‘[Gandalf] raised his hand, and spoke slowly in a clear cold voice. ‘Saruman, your staff is broken.’ There was a crack, and the staff split asunder in Saruman’s hand, and the head of it fell down at Gandalf’s feet. ‘Go!’ said Gandalf. With a cry Saruman fell back and crawled away. At that moment a heavy shining thing came hurtling down from above. It glanced off the iron rail, even as Saruman left it, and passing close to Gandalf’s head, it smote the stair on which he stood. The rail rang and snapped. The stair cracked and splintered in glittering sparks. But the ball was unharmed: it rolled on down the steps, a globe of crystal, dark, but glowing with a heart of fire. As it bounded away towards a pool Pippin ran after it and picked it up’ from: J. R. R. Tolkien, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Two Towers’, ‘The Voice of Saruman’

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I like martial arts movies. I can live with the silly stories and just watch to see amazing athletes at work. This movie is generally regarded as one of the classics in the genre, so when it was aired by Veronica last night I decided to see what Bruce Lee had in store.

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The somewhat corny pun in the title (referring to con-artists and the confidence they try win of their victims) could be a potential put-off, but when you see the impressive cast you again wonder why this movie didn’t make a bigger stir in the cinemas. Upon closer study, it seems a bit of a desperate attempt to recycle some big names that haven’t produced a decent movie in a long time. I mean, when was the last time Dustin Hoffman made a good movie (Rain Man?), or Andy Garcia?

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It’s the season to be jolly … tralalalala … London, one week before christmas, present time. Eight random couples involved in eight mini love stories. So wait a minute. You go to the theatre to see a christmas love story and you get eight for the price of one! Richard Curtis has been involved in writing most successfull british comedy since ‘Not The Nine’O Clock News’, including the rom-com box office hits of the past few years like Four Weddings …, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’… and it shows. Now he’s directing for the first time.

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I never would have imagined I would declare a supernatural thriller one of my all-time favourite movies – or one of the best films ever made. (Not least as it stars Bruce Willis.) I avoided it while it was playing at the cinemas but happened to catch it the other night on TV while flicking channels. It left a deep impression on me and I just had to buy the DVD and watch it again…

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‘Yawn, not another vampire-werewolf movie.’ That was the first thing I thought when I heard about about Underworld playing at the local sneak preview (well to me it’s not much of a sneak preview these days). When I heard about the good statistics at the American box offices (despite the devastating reviews), I decided to give it a chance. Hmmm… last night could have been much more relaxing reading a good book with a sip of wine.

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There are load of comedies that are based on something supernatural happening to the lead character. Tom Hanks became an adult overnight in “Big”, Perry King became Ellen Barkin in “Switch”, Jim Carrey even became God recently in “Bruce Almighty”. At first glance this might seem like just another one, but this one, at least to me, is a little special.

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My thing with animation is that it never ceases to amaze me how something as simple as pencil and paint can be so impressive on the big screen. I have always been a big advocate of traditional hand-drawn animation and a big fan of the Disney legacy despite its cheesy and peachy need for a good moral storywise. That said I find it hard being objective about animation from other studios, such as Dreamworks. Several years ago I watched The Prince of Egypt and I was pretty amazed by it. A good (but very serious) story, good music, very decent animation (which was very Disney-esque due to the fact the head of Dreamworks animation, Jeffrey Katzenberg, was once head of the Disney animation department) and good special effects. The only problem with The Prince of Egypt was the already large amount of CGI-effects. Dreamworks found itself on the edge of the abyss when it came to blending traditional with computer animation. With Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas Dreamworks has tumbled over the edge.

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When films are advertised shouting out loud and proud how many academy award winning actors are in it (that is to say, actors who won awards for their roles in other films) one tends to be a bit suspicious as to the merits of the movie in question. Then there is suspect information number two: based on a novel…oh, yeah, these two together can lead to a deadly combination.

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Up until last night, I’d never seen a Grisham adaptation. Nor read any of his books. “The Firm”, “The Client”, “A Time to Kill”, they all seemed pretty interesting to me, they all have great casts, but somehow I just never got around to see one. Net 5 showed “The Pelican Brief” last night, so I decided it was time to change all that and get to know the master of legal thrillers.

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