Film: Get Smart
Released: 2008
Starring: Steve Carell; Anne Hathaway
Director: Peter Segal
Rating: 

Very good – well worth a look
Synopsis:
Based on the sixties hit TV series Get Smart follows the perils and adventures of Agent Smart (Steve Carell, The 40 Year-old Virgin) as he is sent on his most dangerous and important mission: to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS.
When the headquarters of secret U.S. spy agency CONTROL is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the chief (Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine) has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreamed of working in the field alongside his idol Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock). Smart is partnered instead with the other agent whose identity has not been compromised: the lovely but lethal veteran Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway, The Devil Wears Prada). Chaos and hilarity ensues in this action-comedy.
Review:
If you enjoyed watching Carell in The Office: An American Workplace or The 40 Year Old Virgin or Evan Almighty, then you’re going to love this comedy homage to the spy and slapstick genres. But it’s not just physical comedy – it’s surprisingly intelligent, and the comic timing of the cast is superb. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a lot of great chemistry between Carell and Hathaway and they make for a very convincing, if initially reluctant, double act.
The laughs come thick and fast, there’s never a dull moment, and even The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) shows that he actually has some talent in comedy as he plays it hammily straight to great effect. It’s a fun way to fill an hour and 45 minutes – you could do a lot worse.
Film: Jurassic Park
Released: 1993
Starring: Sam Neill; Laura Dern; Jeff Goldblum
Director: Steven Spielberg
Rating: 


Excellent
Synopsis:
Steven Spielberg directed this blockbuster thriller based on the popular book by Michael Crichton. Millionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) asks two dinosaur experts (Laura Dern and Sam Neill) to act as consultants on his entrepreneurial endeavor–an amusement park with DNA-cloned live dinosaurs as the main attraction. The paleontologists, along with a mathematician (Jeff Goldblum) and Hammond’s two grandchildren, takes a run-through tour of the park. But soon the joyride turns to terror when an impending hurricane, an unscrupulous engineer (Wayne Knight), and the rebelling dinosaurs begin to destroy the park. Spielberg considered the most popular star of the film to be a computer-generated Tyrannosaurus rex. The special effects in general are spectacular.
Review:
This is a fine example of a film that hasn’t really aged at all. The effects that were state-of-the-art at the time still hold up and the dinosaurs still look real 99% of the time. The cast all put in sterling performances – even Dickie Attenburgh couldn’t ruin it with his hamminess, and the kids were surprisingly good (I’m not usually a fan of children in movies, although there are a few exceptions to that rule). The unlikely pairing of Laura Dern and Sam Neill really worked; their banter seems natural and they’re pretty convincing as dino-experts. For me, though, it’s Jeff Goldblum that adds the extra sparkle and class as the rock-star-looking, chaos-theory-loving mathematician with wit and style.
It doesn’t stick rigidly to the source material, but it’s certainly faithful to the spirit of the book and this excitement-filled blockbuster is one to watch and watch again. Go on, dust off the DVD that you’ve had sitting on the shelf for years now, pop it in the player and enjoy it all over again – you know you want to!
Film: Inkheart
Released: 2009
Starring: Brendan Fraser; Andy Serkis; Paul Bettany; Helen Mirren; Jim Broadbent
Director: Iain Softley
Rating: 


Excellent
Synopsis:
Mo has the special talent to bring characters out of books. One night he brings out three characters from Inkheart, a story set in medieval times and filled with magical beings. Capricorn and Basta, two villains, and Dustfinger, a fire-eater. Now, 10 years later Meggie discovers the truth and it’s up to her to escape Capricorn’s evil grasp.
Review:
I happened upon this film by sheer chance and upon realising what a stellar cast it has decided to watch a while and see what it was like. Before I knew it, I had watched to the very end!
It’s a gorgeous fantasy tale of stories within stories with engaging characters (both “real” and storybook), and the seemingly outlandish idea of Silvertongues who can read characters out of books and into the real world seemed strangely plausible. All turned in wonderful performances – from Paul Bettany to Andy Serkis, Jim Broadbent to Helen Mirren; the cast list reads like a who’s who of British talent which complements the American blockbusting addition of Brendan Fraser to ensure success in the US market.
I’ve not read the book, so I don’t know how faithful an adaptation this is, but I now WANT to read the book, so if that’s any indication of how good this movie is, then you can count it as one of the better family films of recent years.
Everybody Hurts – Helping Haiti
February 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment
I couldn’t believe they chose this song for the Haiti relief charity single! Honestly – “Everybody Hurts”? Yes, they do – they’ve been buried under tonnes of rubble! I honestly thought it was a sick joke when I first heard about it. They could not have been less sensitive in their choice if they’d tried.
I’ll admit, I also get a bit narked that all these rich stars will do a charity single to sell to the general public to raise money, but precious few of them actually give much of their own cash. John Travolta is my hero at the moment. He flew his own plane filled with relief aid packs over there himself. That’s a man with integrity.
I’d have far more respect for the stars involved in this project if there was a proviso that all the participants also give a hefty chunk of their own money to the cause as well.
Anyway, it’s nice that they’ve all got together to do another Band Aid kind of thing, but I really wish Mr Cowell had thought a bit harder about which song to use.
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Tagged: Charity, Commentary, Domestic Goddess, Music