With No Power Comes No Responsibility

---

Kevin Smith’s return to counter-culture and all that it involves!

Film

---

Let down by an unconvincing performance from Joaquin Phoenix.

---

So George A. Romero has finally made a film that many of us have been waiting almost two decades for. In 1968 Romero created the blueprint for all modern zombie movies with Night of the Living Dead, which also made subtle social comments about the racial tensions in 1960's America. A decade later Romero turned his social mirror on America's rampant consumerism in Dawn of the Dead, and in 1985's Day of the Dead—a claustrophobic nightmare where the "stenches" (nickname given to the zombies because of their rotten smell) outnumber the survivors by an estimated 400,000 to 1—science and the military come head to head in an underground bunker with only one female and plenty of testosterone. Land of the Dead isn't as stylish or as enjoyable as the previous films. It is set in a nameless city somewhere in America which is protected on all sides by rivers and has high-power electric fences blocking all the bridges. The rich live in a luxury tower block called Fiddler's Green which...

---

This film should really be called Ronseal: Action Movie Cliché – With Extra Cheese, that way, what you get inside would be exactly what it said on the tin. Firstly, although it’s named after the video game, it’s a classic ‘loosely based’ type affair. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson takes the lead role as ‘Sarge’ the leader of the rapid reaction marine force called in when things go tits-up on a research station on Mars. The movie kicks off by introducing the good guys. As you’d expect, the team of marines has all the usual collection of characters. The brooding silent black guy, the wise ass who thinks he’s Mr Smooth, and even the kid on his first ever mission. At this point the hint of cheddar starts to become easily recognisable. Once they arrive to save the day, the film starts to deviate from the computer game. It soon turns out that instead of the creatures being from Hell, they’re actually a genetic mutation of the scientists the team have come to save. At this point you...

directed by Pedro Almodovar

---

Volver shines because the acting is excellent, and the story is totally different from a lot of what is offered today.

Another bloody office outing

---

If you like horror films, go see this, but don't expect to be rolling about in the aisles.

---

After the fairly enjoyable but uncharacteristically mainstream Brothers Grimm, Terry Gilliam’s new film Tideland is a return to the style of movie that he does best—deranged, incoherent, and haunting. You’ll be chewing over it for days after.

Seven years from now everything you do will be recorded

---

The transition from page to screen has robbed A Scanner Darkly of none of its impact.

Tony Jaa returns

---

The Warrior King, aka Tom Yum Goong, is the follow up to the surprise Thai sleeper hit that was Ong Bak. This film finds the same crew at the helm, director Prachya Pinkaew and star Tony Jaa. Unfortunately unfunny Thai funny man Petchtai Wongkamlao is also along for the ride but more on him later. The crux of the film is that a jungle lad's elephants get stolen and he nips off to Australia to get them back. Mixed in with this is some sort of story line involving crooked policemen and a Triad family succession drama. It's all a little muddled and by the middle of the film you'll find yourself frowning, wondering who is who and what the fuck is going on. It doesn't help that it is done ineptly, characters that are speaking in English mangle words to the extent that it's laughable, including an all important news reader who acts as a link between scenes. You wonder why they bothered in the first place. Indeed this film is pretty much a regression from the simplicity that made Ong...

Superman is back, unfortunately.

---

This review could be summed up in a couple of lines by simply saying:: “Superman Returns is like a love child of the first Superman movie—it’s just as cheesy and dragged out longer than it should be.” The opening of this movie is misleadingly dark for a comic book movie. By this I don’t mean underlying themes, unfortunately—just that it’s, well … dark. The movie opens with some space visuals and then the credits kick in. Oh, how the credits kick in. Remember the original movie, kids? Well, these credits are the same … only they are now in a movie oh, so many years later for that retro feel. Oh, and now we are back to some dark scenes again with Old Mother Kent spotting something happening out on the farm. Unfortunately we then follow her walking across to the cornfield which took up a larger portion of my life than I was comfortable with, to be honest. Superman sneaks up on Old Mother Kent and faints. Oh, wow~! With that nugget of babybel over with it’s now over to catching...