Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows

Let's get something clear on this one: I have not seen the first movie. But these are standalone stories and so, even if someone has not watched the first installment, they can watch the second movie without any continuity problems.

I went to see it yesterday, and I must say I was not impressed. Not at all. A nice movie for a couple of hours, but other than that, this is not Sherlock Holmes at all. This is a very very different character from the one portrayed in the A. C. Doyle books, and to my mind totally unrecognizable.

If there are good qualities in this movie, they are its humour and Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes. Yes, this is a general action adventure movie, with the right dose of humour. But, I will repeat this again, it is not Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock was never flamboyant, neither did he flirt nor did he fight like a ninja; his quality and his strength was in his mind. For those who have read the books and/or  have seen the old BBC series with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes, or the excellent new series Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch, again from the BBC, will understand what I mean.

I must say one thing though: I loved Stephen Fry in this. He was brilliant and funny as ever, and he portrayed his own version of Mycroft Holmes. I cannot say enough about the brilliance of Stephen Fry. It is always a joy seeing him in a movie, or a documentary, or something.

I knew that I was not going to like it very much; after having seen the new BBC series Sherlock, having read a few of the stories, and remembering Jeremy Brett in the role, this was not what I had in mind for a Sherlock Holmes movie.

Humour and Stephen Fry apart, there was nothing else of interest in the movie. The story was one of thousand others that could make it into a general action/adventure film, and definitely as far away from Doyle's style as it could be. This is a totally americanized ninja action super-hero version of Sherlock Holmes, and it does not look good.


In essence, this is not a movie to spend money on it. If you can watch it for free, on TV or from a friend, then do so, you will have a couple of hours of fun. But going to the movie theatre? Definitely not. Fortunately I had half-price tickets for it, so it was not a total loss.

THOR

I saw it last night in 3D. You do not need to know anything about the old comic books to see this, as it introduces the character from the beginning.

I was impressed with the stunning visuals of Asgard. I loved the city of Asgard, as it is seen in this movie.One of the most beautiful sights, is when it shows the stars and nebulas over the city of Asgard, the colours of the cosmic dust... That sky was quite impressive. All the special effects were well made, and the 3D was nicely done.

As for characters, Tom Hiddleston as Loki really wins the day with the performance he gives, and I expect him to return for the sequel. The whole cast is good, and the female audience will appreciate Chris Hemworth (Thor). The rest of the cast is also impressive: Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster... There is not much that you can say about actors of that caliber.

The story is more than enjoyable and interesting, despite being predictable. It had the right dose of humour, at the right places, and at no point did it become boring. I also liked the fact that there was no melodrama, despite there being a love story in there. In short, the script was solid, without any holes in the story, or becoming boring to the viewers.

THOR is one of the best fantasy movies of the last couple of years. I enjoyed it, I had fun with it, I forgot myself with this movie. What else can someone ask from an action movie?

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Some movies are so bad, that they end up being hilariously good. Some movies, though, are just bad. And this is the case for The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It is a bad movie, it really sucks.

What can anyone say about this movie? Yes, there were a few hilarious moments, and more than a few references to other movies, from Toy Story to Star Wars. Yes, there is Nicholas Cage, and Monica Bellucci at the end. But even those moments could not save this movie. Nicholas Cage is a good actor, and despite the stupid dialogue at times, and the cheezy moments or something, he manages to show his talent.

As for the script, well, I think that it was so cliche, so predictable, that you could guess the whole movie after the first few minutes. The dialogue was really stupid at times, and only a few hilarious moments saved it from being a complete and utter disaster. It was just total disaster.

The only person who knew how to act in that movie, and who made his character believable at times, was Nicholas Cage. But even a good actor cannot save a really bad movie from terrible dialogue and a done-to-death story. And at times he was just delivering his lines, just like reading with no feeling or interest in the role at all. Bellucci appears in the last very predictable minutes of the movie, but nothing at all from her either. Even the kiss at the end, between Cage and Bellucci, was cold, emotionless, just get it on and be done with it.

As for the boy that played David, he's not even handsome at all. What is a girl going to do at a bad movie if there are no abs to look at, at least? Not even that. At least New Moon had some good abs... despite being a bad movie (oh, and yes, need to see Eclipse. They say it's a bit better than New Moon). 

It was not even in the category, at least I had some fun and forgot myself for a couple of hours. Not even that. While I was watching the movie, there were times I wanted to dash out of the theatre, and I have had the same urge with very few movies. I wanted to just leave the movie theatre and maybe go for a meal or something. Something else than this movie. Okay, to be fair, it is not the worst movie I've ever seen, but definitely would not have gone if I had to pay for a full ticket. Fortunately, me and my friend paid half-price and we'll get a discount for a meal on TGI Friday's next Monday. At least this movie was worth something...

