The Toymaker

Dredd 3D Well, well, well, I finally saw it. I enjoyed it too. As the type of Dredd film that we all expected the first time, it scores, but it also misses on a few things. The violence and depression were great, as was Karl Urban as Dredd. Some of the violence was just insane. Olivia Thirlby was fantastic as Judge Anderson. Not only was she sexy as fuck, but she totally kicked ass when she got a thirst for it after killing that black woman's partner. I wish they showed more of what that black perp was thinking when he was imagining her naked and sucking his cock. I wish.. The story was wafer thin, much worse than Judge Dredd. The story wasn't the same as The Raid, though, but I can see why the comparisons are made. The music, in parts, was great, usually in the "slow-mo" scenes. Setting it all in one building for a first movie in a possible franchise (little did they know it would bomb) was a weird thing to do. It narrows your options and doesn't really show off the best of any of the characters. I'm sure there were better stories in 2000AD than that, unless that was an original story, in which case there's your problem. As the movie chugs along it does get good and apart from using bullets to kill each person, some ingenuity is involved because they start to run out of bullets. I think to make the film really good they should have had a proper villain, not some woman with a scar on her cheek. It was so cheap. They should have had Ma-Ma as being an older woman, or a totally different villain altogether, Rico or someone. One thing I didn't like was when Urban had a lot of dialogue to give in one go, his voice would lose that cool, husky lowness and instead just be Urban's normal voice. Cannot believe the director or Urban himself didn't notice that. It was like watching Batman/Bruce Wayne again with the changing voices. But thankfully it didn't happen often because Dredd is a man of few words. Visually it was great, if a bit dark, but it gave me lots of opportunities at nostalgia. Many of the shots of Dredd reminded me of the comics that I used to read. This particular Dredd aims at a different style in the comics; an earlier Dredd. Stallone's Dredd portrays a more recent Dredd. That is the difference. Stallone's Dredd: http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/judge_dredd_wallpaper_01.jpg Urban's Dredd: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/JackTChance/judgedredd_restrfiles1.jpg See how what Urban's Dredd is based on is much more manouvreable, whereas Stallone's is heavy and has the big golden eagle on the shoulder. Just different Dredd's, and I can respect that totally. I love Stallone's Dredd, but I also like this one too. I suppose if I had to choose one, I'd go with this one because it was more mature and graphic, which is how the comics used to be, and that element to the comics is how it differentiated itself from other comics. It was a shame that Urban didn't use any one liners (as comic Dredd does), but I can let that wash. Urban's "I am the law" line was better delivered (and at a more appropriate time) than Stallone's. Urban totally rocked the facial grimace of Dredd too, which was great, but then so did Stallone (without even needing to act). Overall, it was a competent comic book movie that uses what the comic gives the character and to great effect. I would like to see a sequel to this one with more outside stuff going on (like how they teased us before and after the Peachtrees lock-in). Let's not kid ourselves, though, it's the violence and serious tone that sats this one apart. B+

I have to wait until January.

One of the most daring movies of recent years, and it's also rather entertaining too, so it's a success in my book. Miles and miles better than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. With Salvation, the story was actually going somewhere. T3 was just filler and a cash-grab. To make a Terminator movie that doesn't include Arnie as the central character, chooses a new John Connor, many new characters, with a new director...that takes balls and belief in the idea. I applaud that, and welcome more of it from Hollywood (but only for franchises that have a future). Worthington isn't completely shit in this, but close, and Bale is just so watchable in everything he does that I can never be unhappy with him. Some great action, with a great mood to this movie, and all of the tie-ins to the previous trilogy worked very well. B+

Yeah, The Intouchables is a hit everywhere it seems!

For a supposed intellect, you don't know much about reading between the lines.

I am loving run of Lo Impossible in Spain. I love it when a movie makes tons of money from one market and beats smaler US movies on the WW chart from that one market. It happens with many Chinese movies when they have hits.

Another flop in Australia. Another #4 opening.

£20.1m. Well well well, my little country can still surprise people

I dressed up as a vampire one year. It was pretty weird. I wore a bin liner and had fake red blood from the mouth. Ah, those fun young years. My brother dressed up as a ghost using a bed sheet and a mask.

Ah well, at least it's making money.

Yes, it doesn't always last very long, but it certainly takes longer than Tatum has been in the business to earn it.

I wish I could decide too. I keep meaning to start a number grading system out of 100 for the movies I watch, but I've done so many with grades now that it would be hard to grade newer movies i see because I try to fit them in between previous movies I have seen, and I cannot quite decide what number each grade is represented as.

Hopefully, and hopefully Damon is around for the 5th movie.

TE1 made $32m. Perhaps that is what you're thinking of. Annoyingly, though, TE2 isn't in the Top 5 for the year.

One of my favourite movie scenes is in Collateral (believe me, it has more than just one). When Vincent visits his second victim and ties Max to the taxi steering wheel in the alley. Some thugs come down because Max is alerting them that he is tied up. They steal Vincent's briefcase. Vincent returns: "Yo homie, that my briefcase?" ... a thug thinks he is a real badass and points a gun in Vincent's direction whilst walking towards him. Vincent knocks the gun from his hand and pulls out his USP Compact and, from the hip, unloads two rounds into the thug, then shoots his thug mate dead too. The sound from the gun, a real sounding gun shot, with the quickness and coolness of a professional killer... sensational cinema.

Gladly no where near. TE2 made $54m.

I'm going to check out the UA Megabox tomorrow. It's one of the only UA cinemas to still be showing Dredd 3D, and for such a cheap price too (HK$75). All others seems to be HK$120. Tried to make it worth my while but I couldn't find another movie to see besides this Japanese sex movie called Helter Skelter. So, I may see that too.

What visual effects is there in TDKR that is in any way special? I can't think of any visual effect sequences at all actually. The Bat Wing, for example, how is that any better than the visual effects that were being used 5 years ago? It isn't. TDKR deserves nothing from this category. Ted had some good visual effects, as did Total Recall, but I don't expect to see those movies nominated because the academy are wankers and only vote movies for visual effects that are hot in other categories too. Also because those movies' CGI isn't exemplary enough to be nominated. The visual effects in The Expendables 2 was terrible. I really can't think of any movie that I have seen that should win this award. I suppose Life of Pi will get it, if not then The Hobbit.

Bourne 4 is doing well. Must finish above $20m now.

Nice objective opinion there.

Give it time. It's still only early Sunday morning for France and for Brazil it must still be Saturday.

Craig? So what? You're quoting him like he's some sort of authority on the Bond franchise. The world is not ready for a gay Bond because that would be ridiculous, even moreso than a black Bond.

Awesome.

You must never read my posts.

Fixed.