The Devil Wear Prada… I got an acquaintance who recently started a job working for Ralph Lauren in Watford, after seeing this film I fear for her. This film gives you an insight into the fashion industry, but from the view point of a fashion magazine, but like Sentinel which gave an insight into the security of the US President, how much of this insight is fact and how much is artistic licence I don’t know. But as a run of the mil film is was fun, but it also address a few things in life, like office bitchiness, brown nosing, being career minded, work life balance, how important your real friends are and conforming with the society you live. I can already see clips from this film being used in various company training courses; bit like Clockwork was used in many course I went on in my younger day. I enjoyed this film, and for me it was a film of guess what shoe that person has done before, with actors from Entourage, Rescue Me, Cold Case (three of my fav shows), playing reasonably important roles in the film. Would I buy this film on DVD... doubt it, as it is not the kind of film I’d watch again and again. But it is worth a watch, as you will come out thinking “I got a couple of pals who are similar to some of those people.” One thing learned, no matter what job you do keep your beliefs and keep you integrity as they are what defines, you as a person.

The Departed… When I saw the trailer for this film, I was thought, ‘Oh that looks good’ especially with all the big names like Baldwin, Nicholson, DiCaprio, Damon, Winstone, Sheen and Wahlberg… but then memories of Harlem Nights come flooding back when you had Pryor (Richard). Murphy (Eddie), Hall (Arsenio) and the film turned out to be a wash out. All these big names are going to want descent airtime, so my hopes for a good film dwindled. Well suffice to say, making the film 151 minutes long definelty covered all the stars getting airtime, but I have to say all the airtime given was relevant and was nothing but quality. I enjoyed the film immensely, though a little long. It was gory but not as gory as it could have been. Storyline was pretty solid and all the star proved why they are A list film stars, even Winstone was up there with a great performance, but if I had to pick the best out of all of them, Mr Jack Nicholson was the ‘Don’ so to speak. Back to his Joker, The Shining, Cuckoo’s Nest best. This film is not particularly a cinema film in terms of special effects, but to avoid spoilers from people telling you what happens, I would say go and definelty see this film as soon as possible. The film was done with a mix of flashback and present day, but it was done very well, not quite as well as ‘Inside Man’, but still pretty well.

Die hard 4.0… http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/livefreeordiehard/t2_medium.html  

Woah what a film… won’t win any Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTA’s or any other major accolades apart from the quote “This is truly a Summer Blockbuster”… If you were to look in the Oxford English Dictionary for the word “Escapism”… there should be a picture of Officer John McClane smiling back…. Yes this film is the fourth film in the life of John McClane, the officer who seems to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time… but I’d go as far to say this film was equal to if not better than the first film. the phrase “A case of whoop ass just got delivered” is an understatement… the premise of the film is a disgruntled ex employee of Uncle Sam’s homeland security decides to execute a three pronged attack called a “Firecell” against Uncle Sam and to bring the country to it’s knees, but whilst trying to kill various people who have become surplus to requirements his crew happen to try and kill a computer hacker that John McClane has been dispatched to bring to the FBI HQ in Washington, in the process they upset Mr McClane… which quite frankly isn’t a good idea, as the film progresses the fight becomes very personal between McClane and the main antagonist.

Yes in the film lots and lots of unbelievable things happen but surely that is what going to the cinema is all about... fantasy, dreams, aspirations and desires… epic battles between good and evil… creating a hero that one can look up to. Loved the whole banter between John McClane and the villain… does the good guy win in the day… not sure if he did, but he sure saved the day… Would I buy this film on DVD, not sure if I would but probably yes… you ask why I have my doubts… well in my opinion there is only one place to be watching this film and that is on a 50foot wide, 20 foot high Silver Screen.. you can’t be seeing this film on a 21inch PC monitor or a 32 inch Widescreen TV... this is as I said before “A Summer Blockbuster”…. Out of 10 I’d give this film 9… just because this film takes you back to what going to the cinema was all about when the likes of Star Wars, Alien and Indiana Jones were originally released…. Escapism….

