Paul Blart: Mall Cop brings Kevin James to the silver screen in a leading role for the first time. Sure he shared the credits with Adam Sandler in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, but this is his first time out there on his own. Not satisfied with the leading male role, he’s also gone for producer and writer as well!

For those that aren’t that aware of Kevin James, he started out his career as a stand up comedian and moved to TV sit coms from a few appearances in Everybody Loves Raymond to his own vehicle King of Queens. It was only a matter of time before he took a swing at Hollywood. His first role was quite a successful turn in Hitch as the hapless Albert Brennaman and the role of a chunky guy, hopeless with affairs of the heart is essentially the role that he’s repeating here.

Paul Blart is a chunky middle aged single father. He’s a security guard at a local mall, but has ambitions of becoming a state trooper. For the last eight years he’s taken the entrance exam and for the last eight years he’s failed the physical. Will this year be lucky number 9? Weeelllll……..No. Paul suffers from hypoglycemia and literally stumbles a few inches short of the finishing line after a stellar performance. It seems that Paul is destined to shepherd people around shops in a dead end job.

Dead end it may be, but Paul approaches his job with diligence and a seriousness that his fellow colleagues don’t share, they’re essentially clock punchers, while Paul genuinely feels he has a duty to maintain order within the mall.

On a day like any other in the mall Paul comes across Amy (Jayma Mays) for the first time. She’s just opened a hair extension stand in the mall and it’s love at first site (for Paul that is). Reasonably successful initial flirting is followed by a disastrous bar incident that leaves Paul thinking he stands no chance with Amy at all. What he doesn’t reckon on, is the mall being taken over by an armed bunch of X-gamer bandits and Amy being taken hostage. Paul is the only other person left free in the mall. He’s the only man who can foil the crime and rescue the girl. Is he man enough for the task? Will his sugar levels hold out? Watch and find out.

Financially Paul Blart was a cinematic success with a worldwide gross of nearly $183 million from a $26 million budget. Critically it was pretty universally panned and I really can’t see why. No, there’s not too much depth here and as a comedy it won’t have you rolling in the aisles, but I thought it was pretty entertaining and definitely had enough funny moments to make it a decent comedy. Kevin James made the character of Paul Blart slightly too much of a sad case for me (I think he could’ve still generated the sympathy for the character without making him quite as pathetic as he is), but this is a small issue and easily forgotten. The rest of the cast are pretty good Jayma Mays seems to have ‘extremely cute girl’ roles pretty much nailed. If there’s a role that requires a girl to be extremely cute it’s pretty much a straight fight between her and Amy Adams. There are a few other faces in there that you’ll recognize (a happy Madison regular in Erick Avari amongst others) and the X-gamer bandits (BMX riders, skateboarders and free runners) are all real sportsmen and women, not actors at all, which I only found out during the extras, so they can’t have done that bad a job (they did have very limited lines though, most of the time they were doing what they do best chasing Paul around the mall).

The picture quality of this Blu Ray version was pretty damn good. Presented in 1.85:1 MPRG-4 1080p that is clear with good whites, blacks and colours, very little grain and no real digital artifacts to mention it’s pretty much as good as you could hope for for a comedy. We’re also treated to a full Dolby True HD soundtrack which holds its own as well. In a pretty empty mall there isn’t really that much call for a booming soundtrack so I can’t really say that it’ll rock your house or push an HD surround setup to its fullest but it does its job well and the audio is always crisp and clear (always vital in comedies lest you miss the jokes).

The extras on this disc are pretty much the usual fare. There’re the now obligatory deleted scenes (and you can generally see why they hit the cutting room floor), the commentary with Kevin James and Todd Garner and a whole load of featurettes that cover the stuntwork done by the X-gamers.

If you’re in the mood for some light hearted, easy to follow, won’t tax your brain too much, feel good comedy then look no further. Worth a watch in my opinion.

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Paul Blart: Mall Cop Blu Ray Review

It’s difficult to put a genre to Alex Proyas latest film ‘Knowing’. Disaster movie, drams, thriller, science fiction, they’re all in there somewhere, what it certainly is, is different.

