Did 'The Brave One' not quite do it for you as a revenge flick? Then try 'Death Sentence'. Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume, a family man with a wife and two teenage sons. His life seems pretty damn good until one horrible night one of his sons is...
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Did 'The Brave One' not quite do it for you as a revenge flick? Then try 'Death Sentence'. Kevin Bacon plays Nick Hume, a family man with a wife and two teenage sons. His life seems pretty damn good until one horrible night one of his sons is killed in front of him at a gas station as part of a gang member's initiation: kill a civilian.
Realising his son's killer will be let off with a light sentence he decides drastic measures are required. What he doesn't bank on is the rest of the gang coming after him and he's forced with transforming himself into something completely unrecognisable, a violent killer. Hume is not a man with a violent past and is often clumsy with his new guns and isn't too great in a brawl but manages to survive with raw determination. You never forget that he's just a civilian rather than a fully trained Navy Seal or hardened gang member. He also struggles with keeping the attentions of a detective and his family at bay while trying not to lose his mind. He doesn't need to narrate his feelings to the audience as all is laid bare in his performance.
The transformation from his character at the start and the end is frightening, not just visually (he looks like Nosferatu at one point), as he gives up everything to get his revenge. If you thought De Niro lost it at the end of 'Taxi Driver' you should see Bacon here.
Also worth a mention is the role John Goodman plays as an underground gun dealer. Quite possibly the darkest, meanest character he's ever played.
So all in all there are some great performances here from Bacon and Goodman in one of the harshest revenge movies you'll ever see, with a story that's not afraid to show someone struggle with right and wrong and the concept of justifiable violence.

After getting almost beaten to death in Central Park and loosing her fiancee in the same attack, Jodie Foster finds herself wandering the streets of New York at night as a vigilante.
Frustrated and too impatient to wait for the police she...
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After getting almost beaten to death in Central Park and loosing her fiancee in the same attack, Jodie Foster finds herself wandering the streets of New York at night as a vigilante.
Frustrated and too impatient to wait for the police she takes matters into her own hands with a gun and a zero tolerance attitude to any muggers, pimps and the like that cross her path.
It's an average revenge film, it's not Kill Bill, nor does it want to be. The action and violence is infrequent as the story looks more at the police side of things and the relationship between her and the cop investigating the murders (Terrence Howard) as he slowly begins to realise it could be her. No really?
Foster narrates to the audience to tell us how she is becoming a different person and emotionally detached from the killing whereas with Kevin Bacon in Death Sentence we can see it through raw emotion portrayed onscreen. This being something that Foster doesn't portray at all as she phones in the performance.
It's not a bad film for a rental but if you've seen Death Sentence recently which was released around the same time (UK) it is lacking in almost every area.

When a tribe of mammoth hunters are attacked and taken away for slave work, the remaining hunters follow them to try and free them. The journey takes place over some visually impressive vistas of snowy mountains, jungles and deserts.

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When a tribe of mammoth hunters are attacked and taken away for slave work, the remaining hunters follow them to try and free them. The journey takes place over some visually impressive vistas of snowy mountains, jungles and deserts.

It's all downhill from here. You can only stare at the screen in bemusement during the giant ostrich / dodo attack in the jungle which is like an idiot version of the fantastic raptors in the Jurassic Park movies. The film manages to make stampeding mammoths look incredibly dull and the brief cameo from a saber-tooth tiger is pointless, it growls and that's it. No decent actors are involved and the action never gets close to upsetting its 12A rating.

So if you've always wanted to know what would happen if Ice Age got its freak on with Apocalypto, here you are, you weirdo. It's probably worse than you imagined.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson stars as American football star, Joe Kingman. He has everything he wants until one day he opens his door to find out he has an eight year old daughter, Peyton, from a relationship before he was a star. So it's out with...
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Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson stars as American football star, Joe Kingman. He has everything he wants until one day he opens his door to find out he has an eight year old daughter, Peyton, from a relationship before he was a star. So it's out with the string of Russian girlfriends and sports cars and in with ballet lessons and station wagons in this family comedy.

The main body of the film shows how he juggles suddenly being a single parent while trying to maintain his good form and lead his team to the championship.

Many see The Rock (or Dwayne to his mum) as Arnie's successor. We know he can do action and this shows his softer, more family friendly side and it's surprisingly good. Sure the whole thing is a bit cheesy in places but there's a steady flow of laughs throughout.

