be? This film is gorgeously shot, well acted and well done.It actually comes down to being a buddy store, and a story about loyalty. An enjoyable film that is well worth checking out.

This takes place during the Warring States period in Chinese history. The kingdom’s of Wei and Liang have a huge battle with 2000 Liang troops and 1000 Wei troops and wipe each other out. One Liang soldier does survive (Jackie Chan Sing Lung). He survived because he has rigged up a gag in his armor, which pops up an arrow on both sides and makes it look like he has already been shot. He is busy looting and getting a wagon ready when a Liang general turns out to be alive, and ends up fighting a surviving Wei General (Wang Lee Hom). The Wei general survives, but it wounded, much to the soldiers happiness. He uses his own mix of herbs to treat his wounds and ties him up to take him to Liang, as a captured General means enough land to farm on, and exemption from military service. Of course the General is being followed by more Wei who also want him dead, the Prince (Steve Yoo Sung Jun) and his general (Gai Chun Wa who I loved in the Seven Swords soap opera) are hunting him for reasons unknown.

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The sequel to the incredible action film Banlieue 13 starring the parkour master David Belle and the martial artist Cyril Raffaelli. This is a serious action film that looks incredible, and has some of the best action in the world. Raffaelli’s scenes are like serious Jackie Chan fight scenes (no comedy here) and Belle is amazing to watch, he literally is a human spiderman able to leap and jump and run up walls. The ending was a bit of a let down for me, but overall this is an enjoyable sequel, and one of the most impressive action films of the last few years.

The film starts with the ending of the last film, Leito (David Belle) the Banlieue 13 resident who fought back saying goodbye to his friend the cop Damien Tomaso (Cyril Raffaelli) talking about the government doing what it said and breaking down the wall holding in the getting B13, and putting money into education and parks. We cut to 3 years later and nothing has changed. The gangs still rule. And Leito is pissed off, and keeps planting bombs to blow up the wall, which neither the cops or the local gangs like. Damien is meanwhile undercover, breaking a chinese gang that is running drugs that are taken out from the district. He is dressed like a tranny, but manages to capture the Chinese boss, and all the other mob bosses who are there to meet to pick up their drugs. Damien can’t go out the escape tunnel though, as the Van Gogh Painting he has won’t fit, and he has to use it to fight his way out. Damien is a success, and is sent home to rest, but he wakes up to cops from the special edition breaking in and arresting him for drugs that they planted.

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I had heard about this show and had been wanting to watch it for some time, and finally ended up watching it on Netflix on Demand, which may have been a mistake. It would seem the US releases have had their music removed and replaced with inferior music, also the stream seems to be the wrong aspect ratio, so this may make the show not as enjoyable to watch as it could be (I wish I had just ordered the PAL dvd’s from England). Still even with all the problems I greatly enjoyed this show and it’s characters, and especially the first season finale. Sure this is a teen drama, but there is so much more here than they would ever allow in the states, I mean nudity, sex, and lots of drug use throughout. And really it all comes down to the characters, and I liked the characters, or at least liked watching them, as you of course do not like them all. The standout is Mike Bailey as Sid Jenkins, whose character really is the heart of the show, but he sure did deserve a less crazy girl! And it interesting that the writing team has an average of 21, because this does seem pretty realistic, if a bit too much for one group (much like Platoon was dramatized as not all of that would have happened to one group of people). I found it quite interesting to see just how different that the British school system is, as we have nothing like these 2 preparatory college years that are the last years of mandatory education. An interesting and enjoyable show, and I look forward to seeing Seasons 3 and 4 with an almost entirely new cast (Effy Stonem played by Kaya Scodelario is the younger sister of one of the main characters of the first 2 seasons and appears multiple times in these seasons before going on to Season 2 and 3). I would say worth checking out, but the music issue does make it not as enjoyable as it would have been, so only if you a fan of British television.

This is the story of a group of friends in college preparatory classes for their last 2 years of mandatory schooling and their good and bad and love and hate, and all the partying in between. We have Tony Stonem (Nicholas Hoult, the boy from About a Boy who has sure sprouted) who is tall and handsome and quite manipulative of all of his friends. His girlfriend is Michelle Richardson (April Pearson) who he calls Nips and always disparages, though she is a sweet girl who loves him. Tony’s best friend is Sid Jenkins (Mike Bailey) who not only is not good in school, but looks down on himself and still a virgin, especially because he is in love with Michelle, and everyone knows it. They try and hook Sid up with the crazy Cassie Ainsworth (Hannie Murray) who is often put away because of an eating disorder. Then we have the party animal Chris Miles (Joe Dempsie) who will take any drug at any time, and is hiding from the death of his brother at a young age. Chris pursues and eventually gets the groups psychology teacher Angie (Siwan Morris). The Muslim of the group is Anwar Kharral (Dev Patel) who follows his religion in some ways, but still does drugs, and is always trying to have sex. His best friend is the openly gay Maxxie Oliver (Mitch Hewer) who wants to not do construction like his dad, and instead wants to be a dancer. Finally we have Jal Fazer (Larissa Wilson) a talented clarinet player whose dad is in music, and whose mother left for reasons unknown.

