MakeUsOf.com have written an Internet Guide for the Movie Addict, which you can read online via Scribd. This covers all the usual aggregation sites and review sites, such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, as well as details on watching stuff online, finding show times, finding movie trailers, torrents (uh oh!), and much more. There are also some notes on getting the best playback on your PC.

This is a great one stop shop for the movie buff, which I highly recommend. I daresay you’d already be familiar with some of the sites mentioned but there’s a few gems there you might not know.

One thing we should all do is rate and review everything we can… but who has time for that? Personally, I wish I did more, but thankfully others have.

You can also download the guide as a PDF by the filling in the quick e-mail form here.

PS. I found this guide via Stumbleupon, on this page of guides. Mostly from MakeUseOf.com, they detail everything from video and audio guides through to using iPhones, iTunes, Macs, Linux, Windows Mobile, Bittorrent, and much more. Well worth a visit.

I went in to watch this expecting a horror movie set in an asylum, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was much more.

In order to keep this quick review spoiler free I will refrain from explaining the plot too much, since it twists and turns.

Set within the grounds of the Ashecliffe Mental Hospital on Shutter Island in the 1950’s Di Caprio plays Teddy Daniels, a US Marshall sent to investigate a missing prisoner. Since everyone on the island is a violent (and insane) criminal, finding her is priority.

The movie jumps from locked-room mystery to questioning the hidden motives of the doctors and staff, with Teddy himself also questioning his sanity. The pace moves from a slow burn to a frenzied final half hour, and although the ending can be seen coming from a mile off it is still genuinely moving with a great payoff.

The film is atmospheric, with the remote island lashed by storms, and creepy patients/prisoners locked in cells in a high security ward set within a civil war era fort. There are flashbacks to Teddy’s experiences liberating Dachau in WW2, and although this is more a thriller than a horror, there are some jump out of your seat moments. What you first think is a straight missing person / escaped convict hunt turns into a personal vendetta for Daniels, and then moves into more cerebral territory.

Although set some 50 years in the past, it is not a period piece, though there are nods to the medical practices of the time and mentions of the recent war. This is essentially a story wound around Daniels, who has much more of a part to play than he at first realises.

This is a film it’s best to go into blind. Thankfully the trailer doesn’t reveal any of the plot.

Di Caprio has worked before with Scorcese, and the partnership works well. Throw in Sir Ben Kingsley who for once doesn’t overract too much, mix in a little Max Von Sydow, and you have a recipe for a great film.

8.5 / 10 – I’m glad Scorcese did this and not M. Knight Shyamalan!

However – and this is the clever bit – look at this script extract of Pocahontas. Or even view the Youtube Video below that mashes up the Pocahontas voiceover with the Avatar trailer

Other suspicious Avatar – A – Likes include Poul Anderson’s “Call Me Joe” and the movie “The Battle For Terra”

Links:

Avatar (IMDB) | Pocahontas (IMDB) | Fern Gully (IMDB) | Dances With Wolves (IMDB)

Avatar (WIKI) | Pocahontas (WIKI) | Fern Gully (WIKI) | Dances With Wolves (WIKI)

Battle For Terra [TRAILER]

Call Me Joe

Try and see how many classic movies and TV shows you can spot!

This deserves extra kudos for the way the Audio syncs with the Videos with a thumping beat to drive the whole thing along. It even rhymes!

Alltogether now: We came, we saw, we kicked his ass!

I almost said “surprisingly” good, but that would be a disservice to the people who make these. I just read a report about the fan film “The Hunt For Gollum” (BBC News) and, watching the trailer, you could almost believe it was a Peter Jackson production. Even their lead actor looks like Viigo Mortenson (Aragorn).

So, I started browsing. And there’s a lot out there.

These films are typically independent movies made on a microscopic budget. The people involved tend to give their time for free, and all help and support is organised via the Internet. Costs are incurred mostly for equipment and makeup / costume / special effects. Luckily CGI shots are much cheaper to make these days with talented amateurs able to contribute for home – just see Star Wars: Revelations.

These are movies by fans for fans. The quality can vary dramatically but the fact remains that its amazing they get completed at all. The legality is a little dubious, but most have the understanding – if not the blessing – of copyright holders as long as they are non-profit.

