Scotty©'s Talk

Angels & Demons

At long last the sequel to The DaVinci Code, no wait isn't this supposed to be the prequel. I'm confused the books are very clear that the events in Angels and Demons occue before, and yet the movie says it happens after. What's going to happen in the third in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown The Lost Symbol? Will it take place during the events of the first one, and when I say first one I mean Angels and Demons, and not The DaVinci Code. The movie chronology be damned.

So as we know this story is more pro-religion as opposed to it's sister movie/novel. The Vatican is in danger and Catholicism is on the verge of being wipped out by one of its' greatest enemies, the Illuminati. Now history shows the Illuminati did exsist and may even continue to be around, and alhough they are pro-science I don't see them attempting to destroy one of the biggest beliefs anytime soon. Yeah the book/movie is fiction encapsolated by mostly true history. Look at the incredible detail depicting conclave. The movie is a historians dream, and alhough they did not actually film in the Vatican the computer replica is magnificant. Worthy of a Renaissance master.

Yeah like all movies of the genre there are lots of changes from the book. The Charlmango personal history is not fully depicted, and his big "sucks to be you" moment at the end is not as shocking as the book. Also the movie has the fourth preferiti survive to become the new Pope, whereas in the novel he dies, and the grand-elector becomes the head of the Church. Some characters were omitted completly such as the Director of CERN who was the one who dragged Langdon into this adventure, as well as the one who uncovered the true mastermind behind the plot.

Although altered, and changed in continuity Angels and Demons is still worth your time and money. It might not be the best film of the summer but it would make the top 15.

Star Trek

The original Star Trek sucked. There I said it. Growing up I was more exposed to the spin-offs who had a much better cast, stories, and above all effects. To me the original was an outdatted show that would never go away. Yeah I was 9 at the time when The Next Generation hit the small screen, and my opinion on the original still has not changes, until now.

This is probably the best rendition of the Trek franchise to date. This movie completly revamps the entire Trek mythos but also keeps everything else in canon. Yes everything has happened, or will happen (stupid time anomalies), just a few changes in the time stream. One of the biggest complaints from Trekkers is that Kirk is no longer inspire by his father to join Star Fleet (his father watcher with pride as Kirk became captain), not his father dies minutes after his birth -- courtesy of time travelling villain Nero -- and Kirk joins on recommendation of Captain Pike.

The original characters are all back including the orignal Spock, Leonard Nemoy. Frankly it is the characters with foreign accents the really make the movie, Scotty and Chekov. On note I just want to mention how big of an Anton Yelchin fan I am and his portrayal of Chekov just keeps showing this kid is going place. No character is without screen time and they are all thrust together in a rather uncomplex way. To say the cast relies on each other is what makes this movie.

From the origins of the monicker "Bones" for Dr. McCoy, to Sulu's passion for fencing nothing is amiss in this movie. The story is easy to follow and even being a non-Trek fan you can enjoy this movie without knowing a single character. This version is charting a new course but staying well within the boundary lines of continuity. Yes there are previous Trek references, listen to Scotty explain what he did to Admiral Archer's prized beagle.

Star Trek

A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members



" I'm a doctor, not a physicist!- McCoy"




Now I have been waiting for this film to come out for so so long and so glad that it finally got the right release date. I am mainly a fan of TNG but equally love the original series which I have watched many many times. I am pleased to say that it exceeded my expectations in every single way and the 2 and a bit hours flew by. Probably one of the best cinematic experiences that I've had...purely because of the fact that I don't normally not notice the time fly by!

One thing that does annoy me is the stingma attached to being a fan of the franchise. Why should people think you must be a geek for liking this? Well, anyway, having watched the original series I can safely say that Abrams has perfectly cast everyone in this film. From the first showings of Kirk, Spock and the crew these actors were the legendary characters that I had been watching. Obviously Zachary Quinto is perfect at Spock but equally brilliant was Chris Pine. Not only does he look gorgeous but he looks like a young Shatner and every mannerism is there to the sitting on the captains chair, to the look to Spock everything was perfect. Karl Urban also made me laugh as he too was just perfect in the role of Bones McCoy. IWhat was interesting there was the fact that I hadn't really any idea of the relationship between Kirk and Bones and that it was so close. Anton Yelchin as Checkov was spot on aswell with that very broken English accent that we all know and love from the orginal series. Zoe Saldana as Uhura really suprised me aswell as I just didn't picture her like that at all. Would love the know about the realtionship between Uhura and Spock, that was something which did baffle me a little I must admit.

