Reviews

I drew the line at Lord of the Rings. I'm not a fan of hobbits/elves/mythical legends or Peter Jackson for that matter. Just because my friends love the Trilogy DOESN'T mean that I want to pretend to be interested in such rubbish.

King Kong though caught my eye. I hate monkeys, especially large monkeys like Kong, but I could handle that; the monkey aspect I could ignore... Until I realised one horrifying, terrifying fact...

...This film was THREE HOURS LONG...

I wanted to be shot an hour into the film. There was no action and you had to get a huge sob story from the oh so unfortunate, oh so beautiful Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) which just didn't wash with me at all. None of the characters were particularly endearing.

I'm a fan of Jack Black, I think he's really cool, but I couldn't help thinking that after delivering his lines he would launch into 'Tribute'...

The action bits were good. I liked the Bug Scene and was rooting for the dinosaurs.

However: 1. The natives weren't explained. Why? Who? What? How? 2. You reckon Kong could defeat a T. Rex?! No way. 3. Billy Elliot shooting bugs off Adrian Brody with what seemed to me like a MACHINE gun and not killing him! 4. Ann Darrow should be locked up. The ape was a killing machine, love! He had to die sooner or later. 5. Ann on top of the Empire State in the middle of winter. I've been up there. She'd have been blown off the top. For sure. 6. How in holy Jesus' name did they transport a 25ft gorilla to New York on that tiny little boat? Nicely dodged there, Jackson.

I hated the film. I strongly advise people NOT too see it. Tens of millions of dollars were seemingly wasted on this very boring film. Just because Jackson is directing doesn't make it good.

This film has little saving grace, and the cast and crew must be thankful that film journalists are clueless as to what makes a truly great, action epic.

I've been a fan of Saw since I watched the DVD about a year ago. The movie is one to grab your attention and hold on to it, until way after the film has finished. I really did think the first one was a work of genius and that the writers were very, very clever in having me fooled for the whole time. Maybe the reason that I'm going to rate this film so highly is that fact that I so enjoyed the bloody, gory torture of Adam and Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Even though reviews have slated Saw II, I do truly believe that it's one of, if not the, best sequel ever!

Oh yes,there will be blood Jigsaw warns at the beginning of this film and oh yes, he doesn't lie! This time, Jigsaw is back, and yes - he's still wearing that ghastly serial killer cloak. But don't let that image soften you - he's still deadlier and messed up as ever. This time, instead of leaving two strangers in a bathroom together and telling them to kill each other, he's locked a lot of strangers in a house together and told them they're going to die anyway.

However, in true Jigsaw style he's given them a chance to redeem themselves, they can escape with their lives, but only if they deserve it. Donnie Wahlberg plays crooked cop Eric Matthews, who goes along to investigate the crime scene of an unfortunate victim of Jigsaws, quickly noticing that perhaps he's connected to the killer in more ways than he'd like to think... He's called out to raid Jigsaw lair, and this is when the film really begins - Matthew's realises that his son is one of Jigsaw's unlucky victims and as he and the S.W.A.T team watch the slow demises of the house's occupants he is powerless to help. This film concentrates more on Jigsaw rather than the victims who he's putting through their paces but still is only a wee bit less gruesome than it's predecessor. The film is great, right up until the end when the film become absolutely fantastic! Prepare yourself to the best twist, since Saw!

I strongly advise you to see Saw, before you see Saw II, just so you can understand the true and absolute horror of the ending. I was climbing up my seat and gasping in shock and I warn you - I've never been so shocked by a few lights going on in my whole, entire life.

The trailer to this film made Night Watch or 'Nochnoy Dozor' as the Russians say, look, in a word, stunning. The CGI was very impressive and the outstanding visuals roared by before a background of searing rock-music. The story looked interesting and unusual and all in all, this trailer radiated COOL. I rushed along to the cinema to watch it on opening night. NO! I didn't care that it was in Russian, the film looked so good that I could deal with those subtitles... Oh, how wrong I was. The film, to me at least would have made no sense unless I'd scrutinised the screen, read quicker than light, whilst watching the actors on screen *and* doing an awful lot of thinking. After about an hour my head was hurting and my eyes becoming lazy.

Night Watch is the story of a group of goodies, battling against a group of baddies, desperately trying to save the world from the evil forces that the bad men from Day Watch possess.

