Movie: Fury

This movie, I am happy to say, is just a good old fashioned WWII war movie, but made with the advantages of modern technology.

The casting of this movie is what makes the whole thing work. You have Brad Pitt, who just gets better as he gets older, as the leader who is most at home in his tank. Then you have Shia LeBeouf, who does his best work ever with this role. I just wish he gets himself sorted out because he is clearly a very talented actor. Then there is Michael Pena, who comes across as a very likeable guy, and Jon Bernthal, who somehow manages to come across as both likeable and unlikeable at the same time.

And finally last , but certainly not least the is Logan Lerman, who plays the new guy, the guy straight off the boat and completely clueless about what he is going to soon face up to. I was sitting there, thinking "where have I seen this guy before?", and of course, with the later help of IMDB, I now know he was in Noah, and he was in the Percy Jackson movies. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

But all together, this cast is just a magic mix.

The stellar cast of Fury: Shia LeBeouf, Logan Lerman, Brad Pitt, Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal, with their Director, David Ayer.

One more thing. I'm a big fan of 3D, and there is no doubt that certain scenes in this movie would have looked fantastic in 3D, but I'm glad that is movie is not in 3D  given the subject matter. I think it would have been more of a distraction than anything else.

However, this is a great movie. I'm very tempted to go see it again next week.

Movie: Stephen Fry

I went to see Stephen Fry  at my local cinema. He wasn't there in person of course. He was in England and he was beamed in. He put on a one-off show to promote his new book, "More Fool Me", another volume of his growing autobiography collection. You can get it from here, and other places no doubt: http://www.stephenfry.com/store/

Stephen Fry is a great entertainer. His words are witty, interesting and well constructed. And he knows about Perth, Western Australia, where I live.

He started off the show talking about the countries where he was being broadcast in cinemas, hence the mention of Perth.

He read a chapter from his book, concerning a visit to his place by Lady Diana and Prince Charles. It went on for a while, but every sentence was so well constructed that I was carried along.

But alas, before I knew it, it was over. I was having such a good time that I was disappointed when it was over. I just wanted him to go on for just a little bit longer.

Please Sir, can I hear just one more chapter?....

Movie: 3D Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This movie is just plain fun. It makes no attempt at any type of intellectual comment on the world at all.

This is the type of movie that 3D is particularly suited to. There is one scene in which the turtles are careening down a mountain side which just wouldn't look good in plain old 3D.

The movie is yet another reboot of the turtle origin story. Fortunately, the turtles do NOT come from outer space, which was one of the early ideas for the film. In fact, they weren't going to be teenagers either. The film was going to be called just Ninja Turtles, and some people speculated that the turtles would be middle aged aliens! Fortunately, good sense kicked in along the line and that idea was dropped. Now, I'm all for letting film makers experiment with the source material, but in this case, a teenage mutant ninja turtle will always bee a teenage mutant ninja turtle

One change I did find fresh was the way that April O'Neil was tied closer to the origin of the turtles. I thought was a nice addition to the existing story.

By my count, this is the third reboot of the turtle story. I quite liked the energy of the first one. the second one, the CGI TMNT was ok, but not outstanding, and this one is just different enough to make it enjoyable