The special effects were absolutly incredible which really brought the film alive and kicking into the audience's minds. I think that may really be the reason why It really felt just incredible to watch. I don't think a Star Trek film, even with the Next Generation. I think it will mos likely be up for an Oscar.

What Abrams has done is created a whole new Trek for a Post-modern generation where things like Star Trek are seen as something for Geeks, as I mentioned before. After watching this film, it really feels like a part of popular culture. He's created a Trek, which it is cool to watch and you don't feel like a Geek at all.

Overall, just one brilliant prequel to an already lengendary franchise. One film which you don't have to have seen any Trek episodes at all to enjoy. Look out for a cameo by Lenoard Nimoy and a great performance by Eric Bana. Now eagerly await the sequal

Highly recomended

9/10

X-Men Origins - Wolverine

Enter the summer movie season 2009. To open up the festivities we have the highly anticipated prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'm going to be honest the only reason I gave this movie the ratting I did was purely out of fandom. If it wasn't for that this movie would have gotten a much lower score.

This movie is less story and more of a trove of X-characters who have not made the cut the first three times around. The plot is weak. It clearly borrowed some elements from classic Wolverine stories like "Origin" and "Weapon X" and did some much uneeded add-on. The biggest travesty is Wolverine was never involved in Alpha Flight. Nope sorry they were scrapped for Gambit, who somehow gets a major power upgrade as his comicbook counterpart can release kinetic energy through objects. Although I did enjoy Gambit I did not enjoy how he's pretty much forced into the story. Also I'm a tad disappointment by the treatment of Deadpool (he's never refered to by that name), as he is known as "the merc with a mouth" for a reason, and yet when he get's his upgrade he is clearly left for silence. Since there is talk of him getting a spin-off, hopefully they can redeem the character, if they can come up with a believable reason as to how he survives his predicament at the end of the film. Other chacters with a dominant role are Wraith, Beak, Agent Zero/Maverick, Blob, Silver Fox and Sabertooth. The movie does indeed touch on the Sabertooth/Wolverine relationship but they take it in a totally different and yet still believable direction.

Now if you want to know who else from the X-franchise shows up well I will tell you. Cyclops is in the movie and has a somewhat expanded role then you would expect, making it somewhat his origin movie as well. To keep in continuity with the other films Cyclops and Wolverine never meet face-to-face. We also had the surprise appearance by Emma Frost, who is destined to become the White Queen and one of the Xavier Institutes headmistresses. Also keep your eye peeled for Toad who has a blink and you miss him cameo. The one appearance I was really surprised about almost brought tears to my eyes as you can tell everything is coming full circle. Although many will know who the individual in question is about 5 minutes before they make their cameo. Although I will not say who but I will give you a hint: it is a certain bald headed Star Fleet captain.

Great? No. Fanboy dream? Yes. Will people still see it no matter what the critics say? Definetly. Let's face it this franchise is gold and as per the afforementioned Deadpool movie, Fox has already announced X-Men Origins: Magneto. Xavier's dream will never die.

X-Men Origins - Wolverine

Enter the summer movie season 2009. To open up the festivities we have the highly anticipated prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'm going to be honest the only reason I gave this movie the ratting I did was purely out of fandom. If it wasn't for that this movie would have gotten a much lower score.

This movie is less story and more of a trove of X-characters who have not made the cut the first three times around. The plot is weak. It clearly borrowed some elements from classic Wolverine stories like "Origin" and "Weapon X" and did some much uneeded add-on. The biggest travesty is Wolverine was never involved in Alpha Flight. Nope sorry they were scrapped for Gambit, who somehow gets a major power upgrade as his comicbook counterpart can release kinetic energy through objects. Although I did enjoy Gambit I did not enjoy how he's pretty much forced into the story. Also I'm a tad disappointment by the treatment of Deadpool (he's never refered to by that name), as he is known as "the merc with a mouth" for a reason, and yet when he get's his upgrade he is clearly left for silence. Since there is talk of him getting a spin-off, hopefully they can redeem the character, if they can come up with a believable reason as to how he survives his predicament at the end of the film. Other chacters with a dominant role are Wraith, Beak, Agent Zero/Maverick, Blob, Silver Fox and Sabertooth. The movie does indeed touch on the Sabertooth/Wolverine relationship but they take it in a totally different and yet still believable direction.