Tommy Lee Jones plays the father of a young US soldier who has gone missing after returning home from Iraq. He teams up with local detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) to try and find out what has happened to his son but he keeps hitting...
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Tommy Lee Jones plays the father of a young US soldier who has gone missing after returning home from Iraq. He teams up with local detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) to try and find out what has happened to his son but he keeps hitting dead-ends or his way is blocked by red-tape from the army. Most of this film plays out as a crime mystery but the second half also looks at how soldiers can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. It will keep you interested throughout and Jones deserves his Oscar nomination for his role.

It's an incredible achievement making a bad film with two of cinemas greatest creations, but making another is even more impressive. There are decent novels bearing the Aliens Vs Predator name with good stories so there's no excuse for this trite....
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It's an incredible achievement making a bad film with two of cinemas greatest creations, but making another is even more impressive. There are decent novels bearing the Aliens Vs Predator name with good stories so there's no excuse for this trite. The small US woodland town setting with teen drama dripping everywhere will disgust fans more than the gore on offer. The new hybrid of the eponymous monsters is a great idea but criminally underused and too hard to see in the shadows. It's about time 20th Century Fox gave in and payed up for a team with some talent to make the film that fans deserve.

It doesn't happen very often these days but we finally have a decent videogame adaptation. Timothy Olyphant stars in the lead role of the world's top assassin, Agent 47. After years of evading capture (despite being bald and having a barcode...
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It doesn't happen very often these days but we finally have a decent videogame adaptation. Timothy Olyphant stars in the lead role of the world's top assassin, Agent 47. After years of evading capture (despite being bald and having a barcode tattooed on his head) his agency betray him and attempt to have him wiped out. He ends up on the run from his employers and half of Russia and Interpol. Prison Break fans watch out for T-Bag playing a Russian agent!
Most of the film is set in snowy St. Petersburg which works better than an American setting, and makes a favourable comparison to the Bourne films.
Fans of the games will be pleased to see elements of the stealth assassin game being used in the film. Less so with the more outgoing aspects of some of 47's character that have been added to give him personality. Olyphant does a good job overall though and the film should please action and game fans alike.

It all proves a bit much for Spidey this time, what with battling Sandman, Venom and Harry Osborn. Not to mention a new love interest and a dark suit that makes him more powerful but sends him all emo. The comedy bits are totally cringe-worthy....
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It all proves a bit much for Spidey this time, what with battling Sandman, Venom and Harry Osborn. Not to mention a new love interest and a dark suit that makes him more powerful but sends him all emo. The comedy bits are totally cringe-worthy. The fights and the web swinging scenes are still breathtaking but there’s way too much going on for one film and it shows. It's still a lot of fun though.

John C. Reilly stars as Dewey Cox, the fictional legendary country singer in this spoof comedy. The film is a parody of the biopics of Ray Charles (Ray) and Johnny Cash (Walk the line). Cue lots of piss take moments like becoming traumatised due...
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John C. Reilly stars as Dewey Cox, the fictional legendary country singer in this spoof comedy. The film is a parody of the biopics of Ray Charles (Ray) and Johnny Cash (Walk the line). Cue lots of piss take moments like becoming traumatised due to accidentally cutting his brother in half with a machete as a young boy. He'll meet the Beatles and Elvis and they're just as nuts. The story goes through the familiar route of him trying every drug there is, getting hooked, falling in love with his duet partner (Jenna Fischer) then him going mental after his initial success, "I want an army of didgeridoo's!"
There are funny bits of dialogue and some of the songs are amusing, but there are only so many 'Cox' puns you can get away with in one film.

John C. Reilly stars as Dewey Cox, the fictional legendary country singer in this spoof comedy. The film is a parody of the biopics of Ray Charles (Ray) and Johnny Cash (Walk the line). Cue lots of piss take moments like becoming traumatised due...
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John C. Reilly stars as Dewey Cox, the fictional legendary country singer in this spoof comedy. The film is a parody of the biopics of Ray Charles (Ray) and Johnny Cash (Walk the line). Cue lots of piss take moments like becoming traumatised due to accidentally cutting his brother in half with a machete as a young boy. He'll meet the Beatles and Elvis and they're just as nuts. The story goes through the familiar route of him trying every drug there is, getting hooked, falling in love with his duet partner (Jenna Fischer) then him going mental after his initial success, "I want an army of didgeridoo's!"
There are funny bits of dialogue and some of the songs are amusing, but there are only so many 'Cox' puns you can get away with in one film.

