Every year, I check out the various movie web sites and check out the best movies to come out during the year. I am a bit late this year but here is the list. It is ordered in chronological order (release date) wherever its released 1st – either UK or US:

Armored – 22 January (UK), 4 December 2009 (US)
Youth In Revolt – 5 February (UK), 8 January (US)
Up In The Air – 15 January (UK)
The Book of Eli – 15 January (UK)
Legion – 5 March (UK), 22 January (US)
When In Rome – 11 June (UK), 29 January (US)
Edge of Darkness – 29 January (UK/US)
Valentine’s Day – 12 February (UK/US)
Takers – 26 March (UK), 26 February (US)
Alice in Wonderland – 5 March
She’s Out Of My League – 23rd April (UK), 12 March (US)
Green Zone – 12 March (UK/US)
I Love You, Philip Morris – 17 March (UK), 26 March (US)
Bounty Hunter – 19 March (US), 16 April (UK)
How To Train Your Dragon – 26 March (US), 31 March (UK)
Hot Tub Time Machine – 26 March (US)
Date Night – 9 April (UK/US)
The Losers – 9 April (UK), 23 April (US)
A Couple of Dicks – 16 April (UK)
Iron Man 2 – 30 April (UK), 7 May (US)
Kick-Ass – 2 April (UK), 16 April (US)
The Losers – 16 April (UK), 9 April (US)
Prince of Persia – 21 May (UK), 28 May (US)
Shrek Forever After – 2 July (UK), 21 May (US)
Five Killers – 4 June (UK)
Get Him To Greek – 4 June (US)
The A Team – 30 July (UK), 11 June (US)
The Karate Kid – 16 July (UK), 11 June (US)
Get Him To The Greek – 11 June (UK/US)
Jonah Hex – 18 June (US)
Toy Story 3 – 23 July (UK), 18 June (US)
Grown Ups – 16 July (UK), 25 June (US)
Knight & Day – 2 July (UK/US)
Predators – 7 July (US)
Despicable Me 3D – 15 October (UK), 9 July (US)
Inception – 13 August (UK), 16 July (US)
Salt – 20 August (UK), 23 July (US)
Morning Glory – 10 September (UK), 30 July (US)
The Expendables – 20 August (UK), 13 August (US)
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World – 27 August (UK), 13 August (US)
Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D – 14 January 2011 (UK), 27 August 2010 (US)
Priest – 17 September (UK), 1 October (US)
The Zookeeper – 15 October (UK), 8 October (US)
Megamind – 3 December (UK), 5 November (US)
Unstoppable – 12 November (UK/US)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I – 19 November (UK/US)
Yogi Bear 3D – 17 December (UK/US)
The Green Hornet – 29 December (UK), 22 December (US)

Well I went to see Avatar yesterday. I was expecting it to be absolutely brilliant. Some people have said its the best movie they have ever seen. I havent heard any negative review of it so had high expectations!!

(Before you read on, if you have not seen this movie you may want to stop reading as there are some minor spoilers. Kind of…)

Too predictable

First of all I have to say that the movie was good, just not brilliant. The special effects were fantastic, the scenary and the whole Pandora world was AMAZING. However, it was just a bit too predictable. You could easily work out early on in the movie what was going to happen, who was going to die etc. The 2 “bad guys” are very stereotypical. The man in the suit who only cares about the money, and then hard guy who just wants to blow stuff up and has some sort of scar. Also, its very long at just over 160 minutes. It could easier have been cut down a fair bit.

Heard the story before??

Having a look online to see if I could read some “negative” reviews – maybe it was just me who didnt like it. However, I
found several reviews from people who didnt think it was overall brilliant. It is not just me who things its predictable and in some cases very very similar to other movies. First there is its similarity to Pocahontas. Someone has changed the synopsis of Pocahontas, amended in most cases just the name and suddenly its the synopsis of Avatar!!

Also, there is a Russian sci-fi noval  from the mid 60s which has things very similar. The novel is set on a planet called Pandora – same as in Avatar. Both the novel and movie take place in the 22nd century. The people who live on Pandora also have similar names. In Avatar they are called Na’vi, in the novel they are Nave.

