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Movie Review

Black Swan (2010)

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Benjamin Milepied, Ksenia Solo, Kristina Anapau, Janet Montgomery, Sebastian Stan, Toby Hemingway

A Young ballerina Nina (Natalie Portman) who has spent years under the tutelage of her over obsessive mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) gets a shot to play the lead role in a new Swan Lake. Nina Portrays the white queen perfectly with her innocents and grace but lacks the ability to play the Black Swan. Nina has a rival for the part in Lily (Mila Kunis) who is the opposite to her being able to play the Black Swan well but lacks the innocence’s to play the white swan.

With an angry ex lead dancer Beth (Winona Ryder) who can not accept she has been replaced by a new dancer and one she feels is a lot worse than her confronting at her grand announcement by the director of the show Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel). Thomas sets out to force Nina into turning into the Black Swan by pushing her into a rebellious way and driving her sexual desires. Lily uses her style of life to befriend Nina and try and push her into the Black Swan.

Having Thomas and Lily pushing her Nina mind starts to unravel she is left to question her own sanity. Nina is left wondering how badly she wants the lead role giving her ever changing mental state.

Natalie Portman Oscar is very well deserved with this outstanding performance as the ballerina pushed to the limit, with great supporting roles from Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Vincent Cassel. Adding the great direction from Darren Aronofsky who follows up ‘The Wrestler’ and ‘Requiem for a Dream’.

Giving that i know nothing about ballet i found this young woman quest to find herself and deliver the best role a truly brilliant piece of cinema with great story that keeps you guessing what will happen next and what has really happened in the psychological thriller. The tension grows through out the film giving an excellent climax that will shock all viewers.

My overall rating would be a stunning 97%

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Movie Review

EuroTrip (2004)

Directors: Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg, David Mandel
Starring: Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts, Kristin Kreuk, Michelle Trachtenberg, Travis Wester, Matt Damon, Jessica Boehrs, Vinnie Jones, Lucy Lawless

School graduations are where you life is meant to start but for Scott Thomas (Scott Mechlowsicz) things start to go wrong when he gets dumped by his girlfriend Fiona (Kristin Kreuk). Scott still goes to the graduation party with his friends Cooper (Jacob Pitts) and twins Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Jamie (Travis Wester). At the party a band turns up with lead singer Donny (great cameo by Matt Damon) who has been seeing Fiona for months and tell him with the very catchy song ‘Scottie doesn’t know’.

The morning after Scott finds out he has been pen palling with the beautiful Mieke (Jessica Boehrs) only problem is he believed she was a guy. Now Scott has decided to go to Europe to meet her. He sets off with Cooper being couriers going to London when they fall into a football hooligan bar meeting Mad Maynard (Vinnie Jones) where they get drunk and head to France to meet Jenny and Jamie. Once the group is together they set off on their journey to find Mieke in Germany and see Europe along the way.

The sites they visit in Europe include a nude French beach, Eastern Europe, Italy’s Vatican and the Red lights of Holland meeting Dominatrix Madame Vandersexx (Lucy Lawless). Giving this is an American view on Europe the jokes are pretty standard stereotypes not really offering anything fresh but the constant remixes of ‘Scottie doesn’t Know’ is enjoyable listen giving you will be singing this song for weeks after seeing the movie.

Character development isn’t this films strong point relying more on the jokes with basic sex and drugs jokes at that. Most of the support characters get most of the laughs to. If you wanna see how bad a trip round Europe can go this is for you, but it can offer you an incite to places you could wish to go one day. Most of the main actors are relative unknowns with Scott Mechlowicz from outstanding Mean Creek, Michelle Tratchensberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer giving this a little bit more non stereotype on actors.

My rating an enjoyable 76%

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Movie Review

Deep Rising (1998)

Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Anthony Heald, Kevin J O’Connor, Wes Studi, Derrick O’Connor, Jason Flemyng, Cliff Curtis, Clifton Powell, Trevor Goddard, Djimon Hounsou, Una Damon, Clint Curtis

Starting out on a luxury cruise ships maiden voyage owner Simon Canton (Anthony Heald) has a celebration with guests including Captain Atherton (Derrick O’Connor) and jewel thief Trillian St. James (Famke Janssen). After stopping her stealing the jewels they lock her in a storage cupboard until they reach the next port. Something then attacks the ship and we are left to wonder what has happened.

