Don't Believe the Hype!

The more observant among you may have noticed my new blog banner upon your disembarkation at this URL. The less observant will wonder what the hell I'm twittering on about this time. Last week I had a carrier bag of dvds thrust upon me and over the last few days I've just about managed to find the time to watch a few of them. So, for your benefit I will now give you the low-down on the following films:

• The Illusionist
• Blood Diamond
• Casino Royale

The Illusionist starring Ed Norton first. I thought this would be my cup of tea when I first saw the trailer for it, and I was right. Thought provoking, clever and with an excellent plot flow. The plot flow part, you might notice is something I've been critical of in several films recently, not least Harry Potter and the Order Of the Pheonix. More to follow!

Blood Diamond was pretty much what I expected really. A pretty decent film looking at the artocities in Sierra Leone (although violence seems to abound all over Africa), but judging by the news I've seen over recent years, it's a lot worse than that. Fairly decent performance by DiCaprio, yet I can't help thinking that he's a little too boyish looking for this role. Worth seeing if you still think that diamonds are a girls best friend!

Casino Royale, pah! I'd heard that this was the best Bond film since Connery was 007. Wrong! There's a great series of stunts at the start where 007 is chasing some guy through a building site, up cranes and stuff, but then it fails to say why he was chasing him. Unfortunately, it only gets worse. Bond seems to globe-trot through the film with little explanation of why he's doing so and despite the lovely scenery (Venice and Lake Como), I can assure you that sailing a yacht into Venice and up the Grand Canal on a whim is highly unlikely to be permitted. The ending was pretty naff too. I hear that the Daniel Craig love interest in the next film is to be played by Shilpa Shetty. Oh, please! Come off it!

Besides the dvds, I finally had a chance to go and see Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End! Since the last POTC film was a major disappointment, I had hoped they would have turned it around with this one, but no, wrong again. It was awful! Some of the major plot features were simply giant steaming turds, nice special effects, but just ridiculous concepts. The storyline was fairly flimsy too, and the film went on way too long (nearly 3 hours of dross). Apparently Johnny Depp wants to reprise the role, so that means there will be more, but not for me, I've had my fill I'm afraid!