3D movies – the future??

Anyway, like I said Avatar is still a good movie. Its a shame it has its faults. I would still recommend seeing it as its one of those movies you just have to see – if anything just so you know what other people are talking about! If you do go
and see it, go a see the 3D version to get the most of the special effects and all the 3D “ness”. If you wear glasses like me you will find the 3D glasses may not sit quite right. It wasnt as bad when watching Toy Story as it was a much shorter movie. Personally I dont think 3D is “the future of cinema” in any way but it has its uses. Still, like I said if you do watch this movie you might as well watch the 3D version on the big screen. You can watch the 2D version another time

Anyway, thats my opinion and I am sure many of you will think I am mad or an idiot!

PS – I had a thought about the main character Jake and how he lost the use of his legs when in combat. With 22nd technology they said he could get the use of his legs again but it was a matter of money and he couldnt afford it. (Still in the 22nd century not looking after the troops!!). Surely, the government could have paid for him to sort his legs out. It would have made his mission on Pandora easier!

PPS – The mineral which is so valuable is called Unobtainium. What a stupid name!! Wonder how long it took them to think of that! (Actually, done some research and the term unobtainium has been used since 50s be engineers to describe unusual or costly material. Still a stupid name! With $500m spent, surely a new better original cool name cool have been thought of.)

PPPS – Not actually about the movie but just read article about its main star Sam Worthington. He has admitted he is short-sighted and struggles to see on daily basis. He says when he squints people thing hes angry but its just because he cant see. He also said he “gets distracted by anything on set”. WTF?!?! Why doesnt he wear glasses or contacts?? Surely he was kidding?!?

I went to see X Men Origins: Wolverine at the weekend. It was my friends birthday and we all went to Liverpool One. Before the movie we went Las Iguanas and most of us had an Argentinian beef burger. It wasnt the best in the world – it was abit lumpy and “gristley”.

Afterwards, we headed to the cinema. I was really looking forward to it even though the reviews had only been “OK”. Empire magazine and Total Film rated it at about 3 out of 5.

It turned out to be an “OK” movie. Good special effects etc but I found it too slow in bits. I know the film is called “Origins”  but it spent too long with the build up story and stuff like finding out how Wolverine got his jacket etc.

As it seems to be the case for many Marvel movies nowadays there was a scene after all the credits. What made it different for Wolverine was that there is apparently 2 different post-credit endings. You can read about the endings here. (Dont read it unless you have seen the movie and you couldnt be bothered to stay all the way to the end).

After the movie, we strolled round the shop and had a coffee (or in my case a cup of tea). For the evening meal we were planning to go to Yee Rah but it was fully booked and we would have had to wait over an hour.

We ended up going to a nearby Thai restaurant (cant remember name). It was all very nice and we all ate too much. We all ended up going with the set menu. I had the one which had soup, a platter, rice, bean sprouts, 3 main dishes (green curry prawn, sweet sour chicke, beef and chilli), dessert and tea. I was stuffed!

We all headed home after this and travelled back to Manchester. I very enjoyable day!

I enjoy watching movie trailers and have seen many recently. I have drawn up a list (like I have for the past few years) on the movies coming out in 2009 which I plan to check out.

Here is the list in release date chronological order:

