Genres: Documentary | Family

Directors: Sarah Robertson

Country: USA

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Arctic Tale offers the story of life north of the Arctic circle. As you might expect, life in the Arctic ain’t easy, even for native creatures.

This documentary chronicles the lives of two youngsters in one of the coldest places on Earth. Watch as Seela the walrus and Nanu the polar bear grow from newborns to teenagers and what it takes to survive in an environment that’s rapidly shrinking thanks to climate change.

Created by National Geographic, rest assured you’re getting the unvarnished truth in Arctic Tale, so what it lacks in dramatic writing in the narration it makes up for with a realistic look at how tough these animals actually have it.

Nevertheless, Arctic Tale is a kid-friendly, non-preachy window on the north as a place of wonder and a harbinger of change.

By focusing on Nanu, a polar bear, and Seela, a walrus, Robertson and Ravetch have made the doom-and-gloom global warming discussion that much more approachable for children. It’s equally potent for grown-ups, too: The inconvenient truth is made more inconvenient by seeing how it affects Arctic wildlife.

Genres: Comedy | Drama | Romance

Actors: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Chris Evans, Donna Murphy, Alicia Keys, Nicholas Art, Nathan Corddry, Cady Huffman, Brande Roderick, Nina Garbiras, Judith Roberts, Alison Wright, Heather Simms, Sakina Jaffrey

Directors: Shari Springer Berman

Country: USA

Plot: A college graduate goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family. Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge.

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Somewhere between Mary Poppins and Sex and the City lies The Nanny Diaries, an adaptation of Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’ sordid, cynical best seller that is able to coast on its working-grrl attitude and a couple of intelligent casting decisions.

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It’s nice to see Scarlett Johansson outside of Woody Allen’s clutches. Here she showcases her rarely exercised knack for self-deprecating physical comedy as Annie Braddock, titular babysitter and recent college graduate who postpones her inevitable plunge into the rat race by accepting a nanny position at the posh Upper East Side residence of snippy Mrs. X (Laura Linney, fabulous in the role).

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The dream job quickly turns nightmarish, though. Rumors that the last nanny received her walking papers after indulging in one date prevent Annie from pursuing the Harvard Hottie (Chris Evans) who lives upstairs. Meanwhile, the elusive Mr. X (Paul Giamatti) fills his calendar with business meetings — code for girlfriends he keeps on the side. And the self-absorbed parents have no connection with Annie’s charge, Grayer (Nicholas Art), a child of aristocracy pressured to behave like anything but a kid.

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One nagging problem of Nanny, however, is that Johansson can’t create much of a connection with young Art either, and too much of the story hinges on Annie’s concern for Grayer’s well-being. There are handfuls of times we half expect this put-upon pseudo-parent to tell the X factors they can take their job and shove it. She doesn’t, and we immediately question why. The part of Grayer requires more sympathy than Art - or Johansson, by extension - can muster.

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What Nanny can do is punch holes through the stuffiness of Manhattan’s upper crust. The script records smart commentaries on New York’s social caste system, finding ways to categorize the unique borough’s residents without digging too deep beneath the shallow surfaces. Yet even here, the movie oversteps its firm footing. During an impossibly impromptu dinner disaster, Annie demands Grayer try a peanut-butter-and-jelly concoction that, even after a lifetime of Grey Poupon, goes down smoothly. I was surprised to learn such a product existed. I was even more shocked that co-directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini would mistakenly believe the Xs would have it in their pantry in the first place.

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But the movie stays in its exclusive comfort zone for the most part, safely arriving at its stated bottom line: that those without money are equal to something a pampered pet would leave under a tree in Central Park. Don’t worry, though. The nanny will pick that up.

