What do you get when you cross Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eric Roberts, Danny Trejo, UFC's Randy Couture and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin?

Clearly the answer is 'an 80s action fan's wet-dream', but it's also a new film written and directed by Sly himself: The Expendables.

The movie's been on the cards for some time, but the trailer has finally been released. It doesn't look amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but at the very least we can be guaranteed a few good one-liners, and maybe the odd decapitation.

Release dates are a while off yet, but the US won't see the film til the end of next summer, so I wouldn't hold your breath. In the meantime, here's the trailer:

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The trailer for Toy Story 3 has finally been released- woo hoo!

But we have to wait til next June for the movie- D'oh!

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In scrambling to to fill the huge financial void left by Michael Jackson's passing, concert promoters AEG sold hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage to Sony Pictures, who figured they could make a quick buck out of a cinema version. Said film is to be released on October 28th, and (bizarrely) run for two weeks only. To satisfy anticipated demand, tickets are going on sale a month early- on September 27th.

The film's trailer premiered yesterday at the MTV MVAs, and here it is for you in internetland:

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Michael Mann takes on one of America's most famous crooks, John Dillinger, with the help of Captain Jack Sparrow. Lets just hope he doesn't go all Miami Vice on us.

Pros:

• From the first shot of the movie, it's clear that the cinematography is really, really good. So good that it makes me want to use adjectives like 'gorgeous', but I'll resist that temptation.
• Christian Bale shows admirable restraint himself, avoiding his usual 'growl-under-your-breath' style of acting.
  
• As history buffs will already know, the story is pretty fascinating. Dillinger seemed to live life with one eye on a future movie incarnation, indulging in some fairly brazen escapades which lend themselves well to the silver screen.
• Mann pulls no punches with the violence, despite the movie's fairly lax 15a rating. When these guys get shot, you feel it. No glorified movie action here.
• Marion Cotillard is excellent, and manages to tread that fine line just between 'powerful' and 'overplaying it'.
• The supporting roles are generally very well cast, particular mention must go to Billy Crudup as a surprisingly convincing J. Edgar Hoover.
  
• Thankfully, this is not an example of style over substance, as has often been the case with Michael Mann movies. In fact, it's easily one of Mann's best efforts to date.

Cons:

• The film gets straight into the action, and while that's usually a good thing, the story itself suffers a bit from lack of development.
• One of the first scenes in the movie features some bafflingly bad sound recording. How does that happen in a big movie like this?
• While not being too precious with the source material, it seems like the writers were trying to fit too many real-life incidents into the movie. Again, the story and character development take a bit of a knock here.

While flawed, Public Enemies does well to satisfy both the true-crime nerds and the action/thriller fans. Michael Mann's hit-and-miss track record can chalk up another one in the former category.

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Our favourite childhood toys come alive to beat the crap out of each other again, courtesy of Michael 'KABOOM' Bay.

Pros

• Shia La Beouf isn't really as annoying as people make him out to be.
  
• And Megan Fox is quite nice.
  
• More action and screen-time for Megatron, who was criminally underused in the first film.
  
• Fanboys will be pleased to see Soundwave make an appearance (he used to be a ghetto blaster, now he's a satellite).
• Several more original voice actors from the cartoon have been recalled. Which was the only way those characters were ever going to work, to be fair.
  
• John Tuturro gets a well earned pay-day.
• Mike Patton voices a transformer, though whom and at a what point I cannot tell you.
  

Cons

• Why it has become an unwritten rule that blockbusters must be over two and a half hours in length is beyond me.
• On that point, this movie is very, very boring.
  
• To be able to legitimately accuse a film in which photo-realistic, transforming, robot aliens wage epic battles amidst a backdrop of some of the world's most spectacular scenery of being boring... well... that's bad.
  
• Michael Bay has overdosed on, well, Michael Bay films- resulting in camera work that when not confusing, is simply nauseating.
  
• The comedy. My god, the comedy.
  
• Seems to take a third act plot device straight out of this summer's other blockbuster stinker, Terminator Salvation.
• As has been pointed out be other reviewers, the Transformers themselves are too damn complicated on the eye. Just what the hell is going on?

