I’ve been looking forward to the new Bond movie a lot more than any previous Bond film I can remember.

Casino Royal was a total change from the old style and I wanted to see if Daniel Craig’s new Bond would continue in the same gritty and more realistic “Borne” style, fortunatly it has!

There’s no unbelievable, unrealistic super weapons, or gadgets, just Bond’s implacable resolution to get the job done, and he sure does take a beating along the way, although nothing quiet so unpleasant as the torture scene in Casino Royal that made me squirm more than a little…

The movie opens with a fast paced car chase and rolls straight in to a Borne style rooftop chase. The action is fast paced, but still believable, at least compared to previous films.

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My kids managed to drag me away from my desk this weekend to go watch the new Inidana Jones Movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Although it’s well over a decade since the last Indiana film, my kids have seen the others on TV enough times that they’re big fans, but I admit I was wondering if Harrison Ford could still pull it off, as he’s not exactly a spring chicken anymore…

I shouldn’t have been worried!

The movie is classic Iniana and I enjoyed it just as much as the kids.

Harrison Fordis joined by Cate Blanchett as the “baddy”, as well as one of my favorite UK actors, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and up and coming Shia LaBeouf, so there’s an excellent cast who are also on top form.

hmm, I guess you’re probably not here to find out why I haven’t posted a movie review since Feb, so I’m not going to bore you with the life stuff that happens now and again, we all have it, better I just get back in to the purpose of this blog…

oh, and my apologies for being a movie slacker recently!

So, having got my divorce and house move (see how I still managed to sneak it in anyway..) out of the way I can start enjoying going to the movies again, espoecially as it’s now in walking distance.

My first movie since Feb was Deception, and I didn’t manage to find a review on http://bbc.co.uk/movies/ it was kind of a blind viewing, but I was feeeling fairly confidant that I’d enjoy it as it’s Hugh Jackman, Ewen McGregor and Michelle Williams, who is (imho) more than a little hot…

What can I say, this movie shows just how good it can be to take a popular old comic and turn it in to a movie.

I’ll put my hand up right now as a big comic fan, I don’t still collect (too busy blogging nowadays), but I used to collect comics big time, I still have a large collection of X-men, Spidey, 2000AD etc.

We’ve had some excellent comic to movie conversions over the last few years, the X-Men and Spiderman being good examples, but who else liked Hell Boy? I did…

So there’s two questions I wanted answered from the movie…

a. is IronMan a good conversion from the comic?
&
b. Is it a good movie that non comic fans would enjoy?

I reckon that this movie is a great example of how you expectation of a film can have a big effect how much you enjoy it.

I wasn’t expecting too much of it, I watched it at the end of the night with a glass of wine or two as a simple DVD movie to relax with and ended up thoroughly enjoying it.

My wife on the other hand went to the Cinema to see it and was expecting it to be very funny, although I’m not sure why, the trailers weren’t that good, and she ended up being dissapointed with it.

I think this is often why people are dissapointed with sequels to their favorite movies, they go with high expectations and that makes it very difficult for the movie to be as good as the original.

Being in the middle of a bit of a “life style” change (divorce and moving, again) I’ve not had chance to make it to the Big Screen much over the last couple of months and have got a little bit out of touch with what’s on, so when a friend of mine called to say “we gotta go see Cloverfield” I had no idea what the movie was about or why he was keen.

He sold it to me as “The Blair Witch Project meets Godzilla” which turned out to be a pretty accurate description, although I enjoyed it a LOT more than GodZilla.

The movie is almost split in to three seperate “acts”.

Black Snake Moan on DVD

I could say more about this movie, as there are some pretty funny moments, although most of them were in the trailer..

but the main memory I have of the movie is simply that at the start Samuel Jackson doesn’t seem to be able to sing very well, at all, and then towards the end of the movie I was actually enjoying the blues band performance in the bar.

I think I’m going to have to watch it again to work out what happened..

Heath Ledger Died unexpectedly this week, on Tuesday (22nd Jan 2008) at the age of just 28.

Early news reports suggested that his death may have been the result of a drugs overdose, as his body was apparently discovered “surrounded” by pills. His housekeeper made the discovery when he failed to answer the door for a massage appointment in his New York appartment.

He may be most remembered for his performance in Brokeback Mountain, a role in which he was nominated for an Oscar.

but I’ll remember him more for an earlier film of his, A Knights Tale in 2001, which I thoroughly enjoyed.