DVD: Long Weekend

More like an eternity as we join Jim Caviezel (The Count Of Monte Cristo) trying to save his marriage on a romantic getaway.

These are thoroughly loathsome characters and I was wishing a grisly demise for them both within 10 minutes.

The theme of nature fighting back against the damage caused by humans is lost as it just takes too long for anything to happen and when it does you don't care.

There is something compelling about watching a warring couple and the performances are ok, they just can't save the dire material they have to work with.

Give this a miss unless your a big Caviezel fan.

Ric's Rating: 24%

DVD: Love Happens

This bittersweet romance is not the usual comedy that one would expect
from Jennifer Aniston.

Eckhart plays Burke Ryan, who after the accidental death of his wife, writes a memoir on coping with grief, the success of which makes him a minor celebrity.

During one of his seminars he meets Aniston who plays a florist just out of a messy relationship.

The two embark on a slow burning relationship which helps each come to terms with their own problems.

Nothing special here but Aniston and Eckhart are endearing enough in their roles to make this reasonably enjoyable.

Ric's Rating: 54%

DVD: Tony

Tony is the type of character that we all encounter at some point in any city. He is a loner, a bit of an odball, unemployed, unclean, desperate for approval and acceptance.

Played brilliantly by Peter Ferdinando Tony finds himself in various situations that he cannot quite handle throughout the film, some of which have dire outcomes.

The story kind of shuffles along without really going anywhere but the uneasiness of it all and Ferdinando's performance make this worthwhile for any fan of Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer or the book Killing For Company.

Ric's Rating: 88%

Film: The Crazies

Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood) and Rhada Mitchell (Pitch Black) star in
this remake of a little known George A Romero film.

It all kicks off when local cop Olyphant is forced to shoot and kill a gun weilding, seemingly drunk, mechanic.

More and more townsfolk begin to show symptoms of some strange zombie like disease when the military move in and start rounding everybody up.

What follows is an enjoyably frantic fight for survival amongst total chaos and both Olyphant and Mitchell deliver good performances and are supported well by Joe Anderson as the deputy.

Some well placed moments of humour amidst all the carnage add to the feeling of desperation but this is no comedy horror, the humour simply depicts ordinary people reacting with wit and sarcasm in a very surreal situation.

Recommended to all horror and thriller fans.

Ric's Rating: 79%

DVD: Triangle

Melissa George (Amytiville Horror, Paradise Lost) stars in
this horror/mystery type thriller.

She plays a single mother struggling to cope with her autistic young son who decides to treat herself to a day sailing with some friends.

After a slow start this film becomes very interesting as people begin to be bumped off and we are thrown into a very strange environment indeed.
Unfortunately it all becomes a bit muddled and leads to a rather silly ending.

This film borrows heavily from Memento and could have been so much better if a true purpose to it all was revealed.

A big surprising consolation is that this shows that Melissa George can actually act, she delivers a good performance and should now go for some serious parts instead of all these dodgy horrors.

Ric's Rating: 51%

Book: Cross Country by James Patterson

Alex Cross is on the trail of yet another psychopath in this latest offering of
the long running series.

This one starts with a bang as Cross is called to a murder scene only to realise that one of the victims is an old flame of his and the pace and action doesn't let up as the pursuit of those responsible leads to Nigeria.

The change of setting is very welcome and throws Cross into a world where he is an Alien and struggling to even survive from the get go while trying to remain focused on his reason for being there, confronting The Tiger. A small complaint about Cross himself is that he remains whiter than white in even the most trying of circumstances, this is a character that could do with a few vices.

The Tiger is an horrendous villain and more than a match for Cross (who is without his huge buddy Sampson) in every way and this makes for a tense battle between the two.

Ghastly settings like the KiriKiri prison and the refugee camps bring home the horrors of Africa and some of the atrocities comitted reminded me of the film Blood Diamond, we have killer kids here too and anyone who enjoyed that film will like this.
Bear in mind that although Alex Cross was played adequately by Morgan Freeman in a couple of films (Kiss The Girls, Along Came A Spider) this is no sixty something character, Cross is still a reasonably young man.

A must for any fans of the series, this is also recommended to any fans of fast paced action thrillers and the short chapter format helps the story hurtle along to it's conclusion.

Ric's Rating: 88%

Book: The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly

Third book in the Jack West Jr series continues the story left on a literal cliffhanger at the end of The Six Sacred Stones.

