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Certificate: 
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Release Date: 10 July 2008
Tagline: Take a trip down the aisle you’ll never forget.
Main Cast:
Meryl Streep … Donna Sheridan
Pierce Brosnan … Sam Carmichael
Plus many others including Colin Firth, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski
OK, all you’ve heard about Mamma Mia! is true. It’s a delight for ABBA fans, a chick flick and a gay man’s dream. However, if you are none of the above then please don’t rule it out, because it’s an absolute riot!
I loved the West End production, and, I have to say, had my reservations about a film version. I should never have doubted them. Yes the singing is at times somewhat ropey, but it’s the very fact that it is totally honest is what makes it so right.
Mamma Mia! is an unadulterated feel good film. Probably the best ever. Carling don’t do feel good movies, but if they did… ;-p
Heterosexual males – abandon your machismo for 108 minutes and just enjoy yourselves (only with your wives or girlfriends, of course… Just to preserve your image). After all, neither you or your mates are ever going to admit it to each other!
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P.S. Look out for a fleeting cameo from Benny Andersson. I didn’t know he was in it so I had to do a double take!
Certificate:
Director: Chris Weitz
Release Date: 5 December 2007
Tagline: “It is the Alethiometer. It tells the truth. As for how to read it, you’ll have to learn by yourself.”
Main Cast:
Nicole Kidman … Mrs Coulter
Daniel Craig … Lord Asriel
Dakota Blue Richards … Lyla
I generally like fantasy films and I was hoping for a slick film with adventure and a sturdy plot. Unfortunately, The Golden Compass is tedious, clichéd, confusing and poorly acted. I nearly switched it off on more than one occasion, but decided to stick with it.
There seems to be a worrying trend growing where some of our finest actors are becoming no more than bit parts in this genre (particularly Christopher Lee and Ian McKellen). As for the children, the obligatory ‘street urchins’ were too much for me to bear, and the children’s accents seemed to switch from slightly plummy to (embarrassingly bad) cockney with alarming regularity. Nicole Kidman’s talent is wasted in such rubbish and I wondered what she was doing in it. Her role was so undemanding that it could have been played by anyone with a modicum of talent.
Because it is flawed in almost every area it is very hard for me to come up with any redeeming features. However, I do like talking animals and it had a few of them in it 
Having said that though, they were neither engaging nor amusing and Iorek was too much like Aslan (of the Narnia Chronicles) for me.
Perhaps children in the age range of seven to twelve might enjoy this (mostly girls), but there are other films of this genre that are far superior (Stardust being one of them). I was glad when it ended and will not be watching any future sequels. Very disappointing.
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Director: Andrew Adamson
Release Date: 26 June 2008
Tagline: A new age has begun.
Main Cast:
Ben Barnes … Prince Caspian
Georgie Henley … Lucy Pevensie
Skandar Keynes … Edmund Pevensie
William Moseley … Peter Pevensie
Anna Popplewell … Susan Pevensie
Whilst I enjoyed TCoN: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I was not a huge fan of it. It looked very pretty, but seemed a bit bland to me. I must confess though, that I dislike ‘precious’ English children in films. They always simper a lot, and invariably can’t act. The actors that play the Pevensie children are no exception and I had an equally tough time watching them in this too. I did like Ben Barnes though as he’s not at all like the others. My dislike of English children aside though, I can’t say that I liked this any more than the first. I thought that at 150 minutes it was rather too long and I found myself losing interest. I seemed to ponder on how the Telmarine men (and possibly the women too) liked having beards. Even their masks had beards. Needless to say, Prince Caspian was handsomely clean shaven. I also never cease to be amazed at how quivers in the movies are magical – archers never, ever run out of arrows.
I should imagine that children from the age of about seven would really enjoy this, but the run time would almost certainly be too much for younger children to sit through. However, as I am reviewing this from an adult’s point of view, I shall rate it accordingly. I watch many children’s films, and I generally enjoy them (as you can see by my other reviews), so I don’t think I’m being unfair.