There’s a big directory of fan films at FanFilms.net. Here you can see homages and tributes to everything from Ghostbusters to Buffy, via MacGyver, CSI, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and even Sonic The Hedgehog! Predictably, it’s the more popular franchises that are attempted – so there’s quite a few Star Wars, Star Trek, James Bond and superheroes like Spiderman and Superman.

It’s worth noting that a lot listed above are unfinished, in production, or just plain – I hate to say it – bad. But hey, they’re created for fun, or for love of the original. Many are student movies, some are amazingly professional with quality actors contributing, and you can see most online. Running times vary, but it seems 0:30 to 1:00 are the norm.

Other sites worth checking out are:

ComicBookBin.com

Indie channel at Spike.com

Atom Films Originals

And of course a search at Google or more specifically, Google Video will throw up a lot more, including specific sites catering for, say, Indie Fan Films and StarWars Fan Films.

Finally, some more choices? Try these:

Starship Farragut (Classic Star Trek)

Escape From City 17 (Half Life 2 – Yay!)

Moonraker ‘78 (Bond)

The Greatest Fan Film Of All Time (Lol)

Take one part OTT Japanese action flick (think Takeshi Miike), mix in some 70’s exploitation and Grindhouse, throw in a dash of 80’s hard guy, and add a pinch of visceral blood and guts. Only then will you have some idea of how balls to the wall crazy Crank 2 is! Crank was tame by comparison.

Chev Chelios – played by Jason Statham who simply inhabits the role – drops from an aeroplane and lands, destroys, and bounces off a car (the very end of the first Crank). From that he has his heart removed by some Chinese organ-thieves and is in a race against to time to get it back. In the meantime, he has an artificial heart which needs constant supplies of electricity to keep it going. That’s the gimmick in this film – like Crank, where needed constant adrenalin to keep a poison from killing him. Cue Chev getting his shocks from high voltage power lines, an ambulance defibrilator, a car battery, a police stun gun, and even body-on-body friction in one memorable (if long) scene where he has hardcore sex in the middle of a horse racing track!

Along the way Chev bumps into a crack whore played by Bai Ling, a man suffering from “full body tourettes”, and many bad guys – mostly Chinese but there is one puerto rican group out to get him too. He ends up in a brothel, and a porn actors strike (spot Ron Jeremy), all the while getting his electric jolts. Helped by his doctor (Dwight Yoakam) who dispenses medical advice Chev must eventually find the 100 year old chinese Triad boss Poon Dong – played by David Carradine of all people – who has stolen his heart.

The fast cutting and camera work in this film will not suit those of a sensitive nature, and that’s before we get to the sex and brutality. But it delivers the goods for those who like this kind of thing. It’s unadalturated fun for it’s audience and it doesn’t make any move to even attempt to appeal to anyone else. It knows what kind of film it is and doesn’t care or pretend to be otherwise. That’s good.

There are some asides during the movie, such as a flashback to Chev’s childhood interview on a daytime TV show (think Jerry Springer). Here, is Mother is even played by Geri Halliwell. Then there’s a scene where he fights his opponent in giant form like a Japanese monster movie. He even, not long from the start, oils up a shotgun and sticks it up a mans backside while threatening him!

Statham knows his audience and plays up to it. This is in some ways similar to his Transporter franchise, but any action fans of those movies might be advised to watch Crank first to see what they’re getting into to. The writer/directors Neveldine and Taylor have aimed this purely at the video-game playing ADHD generation. Don’t bother trying to base this in any concept of reality.

I don’t know if there’ll be a Crank 3, I guess it depends on the takings from this one, but I hope there is. The ending is vague on this matter but considering how Crank finished there’s every possibility.

Rating: 8.5/10 – astonishing amount of insane depravity!

IMDB | Rotten Tomatoes

IMDB is a good place. There, it has a rating of 1.5 and it is #2 in the all time BOTTOM 100! And that’s with 24,000 votes (only Battlefield Earth and Epic Movie have more).

So – universally hated, then.

Unfortunately it’s not quite that simple. IMDB votes generally work well as part of a grand social experiment, but you do find a lot of the “herd mentality” working there. And as most voters and commenter’s are wannabe film critics their views are often clouded. Sorry IMDB!