By Sean O’Connell for Filmcritic.com

Genres: Comedy | Family

Actors: Maxwell Perry Cotton, Robert Wagner, Kim Schraner, George Newbern, Louise Fletcher, China Anne McClain, Heidi Hayes, Jake Beale, Isaac Durnford, Marie Matiko, Richard Dumont, Jack Noseworthy, Matthew Comeau, Godfrey, Michael Lerner

Directors: Ron Oliver

Country: Canada, USA

Plot: Dennis Christmas is a Dennis The Menace version of A Christmas Carol where Mr. Wilson plays his own version of Scrooge. While Dennis has problems of his own with the neighborhood bully, he does his best to try and give Mr. Wilson the Christmas Spirit. Dennis causes his usual damage and Mr. Wilson ends up breaking Dennis’ spirit. An Angel of Christmas Past Present and Future steps in to help save Christmas for the Mitchells, the Wilsons, and everyone else.

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For many, Dennis Mitchell (Dennis the menace) is an entertaining Sunday comic, or a special comic book that was read and giggled over during childhood.  Kids are horrified and delighted at all the trouble Dennis creates, and parents think to themselves, thank goodness my kids aren’t like that.  A Dennis The Menace Christmas brings some of those wild adventures to screen for the holidays in a colorful presentation.

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The current Dennis film is set in the present, with things identifiable to the 21st century audience, such as computers and online shopping, cool bikes and the parents of spirited children support group.  Dennis is still a well meaning if misguided youngster, played very well by Maxwell Cotton Perry, who at the time of the filming was actually only six years old.

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Much of the action is jarring to the adult nerves, but wasn’t it ever so in Dennis stories?  Children will writhe in agony at Dennis’s disasters.  But the spirit of  Christmas wins the day, with the help of an angel played by Godfrey.

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The Wilsons played by Robert Wagner and Louise Fletcher are exactly the way you would want them to be, and Henry and Alice Mitchell, Dennis’s long suffering parents are strong in their belief that their son is not bad, just “spirited” and their love for him is evident.

Review from M&C

Genres: Thriller

Actors: Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry, Scott G. Anderson,  Mark Casella, David Doty, Norm Compton, Caryn Mower, Meegan Godfrey, Kym Stys, Andrew Fiscella, Dale Waddington Horowitz, Ernest Misko, Bryan Ross

Directors: Nimrod Antal

Country: USA

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Vacancy is a schlock surprise: a no-frills motel-hell slasher film - with a bit of soul. It’s proof that when characters are under attack by anonymous masked goons, it really is better if the victims aren’t just walking slabs of starlet meat. Luke Wilson, with his hangdog defensive mopiness, and Kate Beckinsale, all sexy severity, are ideally matched as a couple who hate each other. They’re David and Amy Fox, soon to be divorced, who find themselves stranded on an anonymous highway in the middle of the night, picking away at each other’s emotional scabs. Their tit-for-tat squabbling is itchy and funny, especially compared with the usual teen-horror-film jabber.

When these two wander into the Pinewood Motel, a roadside relic that looks as if it hasn’t been housecleaned since the late 1970s, it’s obvious that Vacancy is going to be an homage to the granddaddy of all psycho thrillers. It also looks like a comic nightmare set in the Twilight Zone. The motel’s manager (Frank Whaley) is a geek in a sardine mustache and aviator frames who emerges from an office, where he’s watching what sounds like torture porn. He’s a gloss on Norman Bates, but Whaley, all passive-aggressive frowns, plays this odd-duck creep with what might be called understated overstatement. The whole movie is like that: It’s grind-house trash done with style. (It’s also a tidy 80 minutes.)

