Coraline has been arguably one of the best reviewed movies of 2009, regardless of genre, target audience or subject matter. Released February 6th, 2009 Coraline is the big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s beloved story by the same name, and was produced in a 3D format, which is (if you haven’t already noticed) the next big thing in animated movies. With animation reminiscent of The Nightmare before Christmas, the movie itself was a visual delight. And if you were lucky enough to catch it in the theater, you were likely able to add a high quality 3D viewing experience as well.

The story itself is of a little girl by the name of (you guessed it) Coraline, who is generally unhappy with her lot in life. Recently uprooted to a big, old, dank, dilapidated boarding house in the middle of nowhere, Coraline is an only child with two parents that she feels just aren’t quite up to snuff. While her parents work tirelessly on their soon to be released gardening book, Coraline is advised (with great emphasis) to explore her new digs. While doing so, she meets a big-mouthed neighborhood boy, a decrepit stray black cat, a Russian acrobat (who trains mice) and a pair of (not so gracefully) aging English showgirls. However, all of these meeting pale in comparison with her discovery of a strange and wondrous doorway that leads to another, seemingly parallel (and much better) world.

It is in this world that she meets her “other mother” and “other father,” who are physical duplicates of her real parents, with one minor exception. They have black buttons sewn on in place of eyes. However, the similarities shared between Coraline’s real and “other” parents end with the physical, and she finds out almost immediately that the personalities of her new “other” parents are exactly what she has always wanted in from her mom and dad. However, she soon realizes that things are not always as they seem, and that perhaps she should be more careful with her wishes. Coraline was something of an Alice in Wonderland for a new generation.

Coraline was a visually stunning and imaginative movie, and while it was animated and intended for children, it will delight the entire family. Keep in mind that there are some scary moments that may be a bit too much for younger or sensitive viewers. And while the movie is no longer playing in the theater in most areas, it was released on Blue-Ray and DVD, and these releases contain both 3D and 2D versions of the film. The DVD I bought also included 4 pairs of 3D glasses. Coraline is rated PG and is 101 minutes in length.

Movie Statistics:
Directed by Henry Selick
Produced by Claire Jennings
Written by Henry Selick (Screenplay), Neil Gaiman (Novel)
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Keith David, Robert Bailey Jr., John Hodgman, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Ian McShane
Music by Bruno Coulais, They Might Be Giants
Cinematography: Pete Kozachik
Editing by Christopher Murrie, Studio LAIKA
Distributed by Focus Features
Released on February 6, 2009
Duration: 100 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
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I have read many critical reviews of the new Transformers flick, Revenge of The Fallen. I was never a huge Transformers buff prior to the first feature film; however after seeing it I will admit to becoming a pretty big fan. That being said, I couldn’t imagine that the second installment in the series could possibly be as horrible as was being reported. I mean, the entire original cast was returning, and the budget was huge, so where could they possibly go so terribly wrong?

I am happy to report that they did not go wrong, and that Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen was the best, most absolutely freaking sweet movie I have seen in a very long time. As I previously mentioned, the original cast all returned. And they were as on-it as before. The dialog was great – absolutely hilarious in many parts. In fact, for an action flick, Transformers 2 was full of many comedic elements. Not the least of which was a scene in which one of the actors ended up taking a tazer shot to the testicles. While retaining its PG-13 rating, the movie was able to bank on the universally funny “groin shot” while bringing it into the 21st century by incorporating a pop-culture phenom: the tazer.

In addition to being funny and engaging from beginning to end, Revenge of the Fallen also managed to keep the action and thematic elements of the movie top notch. Honestly, during some of the scenes where the Transformers, well, actually transform, I was blown away. The special effects in this movie are unbelievable. Even better than in the first installment, if you can believe it.

One of the biggest hang-ups many people had about Transformers 2:Revenge of the Fallen is that it was almost 2 ½ hours long, coming in at a fairly lengthy 149 minutes of running time. However, after watching it, I have to say that there was nothing they really could have cut from the movie without negatively impacting the story. Of course, many movie reviewers just like to find something to gripe about because it makes them feel cool and important. The funny thing is that Transformers 2 raked in $108,966,307 over its opening weekend. Wow. Clearly, somebody disagrees with the critics. Millions of times over.

The bottom line is that if you head into Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen expecting Oscar-worthy acting or an impossibly complicated plot, you are going to leave disappointed. But why in the world would you have those expectations? It’s freaking Transformers 2. It is an high-budget, special effects laden action flick based on a children’s cartoon. So grab a huge bucket of popcorn and plan to spend the most entertaining 2 ½ hours of your life (so far) watching a great flick. Take it for what it is, and you won’t be disappointed.

Movie Statistics:
Directed by Michael Bay
Produced by Steven Spielberg (executive), Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy
Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Ehren Kruger
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro
Music by Steve Jablonsky, Linkin Park
Cinematography: Ben Seresin
Editing by Roger Barton, Paul Rubell, Joel Negron, Thomas Muldoon
Studio: DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Hasbro, Di Bonaventura Pictures
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Released on June 19, 2009 (United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland), June 24, 2009 (North America, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand)
Duration: 150 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
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Nice game and effects. Very fast to load! And very exciting to play! A good time pass for someone getting bored. Many stages to choose from. Move forward to and destroy all boxes and enemies with your superpower and look out for the TNT boxes. If you try to destroy it, it will kill you! Use arrow keys to move and A key to destroy.

