Updatathon Part 4 AKA the end of the updatathon

That's right folks this brings us completely up to date, so expect me to go missing for a month or so again. Here comes the end of it then

The Frighteners

The birth of WETA and Peter Jackson’s first big budgeted effort, tonnes of fun and is a nice balance of his old low budget horror comedies and his more recent huge budget efforts. Thumbs Up

Four Rooms

What happens when fame goes to your head, you and your friends make an incoherent mess like this, on their own Tarantino and Rodriguez’s sections are good, Ander's and Rockwell's are horrible. Thumbs in the Middle

The Man

Somebody has pictures of Samuel L. Jackson blowing a horse or something or he takes drugs before he chooses the films he wants to do as the amount of shite he does is unbelievable. Thumbs Down

An American Haunting

BORING, if I was haunted like this I really wouldn't be too bothered. Thumbs Down

King Kong

Still brilliant and oh so beautiful in HD

The Illusionist

The other magician film form last year, Jessica Biel's in this so you know it's going to at least be watchable on one level, as it is I slightly prefer the prestige but this is still excellent. Particularly the shooting style which makes the film look almost like the photographs of the era the film is set in. Thumbs Up

The Science Of Sleep

Weird combination of dream state and real life that will fuck with your head in the really good way. Two thumbs Up

Boy's Don't Cry

Hillybilly's get slightly upset when their sisters new boyfriend turns out to be girl, by slightly upset I mean beats the fuck out and kills. Thumbs Up

Assault On precinct 13

I love the carpenter film and had been against this, but as with the Dawn Of the Dead remake it's a lot of fun and if they had just named it slightly different I might have liked it that bit more. Thumbs Up

Freedomland

More Samuel L. Jackson Shite, Thumbs Down

The Good Shepard

How can the history of the birth of the C.I.A. be so dull. Thumbs in the Middle

Two Lane Blacktop

One of the beach boys and some guy from another band I can't remember race cross country without really racing, nothing much happens but I enjoyed it anyway for it's quirkiness. Thumbs Up

The Weather Man

Trailer I saw for this made it look like some osrt of guy goes crazy and start running round the place with a bow and arrow, in reality it was an above average family drama. Thumbs Up

Children Of Men

Still brilliant and oh so beautiful in HD

Ghost Rider

I wish my eyes would burn like Ghost rider's victims so that I can forget how awful this was. Thumbs Down

Lone Wolf McQuade

Chuck Norris and David Carridine, you now this is going to be cheesy greatness, highlight is Chuck running straight at a guy firing a machine gun when he only has a hand grenade, skilfully side stepping the bullets before blowing the guy up. Thumbs in the middle

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

The best of the prequels and on a completely different topic the only film I have ever saw projected digitally in a cinema. Thumbs Up

The Secret Of Nimh

Kids films need to be more like this nowadays, loads of fucked up dark imaginary that will give them nightmares for weeks, that’s what I had growing up and it did me no harm right, right?. Thumbs Up

Little children

The return from prison of a local paedophile shakes up a local neighbourhood, then cuts his dick off, its more complex than that but that’s the gist. Thumbs in the Middle

The Benchwarmers

My brain has forced me to forget this, thank you brain, I love you. Thumbs Down

The Prestige

Still brilliant and oh so beautiful in HD

Five easy pieces

Apparently ground breaking for its time but I found it pretty dull. Thumbs in the Middle

Raising Cain

One of Brian DePalma interesting failures, while not great overall it has his usual fantastic set pieces and a great mental performance from John Lithgow. Thumbs Up

300

See grown men fight in there pants, the style is initially jarring but when you get used to it the film becomes highly entertaining. Thumbs Up

Altered

Blair witch director's resurface, with some shite about alien abductees taking revenge. thumbs Down

Tsotsi

South African film that I started to hit fast forward on when it turned from gangster pic to babysitter movie. Thumbs in the Middle

Angel - A

Luc Besson finally resurfaces as a director, the black and white photography of Paris is gorgeous. The film is a throw back to Luc's earlier French films and is a bit hit and miss from scene to scene. Thumbs in the Middle

Thank you for smoking

Smokings bad MMMkay. Unless your job is to tell us there not. I found it thinking its too clever for me to find it funny. Thumbs in the Middle

When a stranger calls

Why when people receive prank phone calls etc. do they a). feel the need to stay on the line instead of hanging up b). when the calls are continuous feel the need to answer the phone every bloody time. This is basically that for 90 minutes. Thumbs Down

Blades Of Glory

Will Ferrell ice skating comedy, bit more hit and miss than Talladega nights but enough laughs to get the Thumbs Up

Big Nothing

Simon Pegg pretends to be American and rather badly at that, Starts out well but gets completely nonsensical about 30 minutes in. Thumbs in the Middle

Stay Alive

Kids play computer game, die in computer game then die the same way in real life. Just as horribly bad as it sounds. Thumbs Down

DreamGirls

Fine for the first hour when its a story with musical numbers and Eddie Murphy is channelling 1980's Eddie Murphy, but goes all weird in the second half when it turns into a musical and they all start singing to each other between songs. Thumbs in the Middle

