Viewer Reviews
Recent Reviews By DECLANH
 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Film)Seeeeeesar it at home - declanhAfter hearing a good "buzz" about this movie, and seeing the decent trailer, we decided to go and see this movie at the weekend. With a good queue waiting to get into the screen, and hearing a few other patrons be surprised at the number of other attendees at the cinema - we settled in for what we hoped would be an entertaining movie. We had not more ... |
 | The Ugly Truth (Video)You can hande this truth - declanhWell - it turned out to be a bit of a Gerard Butler night here the other night - when I choose Gamer, and my better half chose "The Ugly Truth". Now - while I enjoyed 300, and though that Lawabiding Citizen was a decent movie, I had expected that Butler might be the sort of guy who chose decent roles - Gamer proved me wrong, and yet this movie had me more ... |
 | Gamer (Video)Game cancelled due to lack of interest - declanhWow. Can you take a concept and then implement it so badly that your brain is disengaged and your eyes feel like they should be rested in Optrex afterwards - so that you may never cause them the same level of pain as sitting through this. I note that the two reviewers here gave it two stars - alas I am not so generous - and am wondering how they could be. more ... |
 | 500 Days Of Summer (Video)500 minutes of tedium - declanhAn itriguing title - and yet once you discover that the character is called "Summer" - then you are left looking a little askance at the rest of the film. It is not a love story - and yet has a male and female lead who are romanticaly linked. They meet at a greeting card company, where Levitt's boss shows a remarkable restraint, and the slogans are used as more ... |
 | Everybody's Fine (Video)Makes you want to talk to your folks - declanhDespite the fact that the previous review is clearly of different film, I too saw this in Cineworld as part of JDIFF. The posters have DeNiro against a pleasant if not even surreal location - amost comedic in its effect. The movie though tries to play to the heart strings. Director Kirk Jones admitted that he saw the original, lost the DVD that he was more ... |
 | Valentine's Day (Film)Great cast - but where's the script they deserve? - declanhI had almost forgotten that I had seen this movie - but don't tell my other half!! She had wanted to just get away and see a chick flick - and seeing as I had put her through "The Hurt Locker" a while back, it seemed to be a fair trade that I would have to watch something that had a promising cast - and even the preview elements in the cinema promised that more ... |
 | Up (Film)You will cry - but you will also laugh and giggle - declanhWow - a cartoon that can elicit genuine emotion on adult themes - very impressive. Having been warned that I'd cry in the opening few minutes I sat down to watch this with my better half yesterday evening. Rarely do I retn out Pixar movies - they are aimed at a different generation to me after all - though only by a few decades. Still with such a good buzz more ... |
 | Smokin' Aces (Video)Not the Ace that I needed - declanhHmmm.....tough one this to review. You could see it as an action movie - but action movies don't require that you think too much. It might be a thriller - but there are too many strands to follow. It might even be a mafia movie - after all, it has Ray Liotta, and there are mob elements - but it lacks a certain style. A movie that has a title that does not more ... |
 | Sum of All Fears (Video)A movie too large for Affleck's shoulders - declanhWhen Tom Clancy sat down and wrote "Red Storm Rising" - and subsequent thrillers that are more well known and have been made into movies, such as "The Hunt for Red October" and "Patriot Games" - he created a character that had depth. In Baldwin's representation of Ryan, and indeed Ford's - Ryan was presented as a character of more ... |
 | Surrogates (Video)A decent film, but not enough action - declanhSurrogates introduces the future in an opening sequence that hints at some of the main characters that we are to deal with - though not in a way that is very clear. A young man dies in New York, but it turns out that physically he was in LA. How you may ask, can this happen? Only if you have a surrogate - a more perfect version of you, that you can control more ... |
 | It's Complicated (Video)A decent comedy with some good laughs - declanhThe complications in Meryl Streep's family life - at least for the audience starts with trying to understand the kids that she has. There is a daughter Gabby (Zoe Kazan) - who looks 16 - but is 26 in reality - and her location among the birth order of Streep's children is difficult to figure out. Then there is Harley (John Krasinski) - who may or may not be more ... |
 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Film)New Moon? No more! - declanhHaving had my better half rave about the quality of the Twilight series of books, I feld compelled (or should I saw I was dragged) to see New Moon. As Mike Sheridan points out - being a better movie than than the first in the series does not mean that it will appeal to a broader audience, and indeed he is correct. There is a sense of an unfinished more ... |
 | My Sister's Keeper (Film)Who says boys don't cry? - declanhIn most bookshops there is a large fiction section, of which Jodi Picoult has at least several shelves all to herself (or at least in my local Eason's she does). Despite this I, for one, have never even examined the back cover of any of her books - and for a write who's web-site indicates that she writes about Family, Relationships, and Love - I doubt that more ... |
