The Bank Job

The Bank Job is a thrilling British heist film directed by Roger Donaldson and stars Jason Statham. It is based loosely on the true story of the 1971 Baker Street robbery in downtown London, from which the money and valuables stolen were never recovered. The producers of the film say the movie intends to reveal the truth for the first time, but it includes significant elements of fiction and the extent to which it represents historical fact is difficult to determine.

While the first act starts slow during the rather dull set up of the heist and meeting all the players who will have a part in it, the pace does pick up and doesn’t slow down. Not a lot of characterization for most of them aside from Jason Statham’s character Terry Leather which is still only weak. The only thing it seems they have in common is a shady past of petty crimes they pulled earlier on in life. Side plots with dirty cops, gangsters, civil rights activists and kinky politicians takes us away from the heist itself, eventually all the dots get connected. The director could toss out two or more of the unnecessary side plots and side characters, having had more focus on the main characters without missing a beat. Also the director uses Jason Statham for what he does best; a fist fight during the climax, but it is out of place. The only reason it is somewhat believable is because it was Jason Statham throwing his fists around. We have no reason to believe Terry Leather, who may be tough nosed could fight like that.

The twists and turns were many in this film, laying groundwork from the first twist and building on it. But the twists were very slight and are hurting from not really having any big reveals at the end. You will have to get past the lack of unmemorable characters that limits what the actors can do. The exception would be Jason Statham whose acting is really just his charisma. If you are interested in watching a slightly humours but fun gangster flick with a heist pulled in the middle then this movie is probably for you.

3 out of 5
Colin Enquist

MARVEL Commits to Jackson

The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are both confirming that Samuel L. Jackson will reprise his role of Nick Fury in upcoming Marvel projects. Weeks after we heard the falling out between the actor and studio, the conflict seems to be resolved. It seems Jackson has signed a 9 film deal, having roles in "Iron Man 2", "Captain America", "The Avengers", "Thor" and whatever sequels may be spawned from those films. A rumour is that a S.H.I.E.L.D. film is also in the works and will star Jackson as Nick Fury.

Below is the scene from Iron Man with Jackson and Robert Downey Jr.

2009 Razzie Awards

Myers & Hilton "clean-up" at this year's Razzie's!

Since 1981 the Golden Raspberry Awards--better known simply as the "Razzies"--have been "crowning" the worst in film each year, traditionally presented the day before the Academy Awards honour the best. Here are this year's "winners":

Worst Picture: The Love Guru
Worst Director: Uwe Boll (1968: Tunnel Rats, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, and Uwe Boll's Postal)
Worst Actor: Mike Myers (The Love Guru)
Worst Actress: Paris Hilton (The Hottie & the Nottie)
Worst Supporting Actor: Pierce Brosnan (Mamma Mia!)
Worst Supporting Actress: Paris Hilton (Repo! The Genetic Opera)
Worst Screenplay: The Love Guru
Worst Screen Couple: Paris Hilton and either Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore (The Hottie & the Nottie)
Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull
Worst Career Achievement: Uwe Boll

Dollhouse First Episode Review

Dollhouse is the newest creation by Joss Whedon that premiered on Feb 13, 2009. He is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly. Eliza Dushku plays a young woman named Echo, who is a member of an agency of people known as “Dolls”. The Dolls have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas, including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language. This new persona is not an original creation but an amalgam of existing personalities spliced together. The Dolls can be hired for crimes, fantasies or the occasional good deed. They become “Actives” once they are imprinted with the persona to do the job which is referred to as engagements. During the engagements the Actives are monitored by Handlers, sometimes remotely and internally. Handlers are working for the mysterious “Dollhouse” which their entire operation if highly illegal.

I found the opening sequence; while informative it was more confusing then helpful. It was also very forgetful and may have been more effective as a flashback later in the episode. The process of getting to the point where we understand what is going on took a little long and was making my interest wane. Once we started understanding the concept it started to grab my attention. Whedon is known for his dialogue and while realistic it didn’t have his wit and humour we are used to in this episode. Many seeds were planted in for the future but it was almost too much and may have worked better spreading them out over future episodes.

While a great concept I am not entirely sure how it could work. You are basically being shown a different antagonist for each episode just played by the same actress (Eliza Dushku). Not getting emotionally attached with the character because of the changing personalities could make you feel absolutely no empathy for her from episode to episode. On the flip side of this, each episode could be thematically different from the previous and entirely different concepts. I will give Whedon the benefit of the doubt and stick around for a few more episodes. The pilot holds your attention and is interesting but when it's all finished it seems like it was missing something.

2 out of 5
Colin enquist

Remakes, Sequels and Prequels?

Below is a few trailers that have showed up online over the past week.

The Sequel: Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (teaser trailer)



The Prequel: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (tv spot #1)



The Remake: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (trailer)

Odd Thomas Review

Written by Dean Koontz and was released in 2003 I am clearly behind on this series. With 3 sequels and a graphic novel prequel released over the next few years. The author has stated “god willing, there will be 6 Odd Thomas novels”. I am not new to Koontz and his work. I find most of his books to read extremely fast and most are usually based around a single character. Other times like the novel Strangers, Koontz uses a plethora of characters which leads to a slow read with a slightly different writing style that doesn’t grab my attention and I have to force myself to finish them. Odd Thomas however is written from the first person perspective for most of the story only straying on occasion. We follow our protagonist Odd Thomas, a short order cook with other worldly powers to see the spirits of the dead walking among us. Odd can interact with them to an extent that they cannot speak but mouth words and make signs to get his attention. Odd uses these powers to help the Chief of police solve crimes if possible as learned in the first few chapters. This also includes a brief introduction of most of the main characters. Odd then senses something quite big is going to happen very soon that will culminate in the deaths of many.

We get a lot of detail about the city Odd lives in, Pico Mundo. Like most of Koontz’s novels it takes place in or around southern California. The supernatural used in the book feels like it is commonplace the way that Koontz incorporates it into this world. Koontz uses a lot of strange description through most of his works and it continues in this book. As well as his many references to poetry and literature from Shakespeare to Mark Twain. With deep themes of unconditional love and the unknown of the nature of evil, this character driven story takes you through all the emotions. The macabre is offset by Koontz’s talent to make dark humour out of these horrible situations he thrusts upon his protagonist. This is a thrilling story with lots of tension and frequent plot twists.

4 out of 5
Colin Enquist