Reviews by filmbuilder

Steven Spielberg does a superb demonstration of great war movies with his direction in 'Saving Private Ryan' a movie that earned him an Academy Award for Best Director! This direction is his best!

Everyone says that the first 27 minutes of this movie are very, very shocking! Indeed! Blood, destructed bodies, red water! At the start of this movie, Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and his army end up on the beach which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of 6th June 1944. The shooting occurs at the start and is very unpleasant! This is bloody violent! It's realistic, it's amazing!

So, Miller and his army spend most of the movie searching for Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) who is believed to be dead at first! They do what it says in the title - saving Private Ryan! This title fits very well!

'Saving Private Ryan' features a solid performance from Tom Hanks, who proves he can carry out something as shocking as this! (it's a 15 and in fact, he's in the 18 rated 'Green Mile' movie too)

If you think it's 170 minutes of war violence, you're wrong because of the lack of shooting! The massive battles occur at the beginning and end of the movie! It's less violent than you think it will be! It's not like McDonalds where you know what it is going to taste like or how you know how awful 'Disaster Movie' will be!

This movie received 11 Academy Award nominations! It won 5 for Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Sound Effect Editing, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing! But what about the art direction? Surely no movie of 1998 can look as amazing or shocking as 'Saving Private Ryan' is!

If this movie had been violent all the way, it probably would have received 18! This movie has no nudity but has strong bloody war violence at the beginning in particular! If the level of violence had been consistent, teens wouldn't be allowed to see it in the cinema! This movie is excellent for mature teens who are studying World War II in History! The History teacher may even show Year 10s and 11s this movie (hoping for parent's permission)! Adults, I recommend that you show this masterpiece to your mature teenage boys and girls! Definitely not for kids but it should be fine for mature teens 13 and up!

'Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure' is like any other Disney sequel (except for Pixar sequels), the plot of Scamp (Scott Wolf - :) becoming a wild dog and abandoning his parents and becoming a junkyard dog is so boring. Kids who loved the first movie will probably love this too (especially those who are die-hards), no matter how much adults loved the first one, they won't enjoy this one at all

Glenn Close is completely wasted in '101 Dalmatians' a live action movie based on the 1956 novel 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians'. The movie is just boring! This movie wastes not just Close but also Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright, Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams. If only it were more like the Disney movie which actually worked really well!

Overrated, but still good. 'Good Will Hunting' focuses on Will Hunting (Matt Damon) who after assaulting a policeman, he goes to see a therapist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) and studies advanced mathematics with Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard).

'Good Will Hunting' is good but is it really that great? The start actually seems quite obvious but afterwards, the concept of the plot was actually pretty good and eventually it worked very well!

'Nim's Island' is nice to look at, but boring. It's a kids movie but the plot is too boring for grown-ups; it focuses on Nim (Abigail Breslin) an 11 year old girl who lives on an island with her father (Gerard Butler) and somehow they can handle a computer...on a bloody island?!

But also, Nim and Jack are a big fan of a writer Alex Rover (Jodie Foster) who sends them - yes - emails! And Nim starts to respond and asks her (assuming she's a man) to come to her island. Meanwhile Jack leaves the island. God only knows why. And gets lost at sea! If he's not confident then he shouldn't leave the island!

There are no proper explanations on how they get WiFi, plus it shouldn't be possible on an island, their home is like a real home - only there are loads of creatures scampering around everywhere. Why would Alex just randomly chose to write to Jack? And the scenes of Alex Rover (in Alexandra's imagination) are just so boring and meaningless! Nim gets her supplies from a supply ship that comes by, but how can they afford it? Presumably they allow the ships to take pearls (in 'Return To The Blue Lagoon', a ship comes to the island because the captain has heard of valuable riches in the sea)

Abigail Breslin is actually rather wasted here, I don't blame her for taking part in a kid's movie ('Little Miss Sunshine' was obviously a grown up movie) and it's probably that she took part to explore an island.

Really, a lot of movies set on islands are just lame ('Cast Away' is a great movie but one of the only good island movies), the lame island movies include 'The Blue Lagoon', 'Return To The Blue Lagoon' (really?), 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked' and this!

