Leeds United Prediction League

The are certain rules one must abide by in order to successfully write a good and interesting review of a “Scream” film :

1) It cannot be filled all the cliches that everyone uses when talking about Scream…so that’s none of the “redefined the genre” or “made horror cool”…leave all those up to The Sun’s review pages.

2) You cannot and must not ever reveal too much about who the killer is.

3) and last but by no means least, you cannot ever make lists like the ones made by Randy in order to list “the rules”…

And so, Scream 4 hit cinemas recently. It’s been 11 years since we were last in the cinematic presence of Ghost-face and it’s been quite a wait. The story seemed all wrapped up. We’d been from the boyfriend Billy and pal Stu on the rampage for revenge against Sidney for her mother and his father, through to Billy’s mum helped by Sidney’s schoolfriend on a revenge hunt for her killing killer Billy, and finally to Sidney’s long lost brother, the mastermind behind everything from day one…so where could the franchise possibly end up?

Well fast forward to today and Sidney returns to Woodsboro on the anniversary of the original film’s events and you just know things ain’t going to turn out too well. Deputy Dewey has now been promoted to Sheriff Dewey, in charge of the Woodsboro police department. He is now also married to Gail Weathers, in and odd twist of life/art being awkward following the fact that David Arquette and Courtney Cox were going through a real life divorce whilst filming this film.

Gail is the jealous type, and has a vendetta against cute blonde Officer Hicks who seems to be showing Dewey too much attention lately. But could that lead to murder?

After a couple of girls are brutally murdered (following a really clever and funny scene involving the latest “Stab” films) and the evidence turns up in Sidney’s rental car, our triple-movie heroine is told she is unable to leave Woodsboro whilst the investigation takes place…and the ride then begins.

Plenty of new characters are introduced, including the two movie geeks (well, there has to be someone to point out the rules), and the women they are lusting after, one of which is played by the stunningly beautiful Hayden Panettiere. Also thrown into the mix is Sidney’s cousin Jill Roberts and her mum, Sidney’s aunt who Sidney moves in with whilst under investigation.

The film is set up fantastically. It’s not overly scary, but there are a few jumps in there and plenty of the scenes where you can see things coming a mile off and see Ghost-face advancing from behind. It stays true to the previous films, and Wes Craven’s direction added to returning writer Kevin Williamson’s brilliant script adds up to something special again. Would you “get it” if you hadn’t seen the previous three? Probably not. Should you see if you have seen it’s predecessors? 100%

It’s fun, jumpy, spooky in parts and the final reveal and scenes are some of the best in the entire series.

Go see Ghost-face!

News broke recently that Arnold Schwarzenegger, fresh off the back of his Governor gig, is set to make his movie-comeback with a return to his most famous role as The Terminator in the fifth installment of the franchise.

The Terminator films are an institution and always arrive with a tonne of anticipation. When the new installment is released, it will be 30 years since we were first graced with the famous “I’ll be back!” line on the first leg of a journey with no beginning or end. The story loops from John Connor protecting his mum through him being protected himself by a terminator, through to judgement day, the war against the machines and eventually back to John Connor sending back Kyle Reese to protect his mum.

Ask many sic-fi fans and they will tell you that Terminator 2 was one of the greatest action films of all time.

T3 : Rise Of The Machines was a fairly decent movie in the sense that it was trying to shift a little bit more towards the comedy element that people love from T2 and away from the 18-certificate-box-office-takings-killer that it could have been.

Terminator Salvation was extremely good I thought. It was a really good way to begin exploring the post-apocalyptical world that John Connor knew and the history behind his meeting with Kyle Reese. I am very intrigued to see (because apparently they were going to make T5 AND T6) the movements in the war which lead to John Connor sending Kyle Reese back to protect his Mum as well as ultimately capturing and reprogramming the T-800 to fight on his side for sending back to protect himself (T2’s action)…and maybe even the eventual death of John Connor at the hands of an Arnie-like T-800 and the reprogramming of that exact model to go back to protect them all from the Rise Of The Machine’s aspect!

As the song goes…”If I had. Hammer, I’d hammer in the morning, i’d hammer in the evening, all over this land!”

Thor has a hammer and he knows how to use it!

The latest big-screen Marvel adaptation hit cinemas across the land this week and I had to see. Ever since spotting “Mjolnir” in the desert in Iron Man 2, Thor was definitely on my must-see list. Then came the memory of the rumour that WWE’s Triple H was originally slated to play the hero…things could have been sketchy…but up stepped Chris Hemsworth, a relatively unknown Australian actor, and all was good again.

Chuck in Kenneth Branagh in the directorial role and the always-perfect Anthony Hopkins as the pivotal Odin and everything was almost ready…then 3D pushed this movie into the stratosphere.

The 3D effects are the second best I have ever seen, beaten only by last year’s Resident Evil film, and the effects really do ramp Thor up to heady heights.

The downfall of the film however is a rather weak storyline. It’s the age-old story of two brothers, one father, a throne and a banishment. It’s been done tonnes of times and sometimes can feel a little “seen it all before” but at the same time it works really great.

Expect massive effects, rippling muscles and a few comic-book in-jokes and you won’t go far wrong.