In 1959 a class of young children are asked to come up with an idea to mark the opening of their new school. One girl, Lucinda, a bit of a loner, comes up with the winning idea, to bury a time capsule containing pictures drawn by them of what they think the world will look like in 50 years time. The children paint the expected pictures of rockets and robots. All except for Lucinda. Lucinda hears whispering voices in her head and they tell her to write down a massive sequence of numbers. She frantically writes but runs out of time just short of the final few numbers. The teacher is surprised by Lucinda’s contribution but includes it in the capsule anyway. Later that day, after the capsule has been buried, Lucinda goes missing. A search party is raised and the grounds of the school are thoroughly searched. The teacher finds Lucinda in a cupboard under the stairs having frantically scratched the final numbers into the door with her fingers until they bled.

Shoot forwards 50 years and John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) is a professor of astrophysics at MIT. He’s a widower, with a young son, who lost his wife recently in a hotel fire. His son, Caleb, attends the same school where the time capsule was buried and the 50 year ceremony is about to take place. When the enveloped from inside the capsule are distributed amongst the present day children, Caleb gets Lucinda’s envelope. That night John absent-mindedly puts his glass of scotch (he drinks a bit too much in the evenings these days) down on the page of numbers. Glancing at the numbers contained within the glass ring he notices a sequence that piques his interest (91120012996). Being an astrophysicist he sees the numbers as a puzzle to be solved. Pretty quickly he manages to break the numbers down into a date, 09/11/01, the date of the 9/11 terror strike in New York. After googling 9/11 he also finds out that there were 2996 deaths that day.

In a rather intense night for John he manages to find dates and numbers of deaths for pretty much every major disaster for the last 50 years, all predicted in this sheet of numbers. Not all of the numbers form the date and number of dead though, some don’t seem to mean anything at all. John tries to convince a colleague of what he’s found and while he thinks it’s a bit creepy he’s not totally convinced. John then tells him that not all of the events are in the past. One string of numbers says that 81 deaths will occur somewhere the following day. Come the next day and John is stuck in a traffic jam, in a storm, going to pick his son up from school. Glancing at his sat nav he notices a sequence of numbers that describe his longitude and latitude. He then realises that the unexplained numbers on the sheet are in fact the location of the disaster. Looking at the location for today’s predicted event he notices that it’s at the exact same location that he’s currently at! While up ahead there’s been an accident  up ahead it isn’t bad enough for 81 deaths. Just then a passenger plane comes hurtling out of the sky having been struck by lightening, narrowly missing John and crashing in the next field. Sure enough, 81 people died in the crash.

Scientist that he is John has to try and find an explanation for these numbers and why they came to be in his possession. He tries to track down Lucinda, only to find she died of a drugs overdose a few years before. The next best thing is her daughter, Diana. Initially Diana wants nothing to do with John, telling him that her mother told her that she heard voices and that they told her terrible things. It’s not something that Diana remembers fondly and wants to put behind her, and not expose her own daughter, Abby to either. In desperation John makes another prediction to Diana from her mothers numbers, that the following day 191 people would die in New York, but Diana refuses to listen.

John seems compelled to try and stop the upcoming event and so phones through a warning to the authorities. On the news was a threat of a bomb in New York, so John assumes that’s the event and that it’ll happen at the location predicted. Just in case the authorities don’t act he heads to New York anyway, only to find that his tip off wasn’t acted upon and the local police think he’s a suspect and chase him into the subway, where the real event, a train crash happens with John too close for comfort.

When he returns home he finds Diana and Abby at his house waiting for him. They’d seen the news of the accident in New York and she’d realised that her Mother was telling the truth and wasn’t crazy. John then explains that the last sequence of numbers is incomplete, the location isn’t present. Diana also notices that what seem like the last numbers, 33, are in fact EE written backwards.

Things aren’t quite as straight forward as they seem however. This isn’t just a disaster movie, there’s something more sinister at work here. Strange men pull up to the house in a car and, without saying a word, give his son a black stone. It turns out that Caleb and Abby can both, from time to time, hear the whispering voices that Lucinda could. John needs to find out what’s behind all of this, why did he get the numbers if he can’t stop the events from happening? How is his son linked to all of this? John and Diana head to the remote portable trailer that was the last home of her mother. There, scratched into the bottom of her bed they find that EE actually stands for Everyone Else. The last sequence of numbers is actually predicting the end of the world! Is this the one that John is supposed to stop? What do the sinister silent men want with the children? I’m afraid I can’t say any more ‘cause that’d just give it all away.

