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Ghost

This movie is kind of a horror film, but that’s not how I’d define it. It’s more of a touching story of a man in limbo who is trying to protect his former girlfriend from a murderer. Ghost stars Patrick Swayze as Sam Wheat, a man who was mugged and killed. A regular, random mugging. Or was it?

Again, this isn’t as much of a horror film as it is a drama-romance. There’s even a little comedy thrown in from Whoopi Goldberg, as a fraud spiritualist who can hear Sam. In fact, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Bruce Joel Rubin, the screenwriter, won Best Screenplay as well, and take it from me, he deserved it.

Now, this isn’t without its horror aspects. There is a fair bit of blood at certain points with corpses, and several quite gruesome deaths. I hope that you aren’t too squeamish about that. Not much pops out at you, though. And if you’re a really little kid, parts of this with shadowy demons could give you horrific nightmares. But it’s really a good film, and I hope these things don’t turn you off of it.

The good thing about films like this and The Sixth Sense is that they are, in a sense, disturbing at points, but they are more for a good, touching story than for a scary, slasher movie.

Age Recommendation: 13+, as it’s few bloody scenes are, indeed, quite bloody.

Final Verdict: This movie had a touching, intriguing story, but lacked subtlety in it’s violence. Still, 8/10.

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Diary of A Wimpy Kid (Movie)

Click to buy the DVD on Amazon

Okay, let’s review a kids movie for once! Diary of a Wimpy Kid, as most of you know, is a book by Jeff Kinney about a kid, Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon), written from his perspective as he goes through middle school. The book was written in the form of a journal, and contained doodles of a cartoonish style.

But we’re not here for the book. The recent film adaption, just released on DVD was, for the most part, true to the book. Of course, the book itself was mainly just everyday life, so there were plenty of storylines that didn’t make it into the movie, but what was there usually stuck to the story. I mean, they even stuck three hairs of the main character up, if you look closely! Yet it was… different. I mean, characters were cut, and one was completely added!

Jeff’s doodles (or his doodle style) were incorporated into the film as short animations, but they weren’t too often and really were just transitions. Maybe the whole film should have been animated. That would make the artists strive to keep to the story 98%… But the whole point of Diary of a Wimpy Kid is that it’s a diary. A kid was supposed to have wrote it, a kid with a life outside it. Really, the doodles were just Greg’s projections of his life. With live action, it’s not all about his diary… It’s filming his life, not his projections.

Just one thing I have to say… If you can only read the book or the movie, then for goodness sake just pick the book. You’ll enjoy it more.

Age Recommendation: Any, really. It’s a kids film. Young kids may not comprehend it, but it is appropriate for them.

Final Verdict: The film was good for an adaptation, but it left something to be desired… 5/10

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The Bucket List

Click to buy the DVD on Amazon

The film that I’m going to talk about now is both a drama and a comedy. The Bucket List (2007) is a film about two middle aged men, a smart, modest man named Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) and a shallow billionaire named Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) that are near death due to cancer. They decide to write and follow a “Bucket List”, or a list of things they wanted to do before they, well, kick the bucket. This film is quite funny, yet is sad and lingers with the theme of death. This isn’t to say it’s a horror film, but it may be unsettling to small children.

There is a bit of swearing, and some very light sexual references, but no visuals. There is a tiny bit of blood, but it’s very rare. All around, this is a pretty clean film. Or maybe a film that fell in the sand and was mostly dusted off. In short, the references and swearing aren’t that big a deal and might just fly over the heads of younger viewers.

I admire how this motion picture approaches death with humor, and gives off the message to make the most of your life. There is an interesting fact featured in the film: 96% of people don’t want to know when they’ll die. How do you feel about that? Post an answer and a reason in the comments!

Age Recommendation: I give this 9+ because the theme of death may disturb some.

Final Verdict: An enjoyable family film, and one you should invite the grandparents for! 8/10

The movie stars Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson and was directed by Rob Reiner. Check out the pictures from the Hollywood premiere of The Bucket List.

