PUSH ( 2009 )

Nick Gant is a second generation "mover", or telekinetic, who has been on the run from The Division ever since Agent Henry Carver murdered his father. He has sought refuge on the streets of Hong Kong, secreting himself from the "sniffers" who are trained to track down the gifted and bring them back to Division. Nick plans to flee the city when his location is uncovered, only to encounter 13-year-old Cassie, a "watcher" or clairvoyant, who needs his help to overthrow Division and free her mother from imprisonment. The girl needs Nick to find escaped "pusher" Kira, who is able to get inside people's minds and plant false memories. Unfortunately, Carver and his goons are also on Kira's trail.

If all we're heading for are doom, gloom and global catastrophe then why bother planning for tomorrow when we could just live for today? Cast aside gritty, realist dramas and probing documentaries and plug into an endless cycle of cutesy animation and feel-good romantic comedies. Then there would be no place for a film like Push, a suspense thriller set in a grim, foreboding future and penned by David Bourla, in which the most gifted among us are lab rats for a shadowy government agency known as The Division. This covert organisation rounds up psychics for the express purpose of creating an army capable of controlling every thought and event. Those unwilling to participate in this shadowy enterprise are eliminated. Unfortunately, top-secret experiments to boost the powers of the psychic warriors using a genetically engineered serum always result in death.

No one has survived... until now. Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is a second generation "mover", or telekinetic, who has been on the run ever since Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) murdered his father. He finds refuge on the streets of Hong Kong, hiding from the "sniffers" who are trained to track down his kind and bring them to Division. When his location is compromised, Nick plans to flee the city, only to encounter 13-year-old Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a "watcher" or clairvoyant, who needs his help to retrieve a suitcase containing �6 million. To find the cash, the girl needs Nick to locate escaped "pusher" Kira (Camilla Belle), the only person to live through Division's experiments, who is able to get inside people's minds and plant false memories. Sceptical at first, Nick eventually agrees. "I haven't even gotten to the bad part yet," adds Cassie sombrely, "we die." Unfortunately, Carver and his right-hand man Victor (Neil Jackson) are also on Kira's trail.

Push unfolds through nervous, handheld cameras, which refuse to stay still as Cassie and Nick sacrifice themselves for a greater good. Director Paul McGuigan directs with confidence, including a couple of blistering action sequences like a chase through a market and a showdown on a building site. The script, however, is riddled with unanswered questions and plot holes, such as Cassie's uncanny ability of drawing her dreams to show Nick the way, even when she is running for her life. Fanning is solid without ever being tested in an undemanding lead role, gelling nicely with Evans' buff action hero who concocts the elaborate master plan to save the world without breaking a sweat. Belle brings an ambiguity to her role, while Hounsou obliges with a cardboard cut out villain who wild rather shoot his underlings than jeopardise the mission. If only they were watchers - they might have seen it coming.

GOOD EGG

POSIEDON ( 2006 )

Seems like Wolfgang Peterson had other things on his mind while making this film.Although the original Posiedon Adventure was not admitedly a great film, it certainly had more going for it than this recent incarnation.

Character development is virtually non existent and everything seems to be on fast forward to find a way out, giving very little room for anything else. The only saving grace i can think of are the special effects.The wave engulfing the ship is excellently done as are all the on board explosions where bodies are flung violently and bursts of flames spew out from lift shafts etc.

BAD EGG

 Tears Of the sun (2003 )

'Tears of The sun ' is an engrossing and above average look at modern day soldiers , as navy seallieutenant A.K. Waters ( Bruce Willis ) and crew must choose between duty or humanity to rescue Dr Kendrcks and her companions.

Kendricks an american citizen helps victims of an ongoing civil war at a Catholic mission in a remote village to which Waters and his elite squadron are sent to rescue. Refusing to leave without the rest of the villagers Waters reluctantly agrees to Kendricks demands to escort them all to safety via helicopter lift. Going back on his words, Waters leaves the villagers behind and only takes Kendricks. Refusing to obey strict orders Waters decides to head back and rescue the rest of the distraught villagers by escorting them to the border and hopefully out pursue the army of rebels at there tail.

