As it's been a long time since I posted, here's a big list of some of the movies I've seen in the last couple of months:

• Beowulf: Saw it this weekend in IMAX 3D. The movie is pretty decent, much better than the trailers made it look, but the IMAX 3D made the actual experience absolutely amazing. It made a 7/10 movie a 9/10 movie - on a normal screen, or at home on DVD it would have been nowhere near as much fun.
• Deck The Halls: Is a big pile of poo. Would be poor for a direct to TV movie, how this thing ever made it into theatres I don't know. Avoid like the plague.
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Due to a ridiculous amount of spam being received, comments are now turned off again...

Finally got around to watching this recently, as indifferent reviews at the time of release had put me off. Well, they were right.

If ever a film was simply 'going through the motions', this is it. It's fine, disposable, fun with a few good action beats and a couple of good laughs, but completely missing any nuance either from the actors, script and director. It reminded me of Ghost Rider, in that had a similar feeling of getting some decent visual effects on the screen, having a more-or-less faithful version of the comics story/characters but ultimately leaving you feeling like... oh, that's it. You never care about the characters or the jeopardy they are facing.

I love YouTube, it's like the new Napster for being able to just find anything you want - video or music, and occasionally you stumble over some random lost gem. Like this video of Mike Scott playing The Whole Of The Moon for an audience of schoolchildren in Ireland in 1987.

I don't know if it's just me, but recently a lot of games I have played seem to be missing something. Fun. Technically they look awesome and there's a lot to do, but I just haven't felt the need to sit in front of them for hours and try to complete them. Enter Gun.

I had read some pretty good reviews, and being an older game I knew I could pick it up pretty cheap and I'm glad I did. This is what I wish more games were like. A story to keep you hooked, but not so full of details and backstory to bore you. A variety of missions, but it's not too long to get tedious. It's challenging in places, but not so hard to make you give up.

While looking on the net for a copy of The Wedding Present's "Rocket" cover version, I came across this video of the original. I always loved the Wedding Present version, but can't remember hearing the original ever. Oh well, and it's by Mud (them of the Xmas song fame)...

Most unexpected, yet predictable news I have heard this weekend is that the people behind the awesome Lego Star Wars are going to make Lego Indiana Jones game next year. Yeah! Also, tucked away at the bottom of the article is the announcement of Lego Batman.

Article here: Lego Indiana Jones

Other Lego games they need to do:

• Lego James Bond
• Lego Lord of the Rings
• Lego Matrix
• Lego Godfather... :)

Breach - a great CIA thriller, a very slow, small scale drama, but with great performances and there's just something interesting about it.

Shooter - a good start makes you think it might be something other than a run of the mill thriller, but that's exactly what it ends up being - but that's not a bad thing, apart from a really poor last 10 minutes, it's very watchable.

I have also watched some bad ones:
Vacancy & Next - both have an OK first 30 minutes and then completely fall apart). Premonition I am watching at the moment, which doesn't look like it's going to be much good...

On

If you read my review of Pirates 3 - nearly all of that applies to Spider-Man 3 aswell. Too many plot elements struggling to coexist, interesting situations and characters introduced and then discarded (Gwen Stacy?).

Its a sad state of affairs when the cartoon version did the story so much better, but the whole black suit > angry Spider-Man > Venom arc is so rushed and wastes the potential of the original story, it is a real shame. The black suit should be like steroids, making Peter stronger and faster, at first he is scared of it, but gradually becomes reliant on it, even addicted to the power it gives him, before he realises he is abusing the power - it is changing him and he tries to get rid of the suit.

(No spoilers ahead)
Oh dear. For some reason this film, and the progression of the three films reminds me of the similar progressions that comedians go through. It happens to both UK and US comedians, Smith & Jones, Robin Williams, French & Saunders, Steve Martin - they start off being edgy, original and entertaining, but as their career progresses and they become successful they get so much power and influence that instead of being reined in, they are free to do whatever they want - disaster nearly always ensues.

It was the same with Peter Jackson's King Kong and George Lucas's Star Wars prequels, both directors previous movies had done so well that there was nobody to put on the brakes and say "stop - this bit is stupid, the movies too long, this character wouldnt do this" etc. And so Pirates 3 suffers a similar fate - there are 20 plots, but no story. If it was the first film in a series, the studio would have took the scissors to it and cut it down from nearly 3 hours to less than two, but as the previous films have done so well the filmmakers/actors have been left to run amok.