Volcano (1997)

Tommy Lee Jones is in charge of disaster management in Los Angeles and Anne Heche is a Geologist and they are thrown together when under Los Angeles an undiscovered Volcano comes through in the middle of rush hour. They then have to join forces to see if using all of the resources at their finger tips they can save the city and the people they love. This is very much a big budget disaster film that would have normally been shown on SyFy but director Mick Jackson had some big name actors to work with and a half decent budget.

I enjoy this film, however it a disaster film, it has many points that are cheesy and predictable, from the racist policeman and the black man that bang heads, to Tommy Lee’s Daughter played by Gaby Hoffmann who you know is going to end up in trouble as that is where her character is always going to end up. The bomb experts at the end that make the ultimate sacrifice and then there are the comments about everybody looking the same. Clunky metaphors thrown in to a film that are not needed, it tries to be gritty but ultimately fails.

Now with all the complaining and whinging out of the way I think that there is still an element of enjoyment about this film, the characters are not overly developed and those you expect to survive do and there are enough deaths and injuries and people doing the right thing to make it an enjoyable enough disaster movie, I do understand what it is about and just enjoy it, overall a 7 out of 10 worth watching for me. 

The Thing (1982)

The 1982 classic from the master of suspense John Carpenter, a film that I have seen several times and will watch many times again, I have listened to fan commentary's and dissections of this film and there is nothing that will make me dislike the film. It is a remake of the 1951 film  The Thing From Another World, so it goes to show that remade films can be better than the original, that however is not an excuse to go around remaking them all though. With the soon to be released prequel, the trailer which I reviewed here I decided to re-watch the film for the first time in a while on Bluray.

One of the things that this film is famous for is the effects back in 1982 they were all practical and I was worried that watching it on Bluray might destroy the memory of effects that are truly believable and fantastic. But from the Dog to the spider head they all hold up as well on Bluray as they ever did on VHS or DVD.

This is a classic of the horror genre and a must see for all fans of the genre and all movie fans in general I give this a solid 5 stars and say that everybody should give this a go at least once if you have a love of film.

Death at a Funeral (2010)

I had not seen the original film so had very little to base what I thought of this going in and I was pleasantly surprised, it is essentially a slapstick comedy with a serious and slightly dark edge starring Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Zoey Saldona, Keith David and Danny Glover. The premise is the funeral of a father and how his family deal with the funeral and a little surprise that turns up.

The comedy in this film is actually quite clever and funny, it is by no means a masterpiece and i will not be rushing out to see it again but happy that I have seen it. It is quite good as some of the funny moments are telegraphed but not really thrown in your face so it treats you with a bit of maturity, but Martin Lawrence is the biggest annoyance he just annoys me for some reason but Chris Rock is good and Zoey Saldona actually has some really good timing.

Worth seeing but not worth searching for 3 stars.