This movie should be a landmark in cinema history, and it may yet prove to be one. For me, this is absolute proof that the 'effects movie' has reached its saturation point. Hopefully this travesty will prompt a return to more traditional methods of filmmaking, such as putting more than 10 to 15 minutes thought into the script.

Oh, wait, 3D is back.

Well, that's that idea put to bed.

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Edward Zwick of 'The Last Samurai' fame takes on the true story of some defiant Ruskies who hide out in a forest during WW2.

Pros

• The film is shot nicely enough, particularly when capturing Winter time in the forest.
• It's always good to see Liev Schreiber getting work. He's not too shabby, you know...
• Schreiber, Daniel Craig et al do quite an impressive job of handling a lot of dialogue in Russian. They could be saying anything at all, but it sounded impressive to me.
• Ummm...

Cons

• Way too much broody posing.
• A few too many awkward silences. Why haven't you cut to the next scene yet??
• Once the refugees set up camp in the woods, it all becomes a bit Beverly Hills 90210. "Hey, those girls are pretty hot! Lets all pair off with them!"; "Stay away from my girl, buddy!!" and "I was always Mom's favourite!" "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!".
  
• Frankly, the screenwriter should be shot. These are actual lines:

-Why is it so hard being friends with a Jew?
-Try BEING one!

-We cannot become like them. (nazis)
-No, but we can KILL like them!

• Predictible 11th hour rescue from 'misunderstood' character.
  
• Cringeworthy 'persistantly confused expression' performance from youngest brother.
  
• Swooping string sections at the drop of a bloody hat.

Zwick takes what was no doubt a fascinating, compelling true story and runs it into the ground. Over-directed, under-scripted. I don't think it's too unfair to label this film a complete waste of time.

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Mickey Rourke earns a host of new admirers with his portrayal of Randy 'The Ram' Robinson: a has-been wrestler battling with age. Can Darren Aronofsky's strange little sports flick finally redeem Rourke's career? Odds are good.

Pros

• A film such as this was always going to sink or swim according to the central performance. In this case that performance is flawless. The character is genuine, believable and sympathetic.
• While 'The Ram' has our sympathies, he's far from a typical Hollywood lead role, and has quite a few moments of assholery. This is a pro because, lets face it, we want our screenwriters to put in a little effort. Rounded, nuanced characters are good. Let's move on.
• Aronofsky characteristically pulls no punches (sorry), with several sequences containing the kind of brutal realism that made Requiem for a Dream such hard watching. This works, because when Rourke gets hurt (and he does)- you feel it.
  
• The violence is executed impeccably. At points I was convinced that Mickey Rourke really was extracting massive staples from his flesh. Ouch.
• Marisa Tomei's love interest is equally unconventional, and believable. She'll probably go unnoticed because of Rourke's towering performance, but credit where credit's due.
• The score (composed by Clint Mansell, performed by Slash) is understated and hugely effective. And the closing credits roll to a Springsteen song composed specifically for this movie. And the film is responsible for a rare occasion of Axl Rose not being a dick- he donated the use of Sweet Child of Mine for free, due to the movie's small budget. Kudos.
  
• Gotta love brave endings.
  
• The film contains one particular tracking shot which draws a comparison between Robinson's two worlds. I won't ruin it for you, just tell you that this shot in itself is a masterpiece.

Cons

• As is the case with many of Aronofsky's movies, it's a tad depressing (though nowhere near as bad as Requiem for a Dream, thank christ).
• Watching this movie may result in an undesirable (although temporary) obsession with the world of professional wrestling.

All in all this is a fantastic character study, perfectly executed. Expect awards heading Rourke's way... or at least some more acting gigs.

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I decided to leave this until the New Year just in case there was anything that might make the list at the last minute, and although I did see Tropic Thunder between starting this list and ending it (which put it in the running) it just wasn't that good bar the odd one or two hysterical bits. In the read more you will find my Top 10 films of 2008. Perhaps you may disagree on most and in particular my No. 1, but they're there for a reason and in a particular order. That reason and order is based solely on just how much enjoyment I got out of them at the time of viewing and how much they surprised me.

