Reviews

Firstly, this movie is everything it could have been: a ridiculous, cliché, poorly acted, completely nonsensical lump of a movie. The dialogue is stolen from every hero movie in existence, the acting is completely transparent and downright bad, the plot goes so fast and has no sensible path that it fails totally, the special effects are fairly boring, and the only good thing to say about it is that Chow Yun Fat is marginally entertaining.

Secondly, that's why I enjoyed it. This movie falls under the category of "so bad it's funny" genre. For anyone who has seen the anime, many of you know that Dragonball is the basis for much of the things Americans hate about anime. The dialogue is mundane, the characters look like creatures from some other dimension, and the plot makes utterly no sense. No one ever seems to learn anything valuable, nor do their motivations seem genuine. The characters simply exist to provide a moment of entertainment, which they normally fail to do. And this is why people watch it: Dragonball is completely adept at being inept.

In reality, I think that this movie actually intends to poke fun at anime and itself with how horrible it is. No one could take Dragonball into a movie and have it make any sense. Going into the movie, if you keep that in mind and know that it will be an hour and a half of pure stupidity, you might enjoy yourself. I certainly did. Don't take it seriously, enjoy the special effects, and don't think too hard.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard you can find in the Chicago phone book. He deals with anything from ghosts to demons to lost wedding rings, and never has a boring moment. By his side, he has an air spirit, named Bob, who is bound to a skull and helps him in his escapades. Within the Chicago Police Department, Special Investigations chief Connie Murphy is always in need of a paranormal guide in her line of business, and Dresden comes in as an adequate assistant. This show will follow the adventures of Harry Dresden as a paid crime solver and as a compulsive protector of mankind.

The pilot for this show was rather boring. I've read most of the books by Jim Butcher, and the pilot disappointed me when I compared it to the novels. Many things were changed, like Dresden's car being a Jeep in the show and a Beetle in the books, and others improved, the talking skull Bob is now a corporeal being, but mostly I found this version of Dresden a less entertaining than the books.

That said, as a TV show, it's a nice spin. The acting isn't bad, Dresden still has his trademark dry wit, nor is the direction. The idea has as much potential as the novels, and after viewing another episode, I think the show will improve. The second show was far better than the first, and I've read that the first book in the series, "Storm Front," is one of the later episodes. I believe that once the Dresden-in-a-box shows end and the actual novels are written into the show, people will be much happier. In fact, people I know who have seen the show and haven't read the books liked it.

Overall, not bad, but not nearly as good as the books.

Simply put, this move tracks the adventures of a man named Flynn Carsen to find the riches of King Solomon and protect their secrets. He meets Emily Davenport, a brilliant, beautiful woman, who is obsessed with the Queen of Sheeba, and the two go off together to find the "Mines" where the treasure, and a very dangerous book of spells, is hidden.

OK, this movie is very cliché. If Harrison Ford was in it and the script, acting, and special effects were slightly better, it could be Indiana Jones. The acting is fairly bad and the plot jumps from place to place, never really certain who feels what and who does what.

That said, it is one of those movies that is so bad, that it's good. Even though the acting is goofy, it is still funny, and despite the plot holes, it is still fun. It's the kind of movie to watch on a Tuesday night when there's nothing to do. And, it's a TV movie. It's not going to be theater worthy. Think of it as cute and a good family movie (except for maybe one scene).

So watch this knowing that you won't be awed by it, only relatively amused.

Nicktoons network is mainly a rerun channel. They mostly play cartoons from Nickelodeon and from other international sources. But now, they've introduced Kappa Mikey and Skyland into their programming.

Skyland is set in the year 2251 in the shattered remains of the earth orbiting around the core. The government, called the Sphere, has been corrupted and is now a dictatorship. Mila, a seemingly normal woman, lives on a remote farm with her daughter, Lena, age 12, and her son, Mahad, age 17. Their lives change forever when Mila, a skilled warrior, and Lena, an unwitting preteen, are discovered as powerful "Sejins", people who can control energies and objects with his or her mind. Oslo, one of the Sphere's ghouls, captures Mila and goes after Lena, believing that she can fulfill an ancient prophecy. The rest of the story will likely follow Mahad and Lena, along with a ship of rebel allies, through their various adventures, self discovery, and escapes from the Sphere.

This show is fairly good. Its use of CGI and motion capture are entertaining to watch. Some of the scenery even looks real. If nothing else, the animation is worth seeing. It can become like watching a video game, but after a while, the effect wares off. The storyline is equally interesting, though not totally original. Skyland is a good addition to Nicktoons, think of it at the Nicktoons' Avatar.

The series will premiere on Nicktoons Network sometime in late 2006.