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Director: Edmund Goulding
Release Date: 22 April 1939
Main Cast:
Bette Davis … Judith Traherne
George Brent … Dr. Frederick Steele
Humphrey Bogart … Michael O’Leary
Geraldine Fitzgerald … Ann King
Ah… Bette Davis. There is none finer. An absolute gem of Hollywood’s golden years actors and, arguably, the finest of them all.
Bette Davis was one of a kind. She took on the studios and fought for better roles and was more than worth her weight in gold to Warner Bros.
Dark Victory is not only one of her more well known roles but is also one of her finest. I prefer the grittier characters that she played (such as her marvellous portrayals of Julie Morrison in Jezebel and Margo Channing in All About Eve), but she is still magnificent in this. She turns the sentimental and somewhat average storyline into something worthwhile.
Quite why we had to endure so much of the maid in the closing scene is beyond me though. Why waste such time with an absolute nobody in the script when they could have been showing us the wonderful Bette is beyond me.
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Director: Dave Filoni
Release Date: 15 August 2008
Tagline: Star Wars like you’ve never seen it before.
Main Cast: (voice)
Matt Lanter … Anakin Skywalker
James Arnold Taylor … Obi-Wan Kenobi / 4-A7 / Medical Droid
Ashley Eckstein … Ahsoka Tano
Christopher Lee … Count Dooku
Ian Abercrombie … Senator Palpatine / Darth Sidious
Tom Kane … Yoda / Narrator / Admiral Yularen
I am so sick of the Star Wars prequels whiners, and even more sick of those who hated them so much that they are seemingly willing to trash all present and future ventures. Why can’t these people get it into their heads that they have grown up (at least physically) and therefore must accept that there are going to be elements that seem pretty childish.
This is aimed at children but there is also plenty for us older fans to like. The battle scenes are pretty exciting, and the lightsaber duels are very good.
I really liked this and can’t understand the terrible reviews it had. One critic panned the animation, but I thought it was superb. The Clone Wars has a look and feel all its own and works well not only as a lead up to the new series, but also as a companion to the original Clone Wars animation shorts. I also can’t understand the same critic’s view that the actors were poor. I thought that James Arnold Taylor, Ian Abercrombie and Tom Kane were very convincing as Obi-Wan, Palpatine and Yoda respectively. Matt Lanter also made a credible Anakin.
I did find the character of Ahsoka quite annoying. I can understand that they needed to give Anakin someone to converse with, but they could have come up with a better character. I hated the nickname “Sky Guy” and I also didn’t like Jabba the Hutt calling his son “Punky Muffin”. That’s just plainly unacceptable and cheapens Jabba (whose voice actor was also very convincing).
Overall, it’s not perfect but if you can get over the “Sky Guy” and “Punky Muffin” atrocities then you’ll have a good time.
Rating:
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Director: Matthew Vaughn
Release Date: 19 October 2007
Tagline: This summer a star falls. The chase begins.
Main Cast:
Michelle Pfeiffer … Lamia
Claire Danes … Yvaine
Charlie Cox … Tristan
Robert De Niro … Captain Shakespeare
I really liked Stardust. It’s very enjoyable and a near perfect example of a family film. There’s plenty of humour in it (I especially liked Billy), the casting is very good (except for the abysmal Ricky Gervais) and there are lots of familiar faces for us Brits to look out for! It has a dark edge to it which raises it above the treacly sweet film it could have been.
Don’t be put off because it’s a family film. It’s well worth a look even if you don’t normally watch this type of film.
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Director: Robert Altman
Release Date: 5 January 2007
Tagline: Radio like you’ve never seen it before.
Main Cast: (many more than mentioned below)
Meryl Streep … Yolanda Johnson
Kevin Kline … Guy Noir
Ah… If only they were all more like this. Sadly though, this kind of film just doesn’t get made all that often because the majority of cinema goers are happy to watch dross. APHC is movie making at its best. The ensemble cast are perfect. There are clearly no egos vying for the most lines, the scene stealing moments etc. Robert Altman’s brilliant direction combined with the brilliant acting makes it all look so effortless.