Next we meet John Finnegan (Treat Williams) a boat for hire who takes any job for the right money and his two workers Joey (Kevin J O’Connor) and Leila (Una Damon). The have been paid by Hanover (Wes Studi) and his mercenaries Mulligan (Jason Flemyng), Mamooli (Cliff Curtis) Mason (Clifton Powell) T.Ray (Trevor Goddard) Vivo (Djimon Hounsou) and Billy (Clint Curtis) a truly international group from all corners of the Earth. They have paid to be taken to the middle of nowhere with a large amount of weapons.

Upon arriving at the destination which is the cruise ship which they are due to hijack they find the ship abandoned. With the ship they arrived on damaged they must search the abandoned ship for tools to fix theirs or a way to get the cruise ship moving again. While searching they find Captain Artherton, Simon and Trillian but they start hearing noises from the creature that seems to have attacked the ship. How will our heroes get out of this one?

This action horror is Stephen Sommers first go at the action genre and he has a very simple idea to work with a group of people on a boat in the middle of ocean. It has a atmosphere which Aliens created not to the same level of tension tho. The dialog is tongue in check with lots of one liners to cover how serious the situation is actually meant to be which makes the film enjoyable because as a stand alone horror this film would really fail.

If you enjoyed Stephen Sommers other movies you will enjoy this and he creates very similar characters and like using his relecutant heroes with almost comic relief side kicks. Also you see some of the creation of The Mummy visual effects with some of the death scenes.

My overall Rating a very enjoyable 86%

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Movie Review

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Director: Renny Harlin
Starring: Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L Jackson, Jacqueline McKenzie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgard, LL Cool J, Aida Turturro

In a remote research facility a team of scientists are trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease by experimenting on sharks by making them smarter creating similar brain tissue as humans.

Lead by Dr Susan McCallister (Saffron Burrows) an ambitions character who has suffered the effects of the disease from watching parent going through it. She is assisted by Janice Higgins (Jacyueline McKenzie) Tom Scoggins (Michael Rapaport) and Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgard) in the lab work.

One of the investors is set to see how the operation is run Russell Franklin (Samuel L Jackson) a man who has seemingly done every adventure he has wanted to. Upon his arrive he sees how good a shark wrangler Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) is showing off his ability to jump on the back of sharks with a clever little move.

Leading into a weekend the base is left with this skeleton crew along with Preacher (LL Cool J) who is the cook who has sinned in his life and found God and Bird his parrot. While the last member is Brenda Kerns (Aida Turturro) the communication tower officer. The main experiment is going on with this crew which involves place a shark to sleep and put a needle into the brain to remove tissue to see how it deals wit the disease. Only for this sleeping shark to bite Jim Whitlock’s arm off. With a storm brewing a rescue helicopter is sent out to take Jim off to a hospital. As the conditions worsen the helicopter fails to take off again crashing into the communication tower and one of the sharks to burst the glass filling the facility up with water. Now who will escape? How will they escape?

Being a shark movie it will always get comparisons to Jaws but giving this a claustrophobic atmosphere this called almost be Jaws meets Aliens. It gives us a question of how far would you go for the results to cure a disease which has such consequences.

All the characters have different motives and beliefs that are all understandable. Preacher is especially good character who spends most of the film walking the halls think he is being tested by God talking to himself. This is great action thriller worth a watch leaving people on the edge of their seats.

My rating 88%

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Movie Review

Serenity (2005)

Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Krumholtz

Starting out with Simon (Sean Maher) rescuing his sister River (Summer Glau) from the Alliance only for the Alliance to send out a ruthless assassin simply known as the Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to catch River any means necessary.

Simon and River are aided by rebel crew of the Serenity lead by Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion). The crew includes second in command Zoe (Gina Torres) who also fought in the rebel alliance war along side Mal and married to the pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk) who is the guy who people go to for a decent heart to heart. Engineer Kaylee (Jewel Staite) who has a way with being able to fix all problems the ship encounters. Jayne (Adam Balwin) is the main tough guy figure who really is a bit of a softy.

After discovering River is a reader of minds Mal sets out on a job to rob a bank containing Alliance money but the carnivorous Reavers start arriving in the town leading to a spaceship race to escape from being eaten alive. After the escape River starts talking about Miranda and learning that this is a distant planet the crew of Serenity set of a dangerous mission to discover the truth. Meeting old friends Companion Inara (Monena Baccario), Shepherd Derrial Book (Ron Glass) and Mr Universe (David Krumholtz).