Now if you want to know who else from the X-franchise shows up well I will tell you. Cyclops is in the movie and has a somewhat expanded role then you would expect, making it somewhat his origin movie as well. To keep in continuity with the other films Cyclops and Wolverine never meet face-to-face. We also had the surprise appearance by Emma Frost, who is destined to become the White Queen and one of the Xavier Institutes headmistresses. Also keep your eye peeled for Toad who has a blink and you miss him cameo. The one appearance I was really surprised about almost brought tears to my eyes as you can tell everything is coming full circle. Although many will know who the individual in question is about 5 minutes before they make their cameo. Although I will not say who but I will give you a hint: it is a certain bald headed Star Fleet captain.

Great? No. Fanboy dream? Yes. Will people still see it no matter what the critics say? Definetly. Let's face it this franchise is gold and as per the afforementioned Deadpool movie, Fox has already announced X-Men Origins: Magneto. Xavier's dream will never die.

Hatching Pete

Don't ask me why but this is the second movie I've reviewed starring Jason Dolley which is getting a good review. The first being Minutemen. Either the boy has a good agent, or is getting luck of the draw.

Yeah it is a typical Disney TV movie, but it certainly is one of the better ones recently. There is no real antagonist in the film as it focuses on the theme of man versus himself. The title character Pete (Jason Dolley) never gets noticed -- even his teachers think he's a stranger to school -- but when his best friend Cleatus (Mitchell Musso) cannot perform his duties as school mascot (due to an allergic reactions from the suit) he takes his place. The result finds Pete as "The Chicken" becoming an overnight sensation with Cleatus getting all the credit. Inevitably through happinstance everyone learns that Cleatus is not the man under the feathers, but the same question is on everyone's lips who is The Chicken? Yes the movie does involve the usual attempt to get the girl, and an obstacle does present itself that the heroes have to overcome, but it is done in a fun and original way.

If there is a main theme here it is most definetly friendship. This is a movie the whole family can enjoy. Frankly when children grow into their tweens, this film is a good introduction to the more age appropriate themes.

17 Again

Big this is not. It is of similar concept but in reverse. Our protagonist finds his world about to cave in on itself. His wife wants a divorce, his kids despise him, and his wealthy best friend lets him crash on the couch. When he wishes he can go back to a more innocent age his wish is granted. With the help of his friend he integrates back into high school and reconnects with his kids as their ?cousin?. Helping his son with bullies and basketball, preventing his daughter from dating the wrong person, and reconnecting with his wife becomes his mission. Watch for the subplot of the friend hitting on the principal.

The movie stars Zac Efron (insert annoyed sigh here) who plays the title role. Frankly take a way the singing and unnecessary dancing and he does have acting talent. With a little more room to grow, in a few years he'll be nominated for an Academy Award (insert another annoyed sigh here). As many of my readers know I have a rivalry with Mr. Efron. Zac if you are reading this ? and I know you are ? do me a favor and drop out of Johnny Quest. You're too old to play Johnny, plus you're not blonde.

One problem I had with this movie I expected Zac to break out into song and dance for every basketball scene. Yeah he does dance with the cheerleaders at the beginning but it's not the typical choreographed routine expected.

I have two issues with this movie. First, the film is lacking in closure. Although things become hunky dory between our protagonist and his wife we never find out the fate of his kids. What about the son who was climbing the high school food chain; what happens to him? The daughter, no real resolution to her love life. Also do they notice the sudden disappearance of their ?cousin?, the popular kid in school? No nobody does. How could someone who suddenly enters their lives and makes a difference disappear unnoticed? Problems.

Second yes Matthew Perry is billed as a star of this movie, but seriously only 10 minutes of screen time? Sterling Knight who plays the son has more lines and more then an hour on screen but he is nothing but a second stringer. I mean doesn't this kid star in Disney's new "popular" show Sonny With A Chance? He should have gotten better billing.

