http://www.whatfilm.com films, television, videogames, albums & books review and opinion 2008-07-27T14:04:00-00:00 http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Ferris_Bueller_s_Day_Off Richard 2008-07-27T14:04:00-00:00 Film Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of the most memorable movies of the 80's, and a defining moment for Matthew Broderick. I've written before about the genius of John Hughes during this time, and this written / directed feature is testament to that talent. {a teenager with a passion for life, but a distaste for school}Broderick plays the titular Bueller, a teenager with a passion for life, but a distaste for school. He tricks his parents into letting him stay off school for the day, ... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Sex_and_the_City Richard 2008-07-27T13:33:00-00:00 Film There's a lot of love and a lot of hate for Sex and the City, and I know men and women who fall on both sides of the divide. Me, I've always been agnostic, the show never bothered me that much, I didn't mind it when I saw it, but wouldn't go out of my way to seek it out either. What I never understood was how it could split opinion quite so much, it always seemed so harmless. And therefore when the chance to see the movie cropped up, I figured sure, why not. {the whole plot fe... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Iron_Man Richard 2008-07-14T21:51:00-00:00 Film Iron Man was almost designed to be my perfect movie. I've always thought that Robert Downey Jr. was awesome, although I'm not sure when this started. Not even by looking at IMDB can I pinpoint which film it was that drew me to this conclusion. I know he was in Weird Science, but I seem to remember seeing that after I recognised how great he was, and it's not like his role in that was very big or even that special anyway. The fact is that he was great 20 years ago and he's grea... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Indiana_Jones_and_the_Kingdom_of_the_Crystal_Skull Richard 2008-05-26T18:40:00-00:00 Film It's probably fair to say that when it comes to movie expectations, nobody knows the pressure they put on a film more than George Lucas. After apparently destroying the childhood of a million geeks with the Star Wars prequels, you wouldn't think he'd be so keen to produce another entry for his other famous trilogy. Nevertheless, after countless scripts and numerous false starts, Indiana Jones is once again gracing our cinema screens. {my expectations were fairly low going in}In th... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Shoot__Em_Up Richard 2007-10-13T21:49:00-00:00 Film I've always liked Clive Owen, in whatever role he's in I always find that he creates a very compelling, watchable character. He's capable of playing both suave and sophisticated and dark and disturbed with equal aplomb, and can dead-pan a joke better than any actor I know. In my mind, he should always have been the new Bond. It's because of all this that I found Shoot 'Em Up to be so disappointing. {unwilling to let this seemingly innocent woman come to any harm, he follow... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Superbad Richard 2007-10-10T22:04:00-00:00 Film Judd Apatow has managed to have quite the film career over the past few years, not only has he managed to write and direct The 40 Year Old Virgin, one of the best romantic comedies of the past decade, and follow that up this year with the highly entertaining Knocked Up, but hes also found time to produce a lot of the recent Will Ferrell comedy output, Anchorman, Kicking & Screaming and Talladega Nights. Not bad at all after his two TV series, Undeclared and the wonderful Freaks & Geeks w... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Hallam_Foe Mark C 2007-09-11T21:29:00-00:00 Film If you've seen any of David Mackenzie's previous work you'll know what to expect from this low-budget drama: an off-kilter, gritty storyline that pulls no punches and features coarse language, graphic sex and Scottish accents, a cast of good actors and not just pretty faces to put bums on seats, and a touch of humanity that is all too rare in a world dominated by Hollywood and the bigger, better, faster, more effects ethic. {Sometimes with a dead badger on his head}Billy Elliot&#3... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Blades_of_Glory Richard 2007-04-27T21:43:00-00:00 Film Its become an almost yearly thing at this point, the Will Ferrell career comedy, whether its Anchorman (successful news man suffers setback, overcomes adversity to return to glory), Talladega Nights (successful race car driver suffers setback, overcomes adversity to return to glory) and now Blades of Glory, where successful ice dancer... well you know the rest. Its even got glory right there in the title. Theres a suggestion that these scripts are being created by a random plot generator, and it... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Premonition Richard 2007-04-15T21:59:00-00:00 Film It would be a cheap start to say that I had a premonition that this film was going to be awful, but I dont think this film actually deserves anything better. Sandra Bullock has horrible taste when it comes to picking which scripts shes going to follow through with, so anything starring her should immediately send warning signs to anybody with an eye for a quality movie. But with this one, you really have to wonder what possessed her to be involved in this project, because its not just bad, its s... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Shooter Richard 2007-04-15T20:56:00-00:00 Film After discovering a potential presidential assassination attempt involving a gunshot taken from over a mile away, a slightly ambiguous government agency hunts out Bob Lee Swagger, a former military marksman turned recluse, to help them figure out exactly where the best position for the gunmen would be. After scouting locations and working out exactly how it could be accomplished, when the day finally comes he is framed as the perpetrator, but despite his employers best efforts to kill him, manag... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Hot_Fuzz Richard 2007-03-18T19:12:00-00:00 Film I was lucky enough to go and see this film before it was even premiered, scoring free tickets to a showing in Glasgow at which Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were going to be in attendance. Having now recovered from the surreal experience that was seeing the stars of the movie in real life shortly after seeing them twenty feet high, its time to put up my review. {his superiors decide that hes making the rest of them look bad and hes transferred out to the sleepy village of Sandford}Hot Fuzz is fro... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/V_For_Vendetta Richard 2007-03-14T20:37:00-00:00 Film In the near future, Great Britain stands as one of the last remaining countries not to have fallen to total anarchy. It has achieved this through the removal of civil liberties, run by a fascist government headed up by Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt). They persecute minorities, torture the innocent, run with a constant curfew, control all the media and section off large parts of country as being under quarantine. In the midst of all this we meet Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), an assistant at a te... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Rocky_Balboa Richard 2007-02-25T14:10:00-00:00 Film Sports films are filled with cliches, theyre often predictable and trite and not often something I sit down to watch. Everybody always wins, the football team always scores in the final seconds, the basketball team comes from behind to win the championship (even without their wolf), the dancer always dances her way into everyones hearts. But in 1976 with Rocky, Sylvester Stallone proved that didnt have to be the case. Our hero didnt have to win to get the audience energised, they could have thei... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/Music_and_Lyrics Andrea 2007-02-18T22:13:00-00:00 Film It's not a good sign that when starting to write this I had to look up the film's website to find out the characters names. This is an indication as to how I had no emotional involvement in either character or indeed whether they did or did not get together in the end. I'm talking about Music and Lyrics, the latest Hugh Grant rom-com. {we soon realise is that Fletcher has no writing ability whatsoever}The story involves washed up 80s has-been pop singer Alex Fletcher (Grant), tryi... http://www.whatfilm.com/view/The_Pursuit_Of_Happyness Richard 2007-01-24T20:11:00-00:00 Film When I originally saw the trailers for this film I was hesitant to go and see it. Not because I thought it didnt look good, but because Im one of those guys that cries at movies and this looked like just the kind of film to set me off. I didnt want to be sitting there at the end and be the one wiping tears off my face. But when the opportunity arose to see a screening, I sucked it up, took a chance, and walked right on in. This is The Pursuit Of Happyness, starring Will Smith. {a six month pr...