Then again, Rotten Tomatoes works on critics scores, and it has 2% there – so perhaps they are right. In either case here’s one of the few “it’s not all that bad” reviews of Disaster Movie.

So let’s take a look at the movie, and forget about the rating for a moment.

Firstly, this is from Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who are responsible for many parody movies, starting with Spy Hard (which isn’t too bad) then working through Scary Movies (ok), Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, and now this.

They’re not great movies – but they are entertaining in their own limited way.

Disaster Movie is pretty hit and miss. The plot, as it is, concerns a disaster hitting the city and then it follows a group of friends as they try to escape. Along the way, Will (Matt Lanter) discovers his on/off girlfriend Amy (Vanessa Minillo) is trapped in the museum, so they detour to save her.

So far so good. Unfortunately, Disaster Movie doesn’t parody a lot of disaster movies. The first scenes are reminiscent of the start of Cloverfield, where a party is interrupted, and there is a freaky weather system (The Day After Tomorrow) and a tornado (Twister), but that’s about all the “disaster movie” links I could notice.

It does start with a nightmare where Will is at “10,001 BC” and discovers he needs a Crystal Skull to save the world. But those aren’t exactly disaster movies, either.

Instead, like the previous films, it’s more of mixed bag of parodying pop culture icons, such as Hannah Montana, Amy Winehouse, Gladiator (Wolf), Justin Timberlake, Javier Bardem, Superheros (Hellboy, Rocket Man, Hulk), Prince Caspian, Speed Racer, Dr. Phil, The Love Guru, Flava Flav, Sex and the City, The Princess from Enchanted, Juno, Hancock, Kung Fu Panda,.

I’ve probably missed a few but you get the idea.

Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. I won’t bother listing all the skits but there is a fight with a naked Beowulf, a dance off for the princess’s heart, a fight with the Chipmunks, a fight with the Kung Fu Panda, a Hannah Montanna who refuses to die, Superheros killed by flying cows, a big High School Music song-and-dance routine (and a big song to finish the film off) and an extended Night At The Museum skit, an encounter with the Sex and the City girls (with Carrie played by a man) including a fight, Zohan style … and much more. There’s even a sub plot about Will’s inability to show his love for his girlfriend, but that’s best ignored.

So – is it worth 1.5 as IMDB seems to think?

Well, perhaps I was just in a good mood when I watched it but I’d say NO. It’s entertaining in it’s own way, and while by no means a classic or even average film it’s certainly watchable. I passed a hour and half with this film amicably enough.

There’s no real comedy as such, since it relies on lookalikes and parodies of famous people for it’s laughs, and the plot is laughable, but as a string of simplistic visual gags it works, in a brain dead kind of way. If you’ve seen Epic Movie etc you’ll know what to expect, and since the film makers keep making these they obviously make a profit, and people must go to see them.

There’s not that many films in the parody genre – only really those by these guys and those by Jim Abrahams and David Zuker (Airplane!, Police Squad). The latter are superior, but it’s interesting to note they have a “SciFi Movie” slated for 2009 and were responsible for “Superhero Movie”…

Rating: 5 / 10 – not great, but it IS watchable.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Directed by first-timer Clark Gregg you could call it a dark comedy, but I found it far more dramatic than comedic. It’s the story of sex-addict Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell – excellent in the role) and his relationship with his mother (Anjelica Huston).

Mancini attends AA-like meetings for his condition, yet seems to rarely get through the door, more often than not getting off with a fellow attendee. He works as a tour guide at a 1800’s theme park with his best friend Denny (a compulsive masturbator), and in his spare time he goes to restaurants, deliberately chokes on his food, then fleeces the person who saves him since they feel responsible for his life.

Most of this money he uses to care for his mother, in an expensive private care home. This is the most re-visited scene in the movie, since the patients there come to adore him while he has slept with most of the nurses. His mother never seems to know who he is – and again, this mother/son relationship is an important theme.

I don’t want to spoil any of the delightful twists in this story. There are many flashbacks of the young Victor growing up with his increasingly demented mother and this includes a very weird tale of his upbringing. Each of these flashbacks add a little more to the tale.

But above all this is the story of Victors descent into the depths of his sex-addiction and his search for his sense of worth and self. It’s a mad, mad film with a few cool story twists, and it hurtles along at a fair old pace.