When David and Amy get inside their motel room, it’s a squalid dump, but the rotting decor, which looks like early Brady Bunch house meets Saw, is so colorfully grubby there’s suspense lurking in every diseased nook and cranny. Before long, the two are being terrorized by ferocious knocks on the door, and when David discovers a pile of dusty videotapes, the torture and murder porn on them looks all too real. The creepy part is, the tapes were shot in that same motel room. Vacancy’s director, Nimrod Antal, made the technically impressive but turgid 2004 Hungarian subway drama Kontroll, but this time he gives every scene a spin of finesse. David and Amy have to crawl through a rat-infested tunnel and use a car as a weapon, but though the action is sometimes over-the-top, the staging never is. That’s why Vacancy is truly scary. It’s also undeniably a formula flick: Once you figure out where the movie is going, it never once veers off its sadistic, don’t-peek-behind-the-shower-curtain course. But this is one fear ride that almost gets you to care.

By Owen Gleiberman for EW.com

Genres: Animation | Comedy | Family

Actors: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, Julius Callahan, James Remar, John Ratzenberger, Teddy Newton, Tony Fucile, Jake Steinfeld, Brad Bird

Directors: Brad Bird

Country: USA

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Ratatouille is the best movie I’ve seen this year.  Granted, we’re talking about the year of the threequels, where the only films opening to good reviews were The Simpsons movie that was a decade too late, a fourth Die Hard film and a tolerable Michael Bay film based on a toy franchise cartoon.  However, even in a year where expectations were higher, Ratatouille would be the top of the pack.

The plot is a simple one: a rat with a gift for cooking and a lowly wannabe cook team up to pass themselves off as a world-class chef.  One has the skills but is reviled, the other has the presence but needs guidance.  That’s right, it’s the Cyrano de Bergerac plot again…but it’s all in the execution, and that’s where Brad Bird fires on all cylinders again.

Brad Bird, of course, is three for three.  The Iron Giant didn’t do well at the box office due to a mediocre promotional campaign, but it is still a cult (and personal) favorite.  The Incredibles needs no superlatives for the Monitor Duty crowd; you all know it is hands-down one of the best superhero movies ever made and one that is eminently re-watchable.

However, Ratatouille outshines them both, with greater fine tuning of expression and a more down-to-Earth "human" drama.  No giant robots or destroyed buildings; intense dramatic moments are wrung out of a food critic’s decision or a scheming head chef’s conniving to control a frozen food empire.  Brad takes something as impossible to communicate via film as the taste of fine cuisine and he manages to make it work; there are even moments seemingly borrowed from Fantasia where Remy discusses food while scribbly visuals evoke the aroma he envisions.  Bird’s gift for manic comedy that was first displayed in "Family Dog" really shines here, as the seven inch rat Remy struggles to stay alive in the flurry of activity in a busy kitchen.

Remy the Rat is also something of a new experiment.  Although he talks to himself, his fellow rats and his imaginary friend in flawless English (with the voice of geek fave comic Patton Oswalt), he cannot actually talk to humans.  His thoughts are communicated entirely by expression and gesture.  What’s more, he isn’t an anthropomorphized cartoon character.  He moves like a rat.  He has the anxious eyes and rapid heartbeat of a rat.  And yet he’s adorable.

By Michael Hutchison

DVD Release Date: 5 October 2007

Genres: Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Actors: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Shaobo Qin, Don Cheadle, Eddie Jemison, Andy Garcia, Scott L. Schwartz, Carl Reiner

Directors: Steven Soderbergh

Country: USA

Plot: Danny Ocean’s team of criminals are back and are composing a plan more personal than ever. When ruthless casino owner Willy Bank double-crosses Reuben Tishkoff, causing a heart attack, Danny Ocean vows that him and his team will do anything to bring Willy Bank and everything he’s got down. Even if it includes hiring help from one of their own enemies, Terry Benedict.

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Hollywood.com Says:
"Third time’s a charm. Ocean’s Thirteen outshines the second installment, offering that certain breezy fun the original provided. Those cutie pies just work better in Vegas."

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This is more like it. Leaving the smug self-congratulation of Twelve far behind, Ocean’s Thirteen is a stylish, breezy confection that, from first to (almost) last, is all about the con instead of the Hollywood royalty doing the conning, its eventual lapses into self-awareness forgivable for being more playful than egotistical.