How do you make poem over 1200 years old exciting for a modern audience? Answer: give it a full script, take a bit of creative license, get an all-star cast and film it with Computer Generated Images (CGI) throughout instead of traditional...
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How do you make poem over 1200 years old exciting for a modern audience? Answer: give it a full script, take a bit of creative license, get an all-star cast and film it with Computer Generated Images (CGI) throughout instead of traditional live-action.

The film follows the fame-hungry Norse warrior, Beowulf (voiced by Ray Winstone) leading his Thanes to achieve fame worthy of legend. He is tasked by the Danish King Hrothgar (the voice & face of Anthony Hopkins) to kill Grendel, a demented giant man-like creature that has been terrorising the land. However, Grendel is the least of their worries. It’s his beguiling mother played by Angelina Jolie that they should be more concerned with.

The story can be slow in parts but even then you'll be stunned with the detail of the characters' faces. The likenesses of Anthony Hopkins and Brendan Gleeson are uncanny. The action sequences are incredible, especially the finale. If the film had been shot in live-action they would have had to use CGI for most of these scenes anyway.

Parents be warned, even though Beowulf has a 12A certificate it's a very violent film, with lots of dismemberment and some not very family-friendly 'laddish' language from the Thanes.

Some of the likenesses aren't as impressive as the rest of the cast, mainly the villagers and Grendel's mother played by Jolie, who look a bit like they walked of the extras set for Shrek 3.

Otherwise it's easily the best looking CGI film to date surpassing Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children and anything the mighty Pixar studio has offered to date. Fans of titles such as Lord of the Rings or anything CGI will love this. See it at the cinema on a big screen as it was meant to be while you can.

Pixar's partnership with Disney has brought audiences young and old many delights over the years. Children and adults alike were amazed back in 1995 with Toy Story which brought a great story and a revolution in animation to audiences the world...
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Pixar's partnership with Disney has brought audiences young and old many delights over the years. Children and adults alike were amazed back in 1995 with Toy Story which brought a great story and a revolution in animation to audiences the world over. It's been twelve years and we've seen even more classics since with Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Their latest film stars Remy as a rat in Paris who wants to be a cook. Obviously his rodent qualities don't endear him to the Parisian restaurant kitchens. Remy's ability to taste and smell food only endears him to his clan as poison detector. After scampering around a kitchen trying to find food he can't help adding some ingredients to a soup in order to save the new garbage boy and wannabe chef, Linguini from completely messing it up. The soup is a surprise hit and Linguini is hired, much to the outrage of the restaurants Head Chef, Skinner, voiced by a wonderfully over the top 'Frenched up' Ian Holm. Linguini still can't actually cook so Remy teams up with him and instructs him by sitting under his hat and pulling his hair like puppet strings. It's not the most inspired story and it's let down by a boring and uneventful narrative. Audiences of all ages will be bored by most of it except for the all too brief chase scenes which are brilliantly done. Previous Pixar films have taken audiences under the sea and into comedy monster cities and the world of superheroes, so the kitchen setting is comparatively dull. This and last year's Cars haven't been up to par with most of Pixar's back-catalogue and show a definite lack of ideas. The good news? Toy Story 3 is penned in for in 2010.

A group of female Vampires use the internet to draw in a 'vessel', a person to restore their powers. David Carradine (Kill Bill V.2) mumbles away for over an hour trying to find them while they get closer to finding the woman they need. The one...
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A group of female Vampires use the internet to draw in a 'vessel', a person to restore their powers. David Carradine (Kill Bill V.2) mumbles away for over an hour trying to find them while they get closer to finding the woman they need. The one saving grace is the slayer-in-a-suit character whose calm composed slaying is just cool as ****. One to miss though overall.

The team behind 40 Year Old Virgin deliver this comedy about an unexpected pregnancy from a one-night-stand. She's a rising star in television, he's a stoner layabout. The second half gets a tad serious, focusing on the on/off relationship between...
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The team behind 40 Year Old Virgin deliver this comedy about an unexpected pregnancy from a one-night-stand. She's a rising star in television, he's a stoner layabout. The second half gets a tad serious, focusing on the on/off relationship between the pair getting to know each other. These scenes are portrayed with just the right amount of warmth without becoming too sickly. Enjoyable and sprinkled with great humour throughout.