Jack's team must beat their rivals, including Jack West Snr, in the race to obtain the remaining sacred pillars and lay them at various spots around the globe to avoid the end of life on Earth.

No point in even attempting this one if you haven't read Seven Ancient Wonders and The Six Sacred Stones because the story is very advanced right from the beginning of the book.

These are Indiana Jones style adventures and West Jr is a terrific leading man supported by a fantastic cast of characters, some of which make their first appearance here. It's huge scale stuff, with raids on the tombs of Ghengis Khan and Jesus just two of the many hazardous locations that play important parts here.

This volume is superior to Sacred Stones but still not a patch on Seven Ancient Wonders and I urge everyone to read that, it is one of my all time favourite adventures, so that being said I highly recommend starting at the beginning and then deciding if you want to continue in the adventures of Jack, Lily, Zoe, Pooh, Stretch, Wizard and Horus (who disappointingly doesn't feature much in Warriors) to name but a few.

Ric's Rating: 76%

Book: In The Blood by Jack Kerley

Carson Ryder returns and this time investigates the case of a baby stranded on a boat and a dead tv preacher.

Lacking the tension and twists of Blood Brother (see review elsewhere here) this is run of the mill stuff and I didn't particularly enjoy Carson's company in this book (there are reasons for him being unpleasant) and not for the first time in this series I found myself wishing that his partner Harry Nautilus would become the main character.

Race tension rears it's head here too but there is nothing gripping or exciting and I can only recommend this one to anyone who wants to read the complete series.

Ric's Rating: 42%

Film: Armored

TV stars Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes) and Laurence Fishburne (CSI) appear along with Matt Dillon and Jean Reno in this thriller but its the unknown Columbus Short who emerges with his dignity intact largely thanks to the part he plays.

Short is persuaded to go along with the gang's plan to rob their own armoured truck and we end up with a seige type situation when he changes his mind.

Being an ex soldier he has the beating of the rest of them at every turn and their demise is inevitable as they kind of become Dumb and Dumber Rob A Truck.

No real tension here and I'm surprised this got a cinema release at all as it is perfect straight to dvd material, had I saw it that way I might not have been so disappointed.

Ric's Rating: 37%

Film: The Wolfman

In attempting to create an old fashioned Wolfman film the people behind
this one may just have been too accurate because what we have here is an almost exact replica of the wolfman films of a bygone era and it makes you laugh just as much as they do when you watch them now.

Benicio Del Toro just looks bored and Anthony Hopkins is good to begin with but he too descends into unintentional comedy as the story moves on.

The story itself isn't really worth mentioning as I'm sure you get the picture.

The laughs keep coming as we have the wolfman running around roofs with his big silly panting face right up at the camera and the finale is simply hilarious.

This didn't work for me on any level.
Bad story.
Bad acting.
Bad special effects.
Bad comedy.

Avoid.

Ric's Rating: 18%

Film: Ninja Assassin

Korean star Rain plays Raizo, an orphan who, along with others was raised to become a Ninja and carry out high profile assassinations.

Naomie Harris (28 Days Later) is a government agent who stumbles across some evidence that compells her to investigate the legend of the Ninja.

What follows is a series of action scenes in which Rain gets to show off his considerable skills as he attempts to eliminate the clan that raised him.

In an inspired piece of casting 80's Ninja movie stalwart Sho Kosugi steals the show as the brutal Father figure to the young orphans he trains.

This is a bit thin on the ground plotwise and the acting, Kosugi aside, is just plain dull.

More suited to dvd so wait for that, get the beers in, switch off your brain and enjoy.

Ric's Rating: 59%

Film: It's Complicated

Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin play a divorced couple who hit it off again at their son's graduation in this comedy.

Streep is excellent as the ageing single mother trying to get her life in order when she starts to have an affair with her ex husband.

Baldwin too is fantastic as the ex who is now married to the younger woman that he originally had an affair with while married to Streep.

Lots of laugh out loud moments as the oldies carry on like a pair of teenagers, even indulging in smoking pot.

Steve Martin shows up as the new man in Streep's life and he is ok but looks slightly odd from too much botox and something suspicious about his hair.

That aside this is surprisingly the first 2010 contender for film of the year. I expect it will be beaten as the year goes on but it'll be worthy of a top ten spot.

Rick's Rating: 87%