Quick review Rango

The kids and i got this movie last night from Blockbuster on DVD so here's the quicky review.

Number one its not a kids movie rather its a big kids movie that kids can watch and get a laugh from but they aren't going to get all the references. Number two if you like Johhny Deeps antics you'll probably like this as it seems to have been written for the crazy shtick that he does in so many of his movies.
The premise is that chameleon falls out of car gets thirsty looks for water and ends up saving the little town of Dirt with some amusing interludes in between. The animation is fantastic with great detail and it'll take a couple of watches to catch all the stuff that goes on along with all the side gags.

The mariachi finches work in nicely along with the hick moles that provide the big fight scene. The cast of baddies including bill nighy as the rattlesnake is great although ray winstone didnt get much of a go apart from the flame face scene.

I'm going to use the Angry Lurker scale and give this a 3.5. downgraded a bit for not having more kid stuff when that was how they were selling it here.

Quick review Repo men

I saw this movie last night on DVD and was pleasantly surprised at the content.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are great in this sci fi story that wanders along pretty predictably until the end. The premise is that they work for a company called the Union which sells artificial organs and has the ability to repossess them if you fall behind in your payments ie cut them out of your still living body. Its shot really well without seeming to have to resort to crazy CGI effects and seemed to be "believable" and in context all the way through although if you stop to think about what they are doing your head is going to spin.

There are plenty of little bits through the movie that give it a really well crafted feel like the bit where he comes speeding off the freeway and all you see is the overhead shot of cars crashing, the fat man in the street scene and the fight scene at the end which had a lot of similarities to the stuff that's in the Milla Jovovich's Resident Evil movies. I feel they handled the explanation to this really well at the end of the movie.

I'm going to use the Angry Lurker scale and give this a 4. It was that good.

Quick review Battle Los Angeles

I went along and saw this last night after umming and aaahing over whether i would bother going to see it on the big screen. My reaction was that i liked it but its not one I'll go after when its comes out on DVD unlike lets say District 9.

It's got plot holes that you could drive a truck through but they kept the action up and i didn't feel i had to leave before the credits rolled.

• interstellar race invades earth and forgets to install redundant command and control system
• aliens are here for water but come onto land to get it
• alien weapon platforms don't have protection for the operators

There were some bits towards the end that just got a bit silly like the scene and dialogue in the Humvee when they shot the alien off the hood and they did blow a lot of stuff up.The aliens were different from the norm look wise but reacted like badly scripted AI shooter aliens which was a pity as they could have been much more menacing and were only really effective at the start of the film. They weren't too over the top with the corny American rah rah stuff although it was just there below the surface trying to come out.

Its a film that reminded me of the original Stargate which was the gateway to the Stargate franchise, so when is the series coming out?

It was a bit Jekyll and Hyde too with the first half being shot like a sketchy fast paced doco. and the second half more like a paper cutter war movie.

Did i mention they blew a lot of stuff up?