The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)

Director: Scott Derrikson
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connolly, Kathy Bates, Jaden Smith
Certificate: 12
Genre: Sci Fi
Awards: none

The Day The Earth Stood Still is a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. Klaatu (Reeves) is an alien that comes to earth in order to wipe out the human race. When he is shot by soldiers, scientist Helen Benson (Connolly) looks after him and helps him escape his imprisonment. Now she needs to persuade Klaatu that Humans can be good before it is destroyed, while eluding the US government.

There's nothing really that special about this film. There's not much to pick out except that Keanu Reeves makes a good alien and Jaden Smith is even more annoying than Dakota Fanning in War Of The Worlds - and that's saying something. The action is good but overall it's just bland with nothing interesting to say about it, like wholegrain pasta.

***Okay

The Day The Earth Stood Still Trailer

Eragon (2006)

Director: Stefan Fangmeier
Starring: Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich, Garrett Hedlund
Certificate: 12
Genre: Fantasy
Awards: None

If you pay attention to the plot of Eragon, you will find that it is very similar to Star Wars. A world is being ruled under an evil emperor (Malkovich), a boy (Speleers) comes across something the empire wants (In this case a dragon egg), The boy's family is killed by the empire as they try and find the thing they want, Boy then meets old man (Irons) who wants to stop the empire and believes the boy is the key, boy and old man decide to rescue a woman (Guillory) from the emperor's right hand man (Carlyle) with the help of the antihero, (Spoiler alert!) old Man dies and boy joins the resistance.

I really like the books that the film is based on, but it seems that the director did not make as good a job at explaining the story as the author.  The dialogue is cheesy at times and the dragon doesn't seem to have much of a personality. Apart from Jeremy Irons and Robert Carlyle - who are as brilliant as ever - the actors are mediocre at best. It's definitely no Lord Of The Rings.

***Okay

Eragon Trailer

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011)

Director: Guy Richie
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Noomi Rapace
Certificate: 12
Genre: Mystery, action, Crime
Awards: None

Sherlock Holmes (Downey Jr.) returns to the big screen in this sequel to the 2009 film.  This time Holmes and Watson (Law) have to battle the fiendish professor Moriarty (Harris) - Sherlock's even in every way. The film is a lot bigger than the original with all the different scenes and fights.

The chemistry between the two main characters is as good as it was in the first film, and all of the new characters are interesting enough. Guy Richie's uses his trademark style of slow-motion and then speedy up a lot in the film which gives it fast paced feel and the story is quite clever. The best thing about the film however is the battle of wits between Sherlock and his nemesis. If you've read the books then you know the end, but it's still fun to see how they get to that point.

****Good

Sherlock Holmes : A Game Of Shadows Trailer

Happy New year!

Happy new year everyone! To start the year off I'm going to review a new film in cinemas at the moment. I'm making some top 10 lists to put up as well. There a lot of big films coming out this year, such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobit: An unexpected journey, The Avengers, Prometheus, Jack The Giant Killer and Django Unchained. I'm planning to review all of these films when they come out along with some older films such as...

The Dark Knight - Check
28 Weeks Later - Check
Reservoir Dogs - Check
Citizen Kane
Sergio Leone's dollar trilogy - (One down)
Once Upon A Time In America
The Departed - Check
The Ice Age Trilogy - Check
Memento - Check

and loads more. Until Tuesday...