Well it isn’t if you are reading this… Maybe you shouldn’t

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Here we go again, I think half the time they’re trying to make people sick in the theatres with the shaky camera. No, wait, I’m not complaining, I liked this. A lot. It really works very well, and for this type of film, the characters are pretty good too. And thank God there aren’t any big names there either. Not that I know of anyway. Exciting marketing, boring posters. The whole secrecy thing was interesting. I didn’t know anything at all when I went to see this one, I don’t think I’d even really seen the poster. That’s the best way to see a film I think. So you should stop reading and go and watch this now. But as usual, I’m not really going to tell much of the film. Well acted, good cast, I like the genre as well and I think it was well done, which can’t be said of most similar attempts lately. Scary? Yes, I guess. I’m not surre I’d watch it again. And cinema always beats dvd (or blu-ray which I don’t have). I wonder if there’ll be a sequel?

If this is as good as it gets, then maybe its time for George to find a nice cosy (zombi) island where to retire. I had high hopes of Diary of the Dead.

Or is it just me? Go and have a look and see what you think. Oh wait – This is how interesting I found the film: I’m writing this about a year after I watched it in the cinema – for you its same as me reviewing a straight to DVD release. I’m not sure its good enough to even rent. All Romero fans, stop reading and just go and watch it. You might even like it. I’m just saying its nowhere near as good as Day of the Dead or Dawn of the Dead. or obviously Night of the Living Dead. Or the new versions of Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead. This one is mostly annoying and misses almost all chances of being properly scary, funny or otherwise good. There is a second or two that are very very funny, but it’s not really enough to carry the whole film.

I like westerns. At least some. Even if they are not directed by Sergio Leone or John Ford, or starring Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, or shot in Italy. Christian Bale is starting to become one of my favourite actors. I couldn’t see it the first time I watched American Psycho, but I can now. Can’t wait for the dark knight to return to the big screen…

Now this one – do you ever need to run to catch a train to work or something? This particular train is a lot harder to catch. Not least because of Ben Foster, who is perhaps the best of the bunch – I mean his acting. It is a remake and there are references to other films as well, but I won’t really go into that, I haven’t seen the original, and I am not an expert when it comes to westerns anyway – I’ve seen Rio Bravo a lot of times, but so what.

Nicely shot, nice characters, I walked out of the cinema happy.

That title, I just can’t see it… American Ganster just sounds so much better, don’t you agree? If you don’t, don’t bother telling me.

Denzel Washington is another actor you can usually trust. Even his poorer films are somehow watchable, at least on the big screen if not on DVD, and usually if anyone needs to be blamed, its not him. I think this is his best since Training Day, and might be one of the best I saw in 2007.

Of course its always nice to see these ‘true stories’ on the big screen – or at least I think so. Somehow reminds me of Godfather II. Ridley Scott is also one of the trustworthiest directors around, so I did not have to think twice whether to watch this one or not.

Russell Crowe was good too, but perhaps one of the weaker parts of the film. I’ve heard someone not liking this one, and someone comparing it with The Departed, but I don’t really care, it is a good one. During the film I kept thinking how this film could end, and when it ended, to me it seemed the film ended the only way a film could end – I wonder if that’s how it really went… It’s a bit of a movie ending, American way, entertaining, I have another word for it, but it’s too close to a spoiler… if I didn’t already spoil if for you. I can live with it.

The three trailers before this film were all horror flicks, and my wife, already worried about what was to come, asked me if this one is a horror film. I didn’t know, that’s just the way I like it, not knowing too much, if anything about the film I’m about to see.

As it turned out, there were definitely some scary bits in this one.

It’s a solid, better-than-your-average Will Smith acting experience. He’s fit, and it has to be shown, even if it is only for the portfolio of his personal trainer. So anyone who likes Mr Smith, should definitely see this one. Willow Smith is good too.

Other than that, there’s action, scary moments, a couple of (slightly strange) animal encounters, Will Smith acting including emotional and ‘losing it’ moments. The parts with other characters feel a little bit loose and out of place – not enough time is spent building these characters, as if they are not important enough to tell the story and they exist only to keep the story alive and for breaks between the main action bits. I would have liked to condense some other parts of the film, even if that meant less scary action or less Smith solo acting, to give the other characters more depth.

It’s good though, OK 3d, Will Smith is cool enough, and he has a nice dog. Reminds me a lot about 28 days later, lots of similarities here and there. And was nice to see how NY looks empty after seeing how London looks empty. I’m not sure which zombies I prefer. I don’t think they call them zombies in either of the films. But hey, call them what you want, you still have to blow their heads off to stop them walking. Although these ones are more or less running… I’m tempted to put a small spoiler right here, but I’d better just stop right here.

Hairless gremlins… It’s definitely a Christmas movie.

Rendition was in the news a lot at some point. And of course there would have to be a film about it as well. And after the film, at some point, there were news that someone (was it CIA, I can’t remember) was doing some sort of successful ‘torture’ in the US, without even taking the suspects out of the country. The next day the news was gone and forgotten. So I guess it won’t make much difference where you torture people.

I somehow got confused a couple of times during this film, but it really did have a nice structure and good acting, and Meryl Streep is spot on as usual I suppose. The story works very well and I thought it makes the point it is supposed to make, a statement of some sort. So what do YOU think about rendition?

Jamie Foxx is one of those actors who don’t need to dig very deep to find gold… In these times of uncertainty, terrorists and Muslim versions of Jehovah’s Witnesses these kind of films have started to appear more and more.

It’s a solid, pretty basic action film, or maybe a political action thriller would describe it better. Not too much relationship stuff, definitely nothing romantic that I can remember, a little bit of CSI stuff and of course nice locations. Not very original camera work, but enjoyable enough.

I liked the story, I liked the acting, I thought it was well balanced, and I must say this film received a very nice reaction from the audience, with lots of approving grunts and noises when the end credits started rolling.