Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Cain, Lukas Haas, Marion Cortillard Genre: Drama/Thriller IMDb: Inception Released: July 15 , 2010 (New Zealand)

The imagery of Inception is a tad deceiving. At first you’re led to believe that it’s a sci-fi movie of sorts with quite a few special effects and a tricky storyline that bobs and weaves its way in and out of weirdness. Which is why there have been so many comparisons to movies like The Matrix which dealt with similar content matter. At its core, Inception is definitely a movie about the abnormal, especially when the main concept behind the movie attempts to explain how it’s possible for someone to become an architect of another person’s subconscious. Essentially, that is what Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is – someone with a gift for being able to manipulate another person’s subconscious through their dreams. Being the entrepreneurial type that he is, Cobb see’s no shame in making a profit out of the ability to control someone’s actions or even change their entire lives by planting a single idea in their heads. Especially if the price is right.

Once you’ve got your head around all of that (not really all that difficult), the rest of the movie falls pleasantly into place and you can begin to focus on the real story at hand – Leonardo DiCaprio’s semi-obsessive focus on the death of his wife through suicide. Without giving too much of the plot away, Inception is a grandiose ideal that seems to be just a little out of reach for most of us but intriguing, none-the-less.

It’s nice to see such a great cast but unfortunately, many of the stars just don’t get much screen time at all which is entirely a shame. It is however, refreshing to see Leonardo in a movie that doesn’t have any connection what-so-ever to director Martin Scorcese. I was beginning to think the two were joined at the hip, much in the same way Johnny Depp seems to be living in Tim Burton’s basement lately…

The second episode of Misfits finds our motley crew of ASBO offenders still trying to figure out what happened to them after the storm. Nathan has bigger problems when he finds himself being thrown out of home. After several attempts to hook up with ‘friends’ who seem like they don’t wanna know, he decides to camp out at the community center. Meanwhile, the disappearance of the probation worker has other interested parties leaving eerie notes in the Misfits’ lockers. The replacement probation worker takes over and it appears as if things are back to normal, or as normal as could be for the Misfits.

ASBO of the moment Nathan manages to hook up with a local community center volunteer only to discover that she isn’t quite what she seems. The other Misfits are still experiencing freaky after-storm weirdness such as disappearing completely (in Simon’s case) and Alisha can’t touch anyone without turning them into raving, sexually aggressive lunatics lusting after her.

Just when it seems like life could be bearable after the storm, weird things keep happening. And the Misfits aren’t the only people who have been affected by the storm.

Lots of questions still remain unanswered and in true Misfit fashion, they’re winging it and hoping for the best – just as long as their ‘secret’ remains a secret, of course.

New Zealand television really does kinda suck. And hard at that. There are shows that we get which are shown in other parts of the world at the same time and then there’s… everything else. Like Survivors for instance. Survivors is exactly the type of stuff I love to watch and now that I have a brand new telly with freeview HD built in, I could easily spend time with my eyes glued to the box watching quality drama like this.

Survivors will eventually be broadcast on New Zealand television despite having been released two years ago… WTF is up with that? I really have no idea why we’re always consistently behind everyone else when it comes to certain TV shows and really up to date with others (like True Blood).

And for those wondering, I’m not referring to the 1975 classic BBC production of Survivors but the remake which aired in the UK in 2008. Post-apocalyptic plot based on the lives of survivors that manage to live through a life-threatening flu pandemic which kills 99 per cent of the world’s population. Yeah, exactly the type of thing I’d love to watch but two years after the rest of the world? That’s kinda sad. Will I still watch it? Absolutely. As I’ve previously admitted, Brit TV is my favourite and anything post-apocalyptic is worthy of my time.

