Last week I had a few days off, and checked out a few movies. Not enough for me to write a larger entry, but a few things worthy of mentioning!
Chronicles of Riddick
I saw this a few weeks back, but watched it again the other night. It's a fairly enjoyable movie, but it has a few annoying things in it which they could have explained better. Things like how the currency of prisoners works, how the Necromonger 'faith' works, and a bit more about the conversion process.. things like that. If you see it you'll know what I mean - it feels like one of those movies which could have been a lot better if they kept some of the portions which obviously ended up on the editing room floor. They've increased Vin Diesels amount of dialog for this movie.. I'll up to you to decide if you think it's a good thing or not.
If you enjoyed Pitch Black, then you'll probably get a bit of enjoyment out of this movie. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I'd actually had to pay to see it.
Hellboy
I've never read the Hellboy comics. Seems that you either love 'em or hate 'em. Anyway, the movie was kind of average - again, you get the feeling it could have been a lot better. There were some characters which seemed a bit redundant.. like mr FBI fella, who didn't really do anything except chat up Hellboys girl on a park bench one night. These are hardly the storylines and plots which are required in order for us to invest any amount of emotional involvement in the movies characters!
Ignoring the plot (which isn't hard), the movie has some good action sequences in it, and the wind up Nazi is very well done. He'd have to be my favorite thing about Hellboy - he's a well done henchman. Yet again, another movie I probably would have enjoyed a lot less if I'd paid to see it.
King Arthur
This film is just terrible. I really cant even be bothered to find words to describe how bad it is.
Stargate SG-1 Season 8 & Stargate Atlantis
Anyone who has seen my DVD collection knows I'm a bit of a Stargate fan. The first 4 episodes of each of these series has shown me that the franchise is still alive and kicking. Season 8 starts off with a bang, and continues on well from where they left on in Season , pulling a few different plot threads into life for the first 2 episodes (season pilot), and carries on to a lesser extent with the 3rd episode. Fans of the series won't need to be told to watch it, but those who were dubious should grab all the previous 7 seasons sets of DVDs and get watching!
I found Atlantis very enjoyable for a 'spin off'. The first episode sets up the context pretty well, and introduces a couple of the new characters, and it's quite well done. They use a few people who have cameoed in Stargate earlier, and then send them off to Atlantis. The way they've done it is in such a way that the Atlantis people are cut off permanently from SGC, but there is potential for occasional communication/interaction with a bit of help from some alien plot devices!
Farenheit 911
I don't really know what to say about this movie, I think it's definately worth seeing it for yourself and forming your own opinion. Some people are of the mindset that Michael Moore is nothing but a propogandist - if so, it's something he's doing very well. The thing is, there are so many people out to get this guy, that it would be incredibly hard for him to include things that weren't factually correct in some way shape or form in his movies. The moment he did so, he'd have a herd of people attempting to be the first to discredit him. So having said that, there's some pretty scary stuff in this movie, but it's scary stuff worth seeing.