It’s 2009 and Fast and Furious is back. The cars, the music, the racing is all back including Dom Toretto. This Fast and Furious could well be called an interquel as it’s set 5 years after the first movie but before the Tokyo Drift movie. Apparently Vin Diesel wanted to make a proper movie and the best time to set it was after the first movie instead of faffing around with the story lines from the latter two movies.

The movie starts how it means to go on with a high octane snatch and grab of fuel. Dom and Letty are still together with a new group containing some new characters and Brian isn’t far behind. After the snatch and grab Dom realises he needs to cut away before the whole team are taken down by the cops and leaves Letty with the gang.

Dom and Brian end up crossing paths in LA and briefly fight each other before realising they are about to fight a common enemy. During the explosive plot the duo are together till the end with plenty of woah and holy crap high speed moments. I had heard there was a lack of cars in the film however I believe there were just enough to keep the story on track and the film entertaining unlike some of the previous films where they dragged.

An all round good movie if you’re into the Fast and Furious series.

If you’d like to see the trailer before buying your tickets, head over to Moovees (one of my sites where I collate film trailers).

The Fast & Furious OST is pretty good and the tracks are featured below;

1. Rye Rye – Bang (feat. M.I.A.)
2. Busta Rhymes – G-Stro
3. Kenna – Loose Wires
4. Pitbull – Blanco (feat. Pharrell)
5. Pitbull – Krazy (feat. Lil Jon)
6. Pitbull – You Slip, She Grip (feat. Tego Calderon)
7. Shark City Click – Head Bust
8. Pitbull – Bad Girls (feat. Robin Thicke)
9. Don Omar – Virtual Diva
10. Tasha – La Isla Bonita
11. Pitbull – Blanco (feat. Pharrell)

Confessions of a Shopaholic had me hooked within the first few pages, a sneak peek into the life of Rebecca Bloomwood – Financial Journalist. I stood by her as she went through the twists and turns of life, through her tears and joys, love and heartbreak. A character whom I think we can all identify with to some degree, for myself, alongside loving shopping, it was the belief that if I hide bad things away for long enough they might just disappear. My addiction had begun. Each book that followed carried on the story.

Needless to say when it was announced that they were making the story into a film, I was looking forward to it. Being able to re-live the novel, but this time on the big screen where the characters are brought to life. The trailers teased and made the anticipation that little more exciting.

As Rebecca Bloomwood would write; ?Contemplating the film on the big screen was like finding the perfect dress you’ve longed for, in the sale at Barney’s; it’s the right size and has no faults. The feeling of exhilaration flows through your veins, everything seems better. Until you realise when you wear it to the most amazing ball that the perfect dress has a nick in it at the hem, at first not that noticeable, but through the night, the hem slowly unravels and the dress falls apart at the seams. You’re so disappointed, you feel let down as if you’ve been cheated.’

One of the main nick?s in the hem of my perfect dress was evident within the first 5 minutes. As I watched in disbelief, I couldn’t help thinking to myself; “This didn’t happen in the novel”, ”I don’t understand” and “I don?t remember it happening like that in the novel”, so much so that I found it very difficult to absorb myself in the film. There were so many inconsistencies; so many so that I asked if we?d walked into the wrong theatre therefore missing part of the story. Why was it all set in New York? Why was Becky working for Successful Saving? Why did she go to work for Luke? Why was Alicia ?Bitch? Longlegs working for Elite fashion magazine? Why were Tarquin and Suze engaged within the first 5 minutes? Where was the on air argument between Becky and Luke? Why did Becky not work on Morning Coffee in a regular slot? And so many more…

The unraveling of my hem happened before my eyes as we were introduced to the main characters of the story. The character of Rebecca Bloomwood was unbelievable, although Becky is slightly naive in her dealings and imaginings within the novel and obviously does have a shopping addiction; the movie portrayed her as a plastic, simple minded and superficial. Suze was impersonal, unlike how she is described within the novel; she lacked her caring and motherly side and instead came across as quite aggressive and selfish. What happened to the girl who would do anything for her friend, who stuck by Becky no matter how many mistakes she made? Tarquin was quite confusing, he held a very small role so it was impossible to judge the character too much, yet I was left asking the question; what happened to the scrawny, un-stylish and awkward character described in the novel that Rebecca found so repulsive? Luke Brandon was possibly the most believable character within the movie, although I found it difficult to relate Luke?s mysterious, almost distant and driven characteristics portrayed by Kinsella to the actor playing the role. Whatever did happen to him running Brandon communications from the beginning?

I understand that changes have to be made on screen to fill the film reel and that sometimes it may be necessary for the range of novels to be merged slightly. Yet why the producers and script writers omitted important events and almost re-wrote an already fantastic storyline is beyond me.

I can?t help but feel rather deflated; the lovable and hilarious ?Confessions of a Shopaholic? was obviously lost in translation.

The first guest post by Jennifer as she had read all of the Sophie Kinsella books to know the difference between the two mediums.