It is this trek through the perilous and dense jungle where they try to evade their pursuers that really gets you involved. Witnessing at first hand the brutality of the gathering rebel army makes there passage to safety even more compelling. 'Tears Of The Sun ' is an unusually thought full and compelling movie. Basically an action movie yes! But much more than that may suggest at it's most basic level with it's moral dilemmas and humanitarian concerns.

GOOD EGG

THE MUMMY - TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPOROR

Having rather liked the the first two mummy films i was looking forward eagerly for this , the third installment.Sadly it is a great dissapointment.

One could criticize the film on many levels, with it's cheap looking CGI effects, terrible convoluted storyline and some of the most irritating dialogue your likely to hear. Not to mention also the absolute lack of chemistry between the main characters. One major criticism being the replacement of Rachel Weisz by Maria Bello. Such a massive error here, her fake accent and clumsily unconvincing action scenes are to put it mildly, horrid. I get the feeling that Rachel Weisz wisely { no pun intended } gave this whole affair a miss by realizing what a mess it would turn into.

John Hannah fairs slightly better and tries to bring some comedic relief to it all, but ulimately fails to do so. At one point he yells at the mummies ,while attacking them from an aeroplane, calling them bastards... oh dear, how far out of character could you possibly get!

 Brendan Fraser looks and acts decidedly miserable throughout and one gets the impression he wished he were somehere else. Also Frasers son has no charisma whatsoever , he's truly cardboard, dead as a brick , and his romantic epsodes are totally redundant. Jet Li is also far removed from the more menacing Arnold Vosloo.

All in all this seems like a big cash in on the previous two films which were in a different league to what we have here.The film feels and looks like a cheat on the mummy idea as well. None of this properly relates to Egypt which is surely what one thinks of first when it comes to mummies and what we would expect.

ROTTEN EGG

LOST IN SPACE ( Season 3 )

For those that enjoyed the first series of Lost in Space, by the time of the third season, things had taken on a very different tone indeed, and became much more childish and predictable with stock situations being repeated over and over again. As many have qouted as sayng, the Space campiness had irrevocably crept in, and Smith had become an increasingly irritatingly cowardly persona, which was far from the scheming and darker smith as portrayed in the first season, which is by far the most enjoyable especially if you like your science fiction on the more serious side. 

It's sad really , but it's true of most of Irwin Allens shows that they started off very promising, but gradually went down hill, untill the plug was eventually pulled.

The Third season though did have some redeeming factors in that it was a little better than the second series which to my mind contained some of the worst episodes. The third season even did on occasion harken back to the first.

At best most of the acting in lost in space was forgettable except for Jonathan Harris, but there's something very nostalgic about the whole series and somehow demands repeated viewings ,which given it's age, is much more entertaining than many Sci Fi series made today, which although containing  much more expensive special  effects are mostly totally devoid of atmosphere and characters. Lost in Space certainly still has a lot more going for it.

SERIES 1    GOOD EGG

SERIES 2    PAR BOILED

SERIES 3    PAR BOILED

JOHN RAMBO (2008)

John Rambo the indestructable Vietnam vet returns once again to our screens. This time around , the fourth in the series , a group of Christian aid workers in Thailand recruit John Rambo to guide them up the Salween River to deliver medical supplies to the Karen tribe of neighboring Burma (aka Myanmar). When the missionaries fail to return, Rambo is persuaded to take a group of mercenaries back into the war-torn border region to find them. What follows is a descent into hell on earth.

The body count is high and the violence extreme. Stallone pulls out all the stops here . Older he may be ,and more intensely morose than ever, but for his age Stallone still maintains a presence to be reckoned with and quite literally towers over everybody else. His charisma and sheer star quality shine through as ever and makes for possibly the best film in the series. There's some cool flashbacks to the earlier Rambo films included, and the ending ( without giving too much away ) is a nice touch which kind of ends where First blood began. One thing i found missing though was Richard Crenna who died in 2003 sadly.