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With Christopher Nolan I either love or hate his films, but this trailer has had me really excited for some time. Still I was a bit wary. I refuse to see Insomnia because I love the original too much, and I absolutely hated the Prestige (I mean the ending was just painfully bad), but Memento, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were all phenomenal. Anyway, it has been in the 100′s in Los Angeles, so Kelly opted to go to a show in the morning on release day of this to beat the heat, and I have to say this film blew me away, easily the best film so far this year, and some of the best special effects I have ever seen. This movie is phenomenal and a must see, and I would love to see it again right now! The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer is perfect, and DiCaprio is the best I have seen him (he finally seems grown up and after this I would love to see him as the Ridler in the next Batman film! Actually everyone is great here (well Ellen Page is nothing special really, she is cute enough, but doesn’t bring too much depth). This is an awesome look and take on the world of dreams, and is not only a great psychological thriller, but Nolan proves he could easily do an amazing Bond style action film too. And I am really still blown away by the effects, which are absolutely seamless, except when they are not supposed to be. Inception is easily one of the best films of the year, and an absolute must see! See it now, and see it again and again!

A man is found washed up on a beach carrying only a pistol and a small metal top. He is brought to the japanese household here and the old man who is the master (Ken Watanabe). The man’s name is Cobb, and he is there to help the old man Saito remembers something very important to them both.

At an earlier time we see Cobb in along with his team consisting of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his architect (who designs the dream worlds they project into) named Nash (Lukas Hass). They are on a train, while jacking into the dream of Japanese the young Japanese industrialist Saito. They are actually in a dream within a dream, which starts to go bad when a woman from Cobb’s past named Mal (Marion Catillard) shows up and starts to work with Saito against the team. The end up in the second dream, but Saito can tell that the details that Nash has created are not correct, so he knows he is still dreaming, and admits that this is in fact an audition for this team. He does not want them to do the normal and steal information from someones dream, but do an inception, which is to plant a dream into someone’s mind so that they think it is their own. Cobb and his team try to run, but they are betrayed by Nash and led to Saito. Saito takes away the traitor and gets Cobb to agree to try to do an inception in exchange for Saito helping Cobb with his legal issues in his home of the united states, where he can no longer return to see his young children. Arthur doesn’t even think an inception can be done, but Cobb says it can, because he has done it before.

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I don’t know why I stayed away from this because I love all of Gervais’s British shows and his standup, and this continues along with those, being enjoyable and funny. And I can easily see why this film did not do better, because this country is too religious for such a blatant attack on religion (I mean come on, that there can be no religion without lies! THAT ROCKS!), but for me that made the movie so much funnier and so much more enjoyable! This movie is awesome and hysterical. One of the best comedies I have seen in a long long time. Really a must see. And I love all the cameos, people must have loved the script or love Gervais, because there are a ton of people in this who make the movie even funnier!

Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) live in a world where lies have not been invented and in fact everyone must tell the honest truth all the time. Making cruel statements all the time, because it is the truth. Mark works as a writer for films, but in this world the only films feature a man sitting in a chair talking about a period of history, and Mark has the dark ages in the 13th century, which does not make for interesting stories, and he is on the edge of losing his job because of it. He manages to get a blind date with a beautiful and successful woman named Anna McDoogles (a very funny Jennifer Garner, especially when we are introduced to her telling that she was just masturbating and probably will go do it again as she gets ready). Despite herself Anna actually laughs and has an enjoyable time, but it is not to be because Mark is just not genetically matched to her, he is too fat and ugly. Mark arrives at work the next day to find his very unhappy secretary Shelley (Tina Fey) celebrating that he must be fired, as well as his genetically superior nemesis Brad Kessler (Rob Lowe). And finally his both Anthony (Jeffrey Tambor) manages to build up enough courage to fire Mark. Mark returns home and his landlord gives him eviction notice unless he can come up with $800 by the next day, which without a job there is no way her can do. Mark goes to the bank, where he only has $300 dollars, and while waiting to get his money, he tells the worlds first lie, that he has $800 in his account. The computer says differently, but the teller assumes it must be a mistake, and gives Mark the money. Mark’s entire world has just changed!