There's also a sub list for the movies that should have been savage but ended up being fucking desperate and the ones that I could have predicted would eat ass.

If you notice any glaring omissions this is perhaps because I didn't see them, then again its also perhaps due to you liking them more than me. Cloverfield placed lower than Speed Racer for instance.




10. Persepolis

Proof that traditonal animation has still a bit of life in it yet as this story of an Iranian girl growing up in Iran and France overcomes the trauma of being black and white to throw out a wholly entertaining and sometimes very funny little film.

Best bit: Marji grows up in a few seconds (below. Just ignore the intro)





9. In Bruges

Should also get on the list of Top Ten underdog movies of the year as well. Nobody saw this little beauty turn up especially those who doubted Colin Farrells ability to be funny, clearly they forgot his "best thing in a shite movie" turn in Intermission.

Best Bit: "Thats for John Lennon..." (below)

Clip is fucking disabled for embedding on Youtube but link here to where it is



8. Iron Man

A perfect movie by no means but makes the ten for the simple fact that I enjoyed the hell out of it more than most films this year. The reason for this can be summed up in three words: Robert. Downey. Junior. The chemical dustbin can do anything. Watch Tropic Thunder if you don't believe me. Or at least skip to the bits that he's in.

Best Bit: Taking out a tank like the baddest motherfucker ever (below)





7. Funny Games

Fantastic the way that Michael Haneke can take one of his own movies (itself a high fixture on my all time top ten) and remake it basically identical to the original (albeit in English with name actors) and it can still be almost (but not quite) as fucking amazing and disturbing as the original.

Best Bit: A remote control? YOU broke the rules you bastards (below)





6. Lars and the Real Girl

If you tell the premise of this to somebody (Man buys a sex doll on the internet and falls in love with it thinking its a real person), you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a sex comedy in the vein of American Pie etc. What you would not be forgiven for is ignoring one of the sweetest films ever thinking its low brow smut. Any of you who did this, its not too late you know.

Best Bit: Lars introduces Biance to his Brother and his Sister-in-Law (below)





5. Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Another one that you, no doubt, skipped. This time because you said "Fucking musicals, I hate them". Well if thats the way you want to be then fine but if you're open minded then you'll see some damn fine performance (not the least of which comes from Mr Depp himself), some class tunes and some even classier gore.

Best Bit: Helen Bonham Carter gets a little hot under the collar (below. Not great quality)





4. There Will be Blood

Slow. Pretentious. Long. Perhaps. But also Hypnotic. Mesmerising. Stunning. Ethereal. Beautiful. Horrific. And yet another reason why someday they're going to stop calling it "Oscar" and start saying "And that Daniel-Day goes to..."

Best Bit: Oil Well on fire (below. Not the full scene but you get the idea of the fucking amazing Johnnny Greenwood score from this clip)





3. The Dark Knight

Yeah yeah. Its great.

Best Bit: Jokers Pencil Trick (below)





2. No Country for Old Men

The Coen's finally get the recognition they deserve for 25 years worth of quality movie making, and its with one of their finest movies to date and one of the most psychotic screen films of all time. Still manages to be funny as hell though.

Best Bit: "Call it" (below)





1. The Mist

An odd choice for the number one film before but as I've so consistently pointed out this list is based purely on my enjoyment of the films at the time of viewing and the Mist did this several ways. It brings to life one of my favourite of the Stephen King stories I read as a youth. It looks fucking amazing. Its paced incredibly. And most importantly, its freaky as hell. It also has one of thepossibly the bleakest endings known to man. Frank Darabont proves that The Shawshank Redemption was no fluke as he continues his love affair with Mr Kings work.

Best Bit: Trip to the Pharmacy (below. In Black and white for some reason)





& THE WORST...

Of the 60 odd movies I saw that were released last year these were the 5 worst. Some because they're shite. Some because they were so fucking disappointing.