I have to admit that from the trailers I’d seen for the film, I thought it was a pretty standard disaster flick with a bit of weirdness thrown in with the list of numbers. In actual fact there’s a lot more weirdness here than you at first think. At first it’s subtle, but throughout the film it gains pace until there’s a dark and sinister thread to the film that takes it into a different genre. Personally I found this quite refreshing, this isn’t the usual Hollywood fare offered up to us 9.9 times out of 10, this film dares to be different and while the ending has to be seen to be believed (and has been highly criticised) again, I admired it for its bravery.

There is a sombre tone to the film throughout. Nicolas Cage doesn’t play a happy man. A man that’s just become a single father through the death of his wife, it’s lead him to question everything he believed about how the universe works. The cast throughout are very good, I’m a bit of a fan of Mr Cage and while I can’t quite see him as an MIT astrophysicist, he pulls of the rest of the character rather well. Rose Byrne is also excellent as Diana, there’s quite a realistic interaction between her character and Cage’s, thankfully Alex Proyas kept it straight and didn’t try and introduce a romantic angle to their relationship, that wouldn’t have been right at all.

The cinematography is also quite dark throughout the film, there’s a real sense of foreboding that increases throughout the film as things start to become more sinister. The picture quality of the DVD is excellent upscaled on my 37” LCD and while for long stretches of the film the Dolby Digital 5.1 track has little to do but dialogue (which it does very well though), when it is called into action during the more intense scenes it does so with aplomb. There are a few nice surround effects in there as well, but again, they’re only during the action sequences which are few and far between.

Overall I thought it was well worth a watch. I can’t say that I came away from it with the usual Hollywood feel good feeling, but that’s part of it’s charm, it doesn’t take the usual Hollywood formula but instead decides to tread some new ground and good on it for trying. It’s flawed in a couple of areas, the significance of certain things doesn’t come across well and other things aren’t really explained, but I guess it just leaves you to use your own imagination and come up with those explanations yourself.

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Knowing, DVD Review

The wife really wanted to go see this when it had it’s cinema run but we just couldn’t get away (must start to complile list of babysitters!). Come to think of it, it doesn’t seem that long ago, but here we are at DVD release time already. Here’s the official press release:

DUPLICITY
STEALING $40 MILLION IS EASY.
TRUSTING EACH OTHER IS THE HARD PART.

Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich, Pretty Woman) is reunited with Clive Owen (Closer, Sin Ciy) in Duplicity, director Tony Gilroy’s (Michael Clayton, Bourne Identity) smart and sexy comedy, out to own on DVD and Blu-ray from 27th July 2009.

Set in the murky world of industrial espionage, Duplicity demonstrates that where money is everything and morality takes a backseat, it’s hard to determine who is playing who.

Former government spies-turned-corporate operatives and clandestine lovers, Ray Koval (Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Roberts), are working on opposing sides of an all out commercial war between corporate giants Equikrom and Burkett & Randle.

B&R boss Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) is rumoured to be about to announce the discovery of the latest innovation in the beauty industry; a drug so in demand that it would bring fortune to the company who patents it. On hearing this, ambitious Equikrom CEO Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti) is determined to crush his bitter rival by getting his hands on this formula first – by any means possible.

Embroiled in this corporate death match, Ray and Claire spot their chance to make a fortune and plot to secure the top secret formula themselves.

But the further they become entangled in their bosses’ Machiavellian plotting it becomes less and less clear exactly who is being played. As their mutual attraction threatens to interfere with their carefully laid plan, the trickiest part of the operation for Ray and Claire is to decide if they can trust each other.

As the plot twists and turns through the flashbacks in time and myriad of double and triple crossings, the one thing that becomes apparent is that in the high stake world of industrial espionage, nothing is what it seems.

Cast and Crew
- Claire Stenwick… Julia Roberts
- Ray Koval… Clive Owen
- Howard Tully…. Tom Wilkinson
- Richard Garsik… Paul Giamatti
- Director… Tony Gilroy
- Writer… Tony Gilroy

DVD Extras include
- Feature Commentary with
- Writer/Director Tony Gilroy and
- Editor/Co-Producer John Gilroy

Technical details
UK Certificate: 12
Ireland Certificate: 12
DVD RRP: £19.99
Blu-ray RRP: £24.99
Feature Run Time: 119mins
Subtitles: English, Arabic, Danish, Finnish,
Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish
DVD Sound mix: Dolby Digital 5.1
Blu-Ray Sound mix: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Colour: Colour
DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Blu-ray Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

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Duplicity News

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a film from an up and coming director starring up and coming young comedy stars. Peter Sollett puts in a credible stint directing Michael Cera and Kat Dennings in a rambling journey of discovery of two young teens across Manhattan in search of a secret gig.