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The specifics of the plotting are both too dense and quite frankly, ludicrous, to go into in detail, but it goes something like this: big time Vegas hotel owner Willy Bank (Pacino) reneges on a deal with Reuben (Gould, who all but steals the film with an absolutely delightful Godfather joke) to partner him in a new casino, leaving Reuben broke and nearly dead. Ocean (Clooney) and the boys (Pitt, Damon, et al) vow revenge on Bank by coming up with several hi-tech schemes to win so big on opening night that Bank will be ruined. An added complication arises when the one person able to finance their plan, old foe Terry Benedict (Garcia), will only do it if the boys steal some diamonds from Bank’s impregnable penthouse while they’re at it. And why is Vincent Cassel’s Toulour, the bad guy from Twelve, hanging around the hotel?

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Actually, it’s quite a straightforward setup really, but the joy of the film lies in the way the intricacies of the scams are revealed, in the smooth byplay between the supremely talented players, and in Soderbergh’s now finely polished direction. Though the zip and flair is back, the style quotient hasn’t been sacrificed to accommodate it, with some glorious camera work and beautiful aesthetics on top of the fun all coming together to make Ocean’s Thirteen probably the strongest of the trilogy.

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Almost everyone returns from the first two outings, the only dropouts being Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones, neither of them particularly missed. As ever, such a large crew means casualties (Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner and Shaobo Qin barely merit showing up), especially with the inclusion of three new characters (Pacino, plus Barkin as his assistant and David Paymer as an unfortunate hotel inspector). Damon gets some decent screen time and laughs, while Casey Affleck and Scott Caan probably score the biggest yucks as the dopey, scrapping Malloy brothers. Truth be told, even Clooney and Pitt have very little to do other than stand around in sharp jackets or wear silly disguises, but that they do it with such exquisite, effortless cool is just the reason why we joined the game in the first place.

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By Paul Greenwood for Future Movies

Genres: Drama

Actors: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, Donald Sutherland, Robert Klein, Melinda Dillon, Mike Binder, Jonathan Banks, Rae Allen, Paula Newsome, John de Lancie, Paul Butler, Camille LaChe Smith.

Directors: Mike Binder

Country: USA

Download "Reign Over Me": DivX ($2.99), iPod ($1.99)

Alan Johnson has everything he needs to get through life: a good job, a beautiful and loving wife, and their wonderful children. Yet he feels isolated because he finds having a hard-working job and managing a family too much to handle and has no one to talk to about it. Charlie Fineman, on the other hand, doesn’t have a job or a family. He used to have both until he lost his family on the fateful day of 9/11, and the grief he felt caused him to quit his job and isolate himself from everyone around him. As it turns out, Alan and Charlie were roommates in college, and a chance encounter one night rekindles the friendship they shared. They soon feel that their friendship is the one thing that allows them to forget about their problems.

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"Reign over me" shows Adam Sandler in slightly different angle. While his character (Charlie Fineman) is sort of a combination of "Punch-Drunk Love", "Big Daddy" and "Mr.Deeds", it reveals a new inner perception of the world around him. In the movie Charlie "pairs up" with a successful dentist, his former college roommate, Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle), which creates a bridge between Charlie’s insularity and Alan’s overall life unhappiness. During the movie Alan is trying to help Charlie get through an awful tragedy that lives inside Charlie’s mind and soaked with his whole essence. By helping him, Alan comes to realize that Charlie, in spite of his problems has something that such successful dentist as himself does not have - Charlie is free!

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Movie is witty, funny and very sad at the same time. It has this unbelievable power, when you’re watching it, you know it is long, but every 5 minutes, closer to the end, you are alert and constantly worried that it is going to end, when you really want it to be "just a little longer".

