Reviews

The story of a blind masseur, who turns out to be a superb swordsman, and master of martial arts. Visually the movie is a feast, plenty of colour in the costumes shot against the backdrop of bland buildings and countryside, in bad weather as often as not.

As previous commentors have said, arty direction, interesting characters, and excellent swordplay. While it is not too gory, there is plenty of blood, and on the whole it's well done, although there are many places where it is ovious that the blood is digitally edited in after filming. The subtitles are well placed on screen, very readable, and not intrusive at all.

I give this a 9, with slightly better CGI, this would have been a 10.

or better?? This film leaves a slightly unsatisfied feeling after viewing. Despite actually learning more about the cube's builders/perpetrators, the viewer is left with even more questions than at the end of the first film.

The actual extension of the cube into a 4th dimension was a logical progression, and the way the filmakers have shown this is quite clever, and the viewer will probably not notice some clues at the time, but later in the film will realise that they had seen them. CG is on the whole good and reasonably unintrusive.

Now we can but wait for the next edition - will it be a prequel? explaining how the cube came to be? or will it be cube 3 (cube cubed?)

7 / 10

How often does a truly original storyline come along? Imagine you have no way of moving memory from short term (say, 1 minute) to long term (say yesterday). Now put yourself in the place of someone who has this condition, yet is trying to find his wife's killer. The story is not, as you would expect, about the search for the killer, but about the way the search is carried out.

Guy Pearce has proved here that he is in the Hollywood A list, a far cry from tacky Australian Soap, Neighbours - a long journey hindered at the start with his performance in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. And an unheard of director brings fresh approaches to the murder mystery film. Why this film did not win awards by the bucketload is beyond me. One of the very few 10/10 films, and a definite addition to the "DVD to buy list"

I wasn't even going to go see this movie after the disaster of the first one, but ended up going with friends. My main problem with the first movie was the omission of several scenes which are key to the plot, and Columbus seems to have sorted this out with number 2. Ok, many scenes are missing, which are in the book, but the ones left out this time don't form part of the crucial chain in the story.

CGI, and SFX in general, is much better also than in the first film, although the flying car is a bit like a 1960s kids TV programme. The spiders and Dobby are excellent, as is the remainder of the CG aspects. The acting could still do with some improvement, though.

Overall, 8 out of 10.

Arturo Sandoval is one of the greatest jazz trumpeters ever, standing alongside the likes of Miles Davis, Louis Armstronmg and Arturo's great friend Dizzie Gillespie. This biopic tells of his struggles with the repressive government of his native Cuba, the internal politics of his family and of course his need to play great music.

Well acted, although there are no standard movie tricks and plot twists, just straight depiction of the people of Cuba of the time (early 80s) and the paranoia of the USA with anything Cuban.

The really outstanding aspect of the movie is the souindtrack - Arturo himself plays many of the songs, and is credited with scoring and producing many of the tracks used, as well as playing on them.

Watch the movie, buy the soundtrack CD.

Hmm, maybe. The story is much more clever, much more detailed and extremely well presented. Well done to both scriptwriter and director.

Wesley Snipes is... well.... Wesley Snipes. He IS Blade.

Some good humour in this one, more so than Blade 1. Some great fight sequences, especially the opening scene.

Watch out for the deleted scenes on the second disc of the DVD release. There's nothing much here at all. Maybe a little bit that was cut or changed, but not worth it. The whole second disc is a waste of money.

Roll on Blade III.

9/10

Well, okay, the story is good, the acting, especially by Samantha Morton (in something of a reprise of her role in "Sweet and Lowdown" although she speaks in this, but it's still minimal - what a star she's becoming) is top notch, but this film is let down in a number of ways.

It's a bit too grainy. Ok, atmosphere is fine, but this is too much. It actually detracts (for this viewer) from the plot. So much hinges on technology that it loses validity when shot in some 50s B-movie quality. The jet-copter used is very reminiscent of the classic "Metropolis", giving a very dated feel, especially combined with the grainy film, yet we are then expected to believe all the rest of the technology. Nah, doesn't work.

