Rango is the latest animated feature from Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount, and it’s a bit darker than your average kid’s film.

The western-themed movie follows a pet chameleon (Johnny Depp) with no friends or life outside his tank, leading him to live out his own fantasy life, dreaming of an acting career. But after his tank is knocked off a truck on a busy highway, he ends up in a poor, dusty desert town called Dirt. After being brought to town by a fiesty female farmer named Beans (Isla Fisher), the chameleon pretends to be a western hero, dubbing himself “Rango”. Fawned upon for his supposed “deeds”, the town’s mayor (Ned Beatty) eventually appoints him sheriff, and “Rango” sets out to discover what has happened to the town’s water supply, which appears to have mysteriously dried up.

This movie is, bottom line, full of western energy. Sure, it has some values built in for children, like role models or… well, animals. But overall it has the spirit only found in a good old fashioned cowboy movie.

There have been claims that this movie is darker than most kids movies. Actually, I do agree with those claims. There is gun firing, a character hit by a car and a character drowned to death. I think the main assumption that this film rides on is that kids these days are learning more adult things earlier. I mean, maybe in 20 years time eleven year olds will be seeing slasher movies like Saw in a perfectly normal fashion! (Probably not, but still…)

Age Recommendation: This one’s tough… But I think maybe boys of 9+ will appreciate it.

Final Verdict: 8/10. Though dark, it’s still bursting with energy.

Check out the pictures from the Los Angeles premiere of Rango, courtesy of Featureflash.

It’s been a while since I saw a good modern thriller. I think my last one was Inception. But finally, I found another one in Unknown.

Unknown follows Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) who, while visiting Berlin with his wife (January Jones) for a conference, is involved in a taxi crash and goes into a coma for four days. When he awakens in the hospital to find that his wife doesn’t know he’s there he immediately returns to the hotel to find her. He finds that, not only does nobody know who he is – including his wife – but somebody else has taken his place! Trying to make sense of the situation, he finds his taxi driver, Gina (Diane Kruger), and persuades her to help him to figure out what is going on and to get his life back.

As I said, Unknown is a fun thriller that I would compare to movies such as Taken, Air Force One, and the James Bond series. But I have to say one thing – they could have used more unique techniques to go with the plot. I mean, look at Inception: A great story idea allowed them to make a visual and audible masterpiece. Unknown has a great story, but I feel that they could have milked this for more creative cinematography.

It did, however, have one of the best car chase scenes I’ve seen in movies all my life. I mean, the car runs backwards through a pedestrian zone, spins rapidly, flips over, and explodes! (Although, I question how he survived that and yet got knocked unconscious by the taxicab accident.)

Unknown is a little dark, but it is fast paced and exciting, so older kids would enjoy it. It is quite violent at points, but that is, I think, pretty over-stressed and nothing too graphic. It has some minor sexual references, but they aren’t that bad.

Age Recommendation: The movie is rated PG-13 but I feel that kids 11+ should be OK watching this. Parents may disagree, but I think that it isn’t too bad. Kids nowadays are exposed to more adult things earlier on.

Final Verdict: An enjoyable thriller, but leaves a little desired in filming. 8/10

I recently purchased Braid via the Mac App Store. Braid is a 2-D platformer focusing on time manipulation. It is available on the Mac OS, Windows, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Linux. Of all of the games I have ever played, this one was the most fascinating.

Firstly, the mechanics of Braid are mind boggling. The basic function, is that Tim, the main character, can turn back time to solve puzzles. But as the game goes on, the aspect of time twists in many ways. In one level set, some objects are introduced that can’t be reversed. In another, time moves forward when Tim goes right, backward when he goes left. In yet another, Tim drops a ring that slows everything down the closer it is to it.

Secondly, Braid has an amazing story. It starts by telling us this: Tim is trying to find the princess, who was apparently kidnapped. Simple enough. But as we delve deeper into the game, stranger things build into the story. Seriously, you could finish the game 100% and still understand very little. There are a few theories around the internets, be sure to check them out when you finish the game.

Thirdly, Braid has outstanding graphics! Just the title screen is made with several bitmap-layers that look like they were painted by hand. The levels are lined with detail, and the characters are superbly developed.

Braid is, I believe, fine for all ages, adults and children alike. The only profanity I could find is the word “bitches”, and that was used within a famous quote.

Note: Braid has a secondary ending. To get the second, the player has to find all of the stars (the most difficult thing I’ve ever tried to do in gaming). However, this is impossible after the World 3 puzzle is completed. You need to get the star in the overworld, which can’t be obtained once specific pieces are joined.

