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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 14 March 2010

Hiccup’s father is the village leader – one of the bravest men you’re ever likely to meet.  He fearlessly goes into battle and will do whatever is necessary to protect his people.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t think his son is worthy to follow in his footsteps.  Hiccup is a scrawny kid who can barely hold up a shield let alone fight a vicious dragon.

Hiccup wants to prove him wrong.  He plans to capture the most dangerous dragon of all – the Night Fury.  It’s incredibly fast and no one has ever seen one up close.  Using a custom designed sling shot, he pulls off the seemingly impossible.  Hiccup strikes the Night Fury and it comes crashing down in the nearby forest.

He tells his dad who naturally, doesn’t believe him.  This won’t stop Hiccup though.  He sneaks into the forest to see his catch up close.  It turns out the Night Fury is still alive… but injured.  When he looks deep in to the giant creature’s eyes, Hiccup starts to feel sympathetic.  Maybe dragons aren’t that nasty after all.  Could this one actually be friendly?

The answer to that question is yes.  Hiccup names him “Toothless” and creates a special artificial wing which enables the dragon to return to the skies.  In return, Toothless takes him on fun rides out over the ocean.  Their first journey was the best scene of the film for me.  They criss-cross through the jagged coastline with John Powell’s (The Bourne Supremacy) beautiful score as the backdrop.  It’s further enhanced through the 3D experience.

Trouble lies ahead however.  How long can Hiccup keep his pet dragon a secret?  How can he convince his father than dragons aren’t the vicious creatures everyone thinks they are?  It’s all leading to an action packed finale which will leave both kids and adults enthralled.  I loved it.

The animation genre has become extremely competitive in recent years.  Pixar and Dreamworks have been slugging it out to see who can claim the biggest share of the market.  Pixar has won the last three Oscars for best animated film (Up, WALL-E, Ratatouille) but Dreamworks has kept them honest with films including Kung Fu Panda and the Shrek series.

How To Train Your Dragon is a Dreamworks release and I feel like I say this every time, but it’s amazing how far animation has come.  The attention to detail is incredible.  From the simple wind blowing through Hiccup’s hair to the breathtaking dragon rides, everything has been thought of.  It couldn’t look any better and I have a great deal of admiration for the many animators and visual effects artists who work behind the scene.

It’s going to be another big year for animation with future releases including a new Shrek movie (for Dreamworks) and a new Toy Story movie (for Pixar).  How To Train Your Dragon has set the early benchmark and it’s now up to the rest of the films to beat it.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 02 March 2010

Dear John is the latest Nicholas Sparks novel to reach the big screen and yes, it’s more of the same.  The year is 2001 and John (Tatum) is a U.S. solider fighting overseas who has been granted a few weeks leave.  He’s returned to his father’s home in Charleston and is looking to relax.  Surfing helps him do just that.

A girl by the name of Savannah (Seyfried) then enters the picture.  They meet, they hang out, they fall in love.  It’s a sudden, unexpected romance.  Unfortunately, they are soon to be separated.  John must return to combat and Savannah must head off to college.  Are they destined to be together?  Can they make a long distance relationship work?

Given John has no access to the internet or a phone whilst in combat overseas, he turns to the long-forgotten form of letter writing.  He puts pen to paper and Savannah does the same.  They share their experiences and inner-most thoughts.  Both wait anxiously for the mail each day and both keep every letter they receive.  There’s trouble ahead but I won’t give too much away.  It wouldn’t be a Nicholas Sparks novel without its fair share of drama.

Dear John has weaknesses.  The war scenes felt unrealistic and the continual letter writing back-and-forth was pretty boring.  The ending is rushed too.  This is the part of my review where I insert my standard comments about the difficulty in adapting a book into a two-hour movie.  I appreciate that it’s not easy but I would have a few different choices in this case.

Strangely enough, the film is saved by two of its sub-plots.  The first is that of John’s relationship with his widowed father – played brilliantly by Richard Jenkins (The Visitor).  The second is Savannah’s friendship with a divorced man (Thomas) and his autistic child.  The scenes involving these characters are far more interesting that the one-on-ones between John and Savannah.

Avatar spent seven weeks atop the box-office charts in the United States earlier in this year – the longest consecutive run since Titanic.  It was Dear John who finally knocked it off the top spot last month.  It now has a place in movie history.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 March 2010

Anne subscribes to the motto that “you don’t get angry, you get even.”  She goes down to the bank and withdraws all the cash from their safety deposit box.  She then picks up the kids from school, buys an expensive Cadillac and packs up all their belongings.  Anne’s leaving New York City behind and is ready to start a new life.

All she needs now… is a new husband.  This isn’t for the reasons that you might expect – love, romance, companionship.  Anne just needs someone to keep paying for her well-to-do lifestyle.  Her misguided intentions will take her to Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Hollywood.  There are plenty of rich suitors on her “hit list” but things never seem to work out.  No surprise there.

Caught in the middle are her two sons – George (Lerman) and Robbie (Rendall).  They don’t subscribe to their mother’s feelings that everything will somehow work out.  Robbie wants to become a theatrical star.  George wants to become a writer.  Being dragged from school to school is giving them little hope of realising those dreams.