Role Models -  7 November 2008 (US), 9 January (UK)
Bolt – 21 November 2008 (US), 6 February 2009 (UK) (DVD premiere – 24 March)
Slumdog Millionaire – 9 January (UK), 23 January (US)
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – 23 January (UK/US)
Hes Just not that into you – 6 February
Push – 6 February (US), 20 February (UK)
Fanboys – 6 February 2009 (US – limited) (13 Feb – Iceland)
Watchmen – 6 March (UK/US)
Race to Witch Mountain – 13 March (US), 10 April (UK)
The International – 13 February (US), 27 February (UK)
Assassination Of A High School President – 27 February 2009 (US – limited)
Miss March. US – 13 March . UK – 12 June
Duplicity – 20 March (UK/US)
I Love You, Man – 20 March (US), 17 April (UK)
Knowing – 27 March (UK), 20 March (US)
12 Rounds – 27 March (US, 27 May (US)
Monsters vs. Aliens – 27 March (US), 3 April (UK)
Adventureland – 3 April (US), 11th September (UK)
Fast & Furious – 3 April (US), 10 April (UK)
Dragonball: Evolution – 8 April 2009 (US)
Crank 2: High Voltage – 17 April 2009 (US/UK)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine – 1 May (US)
Star Trek – 8 May (UK/US)
Angels & Demons – 15 May 2009 (UK/US)
Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian – 22 May (US)
Terminator Salvation – 22 May (US), 5 June (UK)
Up – 29 May (US), 16 October (UK)
The Hangover. US – 5 June. UK – 31 July
Land of the lost – 5 June (US), 31 July (UK)
Looking For Eric – 12 June (UK)
The Proposal. US – 19 June. 7 August 2009
Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen – 26 June (UK/US)
The Taking Of Pelham 123 – 12 June (US), 7 August (UK)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – 1 July (US), 3 July (UK)
I Love You, Beth Cooper – 10th July (US), 21st August (UK)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – 17 July
G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra – 7 August (US), 14 Aug (UK)
District 9 – 14th August (US), 4th September (UK)
Mardi Gras – 28 August (US), 25 September (UK)
Sorority Row – 9th September (US), 11th September (UK)
Jennifer’s Body – 18 September (US), 6 November (UK)
Love Happens – 18 September (US), 9 Oct (UK)
Surrogates – 25 September (US), 30 October (UK)
Couples Retreat – 9th October (US), 16th October (UK)
The Box – 6 November (US), 13 November (UK)
2012 – 13 November 2009
Avatar – 18 December 2009 (US)

The A-Team – (2010)

I went to see The Dark Knight at the weekend with some of my ex-workmates. First of all the movie is VERY good! I was really looking forward to seeing the movie as it had some excellent reviews. According to IMDB it is the no.1 movie ….. EVER. The average rating on IMDB right now is 9.3 out of 10.

I had read a couple reviews and pretty much all of them were given a top rating (since then I have read one review of 2 out of 5 – I think he was just in a bad mood when he watched it!!).

I really enjoyed Batman Begins so was expecting big things from The Dark Knight. It had everything. The stand out performance though is most certainly Heath Ledger as the Joker. He is fantastic. Its a truly menacing performance. AMAZING!!! Hes also not one of those “bad guys” who threatens to do something but doesnt end up doing so. He really does end up blowing a hospital up. Hes funny aswell with several laugh out moments. One of the ones I remember is the pencil vanishing trick. LOL

The special effects were great too … its always good to see the awesome batmobile (which is more like a tank!). I am trying not to spoil any of it for people who have not seen it yet but just to say the make-up/prosthetics are great … rather gruesome. (In some way surprised it was a 12A and not a 15).

The movie is quite long so be warned. Its about 2 and a half hours so including adverts and trailers your going to be in the cinema for almost 3 hours so go to the toilet first!! At one point in the movie it seems to be getting towards the end but then theres another 45 minutes!!!! Like I said its a very good movie but without Health Ledger it would just be a good action movie. (Almost Christian Bale’s batman voice is really annoying).

Rating: 8.75/10

Had a great lovely weekend. For a start the weather has been brilliant – very sunny and hot. (As usual the back of my neck has been tanned a lot). On Saturday I went to Tatton Park with a few friends. The park was quite busy – there was some flower show on and also with the weather being so nice lots of people in the park. We played abit of football, badminton and frisbee. In the evening I met up with some of the ex-workmates. We went to watch The Dark Knight which I was really looking forward to (review coming soon). It was brilliant!!! We then went for a nice meal at Wagamamas and a drink at Kro Picadilly. It was really good to catch up.