Starring:Iddo Goldberg, Deborah Francois, Fernando Tielve Genre: Drama IMDb:Unmade Beds Released: July, 2009 NZFF (New Zealand)

For the first half of this movie, I was intrigued. I felt genuinely interested in finding out all about Axl and his life of reckless debauchery in the underground scene of London town. But somewhere along the way I got side-tracked and things seemed a little hazy. Random events ocurring in the lives of both Axl and Vera became intertwined. It was no longer a clear cut path and the Unmade Beds became a mish-mash of imagery – broken glimpses of two lives thrust together by chance.

I don’t like messy storylines. Watching Unmade Beds began as if a painter was about to embark on creating a masterpiece with a blank sheet of canvas. But it soon became a collage of messy images, alot of which seemed unsubstantial. I did however enjoy the part of Axl’s story as he tried desperately to piece together aspects of his life after locating his father. This gave the character of Axl some backbone, something deeper than drugs, orgies and dancing to crappy music.

Maybe I’m just not made for art-house movies. None-the-less the acting talent of our two main characters Vera and Axl (Deborah Francois and Fernando Tielve) is undeniable. Diary of a Call Girl’s Iddo Goldberg is also worth a mention – he’s just great.

Image via Vimooz

Starring: Josh Stewart, Juan Fernandez Genre: Horror/Thriller IMDb: The Collector Released: August 12, 2010 (New Zealand)

It seems kinda strange reviewing a movie that has already been released on DVD in other countries. If I was a true follower of horror/thriller’s, I probably would have ordered my copy via Amazon some time ago.  Grossing a cool 7.7 million USD at the box office would indicate this movie didn’t do so badly.

I wouldn’t exactly call myself the ‘squeamish’ type but The Collector definitely had me squirming a little in my seat, particularly during some of the more graphically depicted scenes (of which there are many). The movie begins with ex-con Arkin (played extremely well by Josh Stewart) who is trying desperately to help his wife recover enough money to pay off a loan shark. In order to do this, he resorts to his skills in burglary and theft to get the money, pushing his partner to pay up before the midnight deadline. The house he has been casing for the last few weeks will be abandoned with the family out of town on a vacation. Everything seems perfect.

As he is attemping to break into the family’s safe, he hears screams coming through the air-con vent and runs for cover. Arkin eventually discovers that he has stumbled on a psychotic killer who is holding the family members hostage and torturing them in painful and horrific ways. The villian (The Collector) also seems to be highly adept at setting traps for his victims, traps that are ingeniously set up all around the house created for one purpose – to kill or at the very least, maim.

I wasn’t really a huge fan of the Saw series of films. I liked the first one but lost interest shortly after that and never saw any beyond the second movie. I was expecting more of the same with The Collector but found myself surprisingly attentive and at times, even a little disturbed by the outright gore (disembowelment anyone?) It has been a long time since I’ve seen a horror movie that actually made me feel uncomfortable.

I pay homage to the soundtrack as much as I do the direction and acting (which was fantastic, in particular Josh Stewart and Juan Fernandez). The music delivered an intensity to the scenes that pushed emotions that much further into the extreme than I expected, and that can only be a good thing for a horror movie to achieve.

If you like horror, you should do your best to catch this at the movies – and if you’re a fan of hard-driven beats, you might want to check out the movie soundtrack as well.

Monday night was the debut of new drama Misfits on C4. And I’m kinda mildly addicted to it for several reasons, all of which I’ll detail in this mini-review/break down of the first episode.

Misfits is about a group of ‘ASBO’ (which for those folks outside of the U.K. stands for Anti Social Behaviour Order) young offenders who are required to complete community work as punishment for their crimes. After being informally introduced to their probation officer, we begin to see at least one dominating personality within the group in Nathan who comes across as something of a smart-assed, wise guy. Always cracking jokes, Nathan can’t help but poke fun at just about everything, even going so far as to provide inventive and extremely crass narrative for every situation. When the focus isn’t on Nathan, we’re also briefly introduced to the reclusive personality of Simon who Nathan seems to clash with instantly. Kind of like polar opposites meeting each other.

