His films aren't that great, but he gives good advert

Awesome.

Me likey special boxes

Look at that: Cloverfield DVD in a special box. Oh, we like that. We like that a lot.

Until we read the release date. June? JUNE?

Just has a though: Father's Day. Time to drop some hints.

Those crazy guys!

Knowledge is power. FOR REAL.

Heard of this one?

Directed by Ben Stiller? Co-written by Ethan Cohen?

Sign me up!

(This, by the way, is the film Owen Wilson should have been in but wasn't due all that trying to kill himself business. Nevermind eh?)

Film Review: Diary of The Dead

Diary of The Dead @ IMDB

So, zombies are cool again. What to do next? Let's, oh, I don't know, get the Granddaddy of Zombie films to make another one.

George A Romero (or glass face if you've seen any recent pictures of him) made Night of The Living Dead for virtually no money, massive success, heralded the extreme horror films of the seventies, birthed an entire sub-genre, made some more zombie films, dropped off the radar a bit. In case you didn't know.

So what do we have here? A re-imagining of Night of The Living Dead, set in contemporary times. Only instead of a farm house in the middle of nowhere it's a group of student film-makers trying to get home. All this is seen from the students perspective as they film their journey.

So far, so Cloverfield. But the difference here is we're watching an actual finished documentary by one of the students. So you get voice-over and music and editing. When this is explained at the beginning, I groaned a bit. Inserting the music seems forced and a bit silly. It helps when about half way through the student filming the action sits down and edits a sequence you saw a few minutes previously. Very web 2.0.

And that's the main thrust of the film, a commentary of todays citizen journalism, weblogs (hello), YouTube, all of that. Social commentary has always been a staple of Romero's film but whilst it does sometimes seems forced and a bit trite at least it's trying to say something. This immediately lifts it above the normal torture porn fare you get these days.

But, nevermind all that high brow nonsense, bring on the zombies! And Romero does and they fuck people up and people fuck them up in various imaginative ways.

Problems: the students are a bit vague and not that interesting. The film feels like it's never building to a climax. The best character in the film is introduced and killed off in five minutes.

But it's good and solid and scary and bleak as anything. Very bleak. The last scene? Bleak.

In a word? Bleak.

Draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiinaaaaaage!

Looks pretty Incredible to me

Hulk trailer now online and it looks pretty cool.

My main bug bear with the Ang Lee Hulk was the hoops it tried to jump through to explain away the Hulk, rather than just saying "Look, it was gamma radiation. Okay?". It seems to be taking a lot of inspiration from the Ultimate version of the Hulk, which can only be a good thing.

Looks like with this and Iron Man it's going to be a Marvel-ous summer of films.

What?

Isn't one of them a lady man now?

I am quite looking forward to this. Yes, the last two Matrix films (as we all know) sucked all kinds of ways but this looks interesting. It looks like the Wachowski's aren't under the pressure the two sequels must have put them under and are just making a film they want to make. It looks mental and John Goodman has the 'tache of the Gods. Worth the entrance fee alone.

About time too.

Looking forward to it.

But am I the only one that likes the old Ang Lee Hulk film? It wasn't amazing but it was still pretty good!

Film review: There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood @ IMDB

A film about the American obsession with oil, eh? How politically relevant. But let's forget the politics and look at the film.

What we have is the story of a silver miner who becomes an Oil Man, a man who controls oil fields across America and what he does along the way.

Good Lord. There are Movies and there are Films and then there is Cinema. This is Cinema, capital C. It looks astounding. There are scenes from this film that will be played forever.

Daniel Day-Lewis is, surprise surprise, astounding. He's a force of nature at the centre of the film. The real surprise is that everyone else is just as good. Day-Lewis' nemesis in the film, a young Preacher, goes to to toe with him and it makes for some riveting scenes.

It really is hard to put into words how great this film is but also how different it is. It feels like it has no structure, at least not the usual three act structure. It just is. Things happen. People say things.

There's nothing like it.

The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of a gratuitous Luiz Guzman cameo.

In a word? Astounding.

Film review: Rambo

Rambo @ IMDB

I was born in 1980. I was raised on cheesy action films. Commando is a work of art. My video shelf was adorned with Schwarzenegger and Willis and blood and cops who got the job done nevermind the rules. I remember the days when mainstream American cinema all looked to inspiration from Lethal Weapon.

But times have changed. The bloodthirsty heroes from my past are gone, just look at Die Hard 4.0. John McClane was neutered, not a swear word passed his lips and barely a brutal death scene was seen.

When things are this desperate, you need someone special. Someone built for war. A weapon.

You need Rambo.

Let's get this out of the way: being honest, the film isn't great. Sketched characters, flimsy plot, villain wasn't great. But I haven't seen a film like this in my life.

A bold statement perhaps. The immediate comparison is the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. We're talking heads flying off, guts spilled out, arms lopped off violence. Nothing is as violent as this film. Nothing.

Let's go back to Commando. Remember the end? When Arnie stood there and mowed down a South American army with one gun? And remember the soldiers would kind of stand there and shake and fall down?

This film is that sequence but done properly. I have not experienced anything as visceral and astoundingly insanely violent as this film.

Plot? Who cares? It's all an excuse for people to be lined up in front and Rambo to get brutally murdered. Stallone is great, a hulking presence, a foreboding presence. You see him and you just know people are going to get fucked up.

And they do.

In a word? Glorious.

Film review: Juno

Before we begin, learned colleagues, an apology for the backlog. Several film reviews will now come flying at you like Cleopatra. Sorry for the delay.

Juno @ IMDB

Okay. The main thing to wrap your head around is this:

This is a film about teenage pregnancy that was a smash hit in America.

Several things there don't make sense. The issues touched upon in this film usually gets people out with their placards and wearing their protest trousers.

But no. This was a genuine smash hit that ended up being (when I saw it) Oscar nominated. Why is this?

Great script. Plain and simple.

You've got your lady teenager and your boy teenager and they get it on and she gets pregnant and then she finds a couple to adopt her baby and off you go.

Simple idea, great characters, great dialogue, good performances. Simple as that. You could break it down and everything but there's no need: it's a great film. Highlights:

1) Ellen Page. The film hinges on her performance, an annoying person here would bring everything down. But she isn't and she doesn't.

2) J K Simmons, tired of stealing Spider-Man films, moves to the indy circuit.

3) Great soundtrack.

It deserves all of it's plaudits. Well done all round.

In a word? Great.

Never mind The Game Plan, this is what he does best