Synopsis: Good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), despite being perpetually down on his luck, thinks he’s destined for something big. But even he could never have imaged how "big," when he accepts what appears to be a menial job as a graveyard-shift security guard at a museum of natural history. During Larry’s watch, extraordinary things begin to occur: Mayans, Roman Gladiators, and cowboys emerge from their diorama to wage epic battles; in his quest for fire, a Neanderthal burns down his own display; Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher) pillages his neighboring exhibits, and a T-Rex reminds everyone why he’s history’s fiercest predator. Amidst the chaos, the only person Larry can turn to for advice is a wax figure of President Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), who helps our hero harness the bedlam, stop a nefarious plot, and save the museum.

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Conclusion: Great kids movie (I really enjoyed it!), nice story that parents tell kids – "At night all the creatures and people in the museum come to life.." I know I’ve certainly heard it before.. Go see it, watch out for it on DVD.

Synopsis: So now we know what little Christopher Paolini was doing with his time while he was supposedly being home-schooled, and writing the "Inheritance" fantasy novel trilogy.

Eragon, the film based on Mr. Paolini’s precocious fantasy novel, is about a boy fulfilling his destiny, an inscrutable mentor, a daring dungeon rescue of a fair maiden, a big battle between the "rebel" forces of good and those of the Dark Lord.

The kid’s got to fly a dragon into battle to save humanity. No biggie.

Eragon introduces handsome young Ed Speleers as Eragon, a boy abandoned by his parents, left behind by his older, hunkier cousin who flees the army recruiters (foreshadowing, foreshadowing). Then, this huge magical jellybean falls into Eragon’s hands, and next thing you know, a cuddly little dragon hatches.

A mentor (Jeremy Irons) arrives. Even though the lad is "one part fool, to three parts brave," he trains him. For a day or so.

But the dragon grows up so fast! They all do. And she (who has the voice of Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz) and Eragon set off on a quest to meet the Varden, led by Djimon Hounsou, where they’ll help battle evil king John Malkovich and his sadistic sorcerer henchman, Robert Carlyle ( Trainspotting).

It’s a mash-up, to be sure, with elves, or at least elvish language, ogres, shape-shifting wizards and Black Riders. Only they don’t have horses.

All looking for Princess Leia and the One Ring of Power. Or not.

The movie plays like a script written by a teenager, a smorgasbord of fantasy plot points, character types and brawls. The experienced actors earn the big bucks just for keeping straight faces.

It’s all quite silly, but with sharp production values (director Stefen Fangmeir comes from the visual effects department) and lovely, under-utilized Hungarian locations.

Not the worst dragon movie ever. Not whilst Dragonheart hangs heavy on the memory. But chalk this one up as strictly for kids, home-schooled or not.

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Conclusion: Yes, it was ok – it was a bit slow, and not a lot of direction. There were some good fight scenes, but not enough to keep me interested. One thing that did grate on me was this suposed farm boy with a perfect "upper class" accent – very strange.. Lets hope the other parts of this trilogy are a little better.

Synposis: You could be forgiven for thinking that Denzel Washington actually is a cop, given the amount of times he seems to play one on screen. To be fair, he manages to put a reasonably fresh spin on each new character, here replacing the sarcasm from Inside Man with a sort of jovial efficiency.

This time around he’s an ATF agent investigating an explosion on a New Orleans ferry that killed 500 people. When the body of a young woman washes up full of clues it forms the basis of his search and leads him to a government agency led by Kilmer who have developed technology that allows them to look exactly 4 days, 6 hours into the past (no, really). They can go to any location within a certain radius, round corners and through walls, allowing them to search for clues and identify the bomber. But what if the contraption can be used to go back and actually stop the event from ever happening?

More talk than walk, Deja Vu is a really rather pedestrian police procedural dressed up as high concept sci-fi. Action scenes are surprisingly thin on the ground, limited to a couple of car chases and a couple of shoot-outs. And, like any time paradox thriller, what the filmmakers seem to get away with on the surface will ultimately cause your brain to fold in on itself if you think about it too much. This leaves Deja Vu as far too silly to take seriously and far too serious to be any fun.

Still, Tony Scott at least seems to have temporarily regained the ability to direct a film like a normal person. Perversely though, a bit of his usual hi-jinks is maybe just what Deja Vu is lacking. The trailer kind of hints at flashiness and events repeating themselves, but it’s played straight as a die and is unfortunately all the duller for it. Washington’s presence does manage to elevate it to a cut above but, in all honesty, without him it could just as easily be a piece of DTV hokum with Christopher Lambert or Mario Van Peebles.

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Conclusion: Interesting concept, but I’m sure I’ve seen something like this before – it dragged a bit, and I’m not sure it would be for everyone – rent it, don’t buy it.

more to follow…