I’m not going to bother to give you a synopsis. If you love films like I do then all you need to know is that it’s fantastic and that you won’t be disappointed.
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Director: David Silverman
Release Date: 25 July 2007
Tagline: See our family. And feel better about yours.
Main Cast: (voice)
Dan Castellaneta … Homer
Julie Kavner … Marge
Nancy Cartwright … Bart
Yeardly Smith … Lisa
I’m a big fan of The Simpsons (who isn’t?!) and doubted somewhat whether a film would work. It was obviously going to require some sort of plot to sustain the probable length of approximately 90 minutes (the film is actually 87 minutes), and I was unsure what they were going to come up with. Although I enjoyed the film (there are some very funny moments), I just couldn’t really get fully into it. The regular episodes all have believable plots (give or take a crazy moment or two), but the film strays from this somewhat! It also borrows heavily from overused storylines e.g. Lisa falls for another gentle soul who is just like her (his appearance in Springfield is rather Deus Ex Machina, which, oddly enough, they admit to doing in a different part of the film), and she’s on the environmental campaign trail once again. Ok, so this is The Simpsons, and a complex plot was neither expected or required. I just wish it had been a little more like real life.
So, did it work? Yes and no. It was an interesting experiment, but one that I don’t think needs to be repeated.
One last thing – if you watch through until the end of the credits, Maggie says her first word. Personally, I think this is a mistake. She should always remain the enigma that she is – has she not learned to speak yet, or does she just elect to be a wry observer who thinks that actions speak louder than words?
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Director: Akira Kurosawa
Release Date: 6 October 1980
Main Cast:
Tatsuya Nakadai … Shingen Takeda / Kagemusha
Tsutomu Yamazaki … Nobukado Takeda
Kenichi Hagiwara … Katsuyori Takeda
Due to reviews, I expected great things of this. Although I enjoyed it, I can’t say that it gripped me. I found it somewhat plodding, and 3 hours of a rather thin plot was stretched to the max. Although I will concede that such time was needed to portray the story effectively.
It looks great, and has a real feel of 16th Century Japan. It’s a very ‘sweeping’ epic, and the central performance by Tatsuya Nakadai is very good. Obviously, I can’t comment on the acting, as I am unqualified to judge non English speaking actors.
If you are a film lover or a fan of this period of Japanese culture, then you’ll get something out of this. However, if you are a ‘blockbuster junkie’, then don’t bother.
This is a very simplistic review, and I’m sure that many people will disagree with me. And, in turn, I would not disagree with them. This is just a personal view, and I am in no way rubbishing Kagemusha
The best thing to do is to watch and judge for yourself.
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Director: Jon Favreau
Release Date: 03 February 2006
Tagline: A new adventure from the world of Jumanji.
Main Cast:
Jonah Bobo … Danny
Josh Hutcherson … Walter
Dax Shepard … Astronaut
Zathura is a fantastic film that deserves a tagline far greater than that above. Jumanji was released in 1995 – a whole eleven years before this – so how on Earth do they expect kids to get excited about the mention of an old film that they’ve probably never heard of before, let alone seen?
Anyway, let the review begin!
The film is very original, and presses all my buttons! It’s sci-fi, it’s about an old board game that has been discovered at the back of a wardrobe (so to speak), and it’s a great adventure.
I loved every minute of of Zathura, and I can’t imagine a child out there who wouldn’t. Unless, that is, they are devoid of imagination. Oh, and if they are very ‘girly’ girls who think that space and rockets and aliens are ‘boring’ and would rather play with their plastic pink princess castles & such tripe. Needless to say, I have nothing in common with these girls, and as such, it is very unlikely that I will ever be reviewing a crappy girlie or ‘teen’ movie.
But I digress (and not for the first time on this site!).
If you possess an imagination, and have the same buttons as I do, then watch Zathura – I don’t care how old you are!
It’s a film that I would happily watch again.
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