 | Die Hard and Die Harder (Video)The perfect set of XMAS movies - declanhDie Hard and its sequel Die Harder are surely the modern day equivalent of "It's a wonderful life". They have outstanding leading men, and a heartening message for Yuletide - though "Yippee Kay Yay" may not quite be the same as "every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings". When your average New York cop decides to travel to see his ex-wife in LA - who more ... |
 | District 9 (Video)Prawns never looked so engaging - declanhThey don't make that many movies that are based in South Africa - though there is one with Matt Damon coming up that retraces the Rugby World Cup that they won. So, what is rare is worthwhile - and this movie is very worthwhile. If you take it that there are only a small number of cities that Aliens are going to hover over in order to announce their more ... |
 | Seven Pounds (Film)Greatness cast away - declanhThere are times when you see a movie and afterwards you just want to know the names of the scriptwriters - so that you can find out who their bosses are, and then put your name forward as their replacement - and boy is this one of them. There is such potential in the story - a basically good human being makes an innocent mistake (texting while driving more ... |
 | The Haunting In Connecticut (Video)You'll never look at eyelids the same way again - declanhWhen you see in the opening sequence that this is something that is based oin a true story - you figure that these sort of things should be TV movies, and indeed this was - back in 2002. Though I was not to know this prior to seeing the movie, it is rare that a documentary that gets made into a movie works out to be a great movie, and this film emphasises more ... |
 | The Hurt Locker (Film)Up there with the best - declanhA rare thing - an intelligent war movie - with real characters -excellent. There are many war movies that have tried to capture the horrors of war - be it Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket - and this is a movie that will go right up there in the pantheon of great war movies. Though set in Iraq, it could be set anywhere - and that is the beauty of more ... |
 | Final Destination 4 (Video)They should have stopped at the 2nd destination - declanhThis is the first time that I have given a movie a single * here - though if i have done it before, then I automatically upgrade the other reviews, as this movie is truly deserving of the description of "1 Star (Muck)". If you have seen the first "Final Desination", then by the time that the second arrived, you knew the plot - and if you more ... |
 | The Taking of Pelham 123 (Video)Watch the original - it is a decent movie. - declanhThe original version of this movie appeared on TV only a few months ago (TV3?) - and while it started late, it had me up until 1:00 in the morning waiting for the end. This - which I saw on DVD - had me regretting choosing it. While much of the plot is the same - there are key elements that are much poorer in this version than the original. In the original, more ... |
 | Avatar (Film)A must see in 3d - declanhSuspend disbelief as you enter the world of Pandora - it is an amazing cinematic effort - though I would have to wonder if it will stand the test of time. The 3-d effects are dramatic, particularly in the early scenes on the space ship, and obvious throughout the movie - though as one reviewer here does note, there are some scenes (chase scenes through the more ... |
 | Looking For Eric (Video)Asking your hero for help - it might work out... - declanhSometimes you pick up a DVD on the basis of a few good words that you have heard on a radio review.....and this was one of those times - and you are not sure if you will trust the reviewer again - though for this movie, it is worth it - but you have to be in the mood for it. As the other reviews have noted, it is a little gritty - where he main character more ... |
 | The Men Who Stare At Goats (Film)Great trailer - poor movie - declanhIn the cinema, the person to my left started snoring about an our into the movie. Is there a more telling sign that there is something wrong with a movie than that? It has its moments undoubtedly - though if you have read any review, then you will know the funny lines -"What's a Jedi?" asks Ewan McGregor, and at one point "The silence of the goats" - again more ... |
 | Law Abiding Citizen (Film)Enjoyable - ignore the reviews - declanhMovies are meant to be a place where you can go and suspend disbelief for a while, and be entertained by a story that presents you with a different perspective on life, allow you to laugh, force you to cry or have you break out into song - but they are all a little but escapist. Sometimes - you want to be entertained - and this movie is one that does not more ... |
 | Bruno (Film)Simply unfunny - pokemyeyesoutnowThe movie simply fails to live up to the hype. Yes, it causes debate on a forum like this - but it is one of those "cringing funny" movies more to be squirmed through, rather than to have belly laughs at. It will not stand up for repeated viewing. Too much is based on crudeness, with enough "blacked out" portions in some early scenes to more ... |
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