Best kids DVD movies 2009

1. Bolt
its hard to fault Pixar – I don’t think they are the masters of Computer Generated Animation and i don’t think they have made a duff movie yet. This is a winning combination of a cute canine hero, a plot involving getting lost (see finding nemo), some lovable character (Rhino the pet hamster in [...]

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Gone Baby Gone

It’s been a while since Ben Affleck has been in a good film.
Good Will Hunting – was a great way to make a debut
Changing Lanes – was an interesting piece
Sum of all Fears – was pretty poor
Pearl Harbour – was awful
Dare Devil- was worse than it should have been
But when he gets behind the camera [...]

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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

A review by Joel Kandiah (aged 9) and Krish kandiah (aged 36).
This is fictional story based on the best selling children’s book by the irish Writer John Boyne. It tells the story of a friendship developing between Bruno the  8 year old (he’s 9 in the book) son of Nazi Concentration Camp commander and Shmuel [...]

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Best kids movies on DVD in 2008

Here’s my pick of the best kids movies on DVD in 2008. I am thinking of primary school aged children. There’s a similar list for 2007 and i have just made a 2009 list.
1. Wall-e
Irresistably good movie – even my two year old loves it – Wall-e was one of her first words! OK so [...]

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Quantum of Solace Bond 22

So the new Bond trailer is out and I must say it is not up to the usual cram-in-every-possible-exciting-moment-from-the-movie standard. In fact it goes out of its way to show you that the film is going to pick up half an hour from the last one.
Things I like the look of:
1. [...]

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Cloverfield

Don’t read this if you don’t know anything about this movie. It’s best watched in ignorance.
Sometimes a film that is a great concept doesn’t really work in reality – Sliding Doors, 300, Sin City – visually arresting or philosophically clever but overall they don’t work. But I think Cloverfield does work – its a little [...]

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National Treasure 2 (can’t believe i rented this)

Ok so I am a glutton for punsihment. But I thought to myself how far wrong can you go when Harvey Kietel, Helen Mirren and John Voigt are in a movie? World class actors they wouldn’t sell their actings souls for a few extra dollars – they are bigger than that. Then I remembered the [...]

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Prince Caspian Review

The Narnia Chronicles have grown up.
I am a big CS Lewis fan and loved reading the Narnia Chronicles to my children. Prince Caspian was always a darker and grittier book than some of the others in the Narnia series. With political intrigue, murder, ethnic cleansing and a fierce battle set piece. This new film from [...]

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – is a parable of mortality and the powerlessness of experience and unlimited resources. I am not talking about the plot line of the movie (that barely warrants comment) what i mean is that Harrison Ford who looks very good for his age – still seems [...]

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The illusionist

So here is my second straight movie about 18th century theatrical illusionists. Timed to hit the cinemas at the same time as The Prestige this movie features another great cast. On paper this was a good cast: the normally excellent Edward Norton (Fight Club, American History X) and the very competent Paul Giamatti (Sideways, [...]

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The Prestige

By some strange quirk the excellent AMAZON DVD service has sent me both “The Prestige” and “The Illusionist” in the same week. It does seem strange that movie producers bring out essentially the same films out at the same time. Do you remember when it was “Deep Impact” and “Armagedon” in the same Summer. Or [...]

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Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland is a powerful movie based around the life of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. It uses the plot device of a fictional young Scottish doctor (played by James Macavoy) who goes to Africa escape an overbearing father, “to have some fun and to make a difference.” Through a series of [...]

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Sunshine

I was looking forward to watching this Danny Boyle directed movie for a while. It had some really good reviews. But the more i watched the more this film felt like we’d been here before.
1. Alien – the long boring journey through space with nothing much to do and lots of infighting – ominous [...]

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Bourne Ultimatum

Jason Bourne has been on a long search to find his identity. Found as a floating amnesiac. Bourne has been discovering that he was programmed to be a killing machine by a black ops department in the US government. In the first film Bourne discovers who he is and tracks his handlers down and takes [...]

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

(see the harry potter and the halfblood prince).
This is part 5 of the Harry Potter series. I must confess I have never read a whole Harry Potter book and so my review is based around the film as a film rather than as a literary conversion. I really enjoyed the movie – the centre piece [...]

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Evan Almighty

This film features the newsman from Bruce Almighty (played by Steve Carrell). It is a sequel but doesn’t link in any way to the previous movie. Except for the fact that God is played again by Morgan Freeman.
Things to enjoy about the movie:
1. God’s love for humanity is highlighted. Frequently God says: “Everything I do [...]

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Bridge to Terebithia

I was expecting a predominantly fantasy based film along the lines of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Especially as it was made by Walden Media. What you get instead is a very intense drama about two children who don’t really fit in at school – so they construct a fantasy sanctuary in [...]

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Next

This film had such a good cast. Peter Falk, Julianne Moore and Nicholas Cage. It is based on a short story by Philip K Dick – the brains behind some of the all time great Science Fiction movies:Blade Runner, Total Recall. But this film is pretty useless. It reminded me of the old joke:
Patient: [...]

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The Hoax

I had a bit of a film binge on the plane back from Malaysia. (it’s now on DVD)

The Hoax was the stand out movie. Starring Richard Gere who plays Clifford Irving the man who conned McGraw Hill the US publisher into paying out millions for a fake biography of the entrepreneur aviation billionaire Howard Hughes. [...]

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The Waitress

This is the last film to be made by the director/ actress Adrienne Shelly who was tragically murdered in November 2006. It is a sweet movie.  It reminded me of the excellent “Amelie.” The film is based around the life of Jenna (Keri Russell) who works in a Diner in a run down Southern town in the [...]

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