Nick (Cera) is as mixed up as the next teenager. The fact that he’s recently been unceremoniously dumped just adds to his angst. In a bid to win back the woman he thinks he loves Nick composes a series of ‘mix CDs’ trying to convey his feelings. What Nick doesn’t realize is that his ex is such a callous b*?&h that she’s been binning the CDs.

Norah, another insecure teen has been retrieving said CDs and has marveled at their composure, whilst totally ignorant of the identity of the creator. The scene is therefore set for this little lot to come together in freakish coincidence. The place in question is at a gig for his high school band the Jerk-Offs. The rest of the band convince Nick to stop wallowing in self pity at his parents’ house and go play the gig. He does have an ulterior motive though, his favorite band ‘Where’s Fluffy’ (don’t know which is worse, the Jerk-Offs or Where’s Fluffy!) are playing a secret gig somewhere in Manhattan and Nick intends to find out where.

At his own gig Nick sees his ex, Tris, in the crowd with another guy and at the same time Norah is in the crowd with her eye on Nick. Norah, not knowing that Nick is Tris’s ex-boyfriend, asks him to be her boyfriend for five minutes to prove to Tris that she’s dating someone. When Norah kisses Nick Tris gets jealous. Norah’s friend Caroline then appears hideously drunk and needs taking home. Nick’s band mates offer, as they saw the kiss between Nick and Norah and think it might be healthy for Nick to spend some time with her. Nick and Norah then leave to find the elusive Where’s Fluffy gig while Nick’s friends manage to loose the paralytic Caroline. The rest of the film chronicles Nick and Norah’s quests across Manhattan to find the gig and also find Caroline. Whilst looking for these things will they also find love?

If you’re after a plot driven story that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat then look elsewhere. What we have here can be described with words such as ‘sweet’ and ‘nice’. It’s a romantic comedy for the youth of today. The plot ambles about a bit at times, but this film isn’t about the plot, it’s about the characters, it really doesn’t matter what the journey is, just that it happens and over the course of it they find each other after having both had bad relationship experiences.

Peter Sollett seems to have raided Judd Apatow’s gang of actors for the main roles here. Both Cena and Dennings put in subtle but endearing performances. There aren’t any onscreen fireworks between the two, but they manage to convey a connection that grows between them over the course of the night. In terms of a romantic comedy the onus is more on the romance than the comedy, but it does have its moments.

The picture on this 1080p Blu Ray is pretty good, if not reference standard. Detail is pretty strong throughout, whilst there is a bit of inconsistent grain. Blacks and contrast are pretty solid, which is good for a film shot entirely at night and the colour pallet, while a little limited, conveys a New York neon night quite well. For the sound we get a very nice Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track. This is a character driven film, not action driven, so dialogue presentation is all important and there are no problems here. The rears don’t get too much of a workout, but do convey the crowd noise of New York at night. This is a film that, other than the characters, is dominated by music and some excellent indie tracks appear throughout the film and sound pretty damn good.

We get a nice selection of extras on the UK Blu Ray as well. There’s an interesting commentary where the main protagonists (director and star actors) draw over the screen with marker pens to highlight what they’re saying. I found it quite interesting for about the first ten or fifteen minutes, but it got a bit annoying after that. Other than that there’s an interactive playlist that pops up little facts about the film now and again. There’s a 5 minute puppet version of the film voiced by Kat Dennings which is a bit weird, but all in good fun. There’s a short behind the scenes video diary which is probably worth a look and the usual deleted scenes footage.

All in all if you’re in a mellow mood and want a slow paced, character driven story about two lonely souls that find each other then you could do much worse than to put this in your Blu Ray player.

Film:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Video:	★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Audio:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Overall:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Blu Ray Review

Synopsis

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, “Terminator Salvation” stars Christian Bale as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

The latest installment of “The Terminator” film franchise, “Terminator Salvation” is directed by McG, from a screenplay by Michael Ferris and John Brancato. The film is produced by Moritz Borman, Derek Anderson, Victor Kubicek and Jeffrey Silver, and executive produced by Peter D. Graves, Bahman Naraghi, Mario F. Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna, Joel B. Michaels, Dan Lin and Jeanne Allgood.

