Ok, own up.  Who has kidnapped Guy Richie and replaced him with someone who can make appealing movies?  Seriously, I only decided to go see this because of Robert Downey Jr (who along with Ed Norton is my favourite actor working today), but I have to hold my hands up and say that I loved it.  Not something I've been able to say about a Guy Richie film since "Lock, Stock...".  Getting rid of that sinewy hag (Madonna to you and me) has clearly done the man good and the creative block has been lifted.

RDJ and Jude Law are both on top form - and it's really not often I have good things to say about Jude Law, believe me.  RDJ is clearly loving every minute of this re-imagined character and makes it completely his own.  This is not Holmes in the classic Basil Rathbone / Jeremy Brett tradition.

Sherlock Holmes is a lot more fun than it has any right to be.  They seem to have taken inspiration from a couple of places.  Firstly and most obviously, Holmes has basically become Batman.  He's off-the-chart smart but he also fist-fights, is stealthy, and survives explosions that would have killed normal people.  Sounds tacky but hey this is fantasy and it works well.  Having done a bit of digging however, it seems that in the original books and stories, Holmes was an accomplished fist-fighter and martial artist, so clearly this interpretation has gone back to the basics but then taken a different path from earlier adaptations.

The second inspiration seems to me to be from "House", the medical drama starring Hugh Laurie.  Now, given that "House" is directly inspired by Sherlock Holmes, things have come full circle.  It's most obvious in the Holmes / Watson relationship, which mirrors quite closely the House / Wilson relationship in the TV show.  If you're familiar with the show you'll see what I mean when you watch the film. 

The plot, about a practitioner of Black Magic, walks a thin line - at times it could go either way but for me it never slipped over into ridiculous.  Instead it reminded me of some of the classic Hammer Horror movies, like "The Devil Rides Out", as did the main villain (an excellent Mark Strong who I had never heard of until now).  It's intriguing, and you don't have the ending telegraphed to you, which makes a change.

Special effects - top notch.  There is a sequence with a boat which was especially spectacular, and the look of London is astonishing.  The whole film looks lush.  Even Mr Richie's trademark slow-fast-slow editing doesn't detract - in fact this works really well when you're being shown Holmes train of thought through flashback or flashforward.

So there you are, go see it.  This is definitely on my must-buy list for the New Year, hope they can get the BluRay out before Summer - but I may well go see it again at the cinema before that, that's how much I liked it.

Trailer below:

Tags: awesome, geek, movies, opinion, reviews, trailer, youtube
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | Reviews | trailers | TV

Been a little while since last update, but I've a couple of things to share which have appeared on my radar recently. First the movies:

Clooney and McGregor in "The Men Who Stare At Goats". This is based on a book by Jon Ronson (who I highly recommend as an author if you want an interesting and intelligent non-fiction read), following his investigation into the true story of the American military Psy-Ops experiments... yes, it's all true. Looks hilarious, and a George Clooney is a favourite actor of mine, especially in comedy roles, this is a must see:

Next up is "The Box". This is an adaptation of a Twilight Zone episode, brought to you by Richard Kelly. Kelly is the man behind the awesome Donnie Darko (which REALLY needs a Blu-Ray release soon please!) and the awful Southland Tales (great trailer, horrible movie). So it's a shot at redemption I guess:

Guess what's next? Yep, vampires!!! As every other movie at the moment is either zombies or vampires that was a pretty easy guess - but this is a bit different. It's "Daybreakers" and has been getting some decent reviews lately, and there is no teen-angst and no walking around in daylight all sparkly! Seems much more in the mould of Blade 2, so its one I'm looking forward to but I have no idea when it will make its way to the UK.

Finally I'll leave you with a link to check out.

http://www.drakortha.info/#/dc-chronicles/4535926375

This is a site where someone is producing Machinima movies using Fallout 3 as the engine. They're not bad at all and worth a few minutes of your time if you're interested in fan-films.

Tags: movies, sci-fi, trailer, vampires, youtube,
Categories: Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers | vampires

I saw the trailer for this before District 9 yesterday and just had to take the time to mention it.  Just looks like potentially great fun, certainly the most promising ZomCom since "Shaun of the Dead".  Plus using Van Halen music in a trailer always gets a thumbs up from me.

See what you think

Tags: zombiesblood, awesome, movies, trailer, youtube,
Categories: Movies | trailers | zombies

Only really one trailer has caught my eye this week and that is the one for the animated movie "9".  Luckily it seems that this will be getting a cinema release over here in the UK in October - hopefuly somewhere local to me will deign to show it.  Aesthetically it looks very different, and has a wonderfully dark feel to it, we need more apocalyptic animated movies!

Trailer

 

While on the subject of apocalyptic things, I've been seeing a lot of tv coverage of "Gamer" over the past week.  As it's made by the people behind "Crank" it probably won't be to my taste, but will it actually be as horrible as I suspect?  Anything with Michael c Hall in it (Dexter) has to be worth a look, and the premise seems similar to "The Running Man" but less campy and more violent.  However, it's based around futuristic technology and the evolution of computer games, so I guarantee I'd be sitting in the cinema picking holes in it and then annoying my friends by complaining at the loss of two hours of my life.  So no, I'll probably avoid and maybe catch on DVD if the reviews are at all favourable.

Trailer anyway

Tags: geek, movies, opinion, sci-fi, trailer, youtube,
Categories: Geek | Movies | Opinion | Sci-Fi | trailers

Couple of things to keep an eye on this week. First the new teaser trailer for "Inception" - from Chris Nolan, the man behind "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight".

Draws obvious visual parallels with "The Matrix", but I think Nolan has earned our trust so let's not judge too early eh? And not a blue elf in sight...

Second, some good news  (well, for me anyway).  "Moon" has got a release date in the UK and it's not too far away.  16th November is the date for the diary.  I was really pissed off that this only got a very limited release over here - it was in fewer cinemas and for less time than "Blood the Last Vampire" for gods sake. After the critical acclaim and the fact it was directed by David Bowie's son you'd think it would have gotten a bit more attention, but no.

Anyway, here's the trailer to show you what you (most likely) missed:

Very "2001", "Solaris","Silent Running"...

Oh and one more thing, "Terminator Salvation" is getting an "R" rating for the DVD in the US.  Guess that means it will be a 15 over here as the BBFC seems to be less paranoid about boobies on film than the Yanks.

 

Tags: awesome, geek, movies, sci-fi, space, trailer, youtube,
Categories: blu-ray | Geek | Movies | Sci-Fi | trailers

Over the last couple of years I've been catching up with some of the Coen Brothers movies which I hadn't yet seen. One thing strikes me about Joel and Ethan, which is that they always seem to work best with less well-know character actors, rather than when they use huge names like Brad Pitt. "A Serious Man" seems to be a return to that after the star-packed "Burn After Reading".

Even if the movie doesn't get me, it's still one of my favourite trailers of the year so far.

Tags: awesome, geek, movies, trailer, youtube, coen bros
Categories: Geek | Movies | trailers | Web