GOOD EGG

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada ( 2005 )

Tommy Lee Jones desrvedly won the 2005 Cannes Film Festival best actor award for this film , which he also directed. Showing there's more to his talent than acting which has gained him a strong presence in the movies for 35 years.

Although Three Burials has a rather unmemorable title , the film certainly is VERY memorable.Jones plays Pete Perkins, a laconic, weathered cattle ranch foreman inthe
bordercommunity of Van Horn, Texas. He has formed a closefriendship with Melquiades Estrada (Julio César

Cedillo), a cowboy from Mexico. Meanwhile, Mike Norton (Barry Pepper) and his beautiful if vapid blond wife Lou Ann (January Jones) have just come from Cincinnati to Van Horn, where Mike has a taken a job as a border patrolman. He reports to Dwight Yoakam's hard-nosed Capt. Frank Belmont, who refers to undocumented workers with a racial slur.


Mike and Lou Ann's lives peaked in high school, and the swiftly bored Lou Ann has little to sustain her. Mike is a mindless macho type who pores over Hustler magazine on the job and immediately displays a propensity for excessive violence in capturing illegal immigrants. When
Melquiades spots a fox menacing a herd of sheep he takes aim, and trigger-happy Mike, on duty nearby, returns fire, killing the cowboy.

Pete promised Mel that should Mel die he would see that his body was buried in his village in Mexico. With Pete, a man's word is taken seriously, and acting on a tip, he kidnaps Mike into accompanying him.


Arriaga backs into his story, alternating among its variousstrands, moving between past and present without warning; it's his way of plunging the audience into the lives of the various people who will soon interact in convoluted and unexpected ways.

The trek south of the border, which holds a climactic surprise revealing the depth of Melquiades' yearning for family ties and a life in an idyllic setting close to nature, is crucial in that it forces a
reevaluation of Mike, heretofore easily dismissed as a lethal jerk. The adventures and hardships become a transforming experience for him and reveal Pepper as a young actor of range and depth.

Beautifully photographed throughout , ' Three Burials ' recalls the gritty westerns of Bud Boetticher and there's more than a passing resemblance to Sam Peckinpahs ' Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia ' . Besides Tommy Lee Jones , Brad Pepper turns in a fine performance too. Definitely one to watch!


CRYSTAL EGG

The Condemned ( 2007 )


A choice selection of convicted death row inmates are offered the opportunity to compete in a deadly game on an abandoned island where the winner will win his or her freedom and there sentences dropped.

Becoming part of a reality TV show the 10 condemned killers from all over the world are pitted against each other and ultimately fight to the death to gain there release. Unknown to the prisoners until later on, hidden cameras are placed in obscure places all over the island and there fights filmed and realyed back to the TV team which are camped on the other side of the island.

The condemned is one exceedingly violent film as one might expect. About several leaps ahead of anything Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwartznegger appeared in. Unlike those stars however there's no one in this that comes remotely as close. Former WWE wrestler Stone cold Steve Austin as he's known stars as Jack Conrad , yes he's grim and cold and really mean yet not as much so as Vinnie Jones, who here goes way overboard at being overly obnoxious.

What we have here is an an overly preachy tone and a nastiness which is taken to the utmost levels. Having said all this i don't think it's quite as bad as most other reviewers have said it is. There's plenty of action to be had , if somewhat grisly and it,s almost fiendishly enjoyable to see the TV crew get there comeuppance at the hands of McStarley - Vinnie Jones with guns blazing.


HARD BOILED

Captivity ( 2007 )

Can't say anything good about this deplorable movie.It doesn't make any real sense; is totally unconvincing ; is voyeristic and grubby in the worst sense and is so predictable and horridly cold it's a very unpleasant and nasty view all round. Alright ...it's slickly directed by Roland Joffe' but it's almost totally devoid of any suspense and character.

If watching a beautifull woman ( Elisha Cuthbert ) being trapped in a room and having mind games played on her is your bag you will probably enjoy this.

Unfortunately in this day and age there seems to be a growing demand for films like this, which is very sad. Definitely a bad and rotten egg!