The film also stars Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Brewster, Moon Bloodgood as Blair Williams, Helena Bonham Carter as Serena Kogen, Common as Barnes, and Jadagrace as Star. The Halcyon Company Presentation of a Moritz Borman Production of a McG Film, “Terminator Salvation” is being distributed in North America by Warner Bros. Pictures, with Sony Pictures Releasing International handling distribution in most international territories (excluding Korea and select Mideast territories).

TERMINATOR SALVATION will be released by Sony Pictures Releasing UK on June 3rd 2009

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Terminator Salvation News

I’m 35 now, you’d think I’d have learned! When Star Wars Episode I came out I remember combing the interenet for every scrap of infomation out there. In the end it pretty much ruined the film for me as I already knew so much going in, all the surprises were gone (it wasn’t that great a film anyway, but my advanced knowledge ruined it even more).

Anyway back to Star Trek. This franchise re-boot is definitely a steo in the right direction, the pacing was very good, it wasn’t break neck speed all the way through, there were peaks and troughs. There was good character development and some nice humourous touches for those with a lot of Star Trek knowledge. The actors madea  pretty good show of it as well. i have to admit when I saw the list I was a bit unsure of a couple of them. Zachary Quinto I cuold immediately see was a good pick for Spock and Simon Pegg would handle the comedy provided by Scotty with his usual aplomb. Chris Pine as Kirk was a bit of a stretch seeing as I’d only previously seen him in The Princess Diaries 2, but I was willing to go with it. John Cho as Sulu could work and I knew nothing about Anton Yelchin, so that could all be good as well. My biggest doubt, and he turned out to give the best chaacter performance in my opinion, was Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy. After seeing him rampaging thorugh middle earth as Eomer in Lord of the Rings it was difficult to see him as the grumpy, scrawny Leonard McCoy. In the end his delivery was spot on and believing this guy to be a younger version of the character we all know and love was no leap at all.

The leap had to be made on the plot. BEWARE, there may be spoilers ahead………….only read on if you’ve either already seen the film or are not bothered about doing so. Now I can see the advantage in re-booting the franchise in such a way as to change the timeline, giving you extra scope to do different things in the future rather than having to stick to the events already set down in the Star Trek universe that we know up until this point. Time travel plots generally mess with people’s heads and it’s no different here, although personally I have no problem with it. The only real problem I have is they went one paradox too far.

For them to alter events from the time of Kirk at the academy forwards is fine, but in having the Romulan vessel go back to the day of Kirk’s birth and change the circumstances of his childhood was a little bit too much for me. All of the other characters, up until the timeline changing event that forms the main body of the film, grew up in the same manner as they always had. Their inherant character, formed during childhood would therefore still be the same, the character’s essences would be the same. Kirk on the other hand grew up in totally different circumstances from his birth. His father who would’ve influenced his character to a pretty large degree, was no longer there. The Kirk we therefore now have is possibly a totally different person to the one we grew up with.

Is this taking it all a bit too seriously? Probably. Am I loosing sleep over this? No. At the end of the day it’s a piece of entertainment and I think the general message of the film was that although he grew up in different circumstances he still ends up becoming a hero, ready to lead the Enterprise into any tricky situation that arises. I can see however that some of the real Trekies out there will not be happy with the changes that have been made (these are the guys and gals that have had their ears surgically altered so they can look like Vulcans etc.). What us more moderate fans get is the promise of more action/sci-fi to come. On balance I hope J.J. Abrams stays on to take the Enterprise out for another spin around the galaxy.

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Kirk’s Movie Blogspot May 27th

Terminator 3 continues the story of John Connor and his battle against the time travelling machines and against his destiny. It’s also a bit of a divergence for the franchise in a couple of ways. Firstly the director, Jonathan Mostow has the unenviable task of stepping into James Cameron’s shoes. Secondly we have a female terminator, thirdly it’s the first terminator film not to feature Sarah Connor and fourthly it’s not trying to be a film by itself, but is trying to set the scene for the battle against skynet in the future.

Time has moved on. John Connor is now in his early 20s. The date that his father said was judgement day has come and gone, but still he’s not at ease. It turns out that judgement day hasn’t been stopped by the antics of Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, only postponed. Terminators still exist in the future and so does time travel. This time a female terminator, dubbed the T-X (terminatrix), has been sent back in time. Her mission is to ideally kill John Connor. Since he’s dropped off the electronic grid and can’t be found, the T-X has secondary targets, John Connor’s lieutenants in the future. As in the second film a T-800 terminator is sent back in time as protector for John. Arnold is back!

