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Musings by me...

Musings by me...
This a basically just a collection of film reviews, book reviews and thoughts on web design by me. Updated a few times a week it is deffo worth a look...

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Test
2007-03-18 14:16:00
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Rocky Balboa
2007-03-18 11:55:00
Not bad at all and almost certainly the second best ‘Rock y’ out there. The story is pretty simple, one would expect for such a movie and there’d be nothing worse than trying to be over-complex with the subject matter. Basically, Rocky is pretty bummed in life, his son is annoyed with him for over-shadowing his own achievements, his wife Adrian has died and times are changing. Alas, when a computer-generated mock-up fight of current heavyweight champion, Mason ‘the Line’ Dixon, against The Italian Stallion, Rocky Balboa, is shown on television, demands amongst boxing fans ensue for an actual fight between the two. Rocky regains his fighting spirit and a determination to take up the opportunity, which leads to an unforgettable Rocky grand finale. A lot of the movie however, is surprisingly slow-paced. Not necessarily a bad thing though, it does allow for intriguing scenes of character depth, especially in Balboa himself, but don’t expect a fast, int...

The Hard Way by Lee Child
2007-03-16 16:06:00
I’m a big Lee Child fan. As far as I’m concerned, the tight-lipped, human arsenal Jack Reacher is the most compelling figure in contemporary escapist thriller fiction. So when I tell you that “The Hard Way” is the best novel of its kind to hit the shelves in the last few years, I’ll admit I’m biased. This is the tenth in the Reacher series, and it may be the best. In “Hard Way”, trouble finds Reacher innocently enough, sitting in a New York sidewalk cafe sipping an espresso. Events unwind, and soon our hero is locked-and-loaded in solving a kidnapping, thick as thieves with a team of mercenary thugs, contemporary soldiers of fortune with shady backgrounds led by former Special Forces colonel Edward Lane. Lee Child is at his best when spinning a good mystery for Reacher to solve, and nagging incongruities surrounding the kidnapping of Lane’s wife and daughter provide the perfect backdrop for Child to practice his craft. “The...

The Pursuit of Happyness
2007-03-16 15:57:00
For a film that deems itself uplifting, The Pursuit of Happiness is quite depressive. Most of the movie (”most” meaning not half but about 9/10 of it) deals with Chris Gardner’s (Will Smith) struggles with poverty, the raising of his son Christopher (Jaden Smith) and his tired wife (Thandie Newton). Chris’ pursuit gets very long and by the time we get to the end, the reward is not at all worth our wait. Besides, we knew it was coming. Chris longs to be a stockbroker. He marvels and the lifestyle that comes with it. He has no education above high school, he has one suit for special occasions and sells out-dated bone scanners to hospitals which do not want them. However, this is a true story, so instead of being improbable, the plot is feasible. What gets out of hand is the adversity Chris faces. Steve Conrad, the screenwriter, goes out of his way (really out of his way that is) to emphasize the fact that this guy had it tough. Don’t get me wrong, this is...
More About: Happy , Ness , Suit

The Prestige
2007-03-11 11:29:00
It’s always nice to see a director-actor duo collaborate in successive projects, especially when they can be removed from the massive studio work situation that surrounds a film like Batman Begins, which is where we find Nolan and Bale, filling in time between Bat films. A subsequent pairing allows the director and actor to further their relationship and speak in a kind of shorthand, bringing their collaboration to new heights. Think of Scorcese-DeNiro and Scorcese-DiCaprio, or Spike Lee-Denzel Washington for examples of this. The term relationship is key, as The Prestige centers around the relationships the characters have with each other and what is perceived as their connective tissue plays both within and beyond the film. The audience is placed in a very strategic position of both knower and seeker of knowledge, and like a good magic trick, it is what we perceive and expect that will equally guide us and trick us towards the final act, or what is referred to in magic circl...
More About: Rest , The Prestige

Snakes on a Plane
2007-03-11 11:20:00
I’ll just go ahead and state the obvious: If it weren’t for the title of this film, there would really be no compelling reason to see it. Sure, it’s intermittently entertaining, but in the end, it’s utterly forgettable. The movie aggressively attempts to let the audience know that the filmmakers are very much in on the joke. “Yes! We get it!” it seems to shout. “We know this is an extremely ridiculous concept for a movie! Please, join us in the amusement, won’t you?” Ultimately, the film suffers because of this. Too many half-assed attempts to inject humor into the script. Most of the jokes seem to have been “borrowed” from other movies (Suck the snake venom out of his butt?! Hilarious! That guffaw-inducing scenario just gets funnier every time it unfolds since its inception in one of the City Slickers movies about twenty years ago). The film would ultimately have been better served if the director had omitted about 7...
More About: Snakes , Snake , Lane , Plane , Plan

