I was so surprised by this movie. As someone who hadn’t read the comic books and had no idea who, or what Ironman was, I expected an action-packed movie with a mediocre storyline that would be worth seeing, but nothing more… How wrong I was.

Ironman is an excellent movie, it does lack action sequences (I expected to see a lot more fighting from the robot), but actually I have to say, you don’t notice they aren’t there… The movie stands up with a strong storyline, superb dialogue and most surprisingly, perhaps, an actor absolutely perfect for the role of Ironman.

Tony Stark is the head (and genius) of a weapons manufacturer, he is proud of what he does and doesn’t seem to care about the destruction he causes. This character is oddly accepted in the real-world also and this is one of the many messages this movie seems to be trying to send to it’s audience.

When in Afghanistan on a weapons demonstration exercise, Tony Stark is taken captive by a group of ‘rebels’ located in the mountain ranges it is thought are occupied by Bin Laden in real-life. The weapons used to attack the military convoy he is in – are his own weapons. They are holding him and expect him to build one of the missiles the rebels witnessed being demonstrated. Stark decides that he should instead build a weapon that will allow him to escape. He builds “Ironman.”

After a very cool escape from the cave he was held in, Stark returns to America and decides to shut down weapon production until it can be better traced where his weapons are going… He then becomes obsessed with developing and perfecting his Ironman prototype and with his new found ‘good heart’, he begins to try to rid the world of the weapons he sold to what he believes is the wrong side…

Go out and see this movie! The storyline is excellent, the special effects are very good and although there are a lack of action scenes, it doesn’t feel like it. The perfect actor was cast for the role of Ironman and his delivery of some extremely witty dialogue is worth the price of admission alone…

I wonder how many will get the movie reference…? I’m not talking about Family Guy!

Go on, stare at it...

Will Smith plays a Military Virologist in New York City, he is alone and hasn’t seen another Human Being for three years. He is all alone because three years earlier, Dr. Alice Krippin created a genetically re-engineered Measles vaccine capable of curing Cancer in all forms. The Virus mutated those who took it and mutated itself, turning Humans into Rabid animals interested only in eating living flesh.

So Robert Neville (Will Smith) stays behind while everyone else without symptoms evacuates New York City so he can try to create a cure based upon his own immunity. His wife and daughter are dead because of a helicopter crash during the evacuation and his only company is the Dog handed to him as a Puppy by his daughter during that evacuation.

Reduced to a wonderful mix of primitive and modern living, Neville drives around in cars of his choosing, hunting for animal meat with Dog and Gun but all the while fearing the shadows and the Sunset. The first time we see Neville board himself up inside his building with steel shutters and shake from fear in the bathtub we begin to get an idea of the horror that emerges each and every night.

Eventually the mutants begin to show intelligence by setting a trap for Neville, leaving him hanging by his foot until Sunset. Having just managed to escape after attack by infected Dogs, there is a harrowing scene where his Dog succumbs to the Virus and turns, giving him no other choice but to choke his only friend to death.

Enraged at losing his friend, Neville sets out the next night to hunt the infected and commit suicide in the process. Just as he is about to have his face bitten off by the apparent leader of the group he was hunting, he is saved… He drops in and out of unconsciousness, but was just able to tell the woman who had saved him where he lived.

Neville awakes the following morning to find himself no longer alone. He finds it hard to accept that there is someone around who talks back to him and ate the bacon that he was saving for a special occasion but eventually, because of the child the woman brought with her, opens up to them.

Will Smith and friend; all alone in New York City.

Getting ever closer to the cure, Neville and his new friends close the shutters as normal that night when suddenly the groans of the infected can be heard louder than ever in the distance, it is then that Neville realises they must have followed them the previous night and tonight they were going to try to get into his home. Neville launches all his defence mechanisms including explosives, but that doesn’t stop some of the infected getting through. Neville and his new friends end up down in the Laboratory where to their amazement the subject he had been testing his latest cure on, is getting better.

Neville frantically shouts through the glass to the infected who’re trying to break-in, telling them he can save them. Eventually realising they are beyond his help he passes the information on the cure to the woman who had saved him, tells them to stay in the bunker at the back of the laboratory until morning, grabs a hand-grenade from the drawer and waits for the leader of the infected to break through the glass…

Alpha Male (left), Will Smith (right). Shot is from the alternate version of the movie (which is much better).

STORY

While this adaptation of the book does differ from it quite a bit, it is a very good ending. The story perhaps fits this era better than any other and this is much, much more than a Zombie picture.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

I have absolutely no idea how they achieved the level they did with this movie, most impressively New York City looks as deserted as it should… All of the animals, vegetation, even the infected, they all look absolutely fantastic and it is worth seeing this movie for these alone.

ACTING

There really is only one recognizable name in this movie and really only one actor. Will Smith doesn’t carry this movie – the story does – but if the story wasn’t up to par, the acting would be… Smith is capable of talking to manikins and makes it a convincing conversation! The performance by the Dog was also impressive and it really is heart-breaking when Neville (Will Smith) has to choke him.

WORTHINESS

The movie does seem short and really that is no surprise because apart from the flashbacks to the evacuation, all the action takes places over a few days. I really liked Zombie movies in the past and this a fantastic modern spin on the book, but it does have a totally different ending… I’d suggest reading the book also if you like the movie. The movie itself is absolutely worth seeing as long as you don’t expect the plot of the book to feature very much.

