Posted by
Rob at 19:31 on 30 Jun 2010
Shrek has been the flagship franchise of DreamWorks Animation for nigh on a decade now, constantly pulling at the coat tails of Pixar like a child desperate to be listened to. But after the underwritten, overflowing Shrek The Third failed to live up to the first two, DreamWorks may have thought about milking another potential franchise dry and retiring this old ogre back to his muddy puddle.
Posted by
Rob at 19:51 on 10 Jun 2010
Please, stop me if you've heard all this before. An average guy meets an attractive woman, to the utter jealously of his buddies. However, because they love him, they want to help him and we as the audience feel we can relate to at least one of the core characters.
Posted by
Rob at 18:44 on 15 May 2010
The first time Ridley Scott made a big budget, historical epic with Russell Crowe, it worked out really rather quite well. Scott tried again five years later, only this time he roped in Orlando Bloom. That didn't work out so well. The lesson there is, don't work with Orlando Bloom. Now it seems Scott has learnt his lesson and got his Gladiatorial mate back for another historical/fictional jaunt, but this time, with bows, arrows and a Yorkshire accent (or something like it).
Posted by
Rob at 22:43 on 18 Mar 2010
Oscar nominations for gay cowboys and a win for Sean Penn's gay politician; Hollywood loves homosexuals, as long as it's all kept clean. I Love You Phillip Morris gained massive plaudits at Sundance last year but struggled to find a US distributor comfortable with its somewhat graphic content.
Posted by
Rob at 22:07 on 03 Mar 2010
Let me point out the elephant in the room here. I don't care for the title. It's neither imaginative nor catchy, and it's been nicked from Bond. The first poster was rubbish too. A gun with the Eiffel Tower as the barrel? It's crap, and probably made many people write the film off before they even caught a glimpse of Travolta's renegade CIA, Yul Brynner-resembling douche.
Posted by
Rob at 20:58 on 25 Feb 2010
Welcome to small town Iowa, where everyone owns a farm, the police wear jeans, there are cornfields aplenty, and baseball games are rudely interrupted by maniacal hillbillies wielding shotguns. Oh, and it's probably best to take your own water, too.
Posted by
Rob at 21:39 on 18 Jan 2010
Sandra Bullock. Hollywood A-list. Attractive, likeable and never takes herself too seriously. The question is, how has 2009's most successful female US box-office star managed to maintain her Hollywood status, when she's been coasting for so long in various whimsical non-coms? You know, non-coms like
The Proposal, and like this unflattering piece of guff.
Posted by
Rob at 23:12 on 16 Nov 2009
A Christmas Carol is one of the most well-known and much-loved stories of all time – a story that's been adapted so many times that it's hard to get particularly excited about a fresh take. So, when it was announced that Robert Zemeckis was going to make yet another version, using the same motion-capture technology he used with The Polar Express and Beowulf, it registered with a tremendous meh. A Christmas Carol without the Muppets just doesn't seem right.
Posted by
Rob at 00:21 on 11 Nov 2009
Ewan McGregor, you may remember, is actually an actor, and a pretty good one at that. When he's not gallivanting around the world with Charley Boorman on a bike, getting a sore arse, he does occasionally find time to make a film or two.
Posted by
Rob at 23:30 on 29 Sep 2009
Movies based on computer games are usually complete balls - it's a well known cinematic fact. But it seems that finally, some powerful people have realised this. The solution: Films inspired by the gaming world but not based upon anything in particular.