Total Recall

Total Recall is the remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger version, based on the Philip K. Dick short story “ We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”.

We meet Douglas Quaid (Colin Farrell), a factory worker who is woken up every night by the same nightmare.  Being chased and captured by automated soldiers, never knowing why and who wants to capture him and being aided by a mysterious attractive woman (Jessica Biel).  He awakes every morning after having the same dream, vivid as if it were a memory.  We are in a future world where Britain is an empire and we can travel through the centre of the earth to get to the Colony (formerly Australia).  You either live on Britain or in the Colony.  Seems like the Colony is where the lower classes/unsightly folk live.  In this world, you can go to a place called Rekall to live out our wildest fantasies without ever leaving your chair.  The memories stay implanted into your brain so you can call them up at any time.

Quaid decides to go to Rekall to help with the dreams he has been having, against the wishes of his loving yet secretive wife (Kate Beckinsale).  He goes for a secret agent fantasy and then all hell breaks loose between reality and fantasy.

Total Recall is like The Matrix before The Matrix.  A life where you are not sure what it real and what it not.  However this remake doesn’t really call upon all those themes.  There is no humour from the original film even though some of the scenes are word for word.  It has been changed into a love triangle gone wrong, rather than a Jason Bourne type story as it should have been.  Britain and Australia are now apparently places where everyone has an American accent.  And there is no trace of what makes those countries what they are.  It’s an industrial American view of us across the pond.  And it’s horrible.

It looks good, don’t get me wrong.  The higgledy piggledy way the streets are structured, the building with is confusing levels like a magic eye painting and the mixture of future technologies and past structures.  But that is all it is.  There is no plot, no real acting finesse (Jessica Biel needs stop trying to act, you just can’t lady!) even though Farrell is the only light in the whole dark mess.  The women are completely miscast.  As if their budget didn’t really stretch that far to get real talent when they spent it all on Farrell.  Bill Nighy and Bryan Cranston are both completely wasted in the film too

I found the whole film confused and pointless and perhaps money could have been better spent elsewhere.

Expendables 2

The sequel to The Expendables, Expendables 2 is back with bigger guns, bigger action and even bigger stars.  Full to the brim with cheesy lines and jokes from the action stars previous films, the story is not needed in this film.

Stallone leads is motley crew of ageing action stars into battle after battle, good against evil, putting their personal lives aside for the good of all mankind.

When one of their own dies, Stallone goes renegade, all guns blazing for revenge of the man he lost.  Encountering some of the bloodiest fights on the way.

This film is a joke, it’s laughable.  It’s so bad, its good in a strange way.  It doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is.  The most money is spent on the cast and their plastic surgery than the special effects.  Who needs special effects when it all blows up anyway, right?  Great appearances from Bruce Willis, Arnie and Chuck Norris all work well.  Although a little dissapointed that Chuck Norris didn’t do his world famous roundhouse kick.

JCVD is as camp as ever, playing up to the comedic side we are seeing a lot on his Coors Light ads.  But he isn’t an effective villain so we always know beefcake Stallone will always win in that fight.

Best bit of the whole film was the interactions between Arnie and Willis and a clever use of a Smart car.  Just classic.

Look, it’s not smart and it’s not clever, but if you fancy a laugh with some explosions mixed in, give it a go.

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Story

Being Elmo is the most amazing documentary about Kevin Clash, who made it his life mission to become a puppeteer on Sesame Street.

After watching the first televised show in 1969, Clash became obsessed with puppetry, making hundreds of his own and putting on shows for the local hospitals children’s ward.

Determined as he was, he became noticed by local TV ad starred in his own show.  This propelled him into an amazing journey and in meeting Jim Henson, he cemented his place in the Sesame hall of fame.

Creating Elmo by accident, he is now the most loved character of all Sesame history.  Elmo is small, red, fluffy and loveable.  Creating a character based on the simplest characteristic of all, Love.  You may think it hard for a huge black man, that Clash might find it difficult to separate the two, but upon seeing Elmo ‘come alive’, Clash almost disappears for me.  I see nothing but love and hugs and cuteness.  Clash isn’t a soldier, doctor or teacher.  Through Elmo, he is all those things to kids and adults alike.  Clash gives dying kids their last wish to have a fun and loving day with Elmo, does appearances in malls all around the world, trains local puppeteers in translated versions of the show, and even meets young wannabe puppeteers and guides them to their dream.

Kevin Clash has created something bigger than Sesame Street and puppetry. Clash has created a visual and fluffy interpretation of love. 

Imrun loves Elmo.

Aaliyah feat. Drake - Enough Said

A must listen for all Aaliyah fans out there.  Music just isn't the same without her and it's really great to hear this.  Would have prefered Missy and Timbaland to have produced it though as they knew her sound better than anyone in the business.

Miss you Aaliyah, RIP.

Cloud Atlas Extended Trailer

A fabulous trailer for the Wachowski's return to film in spectacular style.
It is rather long at over 5 minutes but the sign of a good trailer is that I still have no complete idea as to what its about.  Now going to frantically read the book before it comes out!
Enjoy.