Toy Story 3

The third installment of the Toy Story series of movies is here and, of course, I could not miss the new adventures of my favorite movie toy stars, Woody, Buzz LightYear, and all their friends.

I wanted to watch it in 3D, but the only 3D screening that was available was dubbed in the greek language. And those of us who wanted to watch the original in 3D? Unfortunately, no go. Since I never watch dubbed films, even if the dubbing is excellent, me and my friends (who hold similar views to mine) went and saw it in 2D.

But, let's return to the movie itself. The toys are back in town indeed, with a new adventure, with a happy ever after ending [it is a children's movie after all]. Andy, the toys' owner, is leaving for college. He wants to take Woody with him, and put the rest of the toys in the attic. However, from a mistake, his mother thinks that the bag containing the toys is garbage and puts them with the trash. The toys manage to escape and decide they are going to be donated to the Sunny Side Day Care Centre. And here the adventures of Woody, Buzz, Rax, Jessie and all the other toys start; new adventures await the toys, and on the way, they will make new friends.

This is a movie about growing up, about change; it is a movie for children of all ages. It does not matter if you are 10 or 50 years old; this is a movie for all of us. It is a movie about ourselves mostly, about change and how we handle it, about how we treat not just favorite things like toys, but loved ones and, finally, ourselves.

There are some wild scenes with Barbie and Ken, and with Buzz:s spanish mode! This is a movie, where I really laughed at the funny scenes, in the theatre. And not just me, but the whole theatre was laughing. And at the time I went to see it, there were very few actual children present. The movie theatre was filled with adult children, like me. We wanted to have a couple of hours of fun and Toy Story 3 delivered on its promise. And also made us think.

For those of you that have not seen the previous 2 movies, I have one thing to say: What are you waiting for? Toy Story movies are for each and everyone of us, for the child in all of us, for that child that should not be hiding in the deep recesses of ourselves, but should be out helping us have fun and see the bright side of life!

Lesbian Vampire Killers

If you thought that this was porn, and specifically lesbian porn, you couldn't be further away from the truth. What is this movie about then?

It is supposed to be a comedy, a satire of Vampire shows and movies. Nice try but no go. Not bad, but I did not laugh at any part. maybe sneered or smiled a bit.

The movie has it all: corny dialogue, the chosen one, a priest, a virgin... and lots of women scantily dressed and pretending to be lesbian vampires!

However, there is something lacking. The dialogue was there, the setting was really good. I cannot blame the director, I thought he did a good job. Paul McGann is excellent as the Vicar, and I thought that he needed someone else to act alongside.

Neither James Corden [Fletch] nor Matthew Home [Jimmy] really were up to the task. There was something missing from their acting, and at times it was like they were bored with the whole movie.

The basic story itself is quite good and has a lot of room for comedic situations, which I felt were not delivered. Or as I said poor acting made some of the jokes and in-jokes invisible to the audience.

My take on it is: a lot of undelivered potential. The main actors were a very bad choice for this movie. Watchable? Yes, with friends, appropriate commentary, some alcoholic beverage of your choice, food [preferably take out]. You can laugh at the expense of this movie, but not with this movie.

The Chronicles of Riddick

A while ago, I bought this movie on Blu Ray disk. I had liked Pitch Black, and knew that there was a sequel based on the character of Riddick, played by Vin Diesel.

I watched this last night, and in many ways I thought this is D&D in space. Why? From various names, like necromongers, elementals, etc. to the story, there are many things that reminded me of D&D and the Dragonlance novels at times.

The story is nothing new; there was a prophecy, and a chosen one, who happens to be Riddick. He is also one of the last remaining people of his race, the Furyans, and the one to kill the bad guy.

I would like to have seen more of the universe of Riddick; while I think of it as an adaptation of D&D worlds into space, it has potential. I liked the concept of Crematoria, from the few planets that I have seen. I think there may be more interesting stories to be told in the same universe.

Let's go to the acting part of the story. I have seen worse acting than Vin Diesel's. I must say that he is fine in such action movies; not an Oscar perrformance, but a decent one for an action packed movie. And of course he does have a deep voice which I really like, and Diesel's quite handsome.


Dame Judy Dench is always an excellent actress, and you can see the difference immediately. Even at small roles such as this, Dame Judy Dench makes a difference with her performance.

All in all, this movie is not a bad movie. It is the kind of movie to just relax with, and let your mind rest. 2 hours of almost non-stop action, Vin Diesel for the ladies...

Avatar - James Cameron

The movie opened on Thursday the 18th of December in Greece. My friends and I wanted to see this movie, and we managed with some difficulty to get tickets for the early evening screening last night. After watching the movie, I can fully understand why this movie is a hit and why it was so fully booked. In fact I would like to go and see it again.