5. The Hottie & the Nottie

Why, after being told by pretty much every publication that this film was shite, did I then sit through the damn thing? Well mainly just to see if its as bad as they say. Is it the worst movie ever made? No not even close but its still pretty fucking bad.

Worst bit: The "Nottie" gets a makeover to reveal, Shock Horror, she's actually pretty hot herself, and in fact may be hotter than Paris Hilton. Actually, no maybe's about it, she is. (Not going to show the scene from the movie which I did actually find on Youtube, but here's a picture of her which is more enjoyable than any clip that I could find)





4. Hancock

Not a bad premise. Guys a superhero but he's a waster. Nice idea for a comedy. Then comes all the mystical mumbo-jumbo bullshit about his soul mate hating him and all that crap and all the fucking soul searching that went along with this waste of a movie.

Worst Bit: He has to leave for her to survive because together they're mortal. Weep weep. (Below)





3. Wanted

On the list because of the fact that based on all the clips I'd seen of this film, it looked like the greatest most retarded movie ever. Instead its loud and annoying and James McAvoy gives the worst performance of his career but whats worse is that we have so much of Angelina Jolie walking around with that smug cunt expression on her face that says "I know right fucking well I'm considered the best looking woman on the planet". The fucking wagon.

Worst bit: Any scene where Angelina adopts the aforementioned "Smug cunt" look (Not below. Just watch the trailer. You'll get the idea. How I never noticed the movie might be ruined because of it, I'll never know)





2. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

CGI Prairie Dogs. Tarzan impressions. Training monkeys. Self-referential to the point of up-own-arsery. Trees taking the weight of trucks. Did I mention CGI. Its like they never bothered watching their own movies as Spielberg, Ford and (I suspect more than anybody else) Lucas take a big giant shite on their own legacy.

Worst Bit: Not Shia LeBoeuf as I had dreaded but instead Shia LeBoeuf swining through trees on vines, catching up with a truck chase and training monkeys to do his bidding in the process. (Not below. The swordfight that precedes the bit I'm on about is below but its almost as fucking retarded)





1. What Happens in Vegas

No way in hell this was ever going to be good. Look at them there. Ashton. Cameron. You know why they're laughing? Because they just took a big shit in my eyes thats why.

Worst bit: The part where I realised there was still 45 minutes left. Trailer below.

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As if there weren't already enough reasons to worry about the impending Watchmen movie. Alan Moore's hollywood hatred, questions about director Zack Snyder's ability, dodgy 'hip' editing in the trailer and the inevitable declarations that the book is 'too long' and some things 'must be lost'.

All that considered there was always reason to cling to optimism, and hope that we would at least be treated to a vaguely faithful adaptation. Until now. Well, recently, anyway- I'm only hearing about this now (and maybe, so are you). Apparently the movie will commit the cardinal sin of all adaptations by changing the ending. How dare they??

Spoilers in the readmore.

Just in case you missed that, here be SPOILERS:

Those who've read the book will know that the crux of the novel is that Ozymandias creates a giant squid-thing and teleports it into the middle of New York City leading the world to believe aliens are attacking the planet, thus uniting humanity against this alien threat and ending the Cold War scenario.

The filmmakers, clearly knowing better than Alan Moore (sigh), have changed the alien squid into a machine that is built by Ozymandias & Dr Manhattan which sets off a series of Nuclear explosions throughout the world.

Clearly this is some sort of unfounded, malicious rumor spread by fanboys online who simply never wanted to see the movie come to fruition. No. Says Zack Snyder in an interview with Dark Horizons:

"The squid was not in the movie when I got the script, the squid was never in any draft that I saw. My point is only that there was this elegant solution to the squid problem that I kind of embraced. I'm a fan of the thing as much as anyone, I was saying what are we going to do about this before I even read the script."

You horrible bastard, Snyder.

The arduous task of rebuilding optimism begins here.

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Marky-Mark Wahlberg brings the acclaimed video game to life. Expect bullet-time and convoluted plot twists aplenty.