After a minor motorcycle accident John is looking for medication but doesn’t want to go to a hospital where ID will be required. In the middle of the night he breaks into a veterinary practice and manages to patch himself up. Coincidentally this is the practice that Kate Brewster works at. Kate and John went to school together before the events of Terminator 2 took place. Kate is also on the list of the T-X’s secondary targets as she’s John’s future second in command (and wife).

When Kate is called in for a late night cat emergency, she finds and captures John. Before she has the chance to alert the authorities she hears a crash and a gunshot, the T-X has arrived. Whilst trying to kill Kate the T-X finds, and identifies John Connor’s blood (seems the new models have DNA analysers built into their tongues). Her primary target now found, her mission is now to kill John. Just in the nick of time the T-800 arrives to save John and Kate and they go on the run. Can they evade or eventually kill the T-X? Can they postpone judgement day yet again? These are the key questions in T-3.

In terms of the cast Arnold reprises his iconic portrayal of a killer robot from the future. I read somewhere that he undertook a punishing fitness regime to get back in the kind of shape he was in back in the day and it certainly worked. Edward Furlong is replaced by Nick Stahl as John Connor, Claire Danes plays Kate Brewster and Kristanna Loken plays the T-X. There’s no room for Linda Hamilton here, they’ve killed her off in between movies.

The story has moved on in time, but not really in terms of formula. Two beings come back from the future. One to kill, the other to protect. Initially it’s a race to acquire the target, then a chase film from then on in whilst the main characters try to find a way to kill the seemingly invincible terminator. In those respects this film doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, it’s pretty much by the book and we’ve seen it all before. I’m aware that a lot of people didn’t really like the 3rd Terminator film. In my own opinion, if you consider it as an action film then it’s a damn good one. If you look at it as part of the franchise then it’s definitely the weakest of the three. Whilst Kristanna Loken does a good job as the T-X, she’s just not as menacing as either Arnold in the first film, or Robert Patrick in the second and other than that it follows the formula of the first two too much.

It’s not until the last act that it starts to digress from that formula and get a bit interesting and for me it makes the whole film worthwhile. It sets the franchise up for the next couple of films about the battle against the machines in the future, one that John Connor is destined to lead. That’s the film I’ve wanted to see since I first saw the flashback sequences from the first film. The ending of this film raises some mouth watering possibilities.

The Blu Ray release of Terminator 3 is a great advert for the format. Both picture and sound are up there with other reference disks. If you want to showcase your setup this could well be among the disks you put on to show off to your mates. Picture is very clear and crisp. The picture is a very good 1080p 2.40:1 widescreen presentation. Colours are great, as is detail and contrast. For the audio we have a Dolby TrueHD track that is better than anything the release has had before. Now this is the type of film that will benefit from a full surround sound system and if you have an HD surround sound system you’re in for a real treat.

The extras have all made it across from the HD DVD release a few years ago, which is nice. We get a very nice picture-in-picture commentary with the director with a few of the stars popping up now and then. Personally I’m not a huge fan of commentaries, but having it as picture-in-picture really worked for me, as well as hearing the extra material you can see some behind the scenes footage at the same time. As well as this pip commentary you also get three other non-visual commentaries, a documentary, and a couple of other smaller features that look at the terminator outfits, toys and video game. There’s also one deleted scene and a pretty out of place blooper reel.

If you’re a fan of the Terminator franchise then this is the best the film has looked and sounded. Yes, it’s not quite as good as its predecessors, but it’s still a damn good action film with some great action sequences. The best thing the film does though is set the franchise up for the next film, and that’s the film that fans, and myself, have been awaiting for a very long time.

 

Film:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Video:	★★★★★★★★★☆
Audio:	★★★★★★★★★☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Overall:	★★★★★★★★☆☆

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Terminator 3, Blu Ray Review

With some film titles you never really know quite what you’re getting. Bride Wars is not one of those films, it does exactly what it says on the tin! As such, all men out there should know they’re deep in ‘chick flick’ territory here. Not only is it a chick flick, it’s a chick flick for chicks obsessed with weddings!

Liv (Kate Hudson) and Emma (Anne Hathaway) have been friends since they were little girls. They both witnessed a wedding in June at the Plaza hotel in New York that left a lasting impression. Since that day both have been obsessed with living out this fantasy, they’re both just waiting for the right guy to pop the question.

