So, having got Sky+ and all the regular movie channels I've just been recording and watching a bunch of stuff off Sky Movies, so none of these are up to date, but WTH...!
Shaun of the Dead - In American Zombie films heroes with guns go out and make the world safe for Truth, Justice and the American Way again. In this British film, they go down the pub!
This film is a "must see" as far as I'm concerned, it's funny, not overly sentimental, occasionally thought provoking and a damn good laugh!
Pirates of the Caribbean - Curse of the Black Pearl - Another that is definitely on the "don't miss" list. It's great fun, with lots of great dialogue, smart action sequences some impressive effects and Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow is something that simply cannot be described but has to be seen to be believed!
2 Fast, 2 Furious. Hmm, put this one on the "whiles away a couple of hours if you've nothing better to do" list. Lots of fast cars, plenty of testosterone, but not much in the way of characterisation, plot, dialogue or, well anything much. Did I mention the fast cars...?
Tremors 4 - The Legend Begins. Oh dear, once again Hollywood thinks that anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Town in Nevada, yada yada, people start disappearing, yada yada, big monsters, yada yada, monsters die. Ho hum. Oh and Michael Gross (the Survivalist from the other films) turns up as his own ancestor with a dodgy pseudo-British sort of accent
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - Sean Connery plays Sean Connery again, this time under the name of Alan Quatermaine, we also have Captain Nemo, Tom Sawyer, the Invisible Man (well, *an* invisible man), Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde...
Plenty of stunning sets and set pieces, lots of thud and blunder, some occasionally witty dialogue, not much of a plot or characterisations. Still, it's enjoyable enough and less than two hours long.
Kill Bill Vol 1 - Quentin Tarantino says there's no such thing as "Tarantino-esque", well sorry, QT, but this is a Tarantino-esque film! Presented in chapters which are out of sequence, lots of violence and blood, characters with odd motivations or personal traits, looks great, achieves not very much.
X2 - The X Men are back in a flashy, action packed, piece of fluff. Again, barely an attempt at developing any sort of character and what there is gets wasted by a stupid ending where someone dies because various characters suddenly seem to forget that they have super powers!
The Matrix - Reloaded / Revolutions. Well the second part is actually quite good, plenty of stunning effects sequences and some real character development (which was sadly lacking from the first film), unfortunately, apart from Morpheus' big speech, the dialogue really lets this one down and, like everyone else, I was listening to the exposition at the end going
I watched the second and third parts back to back and I'm not sure if I was "Matrixed out", but by the end of Revolutions, I was almost going "well get it over with for gods' sake!" It was rather a case of "more of the same" and I think you can have too much of a good thing. Still, it's set a benchmark for effects that will be there for some time to come.