Let:s just take things from the beginning, and start from the script of the movie. A solid scenario, it has no contradictions, no corny love story! After the disaster of New Moon, I did not even want to go near a love story.

I liked the script, it is well structured and well written. The story keeps the viewer interested throughout the movie, and does not have any bad moments.

The story itself sounds simple, but there is more to explore... Jake Sully [Sam Worthington] is a veteran marine, crippled in some war on Earth. He is sent as a replacement to his twin brother on Pandora, an Earth like moon of a gas giant, named Polyphemus, orbiting one of the stars in A Centauri. Pandora is inhabited by a race of humanoid aliens named the Na'vi, which are bigger, stronger and more resilient than humans. In order to communicate with the Na'vi, humans have grown avatars, human-Na'vi hybrids called avatars. Each hybrid is genetically compatible with just one human host, the host whose DNA was used for the hybrid. What do humans want on Pandora? They want unobtainium, a mysterious element which is very very rare and very very expensive on Earth, but is abundant on Pandora. So, the science team led by Dr. Grace Augustin [Sigourney Weaver] has the task to learn about the natives and try to get them to cooperate. But things are not what they seem to be, neither with the Na'vi nor with the human-avatar connection.

I am not going to say any more of the story of the movie, go and watch it. Just one last thing. Humans have destroyed the Earth, and they are seeking now, because of greed, to do the same on other worlds.
One word on the love story of the movie, which is well tied with the script, with no corny lines, or anything that might look out of place with the rest of the script. This is solid story-telling from the beginning til the end of the movie.

As far as acting goes, I would definitely say the best acting in the movie is done by Sigourney Weaver. I loved her character, and the way Sigourney portrays Dr. Grace Augustin, and how the scientist and humanist side of the character are shown throughout the movie.

A second best, in my opinion, has to be Zoe Saldana, as Neytiri, the Na'vi woman that rescues and teaches Jake the way of the Na'vi.


Sam Worthington as Jake Sully is quite good throughout the movie with a few excellent acting moments. I especially loved the beginning when he records how he got to Pandora, his voice being that of a sad man, who has almost given up, and how this changes throughout the movie. Another excellent moment is before the big battle, when Jake speaks to the tribe of the Na'vi, as Torouk Makto, and the last moment I have picked is at the end, when Jake speaks about his birthday.
I also love the soundtrack of the movie. It is well suited to the film, made for the film, and part of the film. However, I was able to listen to it during the movie, without being distracted by it. Part of this movie's magic, and one OST I will definitely be buying, probably online.

The best part of the movie is its stunning visuals. You could say the visual effects, but there is something more here. I fell in love with Pandora, with the Na'vi people, with the trees and the Ikran, with the Tree of Life... One of the moments I was stunned by the beauty of it all, was when I saw the night of Pandora, with the bioluminescent life forms.

All these images, from the beautiful nights to the hovering mountains of Pandora, have been burned into my memory; and Jake Sully, our protagonist, will have to see and not just with his eyes, but with his heart and he will have to use his avatar body to the fullest, to survive, to love and, ultimately, to save the Na'vi people.

This is one movie that I really enjoyed, I rode with Jake and Neytiri on the Ikran, I cried with the Na'vi, I fought with the Na'vi, I fully immersed myself in the world of Pandora.

I see you

New Moon

Yesterday, I went to see "New Moon" at the theatre. I have not read the books, so I cannot compare the two. I definitely want to read the books though, because I think that, at least the "New Moon" book, should be much better than the movie.

Let's start from the beginning though. With respect to the first movie of the series, (Twilight), "New Moon" is a definite loser. Twilight had more action and was not filled with cheesy romance and lines not even fit for a daydreaming teenager!

One of the most corny and ridiculous moments, was the scene where Jake takes off his T-shirt, and wipes the blood off Bella's forehead. I laughed really hard, because it was really obvious that the scene was meant for 15 year old girls to go "Ooooh" and "Aaahhh" at seeing Jake's quite athletic body. [I still prefer Edward!]

What I wanted to see and didn't get from this movie: more action! Werewolf vs. vampire! Not even a decent fight. There was only the one with Laurent, and Lawrent was just a wimp, as we already know from the last movie.

Where was Edward for more than half of the movie? Where were the vampires? Nowhere to be found. And I think that the absence of the Cullen and other vampires was what really was detrimental to the movie. Suddenly, Alice comes back to Forks, and the whole movie changes. There is action, interest peaks again and the race to save Edward... I hope we do get to see the Volturi again.

My advice? Keep the start and ending of the movie, the scenes with Laurent's death and when Bella realizes that Jake is a werewolf, and ditch all the romance between Jake and Bella.