With an amazing coincidence (it is a film after all) both girls get proposed to by their respective boyfriends within a coupe of days of each other. After heading to the best wedding planner in New York they find that there are three slots on two dates left in the Plaza in June. Liv takes one date and Emma the other and everything seems to be going swimmingly. It’d be a very boring film if this were the case though, and sure enough a clerical error means that both girls are booked into the two slots on the same day. Nightmare!

Rather than be reasonable about this and come to some kind of agreement, or even have a dual wedding, things start to get nasty between the lifelong friends when they both stubbornly refuse to move their date. Things escalate from harsh words to practical pranks with spray-on-tan and hair dye. Will this date come between them? Will either of them end up making it down the isle alive? If you’re a die-hard chick flick fan then delve in and find out.

I can’t really say this is a romantic comedy. It’s all about weddings so you’d think that’d be the case but a romantic comedy needs to have two people in love. What we have here are two friends who have partners that we’re barely introduced to. The men in this film don’t just get a backseat, they’d be lucky to get that, they’re positively squashed into the car boot as an afterthought. The whole film revolves around Liv and Emma. With Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway in starring roles you wouldn’t think that was a bad thing and indeed their performances are pretty good. The material they’re given however, doesn’t live up to their acting and comedic abilities. Things start out OK, their relationship starts to sour nicely, the witty banter flies. Unfortunately the viewer can see that there are several reasonable options open to both of them to resolve the situation. Their refusal to consider any of them makes you loose sympathy for either of them. As their antics descend into childish, and quite nasty pranks, you actually start to actively dislike them.

We all know that things can’t end that way though and sure enough, there’s an about-turn in the final chapter that gives us the sickly-sweet ending required of a good chick flick. The writers did leave in an option for a sequel as well and I’m not actually sure whether I want to see the option realized or not. I don’t mind a chick flick from time to time. This one however left me a bit cold. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that there were no decent male characters that I could empathize with. Having been married, and listened to my (now) wife banging on about wedding arrangements for what seemed like months, the idea of watching a film where this is two-fold just does not appeal. My wife on the other hand (just to give you a female perspective) quite liked the film, but even she thought the central premise was just unreasonable, even if she did like the comedic antics that followed. The scores below will be from my perspective, for the female readers however, my wife would’ve scored the main movie as a 7.

The video and audio on this Blu Ray are both well above par. Video-wise we’re treated to a very nice 1.85:1, MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p encode and audio-wise we get a 5.1 DTS-HD track that can get quite lively during the more active sequences and retains good, clear dialogue throughout. Extras are the usual fare, deleted scenes, alternative opening, behind the scenes featurettes etc. The most original Blu Ray extra would be the Something Old, Something New feature where wedding trivia pops up during the film playback (one for the girls again though).

Overall this is a an hour and a half of girly light entertainment. It won’t have you rolling in the isles but the main stars drag the most out of what is there and make it watchable.

 

Film:	★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Video:	★★★★★★★★★☆
Audio:	★★★★★★★★★☆
Extras:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Overall:	★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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Bride Wars, Blu Ray Review

As an Owen Wilson fan Marley & Me was one of those films that I had down on my cinema watch list that I just never found the time to see. It doesn’t seem all that long that it was on at the cinema either, but it’s release on DVD and Blu Ray has just been announced for the 6th of July (see press release below for details).

Marley & Me

The Heartwarming Story Starring

Academy Award-Nominee Owen Wilson & Emmy-Winner Jennifer Aniston Arrives on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on 6th July 2009
 

From the director of the Devil Wears Prada and based on the best-selling novel by John Grogan, Marley & Me leaps onto Blu-ray and DVD on the 6th July 2009 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment .  Featuring an A-list cast that includes OscarÒ-nominee* Owen Wilson (Night at the Museum) and EmmyÒ winner** Jennifer Aniston (The Break-Up) the film tells the hilarious tail of a family who learn some important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic dog. 

When newlyweds John and Jenny Grogan (Wilson and Aniston) leave the snow of Michigan for the beaches of Miami, they decide to test-drive their parenting skills by adopting an energetic yellow Labrador retriever named Marley.  However, it’s not long before their adorable 12-pound puppy transforms into a highly-strung, boisterous and uncontrollable 100-pound troublemaker. From flunking obedience school, chewing through dry wall, and taking a bite out of the sofa Marley causes absolute chaos wherever he goes.  Despite the mayhem he generates, Marley sees the Grogans through the ups and downs of life and the countless challenges that come with it and soon they discover that Marley, “the world’s worst dog,” somehow brings out the best in them.