The main character Anton, played very well by Konstantin Khabebsky is an ordinary guy, he decides at the beginning of the film that he wants to kill his cheating wife's unborn baby, to do this he does what anyone else would do in his situation, and asks a crazy old witch from a group of old, raven invested flats that I'm sure his Mama would have told him not to go near. This beginning scene is long; too long. There's an awful lot to understand and at the end of it, the Night Watch arrive and realise that Anton has 'special powers' --- I almost expected Trinity and Morpheus to make an appearance.

The likeness to The Matrix is slim at first... but grows with time. It's the same kind of story about a normal guy, suddenly being thrust into a supernatural world he had no idea existed until now and having to deal with his own demons while trying to save the world from almost certain destruction.

Back to the story; Anton kills a vampire (naughty, naughty) and the said vampires girlfriend, grief stricken, tries to attack Anton's twelve year old son (the one he tried to kill at the beginning.) Realising this is his son, Anton tries everything he can to save him from her clutches, but fails... miserably. It just so happens that Anton's miracle son also has powers (well I never!), but unfortunately is told that his dad was the one who tried to kill him when he was still a little foetus and he quickly decides to join the Day Watch... all left open for a nice little trilogy!!

It's predictable, if well acted by Khabensky, but director Timur Bekmambetov tries too hard with the CGI. In small doses it's amazingly impressive, but throughout a whole movie, it gives you a headache. In the ending scenes, the camera was moving all over the place in an attempt to impress and all it made me want to do is shut my eyes.

I'll give the trailer credit, I still think that the trailer is amazing, great music, great visuals, greater special FX, but the film just seemed like it was trying to hard. I know this is Russia's first major film! It's a great defeat that it reached Hollywood and I desperately want to praise it, but Russia! You don't need to include over-the-top visuals, shaky camera work and weirdo scenes to show yourselves to be good film-makers!! Calm down on the CGI front and it could have been impressive. Let professionals film it, instead of looking like its filmed by a drunken two-year old and you could have had a great, classic film. Instead, disappointing. I'm sorry NightWatch, you're just the Matrix, but with a bit less cool.

Having read numerous reviews for 'Saw' I've discovered that it's a bit like 'Marmite'; you either love it or you hate it. But c'mon! What's not to love. Aussie double act James Wan (director) and Leigh Whannel (screen-writer/"Adam") present to us something I don't think has been done this successfully in years. 'Saw' won me over the first time I saw it, with its creepy story-line and bizarre camera angles and it's grown in my estimation over the course of the years.

Saw starts when Adam (Leigh Whannell) awakes in a bathtub to find himself chained up in a darkened room and very confused. When the lights go on his cell-mate Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) is revealed to him as well as the dead body of a man, a gun in one hand and a tape recorder in the other. As Lawrence and Adam start talking, clues are revealed to them. They both find tapes in their pockets, each carrying a sinister message and a task they must complete to escape with their lives. Adam's task is to save his own life, and not to sit back and watch himself die. Lawrence's task is to kill Adam; the consequence if he doesn't is that his wife and child will die. Lawrence begins to tell the story of Jigsaw, a serial killer who captures the morally wayward, in life or death situations, intended to make them appreciate their own mundane lives. Adam and Lawrence are not Jigsaw's first victims, he's targeted self-harmers, drug addicts and benefit frauds and now, seemingly innocent Adam and do-gooding Dr. Lawrence are victims in his next game. Clues are revealed to the two characters as they are revealed to the audience, we find out that Lawrence has been cheating on his wife and that Adam has been paid to take pictures of him by obsessed ex-leading detective on the Jigsaw case, David Tapp (Danny Glover). Meanwhile, as Adam and Lawrence are being held captive in a bathroom, Lawrence's wife and daughter are being terrorised by creepy Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson) a quiet janitor in Lawrence's hospital. Eventually, Lawrence's time runs out, Adam is still alive and Zep leaves the Gordon's to carry out his work and go and kill Lawrence, pursued by the ever observant Tapp. As the story unfolds and Lawrence's situation becomes more desperate he takes drastic measures to release himself from his chains. Zep and Tapp, brawl in the tunnels which lead to the room in which Adam and Lawrence are trapped, which results in a fast-paced action and Tapp's murder. As Zep enters the bathroom, the gruesome finale climaxes in a terrifying twist - and trust me, you'll be screaming as loudly as the characters on screen.

Altogether a very well brought together film, which exceeded my expectations and shows Whannell and Wan as the true geniuses they deserve to be credited as.