Dan’s DVDS

Orange Wednesdays are great, two tickets to see a film for a fiver, bargain. But after going to see Premonition last night I feel like I was ripped off. I had the chance of seeing Norbit, 23, or Premonition and we decided to go for Premonition as we had heard bad things about the previuos two so we thought Premonition would be a safe bet. Well now get ready to hear bad things about Premonition.

The story is about a woman (Sandra Bullock) who wakes up one day to find her husband has been killed in a car accident. Then she wakes up the next day and he’s alive. And then he’s dead again. We later find out that her days have been mixed up and they are a premonition of events leading to something happening on Wednesday, when her husband would have the accident. How we the audience are supposed to work this out is beyond me. The film offers no explanation or an attempt at one.

It also doesn’t explain crucially, why she wakes up and its a different day, the film makes no sense. If it is a premonition it makes no sense beacuse it is a series of premonitions and the film makes no effort to explore these supernatural events. The film moves incredibly slowly especially the first 20 minutes where I could feel myself getting aggravated already. By the end I was falling asleep.

 I’d say it was the worst film I have had the misfortune to see this year, which is strange as I had a Premonition it maight be half decent. I would guess the cinema-goers around me felt exactly the same. The whole cinema would groan everytime Sandra Bullock’s character would wake up for the billionth time on a different day with no explanation. “Not again” I heard someone say.

Without giving away the eventual plot, all I can say is the final scenes are a total letdown and rendered the film completely pointless. This could have been made into a half decent film if it had turned out that her husband was in fact playing with her mind, but his one-dimensional character was plain for all to see.

Do yourself a favour a miss out on this one. 1/5

feel free to comment espcially if you think this film was great!

I’ve been meaning to watch this movie for a while now. Only last May I borrowed it from a friend and fell asleep five minutes in and had to give it back the next day. Typical. I yesterday found out that this is definitely no reflection on the film itself. Another bargain 99p rental let me see what I had missed out on and it’s a great film. I’ve always loved Disney films but up until seeing Cars at the cinema last year I hadn’t been mad on the pixar 3d ones but this is something special.

 It’s got humour, great animation and makes you feel like a kid again watching it. It’s also great having a family of superheroes as it gives everyone someone to relate to. The plot is the usual superhero yadda yadda save the world but what makes it work is definitely the family element. The film is an accurate representation of family life, while family members may drive each other up the wall sometimes they still love each other no matter what.

When you look below the surface, the film acts as a kind of social commentary on our times as well. It shows how compensation culture has gone mad, with a suicide attemptee suing Mr Incredible for saving his life. What’s funny/scary is I wouldn’t put this beyond possibility in real life. The characters’ struggle to fit into society is reflective of real life problems and the pressure to be normal. When Mr Incredible is working in for a big insurance corporation and gets in trouble for helping the customers expoit loopholes he gets in trouble for costing them money. This shows just how companies don’t care about the customers but only as his boss says “where are the stockbrokers going to get their money from?”. All of this shows to me that this is more than just a kids movie, it’s great entertainment yes, but scratch a little deeper and it’s also thought provoking entertainment.

quick note…Football fans may notice Mr Incredible’s resemblance to a certain not so Mr Incredible Iain Dowie

This is a historic moment for Dansdvds as this is the first film I award 5/5

The DVD rental place near me is great. 99p for a movie, meant that I was entertained for another rainy afternoon at uni. I started off watching ‘When a Stranger Calls’  half doing some work at the same time. But after 20 minutes I was hooked, quite bizarrely, as watching a girl be terrorised by a prank caller turn killer isn’t really what I would call fun but hey its only a movie.

The story centres on a teenage girl babaysitting at a rich family’s place before being scared silly by a threatening series of calls and actions. All she can do is phone the police who just tell her to lock the doors and set the alarm so nobody can get to her. One problem…the killer’s already in the house. Oops.