The Skin Gods by Richard Montanari
2007-03-10 11:14:00
Detective Kevin Byrne, of the Philadelphia Police Department, is still recovering from wounds. His leg is not what it should be, not what it was. He returns to very limited duty and his partner, Detective Jessica Balzano. A copy of “Psycho” has been found in a local video rental store. Spliced into the rental copy of the movie is a real life murder scene. The corpse start piling up quickly as a murderer seems intent on proving that life follows art. The killer stages scenes of famous movies as he strikes down one victim after another. The killer videotapes their handiwork and edits them into the namesake movies, leaving them at various video rental stores. Slowly, as the result of solid police work by Byrne and Balzano, a story of death emerges, its tentacles ensnaring in some way each of the victims. Throughout, we are led to believe that we are in the killer’s mind . . . or, more accurately, in the minds of killers because Montana ri deploys a powerful backstory i...
More About: Skin , God , Rich , Hard

Rope (1948)
2007-03-10 10:55:00
“Rope ” is one of Hitchcock’s most unfortunately overlooked films. It doesn’t have the depth of some of his other works (such as “Vertigo” or “Psycho”), but its just as engrossing and entertaining. Hitchcock could take such a seemingly simple premise and effectively stretch it out to a feature length and have none of it seem like filler. “Rope” is one of the most innovative film experiments of the decade, and it never feels gimmicky. Hitchcock, the master of suspense, is at the top of his game here. The film may be mostly nothing but dialog, but its always fascinating. The acting is very good, as usual when working with Hitchcock’s skilled direction. John Dall is absolutely spellbinding as one of cinema’s scariest villains, an intellectual whose disregard for human emotions and morals verges more on fascism than the sub-Nietschze philosophy he proclaims. James Stewart is also superb as the voice of reason through...

Ghost Rider
2007-03-07 00:19:00
There won’t be any Academy Awards for “Ghost Ride r,” and deservedly so. Great cinema it ain’t. It is fun stuff, though, and very much in the spirit of the Marvel comic book of the same name. Nicolas Cage works well in the role; his dead-pan humor is well suited to the role of motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze, and the scene in which he attempts to explain himself to his long-lost girlfriend is classic stuff, full of awkward pauses and an eyebrow put to good use. Granted, things get a little melodramatic from time to time, but that’s as it should be. This is, after all, a movie based on a comic book hero, and what superhero worth his heat-vision doesn’t indulge in a dose of the melodramatic every so often? It comes with the territory. Still, there’s a sense of humor at work here, something that didn’t play out well in the “X-Men” franchise and led to that abysmal third installation. There are a good number of laughs in &ldquo...
More About: Ghost Rider , Host , Rider

4th of July by James Patterson
2007-03-05 14:09:00
Usually when an author has a great series, an alternate series is lacking. Not so with James Patterson ’s Women’s Murder Club series - while it doesn’t rival his Alex Cross series it isn’t bad at all. Both are filled with action packed pages and characters to which the reader can relate. In 4TH OF JULY, Lindsay is accused of police brutality and excessive force, causing her to be put on administrative leave while the trial is on going. She is also recovering from being shot by these minors who were pursued for horrendous murders. Instead of staying in San Francisco and being hounded by the media, Lindsay house sits for her sister in a sleepy little seaside town called Half Moon Bay. Instead of resting and relaxing, she soon discovers a series of murders that don’t seem to have any connection except for the murderer’s signature. Lindsay plunges headfirst into helping the local law enforcement solve these murders, while preparing for her upcoming tri...
More About: July , Ames

The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari
2007-03-05 14:01:00
The Rosary Girl s introduces Philadelphia Police Homicide detective Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano. Byrne, the veteran, has a high rate of solved cases — that’s what he’s supposed to do, but as we quickly learn at the beginning of the novel, his methods are, uh, a bit old-school. In other words, he’s effective. There is, however, a price. Byrne isn’t broken, but he’s badly bent. He’s a seething mass of contradictions, all of which rub up against each other, hard and mean, with every move he makes. Naturally he’s partnered up with Balzano, the rookie who has an approach to things that is a bit gentler, though she is certainly capable of meeting force with force — she is, among other things, an amateur boxer in her spare time. The end result is that Balzano could not have a better teacher, and Byrne could not have a better partner. Balzano and Byrne have their hands full when a fiend begins a ritualistic murder spree, killing Catho...
More About: Rich , Montana , Hard

The Illusionist
2007-03-05 10:02:00
It only seemed a matter of time before the genre of magic, specifically in an era outside of our own, was seized by Hollywood hands with “The Illusion ist.” With CGI to make magic seem even more eerily believable, what audience doesn’t love magic? “Illiusionist” takes advantage of this fact, mesmerising the audience and intriguing them with the thought that the illusions might actually be possible. The problem is that the film sometimes lets this get in the way with the real human element of the film, the love story, which is supposed to be the most important part. Edward Norton’s character Eisenheim the Illusionist is merely a talented magician who after many years encounters his childhood sweetheart, Sophie (Jessica Biel), a girl of the upper class with which Eisenhiem is unfortunately is not affiliated. The problem is that Sophie is nearly engaged to the Crown Prince of Vienna (Rufus Sewell). The Crown Prince’s interest in magic reunites t...
More About: Sion