A film by Baz Luhrmann, the guy I knew best for creating a song about sun cream…

Starring Nicola Kidman and Hugh Jackman, Australia is an epic movie with a romantic twist yet with action and adventure throughout. Set in the time that Australia was about to feel World War 2 at home, a posh Lady from England (Nicole Kidman) travelled thousands of miles to find out what her Husband had been doing with their foreign business.

Arriving she finds out some tragic news and needs the help of a local man called Drover (Hugh Jackman) to keep the business afloat and out of reach of the largest cattle company profiteer in Australia. Together with her new family and new found love, they travel across Australia to Darwin just as the Japanese Air Force are bombing Pearl Harbour. Their journey is treacherous but the adventure doesn’t stop as the Japanese then head towards Australia and launch a bombing campaign on Darwin. It’s an extensive adventure in the land of Oz!

SURPRISED

I hadn’t rushed to the cinema to go and see Australia, in fact it was purely pot luck that I ended up seeing it at all. Typically there was nothing else on at the time that I wanted to go. I checked out a couple of reviews which said that Australia was an epic fail rather than an epic which didn’t have me rushing off my seat anymore to get there. It was the only movie on so I wasn’t going to see anything else and the real movies I want to see aren’t out for a week or so. Jennifer really didn’t want to see it.

It started at 1pm, we walked out at 3:55pm almost 3 hours later. Granted I moved around in my seat a little just so I didn’t turn to stone but I wasn’t bored. Not once. I thought the movie was going to end a couple of times but it carried on going. It seemed to add on chapters of a story where you would usually find the movie stopped and followed up in a years time. It was a terrific story from beginning to end, it was a moving story even if it was partially a love story.

HISTORY

There is a lot of history in the movie, a lot of it I didn’t know much about. Being a bit of a history geek I enjoyed learning more than the normal cinema gower but putting that to one side the story wasn’t affected by it.

It’s a long story but I’d watch it again and may possibly hit my DVD list.

Following on from my christmas movie list for 2008 I had a number of concerns that the one Christmas orientated movie had Vince Vaughan in it considering that Fred Claus was such a let down. I’m not a massive Vince Vaughan fan to start with and only class his movies as mediocre to say the least. Reese Witherspoon wasn’t the first actress to come to mind for a comedy Christmas movie but ho hum, you can’t get everything.

I had to go into the movie with an open mind as Four Christmases couldn’t possibly be worse than the Fred Claus Movie.

FOUR CHRISTMASES?

Vince Vaughan and Reese Witherspoon are an unmarried couple who like nothing better than getting away at Christmas. This Christmas they find themselves shacked up with all of their divorced parents having to go through four different Christmas celebrations.

Within 5 minutes of the movie starting I was literally rolling around my seat laughing my ass off and so was the rest of the cinema. If anyone didn’t break out in laughter in the opening thirty minutes of the movie they either lost their personality at birth, were asleep or completely dead. It was opposite to everything I thought it would be, it wasn’t one of those corny Christmas comedies where you feel like you have to laugh just to get you through it, it actually made my sides hurt on multiple occasions.

A BIT DIFFERENT

I’m not usually one for comedy movies to start with and usually go for the more serious action styled movies but I am honestly glad I went to see Four Christmases. Somehow Vaughan and Witherspoon managed to pull off a movie together, in fact Witherspoon should get as much credit for the humor as much as Vaughan as they were both superb.

For comedy value the movie gets 9/10 in my opinion and its a must see for a good laugh this Christmas.

It’s become aware that with everything that is going on in the world today that new technologies are being used more and more. The CIA takes a prominent position in the Body of Lies, with Russel Crowe and Leonardo di Caprio playing the leading parts. Crowe plays Ed Hoffman, a CIA veteran who has a permanent secure line plugged into his ear. Di Caprio plays Roger Ferris, the best CIA operative on the ground. He’s the best guy to get information from the places where it’s usually impossible.

After a bomb in England and warnings of others across Europe, Hoffman is on the trail of the fanatic who has started it all. Needing Di Caprio’s help, they both set off in search…

THE HUNT

Di Caprio turns from hunted to hunter, knowing full well that to find the man causing all of the mayhem he will have to go headlong into the world of fanatical militants. Ferris makes a connection with the Jordanian Secret Service to enable him to get to the group he’s looking for. Hoffman puts Ferris in more uncomfortable positions than he’d want in a lifetime and on multiple occasions go’s against the Jordanian Secret Services wishes and it doesn’t end well.

A LENGTHY MOVIE

They could have cut approximately 30-40 minutes from the movie and made it so much better. It’s not Black Hawk Down or Blood Diamond, it’s somewhere in between and although very similar to The Kingdom, The Kingdom movie beats it hands down.. Russel Crowe didn’t shine and seemed to be there only to beef up the Actors list. Di Caprio played a similar role, and acted similarly to the Blood Diamond role he played.

So much more could have been done with the movie in a shorter time. It looked great from the trailers but just didn’t cut it in the end. Such a disappointment.