Director David Kronenburg's film is about Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), a Russian gangster based in London who crosses paths with the half-Russian midwife, Anna (Naomi Watts). Using a Russian diary, Anna is forced to step into the dangerous...
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Director David Kronenburg's film is about Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen), a Russian gangster based in London who crosses paths with the half-Russian midwife, Anna (Naomi Watts). Using a Russian diary, Anna is forced to step into the dangerous underworld of the mafia while trying to trace the family of a baby whose abused mother died during childbirth. Mortensen plays a brilliantly understated role as the driver and 'undertaker' trying to 'earn his stars' and be fully accepted into a mafia family. The layer of menace beneath his calm exterior is the films strongest point backed up with a strong cast. High-quality throughout, Russian mafia movies could be the new Mob movie scene.

Based on the 80s cartoon, this live-action blockbuster has giant robots scrapping for survival in a modern day setting on Earth. The story has Sam (Shia LaBeouf) teaming up with the Autobots to defend the planet from the Decepticons.

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Based on the 80s cartoon, this live-action blockbuster has giant robots scrapping for survival in a modern day setting on Earth. The story has Sam (Shia LaBeouf) teaming up with the Autobots to defend the planet from the Decepticons.

The robots look great and the way they transform into vehicles is very cool. The fights and the action set-pieces are great to watch but can become a bit too frantic as it becomes difficult to see what's going on and who's battering who. LaBeouf is a likeable young actor providing some light-hearted humour, especially when trying to win the affections of the lovely Mikaela (Meagan Fox). Very entertaining with a sequel already in the works.

Badass Bruce returns as cop John McClane with Justin Long (the kid from Dodgeball) providing the unwilling, comedy sidekick nerd. Together they must stop internet terrorist Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). It should've been rubbish, but it's...
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Badass Bruce returns as cop John McClane with Justin Long (the kid from Dodgeball) providing the unwilling, comedy sidekick nerd. Together they must stop internet terrorist Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant). It should've been rubbish, but it's not. It maybe the best Die Hard yet. The action is relentless and ridiculous in the best possible way with cars, jet fighters, guns and fists all the way. Any film that can get away with the line, "you just killed a helicopter with a car" is genius. Welcome back Bruce, more please.

This latest feature length documentary from Michael Moore is all about America's shocking healthcare system. It shows how people without and with health insurance get royally screwed over. One uninsured guy that lost two fingers had the option of...
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This latest feature length documentary from Michael Moore is all about America's shocking healthcare system. It shows how people without and with health insurance get royally screwed over. One uninsured guy that lost two fingers had the option of $12,000 for wedding finger or $60,000 for the middle one! Whereas as France and Cuba treat Americans for free. This and many of the other stories will shock audiences around the world, especially the US Governments treatment of volunteer 9/11 rescue workers. Comparatively our NUS (UK) is way better but it's nowhere near as picture perfect as Moore arrogantly portrays it. Overall, this film lacks the crucial impact of Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11.

After a disappointing sequel this third film is a surprising improvement. Alice (Milla Jovovich) has developed more abilities such as the ability to manipulate fire and gravity, and become physically much stronger. She joins a convoy travelling...
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After a disappointing sequel this third film is a surprising improvement. Alice (Milla Jovovich) has developed more abilities such as the ability to manipulate fire and gravity, and become physically much stronger. She joins a convoy travelling across the desert wasteland that the world has become because of the T-Virus. It's a great new direction for the series, think Mad Max 2 with zombies. While dull in parts, the zombie attack scenes are great and suitably manic.

Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner lead the way, teaming up with a Saudi Policeman, to find those responsible for a terrorist attack on an American housing compound in Saudi Arabia in what couldn't be a more modern setting. The majority of the film...
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Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner lead the way, teaming up with a Saudi Policeman, to find those responsible for a terrorist attack on an American housing compound in Saudi Arabia in what couldn't be a more modern setting. The majority of the film plays out a gripping crime drama, but really goes for it with the action scenes as well. An exciting and intense must-see.

The sequel to spooky Russian action flick, has Anton, searching for an object that will save Moscow from becoming a battleground of the opposing forces of Light and Dark, while trying to clear his name of murder. It starts well with an ancient...
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The sequel to spooky Russian action flick, has Anton, searching for an object that will save Moscow from becoming a battleground of the opposing forces of Light and Dark, while trying to clear his name of murder. It starts well with an ancient battle-scene, but the modern setting of the rest of the film is uninspired. The pace picks up for an exciting last half hour but it's hard to maintain interest for the sequel.