After Firefly the TV shows was cancelled and gained cult following Serenity was made, Almost like a follow up with chapters between missing like why Inara and Shep are no longer part of the crew. The story involving River more than the whole team. We still get to see how strong a captain Mal is showing all range of emotions from start to finish.

Joss Whedon brings us his take on space genre and his views are different to what we are used to including the no explosions in space and no aliens give this a more human almost realistic feel adding in the idea the words are not modern tech worlds rather old western like towns giving this the sci-fi western genre name.

Great story with twists and strong protagonist and villains giving this simply put under performer a bad name but can easily be considered as strong as the big name sci-fi Star Wars and Star Treks on a story line and character development basis.

If you do find you enjoy this movie i strongly recommend you try to see the fourteen episodes of Firefly and you will learn the love the characters even more.

My overall rating a brilliant sci-fi adventure 94%

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Movie Review

Doom (2005)

Director: Andrzel Bartkowiak
Starring: Karl Urban, Dwayne Johnson, Rosamund Pike, Deobia Oparei, Razaaq Adoti, Richard Brake, Al Weaver, Dexter Flectcher, Brian Steele, Ben Daniels, Yao Chin, Robert Russell

On research facility on Mars all communication is lost and a level five quarantine has been put into action. A highly trained military tactical squad are the only ones allowed in and loaded with every weapon they can carry they enter to neutralise the problem

The Military squad lead by Sarge (Dwayne Johnson) includes Destroyer (Deobia Oparei), Duke (Razaaq Adoli), The Kid (Al Weaver), Pinky (Dexter Fletcher), Goat (Ben Daniels), Mac (Yao Chin), Corporal Dean Portman (Richard Brake) and John Grimm (Karl Urban). John has a sister Samantha Grimm (Rosamund Pike) who works at the facility.

Upon entering the facility The squad locates Samantha and has to help get vital research out and locate the missing Docters. Travelling down dark narrow corridors the marines now have to put all the training into effect fighting an enemy they have never encounter before they are trapped on Mars.

Based on the video game Doom this film tries to capture the cramped environment you encounter while playing the game, It does have one gun like cam angle which is just like the game but the rest is very much just your normal creature feature atmosphere. Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson perform what would expect of wannabe action stars but poor dialogue makes their characters very wooden.

Some of the special effects created are highlights including a nano byte wall and the portal to and from Mars and Earth. I would say it is worth a watch to fans of sci-fi like horror but don’t expect to get too scared and the fans of the game will be disappointed as this is on video game to film poorer performances

My rating a 67%

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Movie Review

The Mummy Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (2008)

Director: Rob Cohen
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong, Anthony Wong Chau Sang, Russel Wong, Liam Cunningham, David Calder

This third installment on The Mummy movies in based in China rather than Egypt so no Imhotep this time. Starting off with the traditional back story following the evil emperor Han (Jet Li) and after being cured by sorceress Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) Han and his army are turned into a terracotta army a lost in time.

We now have a more grown up Alex (Luke Ford) on an archaeological dig finds the terracotta army along with his professor Roger Wilson (David Calder) and take the Emperor Han back to the museum for an exhibit. On the other side of the world Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evy O’Connell (Maria Bello) are asked to escort The Eye of Shangri-La to China. All the family meet up in Jonathan (John Hannah) club in China.

While passing on the relic at the museum Roger Wilson teams up with General Yang (Anthony Wong Chau Sang) to betray the O’Connells and raise Emperor Han who sets of on a rampage escape through China. With the help of mysterious young lady Lin (Isabella Leong) the O’Connells attempt in vein to stop Han’s escape. With the help of one of Rick’s old buddies Mad Dog Maguire (Liam Cunningham) the O’Connells and Lin must now race across China visiting ancient ruins and finding the mythical fountain of Youth and stop Emperor Han from taking over the world.

The story is a good story with the twists of seeing and learning on Chinese myths including Yetis, even tho it is very similar to the original Mummy movie going back to the basic ideas losing the whole reincarnation back story built in the Mummy returns. Another couple of things that weaken this movie in a comparison to the first two is no Stephen Sommers or Rachel Weisz.

Overall the basic action adventure in products just not the high standards we would be used to Brendan Fraser and John Hannah both put in their good performances while Maria Bello as the concerned mother more than adventurous Liberian. Jet Li villain seems more ruthless than Imhotep but was always a fighter who wanted it all rather than a guy who would do anything for love.