 When you talk about how music builds suspense in a movie, this would be a great one to cite as an example. Even when the girl, Jill, is doing the most mundane tasks such as entering a alarm keycode or opening a cupboard the music turns it into a frightful edge of your seat experience, but it works! It’s worth saying this is a remake of a 1979 version which I’ve not seen so I don’t know how it holds up but it kept me entertained.

 One thing it seemed to lack to me was a final showdown, and we didn’t get to know the killer at all. Only at the end we see that he’ some kind of serial stalker who’s killed many more victims in the same way before. Another point worth raising, this is one of the few movies where the police actually do their job for once. usually they get shot out the way if they aren’t central characters. But hey it made a nice change.

Here’s the trailer for the movie…so you can decide for yourself whether it’s worth watching or not

My expectations weren’t that high so I was pleasantly surprised i give it 3/5

What do you think of the movie? Agree with me? leave a comment

They’re making When a Stranger Calls 2 I believe, I’ll have the trailer to that up soon!

This is my type of film! Fight scenes, chases, and guns! I must say I had never heard of this film until it was recommended to me. But now I am recommending it to all of you, so follow my advice and watch it! Frequency is an action packed thriller based on the concept of time travel. A radio frequency links a son to his father thirty years ago who he never knew because he died. So the son decides to warn to father of his impending fate, saving his life, but then has to fix the consequences. Where many time travel movies get a bit techy and hard to follow, this one is very well thought out and executed superbly. It’s very similar to recent cinema release Deja Vu with Denzel Washington, just not as high-budget, not to say that its any worse for this. The most recognisable actor to me in the film was Jim Caviezel who played the son John Sullivan and he does it very well and convincingly. Dennis Quaid also gives a very good performance as his dad Kevin Sullivan. While the idea of linking time via an old frequency radio seems unrealistic, the film has a gritty edge to it which makes it believable and enjoyable. If you are an action thriller fan like myself then you will love this and amazon are selling it for under £6 on their website which is a bargain whichever way you look at it. Movies like this and The Butterfly Effect can certainly get you thinking, about how every little thing you do can influence the future.

So if it’s pure entertainment, a well-executed and thought out idea and script you’re after, look no further. It made me a bit unsure of what I was getting when I next got static on the radio!

I give this movie 4.5/5

Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment!

This is one of those scary movies I was talking about. I must say I was reasonably cautious about watching this as films with mutated beings in isn’t really my thing. From the opening credits, with shots of disfigured humans designed to shock I was wondering if it was too late to change my mind, but I am glad I didn’t. The Hills Have Eyes set around the premise that when America tested nuclear weapons in the desert in the 1960s this particular bunch of people refused to move and have been paying the price for it ever since. Meanwhile, taking out their pain on any unfortunate travellers coming their way who generally they savagely kill then eat them to survive. If the victims are lucky. The poor unsuspecting family on a road-trip through the desert to California are a motley bunch and theres no real idea of who will end up surviving, which is a good thing for the viewer so they can keep guessing. At one point you do think “How the hell are they gonna get out of this?” which shows the film’s creators did something right. The large-ish family also means there is someone there that every viewer can relate to, compared to the similar film “Wrong Turn” where all the characters whouldn’t be out of place in a teen comedy like “American Pie”.    Be warned though this movie isn’t for the faint hearted or the squeamish, theres more gore than you can shake a stick at, and at times an over the top amount of blood. One distasteful moment was the dog being killed and eaten, fine if you’re from the far east but not something we appreciate over in the UK. Some of the ‘jump out your seat’ moments are a bit contrived and predictable too’ but that doesn’t mean its any less entertaining. If horror movies are your thing I thoroughly recommend you watch this. Its nothing groundbreaking, nothing new, but its a lot of fun to watch and gives the target audience exactly what they want. And guess what, one of the mutants survives at the end…so roll on “Hills HaveEyes 2″ to be released in the cinema later this year!

I rate this movie 3.5/5

agree? disagree? leave a comment