Media

I saw the trailer for Stormbreaker a couple of months back, and I noted it in my diary as one to watch. I'm not entirely sure what attracted me to the film, but the thought of a fourteen year-old James Bond type character looked so contrived I had to see it to find out whether the format could really work.

Oddly enough, I found myself quite surprised by the finished product. Alex Pettyfer, who plays the main character, Alex Rider, pulls the role off very well. Whilst there are some aspects to the scripts which are indeed bordering tacky - "He's not a child, he's a lethal weapon" being one to note.

The storyline is simple, yet effective. An orphaned child is brough up by his uncle who spends a lot of time away from home because he works for a bank and has to go to lots of meetings. The uncle is in fact an MI6 agent, gets killed in action, and child thinks that there's something strange about the death. Child investigates, reveals truth, and is (under duress) recruited by MI6 to infiltrate villain's lair and stops sneaky plot to destroy the country.

Upon further investigation, the film is an offshoot from a series of books written by Anthony Horowitz, so I purchased the Stormbreaker book, and I'm pleased to report that whilst there's some artistic licence in the film combined with a little deviation from the story, it remains about 80% true to the book. In true sequel style, I've also purchased "Point Blanc" and "Skeleton Key" for further research.

If you have a cold and wet afternoon to spare, go take a look at this one. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

I decided to take Friday off work. I've been feeling a little tired lately, so I thought that now would be a good time to use some of my remaining leave before October, when it 'expires'.

So what does one do on a random day off? First off I headed into town where I dropped my work trousers into the dry cleaners. Then I headed back to my former employer's to meet up with an old friend where we just had a nice chat, and then I drove over to the Cineworld in Greenbridge where I managed to get a matinee seat for the new Stoembreaker movie.

I must admit that I was sceptical of this movie. The format of a kiddie James Bond, a relatively unknown 16 year old actor and a writer's first novel-to-screenplay had all the hallmarks of a flow. HOWEVER I was pleasantly surprised. Alex Pettyfer who plays Alex Rider managed to pull off a young public schoolboy spy very well. Also the stunts and action shots were very well choreographed with Pettyfer actually performing many of the stunts himself.

It's not going to be everyone's film of the month, but if you want a bit of tongue in cheek humour, combined with a bit of action and cameos from Stephen Fry, Robbie Coltrane Ewan McGregor and others, go take a look.

Okay, so Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl was absolutely brilliant. The reason that it was so good was the Jack Sparrow character that Johnny Depp played. Well, back on form, the sequel, Dead Man's Chest was released on Friday, and I hauled my ass to the local Cineworld to check out what all the hype was about.

Well, basically it was a slightly different story, and where there would have been one CGI effect in the first, there were two in the second. All in all, some pretty good entertainment, but I think that at the end of this film, I felt that the format was tired. Sadly, Disney don't feel the same. The cliffhanger at the end left all the hallmarks of a sequel to come. Bugger.

Well, I did decide to go and see United 93 at the cinema, and I have to say that I was impressed. The film approached the subject with delicacy and really captured the feelings of both the hostages on the plane and the hijackers throughout. The hijackers were on a suicide mission so nothing really mattered to them, and the passengers worked out that it was a suicide mission, so they decided to die trying - even though the pilot and co-pilot were dead.

This was a film that brought me to to tears, and yes, it may be too soon, but it does put closure on that particular aspect of 9/11 and gives a little understanding into the brainwashing the hijackers must have gone through.

I'm thinking of going to see United 93 at the cinema this weekend, and I mentioned this at work. It seems that a number of people seem to be against this film, because they think it's too soon after the real event. How soon is too soon? Would it be the same in 10 years time? Or does this put closure on a horrific event? I think I'm going to see it anyway, on the basis that I want to understand more about what happened.