Like I said this is not your parents "teen/adult in a adult/teen body". It will probably be neglected by most moviegoers as another "High School Musical" movie, because of the star. Yet we will have teeny boppers flocking to this movie even if it was just a still frame. People don't know what they want, and therefore would probably benefit from a magical age swap. I HATE YOU EFRON (What did you really think I would spend a whole review without a Zac Efron dis?)

Fast and Furious

I think this was better than the first to be honest...more car chases and deaths within the story line. i was too engrossed with the cool chases/races and sexy beasty cars to follow the story line, lol but a brilliant film all round! It was great to see they'd brought back Dom and Brian, it was more appealing to me to have the first original characters back. Highly recommended for car fans and racing fan's...i loved it! ^_^

ps - it states this film is rated 13, but in the UK it's 12A.

Taxi Driver

Brilliant and a bold statement of the film industry. Superb acting, the brilliance of De Niro cannot be denied.

The plot is original and deals with loneliness and paranoia, it also displays violence towards the violent and unconcern towards the shallow.

Martin Scorcese did a fabulous job of directing and made a cult classic that has the most disturbing thematic material and probably the deepest character study ever.

Blindness

Meirelles adds another perspective, that the epidemic might be a good thing if, by being thrown into the darkness together, we may once again recognize the human family to which we all belong. - Bill White

I couldn't say it better.

L.A. Confidential

The bleak, blackly humorous neo-noir may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're willing to give yourself over to its hero-less world, you won't regret it. The acting, writing, and directing are unimpeachable on all levels, and the film is exceptionally crafted, with several awesome plot twists and developments.

Hotaru no haka (Grave of the Fireflies)

Basically there's a tramp close to the death slumped against a column in an underground train/tube tunnel. He's starts to reminisce about his past...his father was away with work (think it was the Navy) he lived with his mother and younger sister. It's based on when war was happening, planes dropping bombs and what not, destroying villages and unfortunately they're home was destroyed too. Their mother dies from serious burns and injuries so they have to move into one of their distant relatives homes. They're aunt ends up being negative towards them as the brother doesn't pull his weight and help around the house and all the young sister does is cry for her mum and complain she's always hungry, it was had to portion food ecause everyone was on war rations. So he decides to move out taking his sister with him. They end up living in a cave next to a large pond where fireflies wondered freely and struggling to survive with what little they could salvage from selling their mothers clothing for rice and veg and even go to the extent of stealing. His little sister becomes very unwell and is very under-nourished. But he can't help her, he has nothing to trade for more food. So unfortunatly she dies in the cave...he makes sure she has a good 'send off' then has to live life alone...obviously it doesn't seem he survives adulthood as it goes back to him being slumped on the floor in scruffy clothes...

a sad story but a good watch. i guess it expresses how life was when war was happening in Japan, how kids became orphan's and how they had to survive without parents or families.

it's a serious storyline not really fantasy.

The Spirit

As a film, this is an absolute disaster of awful direction.

However, with such style, dark humour and Scarlett Johansson (even though her role sucked big time) - it remains massively entertaining.

Not to be taken seriously at any costs, this isn't some spin-off from Sin City.

Milk

While watching this movie all I can think about is what Harvey Milk would think of Proposition 8. Fortunetly my home and native land, Canada, is years ahead they U.S. and all I can say to Proposition 8 supporters: Gays are human, and deserve to be treated as such. Deal with it!

I think this movie is very inspiring. Frankly, it could not have come out at a better time.

Although Sean Penn is an ass in reallife he did deserve his Oscar for his portrayal of Harvey Milk. His finest performance to date, and it makes you sand and cheer for the Milk's crusade, and cry when he meets his innevitable demise.

This movie will definetly go down in history as one of the films that help to influence civil rights, or show a perspective of the other side of the coin few of us tend to ignore.

SEE THIS MOVIE! After watching it you'll would hope that Milk's efforts were not in vain.

Watchmen

Being a casual fan of the graphic novel, I never thought the Watchmen could be made into a film - first of all there are too many things going on, second it's just too confusing for a someone who never read the novel to fully understand the story.

Hence forth, I wasn't looking forward for the film. While everyone was amazed at the trailer I just couldn't understand the hype. Yet again, this is always a good thing - for the obvious reasons of course. I expected so little from the film that I was actually surprised how good it actually was.

The action scenes were beautifully executed and added a nice flare to what I expected to be a dead adaptation of the original masterpiece. I enjoyed it - a lot, but my opinion alone cannot be trusted because of my familiarity with the story and the Watchmen's distinct storytelling.