My rating 78%

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Movie Review

The Mummy Returns (2001)

Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Dwayne Johnson, Freddie Boath, Patricia Velasquez, Alun Armstrong, Adewale Akinnuoye-Adbaje, Shaun Parkes

This time we start even further back in ancient Egypt with the Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson) as a warrior who is about to loses a war and is exiled to the desert, on the brink off death he make a deal with Anubis to defeat all his foes, Anubis accepts and sends an unbeatable army who conquer all. After this the Scorpion King is taken in to a bracelet where he must wait to be awaken when someone puts on his bracelet.

Almost forgotten from history Evy (Rachel Weisz) Rick (Brendan Fraser) and their son Alex (Freddie Boath) locate the Scorpion King’s bracelet better known as Bracelet of Anubis are return to the rather posh mansion where they meet Jonathan (John Hannah) pretend to be Rick to impress a woman. Back in another part of Egypt an expedition to Hamanutra to recover the remains of Imhetop (Aronld Vosloo) lead by Baltus Hafez (Alun Armstrong) a curator at the London museum and Meela Nais (Patricia Velasquez) who seems to know too much information. After locating the body and the book of the dead they head back to London to steal the bracelet of Anubis from the O’Connell’s.

Alex trying to hide that he opened the case with the bracelet put its on and is shown a location. Lock-Nah (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and his men kidnap Evy and steal the case of the bracelet of Anubis leaving Rick, John, Alex and Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) to go and save her. As we learn some of the consequences of Alex putting on the bracelet just the apocalypse this time.

After Baltus Hafez, Meela Nais and Lock-Nah bring Imhotep back to life and he in return brings some mummies back to life to kill Rick and Ardeth Bay for saving Evy, we have a great chase through London in double Decker bus fighting these mummies before Lock-Nah kidnaps Alex after figuring out he has the bracelet and they head off back to Egypt. Rock. Evy and Arbeth bay follow and with the help of an old buddy of Rick’s Izzy (Shaun Parkes) they race across Egypt to find their son and save the world again by stopping the Scorpion King and his army rising from the dead.

We get a lot more reincarnation back story learning how some characters are more important to each other than the original lead us to believe. With some stunning landscapes this is one sequel that could actually be considered better than the original. Also having back story between Lock-Nah and Ardeth Bay gives scenes with the two of them have a nice added tension.

As an action adventure fan i would consider this one of my favourites knowing nearly all the lines shows how many times i have watched this movie with incredible re watch value. Strong story line gives all watching something to keep them interested but you may need to check out The Mummy (1999) to understand all relationships fully.

My overall rating is 95%

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Movie Review

The Mummy (1999)

Director; Stephen Sommers
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Kevin j. O’Connor, Oded Fehr, Jonathan Hyde, Erick Avari, Omid Djalili, Patricia Velasquez

Starting in ancient Egypt High Priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) has a forbidden love with the Pharaoh’s mistress Anck Su Namun (Patricia Velasquez) only for Imhotep to run and Anck Su Namun to kill the Pharaoh and then herself. The Pharaoh’s bodyguards Capture Imhotep and his soldiers and puts them to death leaving the most gruesome death for Imhotep himself the Hom-Dai mummified alive.

We are now in the 1920s at the same spot Hamunaptra the city of the dead. There is a war battle going on with Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and Beni (Kevin J. O’Connor) Rick and Beni’s side get over powered and Beni runs and hides leaving rick for dead only for the sand to shape into a face and scare the other side away. Looking over Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) and his guardians on the city leave Rick for the desert to finish off.

Fast forward a few more years and we meet Evy (Rachel Weisz) an over qualified Liberian working in Cairo. Her Brother Jonathan (John Hannah) brings her a map to Hamunaptra and asks the curator (Erick Avari) to set out s mission to explore the area only to burn the map and rubbish the idea. They go to the jail where Rick is being held and negotiate his release with the warden (Omid Djalili).

The team now set off on the expedition only to discover there is a rival expedition guided by Beni. Racing to Hamunaptra the both start digging in separate areas both making different discoveries and after accidentally raise Imhotep and they face a race against time to stop Imhotep from taking over the world.

This is a very much like the Indiana Jones movies full of action and one liners. Brendan Fraser is great as the reluctant hero with the support role giving used for vitals lines and parts of the movie you will remember for when you watch the movie second time you will know the lines coming.

The special effects are what makes this movie special with Imhotep not being full human when first bought back to life and going through the regeneration process. solid story that will keep audience involved from start to finish.

My rating a great action adventure movie 92%