Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve read one of the books in the Spooks series, but I haven’t read the first one, which was what this film was based on. I can’t say how close it stayed to the book, but I did find this movie an entertaining one to watch.

It was interesting to see the first scene with the trained apprentice. I like that actor in particular, so I was disappointed that he wasn’t seen more.

I did find Tom an intriguing character. I liked seeing his interactions with his family. It would have been good to see more of his brothers, considering he was the seventh son. I also couldn’t see much of a relationship between Tom and his father.

I liked Gregory as a character, too. It was good to learn bits and pieces of his past as the film went on. I also found Alice quite an intriguing character. It was good to see that not all of the witches were actually bad, even if that was what most people believed about them.

I found the romance very hard to believe, I have to say. I would have liked to see more development of the feelings throughout. I did like seeing Alice with her mother. Towards the end of the film, it was good to see more of the dilemma she faced, having to choose between her daughter and her sister.

I liked seeing Tom learning about being a Spook and I felt the training was interspersed nicely with the rest of the events of the film. I’m not sure I’ll watch it again, considering that I couldn’t believe in the relationship between Alice and Tom. I would have liked to see more of a focus on the family aspect, I think. Even so, it was an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

(This review may contain spoilers).

The Mummy is another movie I watched a long time ago. I remember I really enjoyed it a lot each time I saw it… and watching it again on television today was enjoyable as well, even if I did notice that a lot of scenes were cut out.

I think my favourite part of this movie was the relationship that formed between Rick and Evie. A lot of films nowadays just seem to include romance for the sake of it and that comes across as forced. I didn’t find that in this movie. I felt the emotions were real… and even though Rick was the typical kind of rogue, I especially liked him as a character. He and Evie played nicely off each other… and it doesn’t hurt that I especially like Brendan Fraser as an actor.

I’ve always liked learning about ancient history (a love that my niece seems to share with me), so this movie was really good for that. Although there were a lot of gory scenes in this film, I felt that it was more of a mix of genres rather than just horror.

Imhotep was an especially creepy character, though the first scene made me feel some sympathy towards him. I didn’t get to see much of his past, but his fate was a pretty awful one and made me cringe. I actually felt that the people making this film did a good job of knowing when to show the gory scenes… and when to leave it up to the viewers’ imagination.

There were a number of amusing moments in this film and I thought it was good that those came from the characters themselves, rather than more slapstick/crude humour. I also especially liked Evie’s relationship with her brother.

The atmosphere of this movie was really well-done as well, in my opinion. I felt that the lighting was used in good ways. It drew me in with scenes that creeped me out at times, while still keeping me engaged in the movie. I would definitely name this as one of my favourite films.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve seen this film a few times to date now. It’s an easy and entertaining way to spend a couple of hours and although I don’t have this film on DVD, I have seen it on television a few times.

I liked that this film was a comedy where the main character had a more serious slant. It was interesting to see Simon Pegg as Nick Angel, a police officer who takes his work seriously while most people ‘seem’ content to let things lie.

It was amusing to see Nick Frost playing Danny, who came across as really well-meaning and eager to learn… but the sort of follower who can be irritating on a bad day. It was good to see the two characters interacting with each other and the friendship that grew between the two of them.

Although a lot of the scenes in this film were over-the-top, I still found the whole film really entertaining to watch, even though I have seen this movie repeatedly. There were some quite funny moments in this and I did like the way things (and people) came together by the end.

There were quite a few recognisable actors in this and even though some of them only had small parts, I still liked that there were a lot of different actors I knew in this. It’s very gory in parts, but I think the film is entertaining and it did a good job of keeping my attention throughout.

(This review may contain spoilers).

The concept behind this movie was a really intriguing one. A particular aspect that I liked was the interspersing of advertisements within the course of the movie.

Car racing is a fairly big thing, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to see it used for criminals to race for freedom. It was interesting to see, in the first scene, how society seemed to have broken down and not just in the way that prisoners were treated. It definitely came across as a dystopian world.

I found Jason Statham’s character, Jensen Ames, to be quite an intriguing one. Although he had the violence I’ve noticed seems to be involved in most of this particular actor’s characters, I felt that he came across as a character with a realistic background and I spent a lot of the film really empathising with him.

I would have liked to see if the Death Races were an international thing, or just concentrated to one area. I did like Jensen’s interactions with the other characters. Although I could see something romantic potentially growing between him and Case, I was glad to see that a romance didn’t become a main focus, since I felt it would have detracted from what had happened to Jensen.

I did find it interesting to see the other racers and I would have liked to see a bit more of their histories and how they landed in the jail.

I think the primary audience for this movie was men, considering the violence, car racing, lots of women just to be ‘navigators’… but I still quite enjoyed this. There was a particularly good cast involved here and some of the aspects of the races reminded me of video games I used to play. I also felt that the special effects were neat – and I especially liked the ending.

I haven’t seen the sequels to this and I probably won’t. I liked this film… but I suspect the sequels will be quite similar plot-and-character-wise.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Sean Penn is another actor whose work I’ve seen a bit of, starting with The Interpreter. Since I knew I liked him as an actor, when I was looking for a film to see today, I decided to go for this one.

As thrillers go, this movie was an effective one. There were some good elements of foreshadowing in this and I found myself able to relate well to Sean Penn’s character.

The love triangle wasn’t as irritating as a lot of love triangles, but I found myself less than thrilled with Annie. I struggled to relate to her as a character and found her much harder to understand than Felix, for instance.

There was quite a lot of action in this movie and the danger that Terrier was in felt real. I found the use of the news reports at the beginning and end of the film to be quite effective.

I did feel that Terrier was an intriguing character with realistic strengths and weaknesses. I could get behind him as a character and I cared about his safety. I liked his interaction with his friends and I found myself rooting for him through most of the movie.

There were things I would have liked to see more of in this film… character arcs I would have liked to see more of. And there were a few scenes in this that left me a bit lost. But the tension was enough to keep me watching and I liked the main character in this movie. I don’t think I’d watch it again… but it was still an entertaining couple of hours.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I saw this film advertised originally, I thought it looked quite entertaining and amusing. Although there was comedy from the start, I really liked the theme of family and friendship that ran through this film.

The concept of an alien race famous for their ability to run away (even if it’s only among themselves) was quite an amusing one, as was the use of the propaganda to make it look as if humans needed them to come and ‘save’ them. Although this was portrayed with an amusing slant, I felt that there was a lot about the race’s actions that meshed with reality.

I did feel sorry for Oh through this film. He was a likable character and I enjoyed hearing him mix up his words when he was talking to Tip. Although there was quite a lot that made him funny, I also found him to be a really sympathetic character. And I felt that Jim Parsons as his voice actor worked really well… even if I couldn’t help but hear Sheldon on a few occasions in this.

It was also amusing to see how the Boov viewed things on Earth, such as deciding that bicycles were useless and eating things that, to humans, would be inedible. It was pretty cool to see Oh’s confusion about certain things, such as the point of keeping a pet.

I had quite a few, ‘Aww’ moments during this film and I felt that the voice actors worked really well for the characters. My suspension of disbelief kicked in nicely during this movie and there were some really good tense scenes.

I cared about the characters and the plot and it was good to see humour that arose from Oh’s character, rather than just slapstick. I strongly suspect that other members of my family will enjoy this film, too. I think it definitely works well as a family film.