District 13 … Have to say this film surprised me no end, I left the theatre and I could feel myself visibly smiling, a cracking film. In my opinion like ‘Crash’ last year, this was a little gem of a film. This is a French film subtitles an all, but if you ever saw Jump London, imagine that with martial arts thrown in for flavour…and to boot the storyline was pretty solid the term, “Some people got a arsing” comes to mind, and the bad guy, damn he was a bad guy…. Though maybe he should remember the saying... “Be careful who you step on, on your way up as you never know who you will meet on the way down”….. I would say a def must see film…unless of course you hate martial art films, though would say this film was more than just martial arts

Eragon... http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/eragon/traileri/

The premise of this film was a young boy, finds a stone, which turns out to be an egg from a Dragon. The egg doesn’t hatch unless it feels comfy in the presence of a particular person, once hatched the creature (a Dragon) that comes out, mind melds with this comfy person and that person becomes that Dragon’s rider.

I really didn’t want to say this about Eragon, after so many people had said the very same thing. This film though quite entertaining, came across as a poor mans derivative of either Harry Potter’s franchise or the Lord of the Rings franchise. It is good to a see a young author’s film being made in to a movie and hopefully inspiring a new generation of authors into the realm of Dungeons and Dragons and Fantasy writing… but alas this was no Tolkien or Gemmell novel. The film had the look and feel of Lord of the Rings, though a pretty bad feel, especially the final battle scene. Though very good in its own right, it had nothing at all on any of the battle scenes in Lord of the Rings. The story threw in a bit of magic, making out that the main character Eragon, once linked with the Dragon could perform magic…. Now I’m not a Harry Potter fan but….. Eragon’s magic again didn’t even come close to Mr Potter.

Despite what I’ve said about the film so far, I did actually enjoy the film, it’s just, after seeing LOTR, Harry Potter and the Light Sabre fight between Darth Maul and the two Jedi in Star Wars Episode 1, you are kinda spoilt. In Eragon the two main villains were played by two actors I quite like John Malkovich and Robert Carlisle… John didn’t get much air play, but he has potential as I would guess there is going to be a second film. Robert for me was superb, when you see a good bad guy; you want to be sitting there saying to yourself... “Why would anyone want to work for him”... I got that vibe with Robert’s character. As a Saturday afternoon family film, this was a good film... as a ground breaking Dungeons, Dragons and Fantasy film, it was ok, but nothing really stood out for me.

Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer…  http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fantasticfourriseofthesilversurfer/trailer-medium.html
Having seen the poor first film of the Fan 4, I was not looking forward to this film, but then I saw the trailer of The Torch chasing the Silver Surfer through the city, I got quite excited and was having good feeling, but did hold back cos often trailers only ever show the best parts of the film. Well I have to say, I was not disappointed with this film. The premise of the film is Richard Reed and Susan Storm’s weeding gets interrupted when an Alien on a Surfboard arrives on Earth and starts destroying things as he prepares the World for destruction from Galaxtous who goes around munching on whole planets… as you do… and of course it is down to the Fantastic 4 to save the day, with a slight hindrance from an old nemesis… As a film a this was a cracking fast paced full blown tongue in cheek film, I loved it, escapism at its best. Acting was poor and storyline was full of holes but it was fun fun fun, really enjoyed. It had some great scenes, like Stan Lee’s cameo, also one line that had me smiling went something like… “Yeah that’s right I never played ball, just had my head in books like a good little geek... but look at me now, one of the best brains in the world, going out with the hottest girl on the planet… and Mr Quarterback is standing in front of me asking for my help, which he won’t get unless he listens to what I’m saying”… what a quality line... to the quarterback I found myself thinking that great quote of Marcellus Wallace…. “Step aside butch”… Would I buy this film on DVD, more than likely yes and not just of the obvious extras they will have on there about Marvel Comic Books. Out of 10 this film gets a high 8 out of 10 cos it was such a fun film which never took itself seriously at all.