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So how do you know if your site is legal or illegal? For the most part a site that offers legal downloads will be professionally done and, while there are some free ones out there, for the most part they will have a free - after all you really do get what you pay for! Try to find out about the company that runs the site - if it is a large US company then chances are the downloads are legal. That’s not to say that small offshore companies are illegal.

When using a site that has legal movie downloads, you can expect the navigation to be easy to use and the downloads to be of good quality. Payments options may range from monthly to yearly, buy the movie or burn it to DVD. You might even be able to find some free movies as a little perk. The free ones probably won’t be a mainstream movie, but sometimes some of these made by independents or smaller studios can be interesting to see.

Some movie download sites let you burn a movie to DVD. This is the most expensive solutions but you will get the highest quality image and you get to keep the DVD and watch it over and over again.

All in all, it’s best to stick to sites that offer legal movie downloads. You’ll get better quality and won’t be at risk of prosecution. Also, the illegal sites are often loaded with viruses and spy ware, whereas the legal ones will give you a clean download with no threat to your computer.

One of my favourite websites of legal movie downloading is IWatchFilm movie library, that provide:

1. Instant Full-Length Downloads without asked to download or install any additional software.
2. DVD quality movies along with widely used "DivX" version.
3. Special "PDA edition" for watching movies on your iPod.
4. Burn movies you download to a CD or DVD.

IWatchFilm movie library is the best way to get your favourite movies legally.

Genres: Action | Adventure | Comedy

Actors: Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy, Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Durand, M.C. Gainey, Jill Hennessy, Dominic Janes, Tichina Arnold, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jason Sklar, Randy Sklar, Drew Sidora

Directors: Walt Becker

Country: USA

Plot: Four middle-aged men decide to take a road trip from Cincinnati to the Pacific in order to get away from their lives which are leading them nowhere. Taking their motorcycles, these “Wild Hogs” tear up the road and eventually stop in New Mexico for a drink not knowing that the bar belongs to the “Del Fuegos”, a mean biker gang. When the Del Fuegos steal a bike that belongs to the Wild Hogs, the four men form a plan to steal their bike back.

Download “Wild Hogs”: DivX ($2.99), iPod ($1.99)

The Movie is about four culturally different middle aged men looking for an exciting adventure in their mundane lives. The only thing they have in common is their adoration for Harley Davidson bikes.

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Woody (John Travolta) wants to leave his troubles behind in the city, Bobby (Martin Lawrence) wants to do everything else besides his disgusting plumbing job, while Doug (Tim Allen) wants to find his old self to impress his son, & Dudley (William H.Macy) was happy to do anything as long as he could connect to internet Wifi “hotspots” during the trip.

Their journey across America began when the four of them wantonly agreed to discard their mobile phones & GPS gadgets altogether. It was Woody’s idea to be fully disconnected from anything that could come between them & their perceived freedom of the open road, traveling by motorcycles towards the west coast. In short, Woody proposed to make the “Wild Hogs” into a real biker gang from their road trip experience.

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They camped, rode, rested, ate, stopped, drank etc however & whenever they wanted to without being constrained by any kind of schedule. Everything seemed jolly & hilarious when the Wild Hogs gang was mistaken for a group of “spooning” homosexuals by a “gay” cop.

Things then took a fast turn when they stumbled upon the notorious Del Fuegos “real deal” biker gang. Dudley gets his bike swindled from him by Jack (Ray Liotta), the leader of the Del Fuegos biker gang. Woody, dissatisfied with the situation, stealthily attempted to regain possession of Dudley’s bike. In the process, he cuts the gas lines of some of the Del Fuegos gang member’s motorcycles. Unfortunately for the Wild Hogs members, the Del Fuegos’s bar exploded into a great ball of fire as an end result of his naughty revenge.

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In a hurry, Woody rushed his friends forward. In the hustle, they missed the last fuel stop. Soon after, the Wild Hogs members had to push their bikes towards what seemed like an unsure destiny for them. Just when they thought they were probably going to die on the open road in the middle of the dessert, they then found a small town named Madrid.