Some of my mates who were watching the movie with me had never read the novel, and without knowing the plot, they seemed lost - during the abrupt transitions - it seemed obvious that some people in the theatre couldn't understand that none of the heroes had actually any super power - except for Dr.Manhattan of course.

Overall, I just enjoyed the Watchmen, even though Snyder seems to disassociate himself from the novel, it still remained incredibly faithful to Moore's best work, while adding that cinematic voodoo that films need but comics can do without.

Now I'm totally looking forward for the full length animated feature: Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

before i get onto talking about the movie id just want to say that this is the second film that i have seen that has been released not to long ago and is bordering on perfection the other being "Watchmen" and they have hardly won any awards and have hardly been mentioned anywhere but yet "slumdog millionarie" which is a pretty average movie got mentioned everywhere and won all the awards which i cant see why it dont

its for movies like this that flixster need to go to 10 stars and not 5 because for me 5 stars just is not enough to praise how well this movie was

for a start the story line was unique (even though i think some of the idea and plot came from mel gibson's film "Forever young" and its very much along the same lines as "Forrest Gump" and i think has earned its place up there with the film greats this one day should take its seat in history as a masterpiece

now we get to the acting and i must say that all the acting in this movie was great i could not pick or even find a fault with any of the actors performances

Brad Pitt put in a performance that should have won him every award possible going this in my opinion was his best ever perormance in a movie fine most of it was in a narrative capacity but i cant honestly see hm beating this performacne he pulled out the bag for this movie

and im going to say pretty much the same for Cate Blanchett not only was she beautiful through out the film but her performance again warrented her to win several awards and i certainly did not know she was as flexible as she is and was outstanding in the ballet dance scenes

this movie is over 2 hours long and i have criticized movies for being far to long but this even being a long movie was perfectly timed

ad i love the way they hit on every emotion through the movie from happiness to sadness to passion to hate and you can not watch this movie and not be hit and find yourself sat there feeling deep emotion by the end of the film

this is truly a masterpiece and no amount of words can truly describe how wonderful this movie was it was truly a delight to watch and i shall certainly watch it again one day

this movie in my opinion is one of the best movies to have been released late 2008 early 2009 it easily makes the top 5 blowing plenty of movies out the water and making its own league when making a film

and you not only get to see a great film but also it is a very big eye opener on how valuable life is and what many people take for granted and how mysterious it actually is when we sit and think about it

Gedo senki (Tales from Earthsea)

Not too bad at all...if ur into ur Studio Ghibli then go for it! ^___^

Chakushin ari 2 (One Missed Call 2)

The story line is a little confusing and awkward to explain but i'll give it a shot...

(apology's in advance if i make it sound a tad confusing)

Basically this and the first One Missed Call films are based on a story were these young adults/students start receiving phone calls from their own mobile phone numbers and the ringtone that sounds out is one that they havn't downloaded on their phone ever before.

once it starts ringing, they notice it's their own number calling with this mysterious ringtone but they don't answer it, then they get the message "One missed call"..they open the message and there's a voice message been left. they listen to it and it's actually themselves leaving the message.

The date and time the messages have been left are 'from the future' (just a matter of days) but thats the time and date they die, so basically it's themselves telling them what they say the minute before they actually die.

It's a young girls spirit that is doing all these killings. She had died a couple years before hand because her mother neglected her having an asthma attack and left her to die. When this young girls ghost/spirit kills one person she uses the dead persons mobile phone to call the next victim, but it still comes up showing it's their own number calling (yeh confusing, i know) these are innocent people she's killing off. they're just random people, but i'm guessing it's revenge for her seeings her mother didn't help her when she died...or maybe she's just doing it for a laugh, i dunno, lol. but it's a great, creepy classic Asian film.

However, in this second film, they're continuing from the first so the students have heard about these killings from the past but obviously thought it was a 'wives tale' and they wern't true stories...but they were still investigating it because they hadn't come to a conclusion of how and why these killings where happening, so they were still happening and the reporters and police continued with the story behind the killings as obviously they're happening again...anywho, i can't wait to get the 3rd One Missed Call! ^_^

It's one of those "you have to watch the first one to understand this one, then you have to watch the third one to complete the whole story"


Its as good as the first one...brilliant!