BAD EGG

RESCUE DAWN (2007)

RESCUE DAWN ( 2007 )

Based on a true story ' Rescue Dawn ' depicts the plight of real life german - american vietnam war survivor Dieter Dengler.Director Werner Herzog here creates a very real and gripping experience who earlier made an excellent documentary on the same topic called 'Little Dieter Needs To Fly', with Dengler reliving his traumatic experence while in the clutches of the enemy.

Unlike most war films Rescue Dawn is a sincere and focused portrait of not only a soldier but also the bonding between fellow prisoners. Cutting out any obligatory love story, flash backs or any political statements which have spoiled many other war movies Rescue Dawn gets right to the point without any extraneous clutter. What we have here is a genuinely moving film which certainly ranks as one of Herzogs finest achievements who remains still one of the most unique directors around. One can't help but feel had this been made by one of hollywoods big guns it would have turned out a lot different.

Dengler is played by Christian Bale who having crashed must try to survive and look out for any means of rescue, which is cut short when captured by a group of Vietnamese. Staying true to his morals he refuses to sign a paper discrediting his fellow americans and is therefore abused, tortured and psychlogically victimized.

Eventually Dengler is sent to a makeshift camp where he meets four other prisoners and forms a close relationship with POW Duane Martin played by 'Steve Zahn'.Conditions in the camp are horrific but Hertzog treats them matter of factly and they are not overdone, as in most other peoples hands they would have been.With there feet Manacled to boards and hands handcuffed the prisoners can only roam the guarded camp by day; at night it is impossible, and this is where Dieter finds a way to pick the handcuffs with a nail he secretly procures.

With food being scarce for not only the prisoners but the guards also, conditions get worse and Dieter hatches a plot to escape.The escape is a success and Dieter finally manages to escape by waving down a passing helicopter but his buddy Duane is unfortanately killed.These final secenes are very moving!

Excellent performances here by the two main leads 'Christian Bale ' and ' Steve Zahn '
makes for a must see film.Hertzog turns in a fantastic movie here and it gets my highest accolade the CRYSTAL EGG award.

ACTRESS OF THE MONTH - GENE TIERNEY

Room 1408 ( 2007 )

"Room 1408" is an adaptation of Stephen's Kings short novel and take us on a strange phenomenal journey of hallucinations,and terror.Like Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller "Psycho", and Nimrod Antul's "Vacancy" director, Mikeal Hafstrom directs our attention to a hotel room where the unexpected happen, in this movie adaption of a short story by Steven King of the same name."

John Cusack portrays a famed occult writer who is highly sceptical about the very thing he writes about....ghosts. Samuel L. Jackson plays the sinister owner of the Dolphin Hotel who introduces this movie's antics of horror, and the unexpected in this psychological/ horror thriller.

Famed occult writer Mike Enslin (John Cusack) makes a visit to New York's Dolphin Hotel. The Dolphin Hotel is an interesting place for Mike Enslin because of its legacy of horror that have affected every tenant that checked into its isolated room, numbered 1408. The residents check in, but they don't check out having either been murdered or driven impossibly insane. Wanting to check into room 1408 Enslin decides to investigate these ghostly findings, and eventually write another successful story for his newest occult book.

When meeting the hotel manager portrayed by Samuel Jackson, Enslin is warned not to check into room 1408 because of its hideous legacy.So adamant is he not to let Enslin enter this room he tries to bribe him with unreleased material in a folder of other unknown cases in room 1408. Enslin insists though, and checks into room 1408. Upon checking in his nightmares start to begin.. He encounters a radio that won't turn off, and its digital numbers spins out of control; he sees a woman jump from a window, a hideous looking person lunges at him with an ax, bleeding walls, a decomposed corpse that chase him while he attempts to escape, and a host of strange noises that echo his room. Encompassed with the torments of room 1408 Enslin comes to grips with himself and goes on a pathology of hallucinations of his past and future that seemingly never ends his dilemma in room 1408.

Personally I thought this movie was a bit confusing at times, especially as it seemed to shift into a different gear after his trials in the room and didn't really seem to make any sense.Horror fans will no doubt enjoy this film though which certainly has many fine moments despite a lack of coherence.

PAR BOILED