Buy on DVD: Amazon (USA) | Amazon (UK)

It begins with the 10-year-old Myers living with his mother, baby sister, older sister and step-father. The step-father is abusive and aggressive, the mother is a stripper, the older sister is a bit of an easy-lay and the baby is obviously, innocent.

Myers initially begins to torture and kill animals, disturbing to say the least when you see this young child doing it from behind a clown mask… Once discovered to be mentally unbalanced with the early warning sign of attacking vulnerable things like animals, he runs away to take care of a bully larger than he is, beating him to death with a shovel.

Returning home his mother doesn’t recognize how damaged her son is and only knows about the animals, she goes to work and while she is away Myers proceeds to wipe out the whole family with the exception of his baby sister. Committed to a detention center, Myers becomes the study piece for a Doctor who does seem to want to help him but when he is left alone with a photo of him and his sister, Myers strikes, attacking a nurse with a fork.

After the attack on the nurse, Myers’ mother returns home and kills herself…

15 years later Myers escapes from the detention unit in a massacre, finding his way to the small town in Illinois where he grew up looking for his baby sister, now a teenager, with friends similar to Myers’ older sister. He goes on a rampage, killing everyone on his path to his sister while sitting in the house he grew up in…

Myers seems to be trying to reform his family as he collects his mother’s tombstone, one of his sister’s friends (to take the place of his easy-lay older sister), so when he eventually captures his younger sister, he seems satisfied. He kneels there with the picture of him and his baby sister and hands it to her, but she doesn’t understand… She was never told who she is.

She decides to try to get Myers’ knife, stabbing him in his shoulder then attempting to escape, as things wind down you find yourself wondering how much longer it’s going to take before Myers (who has now become angry and wants to kill his sister rather than just “collect” her) finds her…

She eventually escapes but as you’ll know if you’ve seen the rest of the movies… He isn’t dead.

So I was left with a few thoughts and questions about the movie…
It is a great movie, well-worth seeing if you like horror. There’s a lot of young breasts on display, so however you feel about that is up to you… We had a laugh in the movie theatre when one of the slutty girls says: “See anything you like?” and a guy behind us shouted “Boobies!” You also find yourself kind of understanding Myers mind, you understand the bullying he got from his step-father, sister and external influences and you really begin to think… But it doesn’t stop you being horrified by what he does during the movie.

Two questions:
1. How did the police know to go to the house his sister was babysitting at down the street, rather than the house the Police were called to (and the call to 911 was made from)? Who wrote this script!? ;) Actually this is the only error I can spot in the movie and it’s minor, I normally spot more errors than one the first time I watch a movie!
2. Would Myers have killed her, if she hadn’t snatched his knife and drilled it into his shoulder?

They enlist Scotty Smalls (played by Tom Guiry) who (at first) really isn’t good at the game as a player and this group of kids develop a nice friendship over time.

As Smalls gets better at the game and gets closer to his friends, he is told about a local legend concerning a house beside the lot… The house is guarded by a huge monster and nobody has ever managed to get a baseball back when it went over the fence…

When the kids lose their last ball over the fence, Smalls goes to his house to borrow his Step Dad’s ball signed by a “lady” called Babe Ruth (who most people will know, is a man who played for the Yankee’s, who most people consider the best ballplayer ever)…

The other kids, who all know exactly who Babe Ruth is, don’t notice the writing on the ball. They put Smalls in to bat and when he hits his first home run everyone is delighted, except Smalls… As the ball goes sailing over the fence Smalls breaks the news to the other kids and they break the news to him that the ball he just lost is priceless…

The kids decide that they have to get the ball back and after a load of wonderfully amusing schemes, things really get interesting when the kids find themselves face-to-face with “the monster”…

A great family movie whether you know anything about baseball, or not. Plus, with quotes like: “You’re killin’ me Smalls!” – what better childhood movie could there be? It really makes you look back on your youth and remember all the wonder and magic the world once held. :)

You can buy The Sandlot here.

When the born to win “good guy” skater Jimmy MacElroy (played by Jon Heder) wins gold he has to share it with the “naughty lady-chaser” Chazz Michael Michaels (played by Will Ferrell). Their rivalry bursts out into a fist fight on the top step of the medal podium, the resulting ban from skating meaning both skaters soon hit rock bottom.

As you watch the two main characters in amusing situations trying to make money and survive outside of skating, things settle down until a crazed fan tells the pair that they could compete as a couple.

Things get funnier as you see the couple having to touch each other in places they really don’t want while being spied on by the “evil skating pair” who do not want them to win.

Everything comes to a head at the next championship, where the male couple compete against the evil couple for the gold medal…

This movie is very funny and is well worth going to see. The plot does struggle at times but the laughs keep coming… Sorry there’s not much information in this review, but I don’t want to spoil anything!

Click here to buy Blades of Glory.

After the Virginia Tech. shootings recently, video games were blamed, of course.

The guy who killed those teachers and students at Virginia Tech had mental problems. If he or anyone with mental problems goes out and kills people of course they could have been effected by video games! But, if they were not effected by video games, they would have been by movies, music or even “real life” and the reason for that effect is – they’re not normal people. Normal people are not effected by video games.

If someone is a nutcase, they may end up killing people – yes – but the reason won’t be video games, it won’t be movies, it won’t even be what the gunman decides to blame… The reason will be that the person is a nutcase! It’s real easy to find something or someone to blame, we can all do that, but how about blaming the person who actually did it for a change?