"Blair Witch"-esque camera work also spoils the film. Jerky camera movement abounds, quite literally, in some pathetic effort to make you feel a part of the chase. Hey, we can see them running, we know they're running, now can we see detail instead of the picture jumping all over the screen?

As for product placement. There's been a lot of talk about intrusive advertising, but this is an important part of the plot. The fact that the companies involved are actual companies selling today just adds realism (and a part of the budget too, the cynic in me tends to think)

All in all, a movie worth watching, but wait till it comes out on DVD/video and rent it. Don't waste a lot of money going to the cinema - and definitely don't waste even more buying it on DVD.

Overall, 5 out of 10.

This film might not have the special effects and big name actors that it's better know counterpart has, but it has a far more intricate plot. The juxtaposition of technologies and lifestyles is effective and sits slightly uncomfortable on the viewer, creating an unease and tension all of it's own. It is very well directed and acted, and the storyline with it's numerous twists within twists keeps the viewer enthralled right from the start, and holds you there to the very end.

If you haven't seen it, watch it now.

I loved this. A story of a fictional character, portrayed as documentary, the viewer is drawn in, particularly by the believable performances from all the cast, Samantha Morton and Sean Penn in particular. They both deserved the nominations they received for these roles. Morton especially since she had no words, only expressions, to carry meaning, and she succeeds.

In addition, if you like jazz, there is simply some fantastic music to be heard. Apparently Penn had never played guitar before this movie, and while it is unlikely that he was able to play to this standard, he nevertheless carries off miming very well.

Great music, great film. 10/10

The industry chiefs need to get this through their heads: Chris Columbus is not good at book adaptations. Look what he did to Asimov's Bicentennial Man. Now he's gone and done the same to HP. 1 out of 10 here, for what should have been 10.

The book is a quarter of the way through before Harry encounters Hagrid, yet in the film the title sequence is barely over. The viewer loses sight of the fact that he is mistreated at home.

Similarly, several other turning points in the story are just not in the film.

If you haven't seen it yet - don't bother. Read the book instead.

Acting and Casting: pretty good. Maggie Smith and Robbie Coltrane steal the show. The three kid actors are ok, but I've seen better in TV series. Richard Harris is ok, but is just not Dumbledore. Too serious by far. Better would have been Graham Crowden or Freddie Jones, both could have brought just a little bumbling into the character. Alan Rickman is good, but is not menacing enough. In the books, he simply oozes nastiness, in the film he's bland. Both the Richard Harris and Alan Rickman problems are directorial errors, rather than lack of abilities on the part of the actors.

Effects: on the whole, very good and not too intrusive. On the down side,the troll is a joke. It looks like a cartoon, and is not in the slightest a terrifying sight - no wonder Hermione doesn't seem scared. On the plus side, the entrance to Diagon Alley is superb, and the quidditch game is likewise.

Storyline: On the whole it is good. You are always going to miss some parts of the book in an adaptation, but here there are important sections missing, notably the "Norbert" dragon sequence ending with the trip to the top of the tower where Harry loses his invisibility cloak, which is returned to him. Also the sequence where Hermione chooses the potions in Snape's trap. Aside from this, most of the important tags are there, with one or two new episodes to replace large amounts of text. However, unforgiveable is the lack of attention to the Dursley family. They are what makes Harry Harry, as much as his parentage. The book is a quarter of the way through before Hagrid arrives on the scene, yet in the film, the titles are barely over. Likewise, the replacement of one enemy (the Dursleys, Dudley in particular) with another (Slytherin, Malfoy in particular) shows as a shallowness in Harry's character in the final cut.

Having said all that, both I and my Kids (18 and 16) thoroughly enjoyed all 153 minutes, and will probably watch it again. It's a definite addition to the "DVD to buy" list.

Overall 7 out of 10