Keep an eye out at the end of the movie, the author, Chuck Palahniuk, is sitting next to Victor

Rating: 8.5 / 10 — Excellent Palanhiuk translation to the big screen.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

Stone reputably rushed this film on a budget to get it out before the election last year, and it shows.

I have nothing bad to say about the cast or direction, all are top notch, it’s just the film itself feels rather limited and even short, though it runs at over 2 hrs. A lot happened during Bush’s administration, including 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, The War On Terror, The Florida Recount, Guantanamo Bay and the rest. But the film focuses on just some of Bush’s past and on the original decision to invade Iraq. It doesn’t criticize or use controversial material and seems rather meek for a Stone pic!

Bush is shown to be a man dominated by his father and his advisers such as Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. He is initially in the shadow of his his brother Jeb, whom his father favours, and his childhood is mostly a drunken mess where he fails to hold a job yet still manages to graduate from Yale with his fathers influence.

After his father becomes President, Bush cleans up his act at AA meetings and becomes a born again Christian. He helps his father win his first term, but is unhappy about his lack of ambition to go after Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the original Operation Desert Storm. His father loses office after just that first term to Clinton, and Bush Jr. decides to run for the Senator of Texas.

George Sr. is unhappy about this decision, as his other son Jeb is also running for Florida, but George Jr. goes ahead anyway – and with a lot of help from Rove and his wife Laura wins the seat.

Most of the political intrigue of his time in office as President is reduced to showing the discussions of the invasion of Iraq. Mainly, whether or not there are WMD’s there. Bush is shown to be conflicted on the issue, as he wants to invade (partly due to his fathers failure), but he doesn’t want to invade without good reason. Eventually, he is pushed into attacking, along with his “allies” (mainly smaller countries with no armies of their own, and of course Great Britain).

The problem with this film is we all know the story, as it’s very recent material. You expect a biopic to delve into the character and past of the man, but it doesn’t do this in any great detail. We already know he had an alcoholic past, and a privileged upbringing, so there’s nothing new there.

Still, this is a watchable movie and Josh Brolin is excellent as Bush. Richard Dreyfuss plays a domineering Cheney, and James Cromwell plays the father, George H Bush, around whose relationship with his son the movie is centered. Ioan Gruffyd pops up as Tony Blair in one scene, where is shown urging restraint and UN help on the Iraq situation. I guess Michael Sheen was unavailable!

Some scenes strive to show the “inner man”, such as a nightmare where his father attacks him, a discussion with Rove where he is told that he “has to do something with his life”, and a question at a press conference where is he is lost for words when asked what his legacy will be.

As mentioned in other reviews, a movie or mini series about Bush might be more powerful in another ten years where extra time can be used to show his entire two terms as President. But for now, Stones treatment will do. I’ve always been ambivalent about Bush, neither hated or loved the man, and the movie hasn’t really changed my views in any way.

7/10 – Entertaining, but limited, treatment of George Dubya Bush.

IMDB

Rotten Tomatoes

For a start, De Niro and Pacino both sleepwalk through their roles – as they have done for a number of previous movies. It’s obvious they are only in it for the paychecks these days. That said, these two on a bad day will still outclass some of today’s stars. Ultimately it’s the writing and direction that let this down. It’s simply a weak story.

The plot is really just a simple good cop / bad cop story, and the twist can be seen coming from a mile away. Detectives Turk and Rooster have had an illustrious career and partnerhsip, but the planting of evidence on a child abuser who is about to walk changes things. Cue scenes of the cop being judge, jury and executioner – and that’s the bulk of the film.

The supporting cast don’t have much to do, but all are pretty good. Brian Denehey, John Lugiazamo, Carla Gugino and even 50 Cent can at least say they’ve acted with De Niro and Pacino

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are some of the great actors of our times. Both appeared in Godfather Part 2 and Heat to excellent reviews, but never shared much screen time together. And that’s what makes this such a disappointment. I’d love them to get together in a new, meatier film – perhaps with Scorcese at the helm! – but if the pay is good for easy films like this sadly I can’t see it happening. I don’t think they have the hunger anymore.

Then again, Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, and other such veterans still prove they have the acting chops – so here’s hoping!

Rating: 7 / 10 – Both actors can still hack it, but this film feels lazy. Entertaining enough for a Saturday night in.

IMDB | Rotten Tomatoes