Pros:

• As one would expect having seen the trailer, there are some very pretty shots in this movie. Lots of slo-mo jumping around that looks real purdy.
• Chris O'Donnell is in it. Haven't seen him in ages!
• I like Mark Wahlberg. In other movies.
  
• The movie features a very brief appearance from Jamie Hector, AKA The Wire's Marlo Stanfield. His five or six lines are a glimpse of what this movie could have been like, if it had been any good.
• It was kinda funny in bits, though that was not the intention.
  

Cons:

• You know when a movie is so bad, it's funny? Max Payne flirts with that line. Then goes beyond it so it's just back to regular old 'bad' again.
• The purdy shots we've seen in the trailer are few and far between. I count two. If i was being lenient I would allow the opening shot, which gets repeated throughout the movie, to count as two or three shots in themselves. But I'm not being lenient, so they don't.
• The famous 'bullet-time', which the game pretty much invented, is incredibly lame. In attempt to better The Matrix (which obviously handled the concept quite well), the cinematographer has decided to simply make the shots longer. Much longer. As in Mark Wahlberg jumps in the air and doesn't land for 2-3 minutes. The result? Stupid. Hella stupid.
• Hmmm... I wonder who the killer is? Can you guess??
• Mila Kunis (as in Jackie from That 70s Show) is completely ridiculous as a hard-ass gun toting femme fatale. Completely ridiculous. And apparently she's the tougher older sister of Quantum of Solace's Olga Kurylenko. Which, I'm sorry, she's just not.
• Can I stop you right there? I've just had an idea- let's have this argument in the rain! The lashing rain! In fact, lets drive somewhere specifically so we can have the argument where it's raining really, really heavily. It's bound to look very dramatic.
  
• Max's ex-partner, a detective, works by scrawling amazingly childlike insights on crime scene photos (presumably in fat crayon). 'KILLER???' (arrows, pointing).
  
• Shamelessly bad villainry. 'Seeing as you are going to die, here is a detailed breakdown of how I did it. HAHA!'; 'No! Don't shoot him! We can think of something far more elaborate and inconclusive!' etc. etc.
• The cinematography looks completely half-assed throughout. It's like the whole production was concentrated on those two or three 'trailer' shots, and the rest of the movie was knocked out in a matter of hours.
• In fact, stylistically the entire thing is a rather poorly disguised attempt to ape Sin City, leading me to spend hours concocting Daily-Star-style puns such as 'Sin Shitty' (moo ha ha).
  

So basically my advice is to only see this movie if you are either (a) related to Mark Wahlberg and thus obliged to, or (b) quite inebriated. In fact, even if you fall into either of these criterion, there's bound to be better options available. Seek them out.

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Oliver Stone rushes out a biopic of the buffoon president of the USA. Barrel of laughs, surely?

Pros

• Josh Brolin turns in an excellent performance as dubaya, getting everything from his voice to his inane winks and grins just right.
• Many of the supporting characters are quite strong- particularly James Cromwell who resists the temptation of turning in a cheap impersonation of Bush Senior.
• The film's tone is generally that of a serious biopic, rather than the all-out pisstake it might have been. And comes off better for it.
• Bush is humanised. Much as we all love to hate the guy, he is a human being after all- and it's nice to see his public persona being put into perspective.
• That said, the film doesn't treat him with kid gloves. Far from it.
• I don't know what goes on inside the White House, but I'm inclined to agree with the movie's assertion that Dick Cheney is, in all likelihood, the devil.
  

Cons

• At over two hours, the film is a tough slog. Granted, there was a lot of material to fit in, and a lot left out, but it's still too bloody long.
• And to be honest, it's a bit boring too.
  
• Several members of the supporting cast do churn out crappy caricatures. Tony Blair is wince inducing; and while Condoleeza Rice may be a bitch, she's not a cartoon character.
• Some moments really jar with the tone. The inclusion of several 'Bushisms' reeks of effort, and these moments don't sit well with the apparent sincerity of the rest of the movie.
• Fair enough, it's not a satire (even though it was kinda advertised as one), but if not- then what exactly is it? For a while I thought it was about a man living in his father's shadow, but that storyline doesn't really go anywhere... so after watching the entire thing I am still none the wiser.