Hot Fuzz

Still brilliant and oh so beautiful in HD, spotted a bunch of jokes I missed last time from laughing too much

Letters From Iwo Jima

Second part of Clint Eastwoods Iwo Jima double, this time from the Japanese point of view, shock horror the Japanese where not pure evil but regular folks just like us, when it wasn't forcing this point it was a pretty cool war flick, I am still to see Flags Of our Father which is the US side of things so it will be interesting to see how they intertwine. Thumbs Up


Still to come, a list of the shite I bought since my last update and maybe the best of 2006 version 2

Updatathon Part 3 AKA the worlds slowest updatathon

And there is still more to come after this, so here we go

The Matrix Reloaded

Up it's own arse but I love the action sequences. Thumbs Up

Domino

So Lazy, find the previous review

Les Diaboliques

Great 1950's french missing dead body thriller, one of the one I had heard about for ages and actually liked when I finally saw it. Thumbs Up

The Sin Eater

Dull, Dull, Dull Thumbs Down

The Outfit

Semi follow up to Point Blank, its from the same series of books, can't really remember much about it. Thumbs in the middle

Paycheck

Weak Woo, but mindless fun non the less, now that he has gone back to china hopefully he can regain some of the old magic. Thumbs Up

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

The first one I ever saw and the main reason I never give the rest of the series a proper chance, it's not as bad as I remember but its still not good compared to the other entries. Thumbs in the Middle

A Better Tomorrow

Some of the old magic I mentioned above, woo's first masterpiece, made Chow yun Fat and two handed gunplay cool, despite the bad 80's jumpers chow wears throughout the film. Two Thumbs Up

The Matrix Revolutions

Still up its own arse but I still enjoy the action. Thumbs Up

Manic

Kid with issues goes to mental hospital, fucks about awhile then grows to love the place. Thumbs in the Middle

Devil in a blue dress

Been meaning to watch this for years and wish I had done it earlier, great noir thriller starring Denzel. Hollywood for some reason only visits this genre about once every five years now which is disappointing as the films they finally produce are usually excellent, e.g. L.A. Confidential. Two Thumbs Up

The Dark

Should be hidden in the dark never to be seen again, garbage. thumbs down

Tell Me Something

Korean Serial killer movie so you know fucked things will be included, though having been made in 1999 its a bit more restrained and slower paced then recent Korean output but great none the less. Thumbs Up

Deja Vu

Good idea sort of badly executed here, the bad execution being that most of the science made no sense, cool explosions though. thumbs Up

The Fountain

No idea what was going on or what it ultimately was all about, but I really liked it anyway

UnderWorld Evolution

Might have reviewed this here before and gave it a bad rep, found it far more entertaining this time though. Thumbs Up

Black Ceasar

Blaxploitation version of little ceasar, as with most blaxploitation flicks it's averageness is hidden by a great soundtrack and pimp ass costumes. Thumbs in the Middle

Rambo: First Blood Part II

Written by Mr Titanic himself James Cameron, this ditches story line for blowing shit up, which is never a bad thing, worth watching for the guy getting killed by the exploding arrow alone, that bad boy got rewound about a billion times when I was a kid. Thumbs Up

In the heat of the night

The only problem with the decline of racism is you can't fill your films full of dumb ass red necks who think a man is stupid just cause he is black, then act more retarded when the so called idiot completely out smarts them in the most simplest way possible. Anyway Sydney Poitier is awesome in this. Especially when he bitch slaps the rich white man for giving him some lip. Thumbs Up

Rocky Balboa

Cheese factor 90, it brilliance could only be improved by a scene of Apollo Creed's ghost training Rocky. Thumbs Up

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Pure genius from Will Ferrel again, haven't laughed so hard at a film in ages. Thumbs Up

The Long Riders

Western starring the Keach's the Carridine's the Quaid's and the Guest brothers. All that needs to be said really, awesome actors being awesome. Thumbs UP

Dumplings

This the extended version of one of the mini Stories in Three..Extremes which results in it being less creepy due to the added story which reduces the impact of an abortionist who uses the dead foetus's to make dumplings that can reverse the aging process. Thumbs in the middle

Confetti

British attempt at the Christopher Guest style improvised Mockumentary, it's very hit and miss and has the misfortune of letting you see all of Mitchell or Webb's bits I never remember which ones which, it not the ugly one of the two so its not quite as horrific as it could have been. Thumbs in the Middle

Ice Harvest

John Cusack and Billy Bob Thorton, should be good right, nope garbage. Thumbs Down

Sugarland Express

Speilberg's first proper studio movie (Dual was a TV movie) you can see the start of his style and the themes of family etc. that have become his trademarks over the years. Thumbs in the Middle

Bound For Glory

Biopic of Woody Guthrie, beautifully shot but suffered a bit too much of needing prior knowledge of Guthrie life which I don't know much of. Thumbs in the Middle

Jarhead

The old review is out there somewhere, watched in georgeilious HD this time though.

Rambo 3

Damn Ruskies this time, and as with most three's the weakest of the series. Thumbs in the Middle

Slaughter's big rip off

cheesy Blaxploitation. Thumbs in the Middle

Hammer

cheesy Blaxploitation. Thumbs in the Middle

To be continued...