This isn’t groundbreaking stuff but My One And Only is a nice film with interesting characters.  It’s actually the youngest son, George, who displays most of the maturity and level-headedness.  Everyone around him is just a little quirky.  Logan Lerman (recently seen in the Percy Jackson movie) gives a skilfully subdued performance as George.  Renee Zellweger is great too.  I often think she’s too over-the-top but her personality suits this role perfectly.

There are few lulls in the story but I liked the way it ended.  I thought it was a purely fictional tale but perhaps not so.  You’ll see what I mean if you check it out.  I guess it proves once again that truth really is stranger than fiction.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 27 February 2010

Unfortunately, there’s no happy ending to this story.  What has happened to Tim Burton?  Over the past decade, he’s directed two inferior remakes (Planet Of The Apes and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory) and a so-so musical (Sweeney Todd).  There have been glimpses of the old Burton (Big Fish and Corpse Bride) but things just aren’t the same.  His quirkiness has gone missing.

I’m sure this will be popular at the box-office but it may well be Tim Burton’s worst film yet.  Alice In Wonderland is a “flat” movie-going experience.  There’s very little to laugh about and very little to get the heart pumping.  The fact that it’s been “upgraded” to 3D has done nothing to improve its look either.  It certainly won’t have people drooling Avatar-style. 

Charles Dodgson (under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll) wrote two novels revolving around Alice and her trips to Wonderland.  This film is based on neither.  Screenwriter Linda Woolverton has come up with brand new tale – one involving an older, more mature Alice (Wasikowska).

Now 19 years of age, the film begins with Alice accompanying her mother to lavish, outdoor party.  They’re celebrating Alice’s pending engagement to a wealthy lord.  Well, it’s actually everyone except Alice who is celebrating.  She is very unsure about her affections for this man.  When he does muster the courage to pop the question, Alice flees the scene.  She needs time to think and clear her head.

It’s now time to go back down the rabbit hole and return to Wonderland.  The evil Red Queen (Carter) has taken control of the kingdom and its residents now live in fear.  Those who dare retaliate are likely to hear the Queen’s catchphrase - “off with their head!”  Fortunately, it has been foretold that Alice would come back to Wonderland and return the White Queen (Hathaway) to her rightful place on throne.  She would do this by slaying the Red Queen’s nasty monster known as the Jabberwocky.

The problem is that Alice has no memory of her previous trips to Wonderland and doesn’t think she’s the hero that everyone believes.  Her first reaction is that it’s all a dream.  How could it be anything but?  That quickly changes when she realises the peril of the situation.  She won’t be waking up.  This is real.  Helping fulfil her destiny are an assortment of eccentric characters including the Mad Hatter (Depp), the White Rabbit (Sheen) and the Cheshire Cat (Fry).

The storyline reminded me of the first Narnia movie (The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe) – a film I found far more entertaining with its grand battle sequences and well-developed plot.  Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (from HBO’s In Treatment) does her best to liven up the adventure but the hill is too steep to climb.  Fans of Johnny Depp will be disappointed with his lack of screen time and meaningful things to say.  Save your money for the next Pirates Of The Caribbean film instead.

I had hopes for a Tim Burton comeback but sadly, the slump continues.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 06 March 2010

Set in 2003, Roy Miller (Damon) is a warrant officer leading a special team of U.S. soldiers who are trying to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  Over the past few weeks, Miller has become disenchanted with the intelligence provided by the Pentagon.  It’s clear that the sites they’ve been ordered to investigate have never once held nuclear weapons.

Miller is tired of putting the lives of his fellow soldiers in danger on these fruitless missions.  Where are the leads coming from?  It’s a question he angrily puts to Clark Poundstone (Kinnear) of Pentagon Special Intelligence.  Poundstone keeps tight-lipped.  He’s not going to reveal his sources.  He tells Miller to get back out in the field and to simply follow the orders he is given.

Something doesn’t smell right and this is soon confirmed when Miller strikes up a friendship with the CIA’s bureau chief in Baghdad (Gleeson) and a reporter from The Wall Street Journal (Ryan).  He learns that Poundstone’s top source is a person code-named “Magellan”.  No one knows his real identity.  Does he even exist?  Miller wants answers and it’s time to start doing a little investigating of his own…

Green Zone is the latest from one of my favourite directors, Paul Greengrass.  He directed the last two Bourne movies as well as United 93 and Bloody Sunday (all great films).  This is everything you’d expect from Greengrass with its adrenalin-pumping storyline and fast-paced editing.  I know not everyone’s a fan of Greengrass’s shaky camerawork (dubbed “queasy-cam”) and so if The Bourne Ultimatum left you with a headache then perhaps this isn’t the film for you.

Back in the 1980s, we had a flood of specialist action stars including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Times have changed.  Arnie is now Governor of California, Bruce has lost his hair and Jean-Claude is living in a ditch somewhere (or so I think).  No one has stepped up to plate to take their place.

Matt Damon is getting close though.  The Bourne series was incredibly popular as was The Departed (with Leonardo DiCaprio).  I know these aren’t all traditional action films (which have 50 fatalities per minute) but they’re still exciting.  Damon is a likeable actor who is well suited to this genre.  He has just the right balance of passion and believability to strengthen the characters he plays.  This again is proven by his performance here.

With a sharp script from Academy Award winning writer Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River), Green Zone is a strong release in what is traditionally a quiet time of the movie-going year.