An admirable effort from Stone to paint a full picture of Bush rather than simply take cheap shots at him. It's not what many people will expect, and it certainly won't be liked by everyone- after all, no one wants to think of Bush as human.

So boring as the film may be, it's nice to see that Stone isn't making the same mistake as W. himself by assuming everything is either black or white.

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Zack Snyder showed some new Watchmen footage at this year's Scream awards (god knows). Check it out below, amongst some stuff we've already seen from the trailer, and some cringe-worthy movie-star gushing.



Cheers to Mark for the heads up.

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Last week I posted about my quest to find a relatively unseen or unrecognised scary movie that could be considered 'classic'... and have since worked my way through a fair few of the candidates. Find out in the readmore if any of them have impressed enough to deserve the title.


1. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Viewed by many as the first horror movie, this 1920 silent film has aged pretty well. It's sets are all weird, surrealist backdrops which add to the tone; and the titular villain and his cohort are still pretty creepy. The only problem is, I suppose, that with the increased sophistication of the medium of film it's pretty difficult for such a lo-fi movie (and, I hate to say it, a silent movie) to genuinely scare a modern audience. So while really good, and obviously a classic in it's own right, it's not quite what we're looking for.

2. Session 9
Directed by Brad Anderson, who has gone on to direct The Machinist with Christian Bale and also several episodes of The Wire, it turned out not to be the straight-to-video dud I had initially expected. Revolving around a crew of workmen in an abandoned insane asylum (always a good setting), it's high on atmosphere, has a few good shocks and is a bit twisty in the plot department. While very decent, and at times even good, it's still a long way off the picky criterion I've set to warrant being called a classic- so no prize here. Worth a watch though...

3. The Changeling
Made by another Wire alumni, Peter Medak, The Changeling concerns a composer who after witnessing the violent death of his wife and child, rather foolishly goes to live alone in a big, scary, haunted house. Again, this one has it's moments, but comes across as a bit of a TV movie, and gets a bit too whodunit to be truly scary. Lots of points in it that other movies could be accused of ripping off though (particularly Ringu), so credit where credit's due.

4. Hour of The Wolf
This one is famed auteur Ingmar Bergman's foray into the Horror genre, and definitely came across as something by an amazing filmmaker. I'd never seen anything by Bergman before this, so there was a fair bit of expectation going in. True to reputation the acting was fantastic, and was pretty creepy in itself. As far as 'horror' content is concerned- it's more surreal than anything else, and I guess that's where it's kinda scary. The climax of the movie is very 'what the hell??', and is probably the source of it's claim as a horror film. There are also one or two sequences in the rest of the flick that are quite eerie- notably one that involves Max Von Sydow fishing (ahh, fishing... an untapped source of terror). Overall an excellent flick, but probably a bit more on the artistic side than the scary.

---

So round one down and no new classics to report. Hour of the Wolf comes close, but I'm gonna be really strict on this, so no cigar yet. Thanks to comments and suggestions we have added a few more to the watching list. Here it is as it stands:


Picnic at Hanging Rock
Repulsion
Carnival of Souls
Village of the Damned
Jacob's Ladder
Night of the Demon
Rec
Tenebrae
Hellraiser (could do with a re-watch)

I'll post updates as soon as there's a significant amount watched. Surely one of the flicks on this list can scare the bejesus out of me... Fingers crossed.

Keep the suggestions coming!

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Just saw this documentary about a crazy French man who walked (illegally) on a tightrope between the two towers of the World Trade Centre back in the 70s.

Crazy? Yes, completely, but damn entertaining and genuinely awesome.

Here's the trailer:

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Comedian du jour Seth Rogan takes on the little used 'stoner-action' genre, throwing in a dash of 80's style buddy-comedy.

Pros:

• As those who have seen Knocked Up, Superbad, etc already know, Rogen is pretty damn funny. His quickly-becoming-trademark character is presented here pretty much unchanged, so there are a fair few laughs.


