Reviews encompassing a wide range of movies from Hollywood blockbusters to independent features.

Richard reviews The Book of Cool – Part One

Title=The Book of Cool - Part One Score=9 Summary=An ingenious idea with bags of style, nine hours of content, hundreds of tricks to learn, and many experts from around the World. Great entertainment. Not only will you sit and watch this again and again, but you'll get out off your arse and practice, flicking through the book for pointers. A great present for someone who has everything...like me, and I'm loving it. The ultimate little black book...except bigger...and with three DVD's!

Richard reviews Ong Bak (Uncut, Original Ending VCD)

Title=Ong Bak (Uncut, Original Ending VCD) Score=6 Summary=Visually amazing stunts from Tony Jaa, stunt sequences are well put together and wonderful to watch, but the story gets left behind and is just a vehicle to get to these moments. This VCD version is the uncut version and features a different ending. Good, but would look better on DVD.

Richard reviews The Chumscrubber

Title=The Chumscrubber Score=8 Summary=Great casting and performances in this movie, with the surprise strength coming from the teenagers. A slightly off kilter and exaggerated world is created here, with only the teenagers being the ones in control and in reality. The story is strong, as the plot line for the teenagers slowly grows to an uneasy climax, all the while the parents oblivious until the cracks begin to appear and their insular lives fall apart.

DVD Review: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be

Title= Bret "Hitman" Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be (2005) Score= 7 Summary= A fun watch. A very detailed documentary of the mans life, touching on the losses he has faced both personally and professionally, a great depiction of behind the scenes of not only this mans life but the business it self. Includes each match The Hitman faced in both the WWF and WCW. A must own for any fan.

Richard reviews Where the Truth Lies

Title=Where the Truth Lies Score=8 Summary=Superb performances from Kevin Bacon and especially Colin Firth. A good story, balanced away from a climactic ending, the enjoyment of this movie is in the performances of the actors and the understanding of the characters and their relationships. Amazing production design. Well worth watching.

Richard reviews Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Title=Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Score=9 Summary=Superbly written movie with Kilmer firing out a fantastic performance, even outshining Downey who is excellent, Kilmer's lines are fantastic. The use of narration is innovative and very engaging. An excellent movie that warrants a couple of viewings. Slight difficulty in hearing lines and following action early on, but it doesn't taint the movie and makes you feel like revisiting it.

Richard reviews The Constant Gardener

Title=The Constant Gardener Score=6 Summary=Strong story with a great ending and a huge agenda. Unfortunately there's style overload and both the agenda and the moral ending could have been toned down slightly to make for a much better movie. It also seriously needs an injection of pace to retain the audience attention. Weisz is superb in this, with Huston firing in another superb performance as a close second. A beautiful view of Africa in some of the scenes.

Richard reviews Initial D (Tau man chi D)

Title=Initial D on DVD Score=5 Summary=A good movie that really centres around the drift racing scenes which are superbly filmed and put together, there's also great use made of the DTS track during the racing. The extras aren't that strong and more around the cars and the racing would have been much better, and in English too.

Richard reviews Freaked

Title=Freaked on DVD Score=7 Summary=A bizarre, absurd and funny movie. The DVD offering is packed with extras including an audio commentary and a full movie rehearsal, both very interesting to watch. The comedy is furious and off the wall, and a surprise to see from Alex Winter. Great performances from Randy Quaid and Keanu Reeves.

Corpse Bride review

Title=The Corpse Bride Score=9 Summary=The film immediately reminds you of The Nightmare Before Christmas and if you enjoyed that you will definitely enjoy this. This film is a Halloween classic. Go and see it!

Richard reviews the Saw II soundtrack

Title=Saw II Original Motion Picture Sountrack Score=6 Summary=A strong soundtrack comprising a range of metal bands from the softer tunes of Queens of the Stone Age over to the hard and unforgiving rage of Sevendust, a song that truly blasted me away. The easier side of metal is very evident here, and for me it was the more enjoyable side with a good three or four songs being good enough to make it onto my playlist. The rest is hard and unforgiving, if you like your metal, this album is a good choice.