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The Sixth Sense

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There is a large downside to being very young, and that is what we’ve missed. There are tons of wonderful classic movies out there that kids might not even know about. Hence I am introducing a by-product of these reviews: Introducing kids to amazing movies released 10 or 20 years ago. Today I am (appropriately, being Friday the 13th,) showing you kids out there and reminding you parents of a horror film called The Sixth Sense. Being a classic, this movie was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Haley Joel Osment.

The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, like all other horror movies, tries to scare the audience. But it is not a slasher movie with blood and guts everywhere, no, far from it. The story told by The Sixth Sense is that of a children’s psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) whom, after learning that a boy he had attempted to help years ago had not turned out at all cured in the long run, tries to assist a child (Haley Joel Osment) who claims to be able to see the dead, “Walking around like regular people. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re dead.”

The movie is scary, with ghosts and such, but I disagree with “Common Sense Media.com”, which claims that it can be “…sometimes scarier than R-rated horror.” No way. Maybe in themes, but it’s nothing compared to the slasher movies of today. The kind of fear it manipulates is similar to that of Alfred Hitchcock. For those of you who don’t know, Hitchcock was a director who famously used the camera to scare people in his films, such as his famous pictures Psycho and The Birds.

The most memorable thing about The Sixth Sense is it’s famous surprise ending. (Don’t read up on it!) You can figure it out if you look closely at the film and find the clues.

Age Recommendation: 12+ for it’s horror aspects. But if you/your child is mature enough, then go for it. Just proceed with caution.

Final Verdict: A fun film that definitely should be seen by mature tweens. 7/10

(Note: This is a good choice for a first horror film. If not this, I recommend The Birds.)

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Inception

I recently saw Inception, which turned out to be one of, if not the best thriller(s) I’ve seen so far.

The plot of Inception revolves around a group of experts in the field of going into people’s dreams and extracting information. They are assigned to enter a late business owner’s heir’s dream and convince him to break up his empire. I can’t speak for everybody, but for me, the best part of this film was that it was so complex. In order to understand it, you need to listen to everything and keep your mind everywhere at once. This could lead to watching the film again, just to understand certain parts. I predict a best-selling DVD…

Not much of this film really tries to surprise the audience, as this isn’t a Hitchcock film. There is quite a lot of violence, and some mild blood, but nothing too gory. (James Bond-ish) There is also a little swearing, but still, they’re just mild exclamations.

One personal debate for me is whether or not this should have been 3D. All of the effects would make for a pretty good experience, but 3D has a way of messing with the mind… One may not be able to concentrate on understanding the situations.

Age Recommendation: Any tween can see this film, so long as they are mature enough to focus on and (try to) understand it.

Final Verdict: Definitely worth seeing. 9/10

The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Wananabe and Marion Cotillard. It was written and directed by Christopher Nolan – director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Check out the pictures from the Hollywood premiere.

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Cave Story

The main character, “Quote”, searches for a key in the Grasslands.

For my first game review, I am not going to talk about an all new, widely known game. The game I’m here to discuss today is a much lesser known game called Cave Story.

Cave Story is about a former armed robot scout who lost his memory and finds himself in a cave on a floating island. As the story progresses, he sets out on a quest to defeat (or escape from) the Doctor, who is kidnapping many creatures called Mimigas to use as weapons against the rest of the world.

The game itself can go many ways, and has three different endings. The original game was for  Microsoft Windows, but since then it has been ported for free to the Mac, the PSP, the GP2X, the XBOX, Linux, and even a Texas Instruments graphing calculator! There is also a version for WiiWare, for 1200 Wii Points. (i.e. about $12.00.) That’s about half a boxed game, and you get a pretty fun time. Still, on the other platforms, the game is free and much the same.

But of course, the new WiiWare edition comes with it’s perks. There are new character designs, a new English localization, better graphics/music, and the option to play as Curly Brace, another character from the game. It also has it’s exclusive modes, like a Boss Endurance mode. Hey, it’s better than buying a box game.

Age Recommendation: I’d say 8+, but it can get intense at certain points.

Final Verdict: When it comes to freeware games, this is the best I’ve seen. Even for WiiWare, it’s still a cheap, fun experience. 9/10

(You can download the game and it’s ports here, but be aware that you will have to install a translation patch as well. Unless you speak Japanese.)

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