Real Movie Review-Movie Reviews, Movie Quotes, Movie Trivia

Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen,
Viggo Mortenson, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett,
John Noble, John Rhys-Davies.

Director: Peter Jackson

The final chapter of this classic fantasy trilogy is better than the second. It wasn’t good enough to deserve the Best Picture Oscar, but Jackson’s accomplishment, artistically, economically, and logistically earned him the respect of the entire movie world which culminated in this win.
This is the climax of Tolkien’s tale. There is a giant, desperate battle at Minas Tirith, romantic decisions for Aragorn, a gruesome scoring competition between Gimli and Legolas, some serious dramatic moments for jesters, Merry and Pippen and, best of all, the impossible voyage for Frodo, Sam and Gollum as they sneak through Sauron’s back yard, culminating in a very good ending.
This is a wonderful payoff for loyalty to the series and, thankfully, no olliphants were harmed during the making of this film. Get some rest, pack plenty of food and water and set out with grim, steely determination to watch this movie.

Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Ian McKellen,
Viggo Mortenson, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett.

Director: Peter Jackson

The second installment of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy is the weakest length, but is still excellent. The superb visuals are back with larger battles and new strange characters, but some the action scenes go on too long in this chapter and they prove to be a slight drag on the story. As well, there are more departures from the text to add romance than I would have liked, and other changes that I won’t mention in case the reader has somehow still not seen this film. These are minor complaints, however. The film only suffers in comparison with the other two.
In this part of the story, Frodo and Sam are on their own, but are soon joined by the amazing computer generated character of Gollum, who is a wonderfully dangerous and intriguing conflicted character. Meanwhile the rest of the remaining fellowship find their own adventures in the larger scale battles of the expanding war, while encountering the tree herding ents as well as new and old friends and enemies. Gimli and Legolas have larger roles here and their characters are much more developed.
Once again, I found the sets, scenery and characters to be striking, and far above almost any other films, but I did find this one to be long (particularly the extended version). Still is part of one of the greatest stories ever told on film.

300 (2007) ****

Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Heady, Dominic West, David Wenham & Vincent Regan.

Director: Zack Snyder

Prepare for Gory! I mean glory! But, anyway, either one fits. This is a full out action epic in the tradition of Braveheart and Gladiator and will be loved by those who enjoyed those efforts.

300 tells the story of the war-obsessed Greek city state of Sparta and its King Leonidus who takes 300 warriors to prevent a massive force of really ugly Persian invaders from entering their lands. The real start of this film was the innovative vision of Zack Snyder who wrote the screenplay from a graphic novel by Frank Miller (the Sin City guy), and directed the cast of unknowns. The characters are one-dimensional and their enemies are caricatures, but Snyder rivets us to the screen with a look reminiscent of Lord of The Rings, but with lots of slow motion, striking images, contrasted colors and dramatic use of sound. The story is simple and one you have seen many times before, but it works here.

The action junkies will flock to 300 and be glad that they did. FOR SCOTLAND!!! I mean FOR SPARTA!!!

Director: Michael Bay

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, John Turturro

Well, to be fair, let me start out by saying that I am not in the target demographic for this film. It seems to be aimed at the 8-15 crowd and those who still buy toys and claim that they are ‘collecting’. So, bear that in mind and take my views with a grain of salt, because it appears that Michael Bay is our first serious entry in the 2007 Golden Toilet Award, for producing the most expensive piece of crap of the year. The effects are great, but lose their appeal wayyy before the final credits roll. The dialogue ranges from the occasional funny quip to self-important unintentionally funny drivel. The story…well, it’s based on the Transformers, so the story is, of course, ridiculous

Shia LaBeouf is Sam Witwicky, an uncool high school kid whose first car is determined to help win over the school Hot Girl, (Mikaela, played by Megan Fox). This would seem to be kinda strange behaviour for a Camero, until Sam’s beater turns out to be an intelligent alien robot disguised as a car (I could have used one of those in high school). It seems that several of these impressive techno wonders have come to Earth. Some want to find a lost techno artifact (kinda their Mom if I followed the story, right) that will give them universe ruling power. The other bunch of them consider us humans far too valuable to be harmed in any battle for interstellar domination and have come to protect us and destroy the cube. I think I heard that this was based on a true story.

Okay, okay, I have been harsh. All that was missing here were cereal and toy commercials. This is a 50 million dollar Saturday morning cartoon. There is little here for adults to enjoy, though the high-end action content will appeal to some. The end result is Independence Day punched up with a few jokes and crossed with Christine (the killer car Stephen King flick). Its set up for a sequel, but Transformers 2 will be on Cajun Carl’s ‘to watch’ list. I did my share. I guess it’s suitable for fathers looking to spend some time with their sons, but I think there are better choices out there for that too.

What is this? A fourth paragraph? MMM NEVER does a 4th paragraph (I’m too lazy). Well, I guess I do when I have something to add. Maybe i was too harsh on this one. People who grew up watching the cartoon seem to enjoy it, so lets add that to the reccomended viewers list. If you liked the cartoon, then chances are you will like this.