The girls of the group – Kelly and ‘party girl’ Alisha also find their voices although Kelly seems a little more ‘no-nonsense’ than flirty Alisha. The odd one out seems to be Curtis – an athlete with a bright future who screwed up and is now facing the bleak reality of two years suspension from athletics and 200 hours of community service.

During a painting session outside of the community centre, a freakish storm unleashes hailstones the size of large boulders, forcing the crew and their probation worker to run for cover. As they are trying to get inside the building, all six are hit with a ‘wave’ of lightning that throws them onto the pavement. On first appearances, everything seems relatively normal but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The remainder of the episode reveals that the freak storm has done something strange to each of the Misfits and to the probation worker. As they struggle to come to terms with the gravity of the situation, the probation officer turns psychotic. Kelly does her best to explain to the others that they are in danger but Nathan, ever the skeptic, does what he does best and makes fun out of a potentially serious situation.

It’s at this moment that a major turning point in the story occurs with two of the Misfits discovering their ‘power’, altering their futures forever.

The show is rated for adults so it’s obviously not viewing for younger members of the family. There’s alot of vulgarity including swearing, references to drug use and alot of adult-like themes, but it’s this gritty type of content matter that gives Misfits both it’s kick and appeal.

I can see how similarities between ‘Skins’ and ‘Heroes’ will be made but where Misfits may use similar subject matter (kids getting super powers and finding themselves in precarious and serious situations), it seems to be alot easier to relate to and feels like it’s portrayed from a more realistic point of view rather than from pages of a comic-book.

I’m really looking forward to Episode 2 so tune back here for more Misfits updates next week.

I love Brit TV. I can’t get enough of it – Eastenders, Skins – I love it all. And the C4 lineup just got a whole lot cooler with new TV drama/comedy Misfits.

Misfits is about a bunch of young offenders who are brought together and assigned to complete community service work at their local Community Center. Life continues as normal until a freak electrical storm hits the city, causing all sorts of havoc with hailstones the size of boulders dropping everywhere. But nobody would have guessed that the freak storm would change the lives of our band of misfits forever.

A little like ‘Heroes’ but alot grittier and in-your-face, Misfits brings our characters together through an experience that leaves each person physiologically altered with special ‘super-hero’ like abilities after the storm. Part of the journey is discovering exactly how each character has been changed and of course, that’s when all the fun (and mayhem) begins.

The official website can be found here so check it out – there are all sorts of interesting video clips (showing the characters, trailers and actors), blog posts and discussions about the TV show. And the best news is that Misfits has been picked up for a second season (after winning the BAFTA award for best drama!) Yup, we’re pretty hyped for this so be watching C4 at 9.30 pm tonight – you won’t regret it!

I’ll be writing a review of each episode starting with the first episode tomorrow so check back then!

The NZFF is about to kick off here in New Zealand and I’ve long been a fan of the event and try to attend every year. This year I’ll be seeing The Runaways (next week) which I’m really looking forward to but I haven’t decided on any other movies as yet. If you’ve got any suggestions for what I should see, do let me know.

Speaking of film, the YouTube event Life in a Day is set to begin on the 24th of July. For all budding movie directors (and anyone that’s at all interested in being a part of video history), this event is sure to be an important one for you. How will you make history with your digicam? I’ve thought about what I would do if I was to make a submission. You can check out the website in the link above or better yet, watch the video clip of one of my favourite directors, Ridley Scott, talking about the event and how he got started in his career.

And just like Ridley says – if you want something bad enough “Just do it!”… just do it!

Starring: Adrian Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller IMDb: Predators 2010 Released: July 8, 2010 (New Zealand)

SPOILER ALERT – There are spoilers herein, consider yourself warned!

The one thing you need to know before seeing this movie is that it’s not a sequel to any other movie associated with Predator. So essentially it’s a new storyline with new characters and vision from Nimrod Antal and the script writers.