On Sunday I went to a friends house party. Lots of lovely food and great company. I will be uploading photos at some point soon on Facebook. It was very sunny and her garden had no shade so lots of people taking shelter under various umbrellas and tents. Also got the briefly catch up with some people I met in Shanghai a couple years ago – its a small world!

A few of us took shelter inside and somehow ended up watching High School Musical!!! I know!!!! My friend’s kids are big fans of High School Musical so one of the DVDs was playing on the TV. We wondered what was so good about it so she put Part 1 on. My word its sooooo cheesy.  Musicals are bad enough most of the time bursting into song but this was super cheesy – american cheese. There was no doubt that it was an American movie. When they were singing, it was such bad mimeing and the acting was laughable. Actually the movie was quite funny … unintentionally!

Later on in the afternoon/evening I went to a family party, also in Bolton. It was a good to see family and catch up (including a small game of garden 10 pin bowling). I got back home abit past 8 and watched the rest of Top Gear.

I went to see Wall E on Wednesday. I had heard very good things about it and some reviews saying it was the best animated movie EVER. Even Toy Story!!

It was a good movie but just not “amazing”. It was very very funny and laugh out loud and was more cute if anything. It was a bit sad in a way, this robot being pretty much completely alone for hundreds of years.

It has many funny moments and one thing which was amusing was that it showed that in a few hundred years humans will be all fat and stupid! LOL

Rating: 8/10

I went to see Hancock yesterday starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron. I had heard good reviews so was looking forward to it. Also almost any movie with Will Smith is good – apart from Wild Wild West.

Hancock was about a superhero with a different – hes always drunk and doesnt really want to help people. By “saving” people he actually ends up causing more damage himself!! After causing chaos saving Jason Bateman’s character from a train a warrant is out for his arrest so he ends up going to prison. This is all the idea of Jason Bateman’s character who is a PR man. Anyway, I think if you have seen the trailers and properly can guess he ends up being “good” and the movie becomes more of the tradition super-hero movie. There is a twist in the movie which I “guessed” – it may have been in a trailer or a photo I had seen that gave it away.

Overall, a good movie. Some funny moments. Will Smith as always was great, Jason Bateman’s gave a good comedic performance and Charlize Theron was good also – she also looked fantastic.

Rating: 7.5/10

Met up with some friends today and went to see Wanted. After watching the trailers I was looking forward to this movie. Also after the RUBBISH The Happening and slightly disappointing Indiana Jones 4 it was time for a good “blockbuster”.

It was a very good movie. I really enjoyed it. Lots of action, car chases, special effects were impressive. It was an 18 certificate movie so the fight scenes had that extra bit of “gore” and blood.

It was one of those action movies which had funny bits. Morgan Freeman and James McAvoy were great and Angelina Jolie was excellent. She looked particularly nice in the movie. Didnt used to see what everyone liked in her but recently think she looks great! I like a woman with some tattoos

Rating: 8.5/10

I went to see The Happening this afternoon and was rather disappointed. This was the 2nd movie I had seen of the “summer blockbusters” after watching Indiana Jones the other week. I also was abit disappointed with Indy 4 which wasnt that good – I suppose it wasnt ever going to be as good as the trilogy. I wont say one of the things which disappointed me about the storyline as it will ruin part of the plot for you.

Anyway, back to The Happening. I watched the trailers and it looks really exciting. I dont usually like “horror” movies but this wasnt a horror movie in the traditional sense. I also liked M. Night Shyamalan first big movie – Sixth Sense. This movie was abit rubbish really. Mark Wahlberg & Zooey Deschanel put in wooden performances. Wahlberg just doesnt do a convincing scientist teacher and Deschanel with her looking into the distance acting was almost laughable. Even with re-casting I think it would have still been rubbish. The movie started good with it getting all creepy and the woman about the stab herself with her chopstick hairstick things (which you may have seen in the trailers). The movie was quite funny in bits but I think it was un-intentional!!

Maybe after reading some poor reviews from now on I should avoid the movie! (After watching movies like Meet the Spartans).

Rating: 4/10