• James Franco is also rather good, and not quite a stereotype, which is nice.


• Love that 'comedy violence'.


• Much like other stoner-comedies (Cheech, Chong et al), I'd imagine this would be substantially more enjoyable when stoned. Actually, I'm not sure if this should be a Pro or a Con...


• Everyone like a story with morals. Morals of this movie include: 'Don't have sex with 17 year-olds if you're 25+' and 'Drug Dealers are people too!'. Again, not too sure if this is a pro or a con.

Cons:

• The entire 'bad guys' element is woefully unfunny. Each actor plays it far too hammy, and though I'm aware this was probably the point, it doesn't make it any less stupid.


• Your basic 'film by numbers', it's so formulaic you can predict virtually everything that happens (except for a classic Rogen moment reminiscent of his response to Katherine Heigl telling him she's pregnant in Knocked Up).


• To waste ninjas in such fashion should be a criminal offence.


• At least a third of the movie (arguably more) is aimed solely at stoners, leaving the non-stoned somewhat alienated.


• I had eerie flashbacks to Eddie Murphy's first career deep throughout, reminding me of movies such as Boomerang, which played only on the strength of a particular persona and didn't have much of a decent movie behind it. Rogen is good, but he alone does not a good movie make.

A noncommittal 'meh' is my conclusion. Rogen would want to be thinking a bit harder before making his next move or he could end up heading towards family-movie obscurity. And James Franco should just generally be seen more (preferably in something other than Spiderman). Don't expect much, unless you happen to be stoned.

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For all of those not afraid to admit that they like the series the new Harry Potter trailer can be seen below.



Those of you who've read the Book of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will know that its the most disposable of all the books in that nothing of much consequence happens in it before THAT end. THe trailer doesn't show an awful amount but it does have the right tone which is good. It remains to be seen whether it will turn out to be an interesting film or not or, more importantly, whether Hermione will have gotten hotter.

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Second part of Christopher Nolan's revitalised Batman franchise. Most anticipated film of the year and biggest opening weekend of all time? Does that make it good?

Pros

• Batman Begins was awesome so certainly this one wasn't going to suck.
• Dark, Dark, Dark. Batman has a lot on his plate.
• Majority of movie set in daytime which actually makes everything all the more threatening.
• Some unbelieveably awesome set-pieces.
  
• Has the ability to fuck with your expectations and make nothing obvious.
• Heath Ledger. Holy fucking Jesus.

Cons

• You might think that 2 and a half hours is enough to fit in everything that needs to be fit in but it is a long long time and its possible that much could be trimmed.
• Some characters not served as well as they might.
• Thats pretty much it. Its a great way to spend a couple of hours.

Its not quite as good as the hype would have you believe but its certainly one of the best movies to be released this year not to mention the best Batman movie and possibly the best Comic-book movie ever as well. Watchmen is going to have a lot to live up to.

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Shawshank in a Minute
by JibJab

"I'm a Morgan Free-Man"- tee hee.

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New Pixar movie proves to be studio's most ambitious project to date. Story of an abandoned earth and the last of a crew of clean-up robots mapping out his solitary existence in fire extinguishers and old musicals.

Pros:

• Absolutely gorgeous animation. Almost unparalleled in its gorgeousness.
• Very interesting story and (for Disney/Pixar) rather bleak to boot.
• Impossibly manages to capture all the emotions there are, in a character who has no facial features other than eyes.
• Manages to engage despite being 90% dialogue free.
• Has more Heart than a Nanci Wilson fans record collection.
• Absolutely demented in its views of humanity. Criticising mankinds leanings towards couch potatoness from a studio who encourages people to be couch potato's is frankly unheard of.
  

Cons:

• Beepy noises and dialogue free movies are not to everybody's taste.
• Neither are Pixar movies. These haters are known as assholes.

There really isn't a whole lot one can do in the way of criticising this picture. Its inventive and ground-breaking in every possible way and is going to be one hell of a hard act to follow.

Click in the read more for the trailer

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