Remember the old super famous game Mario Bros. Well, this is a more exiting version of that. Mario is a Gangster here and is equipped with a gun. Move forward and kill all the enemies that comes in between. Use A, W, D, S keys to play the game and use mouse to aim and shoot. Good luck!

I thought Mutant Chronicles is a sequel of XMen. I was wrong. It is a film adaption of the pen-and-paper role playing game set in the apocalyptic world originally published in 1993. The game was developed by the Swedish company Target Games as a successor of their earlier Mutant RPG series. The story happened in the distant future when the Earth’s natural resources were depleted by mankind and human race has to move to other planets to survive thus four leading corporations were formed. These corporations were designed based after the traditional nation-states, the Capitol (American Influenced), Bauhus (continental Europe), Mishima (Japanese) and the Imperial (British-inspired).

These four corporations battle one another for resources to sustain the survival of their communities. In one of the battles where the Capitol soldiers battles against the advancement of Bauhus, an ancient seal was broken and Mitch Hunter (Thomas Jane) and Nathan Rooker (Sean Pertwee) found themselves facing not the Bauhus but a new enemy: hideous necromutants, with bone blades that grow from their arms. The necromutants multiply by millions. In the game, they can resurrect dead heroes from the major corporations making them undefeatable.

Like in the game, the necromutants in the movie destroys anything before them making things seem hopeless. Constantine (John Malkovich), the leader of The Corporations, was about to abandon the planet and leave countless innocents behind when the leader of the Brotherhood an ancient monastic order, Brother Samuel (Ron Perlman), approached him. Samuel is the keeper of the Chronicles, a book that prophesies the rise of the Mutants and the “Deliverer”, which Samuel believed to be himself, who will destroy the Mutants. He tried to convince Constantine that there is “Hope” in destroying the mutants. The Deliverer will need to travel into the depths of the planet to find the source of the mutants and destroys it.

All he needs is to have twenty best soldiers from the four corporations to accompany him and battle the mutants until they reach the source. Constantine was hesitant about it saying “what can these 20 soldiers do that their armies cannot” but Samuel was able to recruit Mitch and a handful other soldiers. Joining them are Steiner (Benno Furmann), an honor bound Bauhaus officer, Severian (Anna Walton) a sword-wielder, street fighter El Jesus(Luis Miguel), fearless beauty Duval (Devon Aoki) and stoic warrior Juba (Tom Wu). Together they became a small army who like Samuel believe and will not give up the thought that there is still hope in winning the battle against the mutants. And so their mission to venture into the very heart of the darkness to attempt to save the planet and humanity begins.

Movie Statistics:
Directed by Simon Hunter
Produced by Edward R. Pressman, Tim Dennison
Written by Philip Eisner, Stuart Hazeldine
Starring: Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki, Benno Fürmann, Sean Pertwee, John Malkovich, Anna Walton, Luis Echegaray, Tom Wu, Steve Toussaint, Pras Michel, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Curtis Walker
Music by Richard Wells
Cinematography: Geoff Boyle
Editing by Sean Barton, Alison Lewis
Released on October 10, 2008 (UK)
Country: United States
Language: English
Duration: 111 min.
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Star Trek fans might be surprised when they found out that in the 2009 release of Star Trek James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) are not the best of friends as they were in the Original version. In the movie, these two main characters are still searching for who they really are and what they could give the world and in turn became competitive cadets-in-training. Their difference in terms of their characters was the main cause of the conflict. However, despite their differences in their character, for one is driven by passion while the other is driven by rigorous logic, they have a few things in common.

Both the characters are defiant, contentious adversaries, each equally unimpressed with the other and both go out their way to give their best on whatever they do to be among the chosen to join the crew of the most advanced starship ever created, the U.S.S. Enterprise. The characters from the original version like Sulu (John Cho), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Bones (Karl Urban) and Chekov (Anton Yelchin) are in the movie, the story was plotted a few years before Kirk became the captain of the Enterprise.

So, yes, basically the movie showed how the characters came about and how they were chosen to be part of crew of enterprise but with the arrival of Narada, a Romulan mining vessel captained by Nero (Eric Bana) that contained the Red Matter which the Spock (Leonard Nimoy) from the future created to supposedly stop an impending supernova of the star Hobus that threaten to destroy the home worlds of the Romulan Star Empire and throw off the political balance of the galaxy changed what was supposed to be in the future. Hobus had exploded while Spock was en route destroying Romulus and Spock and the Narada were sucked into a black hole creating a disturbance in space and time which sent both Spock’s vessel and the Narada to the past.

The enraged Nero had set out to avenge the destruction of their planet and the loss of his family had made a vow to destroy Vulcan and the rest of the United Federation Planets which include Earth. The arrival of Narada in to the past had left James Kirk fatherless and made the Vulcans an “endangered species” leaving only 10,000 Vulcans alive after the destruction of their planet. As if the damage wasn’t enough, Nero had set out for his next target… Earth. Witnessing the turn of events and how it would affect the future, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) had set out to help his old friend the young James Kirk to set some of the facts straight which includes saving their friendship.
  

Movie Statistics:
Directed by J. J. Abrams
Produced by J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
Written by Roberto Orci (Screenplay), Alex Kurtzman (Screenplay), Gene Roddenberry (Characters)
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, Bruce Greenwood, Leonard Nimoy
Music by Michael Giacchino
Cinematography: Daniel Mindel
Editing by Mary Jo Markey, Maryann Brandon
Studio: Spyglass Entertainment, Bad Robot Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Released on May 7, 2009 (Australia, New Zealand, & advance screenings in North America), May 8, 2009 (North America, UK)
Duration: 127 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
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IMDB