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Some great action, and a throwback to Woo Ping’s great 90′s action, but some mediocre effects and a crappy last act make this fall a bit flat. The best thing is to see Vincent Zhao Zen Zhao back and kicking ass, and he is in fine form here, let’s hope that he can keep making features instead of only getting Chinese Soap Operas. For action aficionados this is worth checking out, but only if you a big fan, because it could be a better film.

Su Can (Vincent Zhao Zen Zhao) is a general working for a prince along with his adopted brother Yuan Lie (Andy On Chi Kit). They go out and save the prince, and he promises to make Su Can the governor of Hu Bei, but he turns it down, and asks that his brother be made governor instead. Su leaves to be with his wife Ying (Zhou Xun) who is Yuan Lie’s actual sister and to perfect his wushu. Su gives his sword to his comrade Ma (Guo Xiaodong) and leaves. 5 years pass and Su has a daughter, and his father tells them that Yuan is returning, and that it may be for vengeance since Su’s father killed Yuan’s father as he was practicing evil martial arts, and then adopted his children as his own. Su thinks it can’t be right, but when Yuan arrives he quickly kills his father using his Five Venom Fists,

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I was really looking forward to this film, as it had good previews and is getting awesome reviews, but have to say it was a total let down. It had potential and good moments, but overall it just fell completely flat. Maybe it would have been better in 3D, but I doubt it, as there were certain scenes that seemed like they were the “3D” scenes, and the rest didn’t matter. To me this film falls to the folly that so many children’s films do, of just targeting children. Sure there were a few older jokes, but mostly this was for little children (and they did enjoy it) and the story nor the characters never really hit it enough to make a film that adults can enjoy. The animation is great, but unlike Pixar they just don’t get how to target a wider audience. Oh well.

The film starts with the original teaser, with a bus of US tourists in Egypt going to see the pyramids, and it turns out one has been stolen and replaced with a blow up version. We then return to america and follow the self proclaimed super-vilain Gru (Steve Carell) who we see making children cry. His assistant Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) calls to tell Gru of the theft, and that all other villains are now seen as nothing. Gru then plans his biggest heist, to steal the moon, by first stealing a shrinking ray. He heads to the bank of Evil, but is turned down for a loan by Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) whose son it turns out is Vector (Jason Segal) who stole the pyramid, and who Gru freezes his head, making an enemy. Gru goes and steals the shrink ray anyway, with the help of his little yellow minions, but as they escape it is stolen from them by Vector, and Gru can’t get into Vector’s base. Gru sees three orphan girls Margo Miranda Cosgrove). Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) get in while selling cookies, so he hatches a plan to adopt them to get into Vector’s base.

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The British Television series created by Channel 4 based on the Julie Burchill novel about the a 15 year old lesbian and her love for best friend in a ocean front resort town is a really fun show with great characters. It is a really fun show and it is a shame that the show didn’t get the 3rd series it so deserved. The characters are so much fun to watch that you really want more. Well worth checking out. This half hour series is quite a lot of fun.

Kim Daniels (Olivia Hallinan) is a 15 year old girl whose parents have just moved to a small resort town on the coast of England. Kim is an in the closet lesbian who is in love with her lascivious best friend Maria “Sugar” Sweet (Lenora Crichlow). Sugar loves men, and always is stringing along one boyfriend or another, and driving Kim absolutely crazy. Kim’s parents are having issues too. Stella (Sara Stewart) is not too happy, and has an affair with the handiman, while Nathan (Richard Lumsden) doesn’t even notice. And their son Matt (Kurtis O’Brien) is the strangest of the bunch, killing his animals, going goth, dressing as a girl and sleeping in a coffin. Kim has a good life, but is completely sexually frustrated, and would do anything to be with Sugar.

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I can honestly say that this is easily one of the best films of the year, easily surpassing the second film in the series, and possibly topping the first. This is a fantastic film and it even made me cry! This was not a movie that I thought would make me cry, but it did, and I am proud to say it. Such a great film with an great story, and amazing cast, and such lovable characters. This film must at least be nominated for best picture. I have nothing bad to say about this film at all. It is a must see. I did not see it in 3D though. UP in 3D did not impress me too much, as it was dimmer and not as sharp, and this is a film that benefits from that sharpness because the 3D looks absolutely amazing! Pixar is the best! I would so love to work there, it sounds like the best company in the world to work for.