The delightful comedy adventure features a supporting cast that includes OscarÒ-winner Alan Arkin (Best Supporting Actor, Little Miss Sunshine), Eric Dane (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Golden GlobeÒ-winner Kathleen Turner (Best Actress, Prizzi’s Honor).

Go fetch Marley & Me on 6th July!

Blu-ray and DVD Special Features:

Featuring fun and love for the entire family, Marley & Me includes the following special features on both the Blu-ray and  the DVD:

·         Digital Copy – transfer an entire copy of the film to a portable device such as the family’s Laptop, iPod or iPhone
·         Finding Marley – a look at the process of finding and training the 20 plus dogs that feature in the film
·         Gag Reel 

Blu-ray Exclusive Features:

·         Dog Training Trivia Track – Picture-n-Picture feature
·         Dog Training 101 featuring BonusView video
·         Breaking the Golden Rule – the “Golden Rule” being ‘never work with children or animals’. In this piece the cast and crew discuss breaking that rule and the fun they had working on the film
·         On Set with Marley: Dog of All Trades – we “talk” to Marley and learn about his hopes, dream and aspirations
·         When Not to Pee – what it takes to recreate an “accident” that occurred on set during filming
·         Animal Adoption – a discussion about the benefits of adopting a dog from an animal rescue centre and the importance of doing your research before getting a pet of any sort
·         Deleted Scenes – with commentary from Director, David Frankel  

Product Details:

Release date:                       Monday 6th July 2009
Running time:                      115 mins
Format:                                  DVD & Blu-ray
Certificate:                            PG
Price (DVD):                         £19.99
Price (Blu-ray)                    £24.99

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Marley & Me News

Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde 2 were both warm and cuddly, cute and fuzzy chick flicks starring Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, perky, pink, but ultimately shrewd and intelligent. She proved herself first in law school and then in government. Now we have a third film baring the name, this time called Legally Blondes (it’s twins this time!). Reese Witherspoon is no longer starring, and the film is much the worse for it.

The film focuses on Elle Woods’ cousins Annabelle and Isabelle. Like Elle, they’re blonde, perky and pink, oh, they’re also identical twins (played by Camilla and Rebecca Rosso). Unlike Elle they’re not American, they’re British and the opening of the film sees them moving from England to America due to their father’s new job. Once stateside they get partial scholarship to a prestigious prep school. They rapidly fall foul of the school megalomaniac Tiffany (Brittany Curran). It seems that the school is quite elitist and those students on scholarships are ridiculed and shunned.

Tiffany, jealous that the twins are considered more attractive than her, eventually hatches her grand plan to get them expelled and frames Isabelle and the boy that Annabelle has a crush on for cheating on a history test. In a school court the girls must play council and prove their innocence.

Going in to this film you’d be excused for thinking it’s a direct sequel to the Reese Witherspoon films. Other than the mention of Elle Woods’s name, there are no other ties between this film and those. Reese Witherspoon is down as an executive producer, but for her sake I hope that was in name only. The first two undeniably fit in the ‘chick flick’ genre, but were aimed at adults. Legally Blondes however is aimed at a much younger crowd, mainly pre-teen girls. If your daughter likes Hannah Montana then you’re in the right ballpark.

Where the first two films had a certain charm (mainly the first, it went a bit downhill in the second film), that charm was pretty much entirely due to Reese Witherspoon’s considerable acting and comedic ability. Take her out of the equation and substitute in a couple of newcomers (their only other credits are for a few Suite Life of Zack and Cody episodes) with no comedy timing at all and for adults watching it’s bordering on painful.

If you do consider it a follow on for the first two films then the plot is thin and the acting woeful (way too smiley and perky, the twins even manage to smile during a conversation about their mothers death). If you consider it for the pre-teen girly crowd then it’s probably right up their street (my daughter’s only one though so I’m spared all that for now!).

In making a tenuous link to the first two Legally Blonde films the makers have made a mistake. Viewers may think it’s aimed at the same market and if that market is you then stay away there’s nothing for you here. If however you have a pre-teen that’s dragged you to see Hannah Montana or The Bratz Movie or any of the High School Musical films then this harmless fun may be something to keep them quiet and out of your hair for a couple of hours.

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Legally Blondes DVD Review