I do however think the effects are rather good. The sets are well designed but I wish they hadn't made the house look like a real house! It doesn't look like it was built on an island at all!

But also at the end, Jack returns and meets Alexandra but is Alexandra going to leave the island? Of course, 'Return To Nim's Island' showed us that Alexandra left the island and the island faced a new challenge! What, oh what was the real reason for a sequel? My rating of this one is actually quite generous!

'Underdog' demonstrates not every superhero gets a good movie. And that can be explained why!

'Underdog' is based on a TV show about a flying superhero dog named Underdog. Here, he's voiced by Jason Lee (the guy from the bloody 'Alvin and the shitmunks' movies). His voice performance isn't very good.

'Underdog' also features not much laughter. I can remember this one gag where they sell hot dogs and Underdog thinks they're made of dogs, but asides from that, I don't remember any other funny gags! Underdog trying to chose a costume isn't very humorous and he can't come up with an accurate line until about half-way?!

The effects are rather poor, particularly the mouth movements! At least they move, unlike in 'Thomas the Tank Engine' (for the first 11 seasons) but the CGI is just poor!

'Underdog' would've been better off as a TV show (only) but as a movie, it's not very funny! Disney is really facing extinction ('Old Dogs', 'The Lone Ranger', etc.) and without Pixar, they would expire in a few years from now!

'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' is confusing but amazing! The plot is actually quite complicated but is very well told and interesting! Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet make a great screen duo, the script is amazing and there's some great direction from Michel Gondry!

Unfortunately 'Brave' was Pixar’s third disappointment (after A Bug’s Life and Cars) and their worst film yet

Despite gorgeous animation and a decent cast (Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters), the story was rather boring, it starts off rather scary for kids when the bear attacks the king (Billy Connolly) and eats his leg, it also starts off one of my favourite genres Horror, you start off with a Horror film for teens then you go rather boring with a princess being told what to do by the queen, she runs off and meets a witch and receives a spell which turns the queen into a bear

The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Film, however Wreck-It Ralph is miles better and probably the best film of 2012 yet, anyway this film is not bad and worth a look (although it think it is rather overrated)

With 'Family Guy', it is indeed lucky there's a family guy! Seth MacFarlane has created many cartoons but 'Family Guy' is his best! It features a family guy Peter (Seth MacFarlane) and his family.

There's his wife Lois (Alex Borstein), their obese son Chris (Seth Green), awkward daughter Meg (Mila Kunis), genius villain baby Stewie (Seth MacFarlane) (who wants to destroy the world) and their alcoholic talking dog Brian (Seth MacFarlane)

Just because there's a talking dog doesn't mean it's kid friendly! 'Family Guy' has been criticized for ripping off 'The Simpsons' which is kind of true but 'Family Guy' comes up with its own jokes and plots! Although the families are very similar;

Homer (Dan Castellaneta) = Peter; the overweight fathers
Marge (Julie Kavner) = Lois; the thin mothers
Bart (Nancy Cartwright) = Chris; the idiot sons
Lisa (Yeardley Smith) = Meg; the daughters
Maggie = Stewie; the violent babies
Santa's Little Helper = Brian; the dogs

But 'Family Guy' has some great episodes and is a great show! Like 'Futurama' or 'Beavis and Butt-head', it's show popularity earned it a second life! I wish they never stopped! I can't wait for September when the Simpsons and Griffins will cross pairs and the episode will guest star the actors on 'The Simpsons' (unlike that cameo where Homer has a different voice actor when told he's not wanted in Quahog)

'Family Guy' is also popular for its cutaway gags, my favourite is where Peter is left alone and turns the house into a giant puppet! (watch the episode and you'll know what I mean), overall, I love 'Family Guy', it's a great show!

Pixar's first feature movie 'Toy Story' was a critical and box office success. Pixar then decided to make a movie about bugs which is what DreamWorks was planning too. So it was a race to see who got there first and 'Antz' did. Personally I preferred 'Antz'. 'A Bug's Life' is not the same level as 'Antz' but I still think it is worth seeing!

'A Bug's Life' stars Dave Foley as Flik, an ant and Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey as Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers! It has some good animation but a weak story! But it's still a good movie!