Woody (Tom Hanks) and Jessie (Joan Cusack) are in a western scene going after One Eyed Bart and Betty [Mr and Mrs Potato Head (Don rickles and Estelle Harris)] and trying to save a train filled with kids, which is saved by Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). Then the Evil Dr. Pork Chop [Hamm (Cliff Claven himself, John Ratzenberger)] shows up in a space ship and drops a monkey bomb on them! We find out that this was an imagined adventure that the toys kid Andy (John Morris) had as a kid, but he is now 17 and getting ready to leave for college. Andy plans on taking Woody, and putting the rest of the toys into the attic, but their is a mix up and the rest of the toys end up being put out as trash by his mother. The toys get away from the garbage truck, but they don’t believe Woody, and decide to get into the donation box for Sunnyside daycare, Woody goes along to try to get them to go home. They arrive and meet a big pink bear with a limp, Lotso (Ned Beatty) who along with Ken (Michael Keaton) and a baby doll named Big Baby great them warmly, with Barbie (Jodi Benson) quickly falling for Ken, but things are not as they seem. Woody leaves alone, but is found by a little girl named Bonnie (Emily Hahn) and taken home with her toys. Buzz and the others are all happy until they see they are left in the Caterpillar Room, which turns out to be the toddlers room, where the toys are beaten and almost destroyed, and they realize they have been imprisoned, and must get home to Andy!

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This movie had a great trailer, and looked like an American Shaun of the Dead, a rip roaring Zombie comedy, but instead we got this mess. This film is not enjoyable in the least. Sure the part with BIll Murray playing himself is pretty funny, but the rest of the characters are not at all likeable, and the story is mediocre at best. Maybe if I cared for anyone this movie would matter, but I don’t. Skip this with extreme prejudice!

America has become infested by Zombies, and it now known as Zombieland by it’s surviving inhabitants. A loser loner college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is on his way to Columbus, Ohio to try and find his parents. He lives by a series of rules that so far have kept him alive. He loses his car and ends up meeting Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and the two start traveling together. At a grocery store they meet sisters Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who con them into thinking Little Rock has been bitten, an steal their car and guns. Columbus and Tallahassee set out to find the girls, and manage to find a truck with a cache of weapons.

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Why couldn’t they have let David Slade direct all of these films, since after watching this he is obviously the most competent director yet? Really this is hands down the best film in the series so far. It really seems like Slade gets it, and Melissa Rosenberg’s screenplay seems more on the mark. The first film was decent, and well cast (for the most part), but this is so much better done, and would have brought more people in if it was this well done. Not my favorite story in the series, but as I have said this film is in almost all ways better than it’s predecessors. It has gorgeous cinematography, great editing, excellent effects (the vampire running is finally done right), and great action. Now that is not to say that all is perfect. First off is the replacement of Victoria, originally played by Rachelle Lefevre and here replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard, who is just too sweet looking, and plays the part that way as well. Not enough ferocious menace, which Lefevre had so well. The studio made a huge mistake not allowing her to come back! And the second major mistake is the music, both the score and the soundtrack. Howard Shores score does not fit the film at all, nor does it fit within the series as a whole. It is too much, and not fitting at all. And the soundtrack while it has a couple of good tracks cannot touch the first or even the second soundtrack. Still that being said, the rest is pretty damn good, and well worth checking out. And I love that at the Arclight theaters they have the Cullens costumes, though the mannequins don’t seem to be the correct heights, but that is a minor complaint. Go check this out, especially if you are a fan of the series at all. And it is fun to see with an audience, because it is a laugh to hear the girls all drooling over Taylor Lautner!

A twenty something named Riley Biers (Xavier Samuel) is attacked and turned into a vampire by the vengeful vampire Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) in Seattle, not too far from Forks. In Forks Isabella “Bella” Swan (Kristen Stewart) discusses becoming a vampire with her lover, the vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). He does not want her to become a vampire as he worries for her immortal soul, but she is dead set on it. He tells her he will turn her, but only if she will marry him first, but she is dead set against marriage, not believing in it after her parent’s failed marriage, and also thinking of what people will think if she gets married so young (she is 19), but Edward is from another era, and wants to do things right. Edward get’s Bella’s father Charlie Swan (Billy Burke) to agree to let him and Bella go to Florida to visit her mother Renee (Sarah Clarke), and Bella willingly goes since if she is to become a vampire soon, this will be the last time she sees her mother ever. Returning to school, Bella’s best friend, the werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) shows up to confront Edward about Emmet Cullen (Kellan Lutz) crossing the border into Quillete territory while hunting Victoria, which Edward had not told Bella about. Bella leaves with Jacob on his motorcycle, as he has been unwilling to talk to her since Edward returned. Eventually Jacob confesses his love to Bella, and tries to force a kiss on her, but she wants none of it, and sprains her hand punching him. He loves her, but will hate her if she become a vampire, and if she does it will permanently break the treaty. At the Cullen’s high school graduation party, which Jake shows up at (even after kissing Bella) Alice Cullen (Ashley Green) has a vision of a newborn vampire army, led by Riley, coming to get Bella in Forks. Jacob overhears, and agrees to fight with the vampires against their mutual enemy, even though Bella does not want the werewolves to help, as she sees them as vulnerable compared to the vampires.

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