Age Recommendation: It’s a puzzle game, so I think that kids 8+ would enjoy it. Then again, what do I know?

Final Verdict: Wow. This is a definite 10/10.

I’m half British. Actually, I sometimes feel more British than American. Most of the television I watch and enjoy is British. I can sometimes be more up-to-date on British news than local news. But listen to me as I tell you, it doesn’t take a Brit to love The King’s Speech.

Colin Firth stars as the awkward Prince Albert, or Bertie, who suddenly becomes king when his big brother King Edward VIII abdicates the throne to marry the divorced American Wallis Simpson.

However, Bertie/King George VI has a problem. Being King, he’s in a position where he has to speak in public. A lot. The only thing is, he can’t speak. That is to say, he has quite a bad stutter. Now, being a victim of a slight speech impediment myself, I was reluctant to see this. But, it’s my duty, so I went. I have to say, compared to his problem, I look like I recite the phone book for a living. Back to the story, Bertie is in a pickle. No speech therapist is really helping him. Until he meets Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), a commoner from Australia. This movie is about how he helps the King overcome his issue.

The acting in this movie was very well done, as I actually felt like I was watching history. Every word, every sentence was strong, however spoken. I also have to acknowledge the screenplay, as everything seemed to be set up as to keep the movie flowing smoothly and interestingly. This movie could certainly end up nominated for, or even winning the Oscar for Best Picture.

It almost, ALMOST would be perfectly appropriate for kids in the eyes of the MPAA, but there is one big scene with a lot of swearing. The thing is, Bertie’s only swearing for purely therapeutic purposes. So if a kid is mature enough to understand that, he should be fine. Unfortunately, the stuck-ups at the MPAA are convinced that this doesn’t deserve anything below an R-rating.

Age Recommendation: I’d say 12+, maybe 11. I mean, as I said, a mature enough kid should be fine.

Final Verdict: This could very well be best picture material. I give it the full 10/10.

The story Gulliver’s Travels has been around for quite a while. It was originally written by Jonathan Swift in 1726. Since then, it has become a minor classic. Recently, a new film adaptation has been released starring Jack Black, who previously starred in The School of Rock, Tropic Thunder and King Kong, and was the voice lead in Kung Fu Panda and Shark Tale.

The book Gulliver’s Travels follows the adventures of Gulliver as he travels to very interesting places around the world. The most critically acclaimed of these was Liliput, a strange land where the people are one twelfth the size of normal humans. Another interesting place was the isle of Brobingnag, where the land is populated by giants twelve times the size of a normal human. So basically, in Liliput the scale is 1:12, and in Brobdingnag 12:1.

The new movie Gulliver’s Travels is very different from the book. Gulliver works in the mailroom of a big newspaper delivering mail to the editors in the newsroom. He tries to impress a girl, Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet), who is the travel editor at the paper. He convinces her that he can write by cutting and pasting some other travel articles. Darcy assigns him to write a story about a trip into the Bermuda Triangle. Of course, his boat is caught in a storm. He washes up in Liliput, surrounded by the little people, and meets Horatio (Jason Segel), a humble man with a crush on the princess (Emily Blunt), who is set to be married to General Edward (Chris O’Dowd). We all can guess how that’ll turn out.

One of the things that disturbed me most about the movie was that it showed the large Brobingnags as cruel, evil creatures rather than the nice people from the book. Speaking of the Brobingnags, they only appeared for a really short period, just used as a poor plot device.

There were some good special effects, particularly with the little people, and the 3D was good. I really liked some of the modern touches – the iPhone and the mock movie theatre Gulliver had constructed where the little people played out scenes from Titanic and Star Wars.

But, overall, the movie showed very little excitement in places where it was most called for. There was a sequence where Gulliver needed to escape from a giant house! Sounds exciting, right? It lasted 5 seconds, and that’s NOT an exaggeration.

Where they did try to add excitement it was extremely corny. Now, the thing about corniness in kids movies is that the filmmakers think they can get away with it. Kids like to see people dance to the tune of “War” by Edwin Starr with tiny figures! Kids like to see giants urinate on burning buildings to put them out. Most kids, that is.

So, a lot of companies decide to make a kids’ move that is corny. “Kids will love it, so we’ll get a lot of money,” they’ll say. Well, I have something to say to YOU. It’s corny filmmakers like them that make many kids’ movies look bad.

Unfortunately, although Gulliver’s Travels has some good moments, overall it just doesn’t live up to expectations.

Age Recommendation: All ages CAN watch this film, though I think that it would be preferred by those under 12.

Final Verdict: 6/10. It’s one of those lesser kids films.