The Del Fuegos gang, bent on revenge, threatened to burn down Dudley’s girlfriend’s (Marisa Tomei) diner as retribution for their own diner getting destroyed by the Wild Hogs. They demanded that the Wild Hogs pay them $50,000 to settle the problem.

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All ends well as the true leader of the Del Fuegos gang, showed up in the nick of time & prevented Jack from further hurting the Wild Hogs team members. The true leader of the Del Fuegos biker gang insured the burnt down bar for twice what it was worth. In fact, the Wild Hogs gang actually did the Del Fuegos’s true leader a favor.

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It seemed that the movie revolved around the promotion of Harley Davidson Motorcycles. The quality of the star studded cast actually helped make the marketing campaign subtle & well blended into the storyline without making the movie seem like a very long Harley Davidson Motorcycles advertisement. Fans of high quality comedy movies should not miss watching the Wild Hogs.

Genres: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Actors: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, J.K. Simmons, Rosemary Harris, James Cromwell, Theresa Russell, Dylan Baker, Bill Nunn, Bruce Campbell, Cliff Robertson, Elizabeth Banks

Directors: Sam Raimi

Country: USA

Plot Summary: Spider-Man returns in Sam Raimi’s blockbuster finale to the Spider-Man trilogy. Having finally achieved balance between his regular life with Mary Jane and his superhero alter-ego, Peter Parker/Spider-Man thinks he finally has it made. But dark changes are on the horizon. His former friend Harry has become the New Goblin to hunt Peter down. The case regarding his Uncle Ben has been reopened and new evidence points to Flint Marko, who has recently become the Sandman, as the true killer.

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Peter Parker has finally found the balance he’s longed for between his love for Mary Jane Watson and his responsibilities as Spider-Man.

The city of New York and it’s citizens are at last coming around and appreciating everything he has done as his crime-fighting alter ego, and Peter is in the running for a staff job at the Daily Bugle.

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However, everything Peter has worked for is about to unravel. Flint Marko, while fleeing prison, is caught in an accident that displaces molecules and is transformed into the Sandman, a new super villain who is able to change his body into any shape of sand he sees fit.

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When Peter learns of a connection between The Sandman and the murder of his Uncle Ben, he will stop at nothing as Spider-Man to capture him. But before Peter can do so he discovers a mysterious black substance has turned his suit black, and has brought forth a darker side of Parker and Spidey nobody has seen before.

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Peter begins to give into this new dark personality, starts to abandon the ones he loves the most and in turn his best friend Harry Osborn takes up his late father’s mantle as The New Goblin. Quickly Parker begins a new romance with his lab partner, the beautiful Gwen Stacy but in doing so Peter sets off a rival Bugle photographer, a troubled young man by the name of Eddie Brock who is obsessed with Stacy. Little does Peter know the black substance has its sights set on Eddie else as well. Turning Brock into Venom, a foe that mirrors everything Spider-Man can do. Forcing Peter to become the strong-willed hero he has forgotten about if he hopes to defeat his greatest threat yet.

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Peter Parker has finally managed to piece together the once-broken parts of his life, maintaining a balance between his relationship with Mary-Jane and his responsibility as Spider-Man. But more challenges arise for our young hero.

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Peter’s old friend Harry Osborn has set out for revenge against Peter; taking up the mantle of his late father’s persona as The New Goblin, and Peter must also capture Uncle Ben’s real killer, Flint Marko, who has been transformed into his toughest foe yet, the Sandman. All hope seems lost when suddenly Peter’s suit turns jet-black and greatly amplifies his powers. But it also begins to greatly amplify the much darker qualities of Peter’s personality that he begins to lose himself to. Peter has to reach deep inside himself to free the compassionate hero he used to be if he is to ever conquer the darkness within and face not only his greatest enemies, but also…himself.