In the previous Predator movie, commando and all-round tough guy ‘Dutch’ (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) adventured (and was eventually hunted) in the swaggering Amazonian heat with his tough-as-nails compadre’s. This time around it’s a group of complete strangers who seem to have one thing in common – they’re all predatory in their own right – all except one. Now, I dunno about you but if I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of killers and only my gun to keep me company, I wouldn’t be too trusting of anyone or anything. As it turns out, being marooned and left for dead in an unfamiliar environment is less appealing to our band of killers than working together as a group. They venture forth into the unknown, temporarily putting their trust issues (and kill-or-be-killed instincts) on hold.

So the premise is a bunch of criminals, ex-military types and a doctor are all stuck on a mysterious planet without any idea why. Adrian Brody makes his move early on as the ‘Alpha’ male and while he does an adequate job, he’s really nothing like the character Arnie represented in Predator. It’s difficult not to make comparisons afterall, Predator had to be one of my favourite action movies of the 80s.

Probably the weirdest casting call in this is Laurence Fishburne’s character who seems something of an erratic and misplaced individual. While the interlude provided by his appearance half-way through the movie is somewhat unexpected and entertaining to a point, again, it just didn’t seem to sit right with me and almost interferred entirely with the flow of the film. Almost.

Topher Grace’s character as the elusive and all-knowing ‘Doctor’ is an enigma and probably the one character that should have been fleshed out alot more than he was. Topher carried his character off very well and it’s a pity he didn’t get really interesting until the very end.

The Predators however were seriously just as awesome as I remember from the original if not even more menacing. I have to credit Nimrod Antal and the special effects/creative team here because there are some very well directed action sequences that keep the movie moving at a frantically delicious pace. The ‘Dog’ scene is a particularly exquisite action sequence which had me all tensed up in my seat!

Antal did a pretty good job of creating something literally out of nothing, blending some of the old with alot of the new and creating something fresh for us to fear all over again. It isn’t easy to do considering the history and cult following the Predator franchise has had over the years. I think Antal did the best anyone could without using someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry the project forward.

Image via dietrichthrall

PCR’s rating:

This is not a movie review because I won’t be seeing this movie. Why? Because I’ve really just had enough of awesome movies being turned into a joke by people looking for a quick buck. It’s obvious that Hollywood has no standards because the people there that create these ridiculous ‘remakes’ of classic movies such as Karate Kid don’t understand the need to preserve people’s memories.

Karate Kid was just one of those movies that epitomised the era. It was the time of heart-throb Ralph Macchio (back when he was cute and thin) and pretty girl-next-door Elizabeth Shue. Karate Kid was an important movie for me because I could relate to it. I understood the need for acceptance. I understood the feeling of loneliness and being outcast and having to fit into a place where you felt you didn’t belong. That was what Karate Kid was all about. Sure, the martial arts were important too but it was a movie with a message. And Karate Kid 2010 will take all of that and turn it into nothing more than a joke…

Don’t get me wrong – I really like Jackie Chan. I think Jackie is a very talented and amazing actor and I think he’s come a long way in his career but he is no Pat Morita and the fact that this movie is filmed in China when it’s titled ‘The Karate Kid’ irks me even more. I didn’t think the Chinese practiced a whole lot of Karate and Jackie Chan isn’t Japanese!

This movie fails for so many reasons I couldn’t even begin to explain them. I usually don’t make such harsh judgments without seeing a movie first but this time, I’m drawing the line. And I’m sure Jaden Smith has had a whole lot of awesome martial arts coaching but he’s just not believable and in my opinion, Ralph Macchio’s Daniel was alot easier to relate to. I think it’s more than a little far-fetched to think that an African-American kid moving to China is in any way easier to relate to than a kid leaving his childhood home, girlfriend and friends to move to a place surrounded by rich, snobby, stuck-up kids.

You’ll get more out of the original than you ever will this movie because the original Karate Kid can appeal to anyone of any era… let’s see if this version will withstand the test of time the same way.