Science Fiction & Fantasy > N Science Fiction & Fantasy > Hunter, Simon

Hordes of Things to Hate

Advantages: The score would work if it was attached to a better film.
Disadvantages: The direction, performances, writing and effects are all disgracefully bad.

...thinks he can stop the mutant scourge. He is keeper of the Chronicles, a book that prophesies the rise of the mutants and talks of the 'Deliverer', who will destroy them. Samuel believes he is the Deliverer and recruits Mitch and a group of other like-minded soldiers to journey deep into the earth to save humanity from the mutant hordes. This is Scottish director Simon Hunter's third feature and it is so thoroughly dreadful that it might stop him ...
...trying to combine the look of Zach Helm's "300" with imagery from communist propaganda posters. Sadly he doesn't have a big enough budget to accommodate his ambitions. The effects work is appalling; the mutants amount to a small group of men in dodgy rubber prostheses mincing about trying to look menacing and failing miserably. The backdrops are often badly matted in so they look entirely fake. The real sets look cheap and naff - the journey down ...

afy9mab 24.12.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mutant Chronicles (DVD)

More Fallen Than Revenge

Advantages: Visually very impressive
Disadvantages: Too long and without a terribly good story

...when I was a kid, Transformers were one of my favourite toys. The fun of having something that was a car one minute and a robot the next took a long time to grow old. As an adult, I've found I can get similar enjoyment from watching the same thing happen on the big screen. It's a lot more sophisticated than it was back then, but I try to fool myself that I am as well. Following on from the events of the latest "Transformers" film, the Autobots are ...
...the film, in that the Transformers are a little too human at points. Maybe this is a deliberate attempt to portray them that way as they've now been living and working with humans for some time, but it did blur the line between them slightly. This was particularly noticeable with Skids and Mudflap, who played the joker roles that are usually assigned to a human sidekick in a film like this. They're funny and they do get the best lines, but it shifted ...

Soho_Black 29.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Transformers - Revenge Of The Fallen

It's not over until the fat lady sings

Advantages: Great acting and effects
Disadvantages: Obvious computer generated effects

BEWARE! THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS AND PLOTLINE! THE STORY The story starts in space and we see the moon. We see dust on the moon shaking and a shadow coming over the top. We then see an alien spacecraft. In the USA, a young man is practicing his golf stroke in a laboratory. He notices a warning light flash and a strange noise. He quickly gets his boss and they find that the noise is coming from the moon. They contact the Secretary of Defence ...
...over the moon and that is has broken off into lots of pieces. It is rapidly coming towards earth. He contacts The President. Meanwhile, the president Thomas Whitmore (played by Bill Pullman) is just getting up and gets the phone call from the Secretary. On the other side of town, David Levinson (played by Jeff Goldblum) an ex-scientist has been told that there is interference on all communications. He works out that the interference is coming from ...

rufusredcoat 26.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Independence Day (DVD)

Can you put a price on your dreams?

Advantages: Brilliant cast, amazing special effects, simply magical
Disadvantages: Not for everyone, plot lost in all the magical aspects

...makes his money by entertaining the public in a mysterious theatre show. Along with his daughter, Valentina, and helpers Anton and Percy, the team travel around in their wagon which unfolds to be their stage. The audience are given the chance to step inside a magical mirror where Dr Parnassus will control them and allow them to step inside their own imagination. But when the Devil arrives at Dr Parnassus' door, he claims that he has come to collect ...
...win is Valentina. The Devil offers Dr Parnassus a new deal - through his mirror, he must find and give the Devil five souls. So the unlikely team, including the new arrival of Tony, a mysterious man with no memory, set about to find five willing people to step inside the mirror in the hope of saving Valentina. ~ Cast ~ Dr Parnassus - Christopher Plummer Valentina - Lily Cole Anton - Andrew Garfield Percy - Verne Troyer Devil - Tom Waits Tony - Heath ...

frankiefromings13 25.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Two Spocks dont make a summer

Advantages: Big screen treat
Disadvantages: Not for DVD

...player, also the case with Star Trek, and unless you have a huge TV or Blue-Ray then the modern action movie suffers in translation. Star Trek is quite simply one of those big budget movies you have to see at the cinema to get any real buzz from it, director JJ Abrahams all about movies that enjoy using the entire screen space. It's all very frustrating wandering what you can't see in the top left hand corner of your wide-screen DVD screen that the ...
...a bar hitting on female Star Fleet cadets after dropping out of Star Fleet officer school, taking a shine to sexy young communications officer Uhura (Zoë Saldana), a fist fight soon ensuing. But he's soon talked around to mend his ways and on the next shuttle up to Starfleet head quarters, Capt. Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), a friend of his father, his new mentor. The concurrent storyline is that of Nero (Eric Bana), the captain of a Romulan ...

thedevilinme 25.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Star Trek