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I bet some X-generationers are going Will who?, maybe

even Bruce who?.Sorry folks, before your time. So what have we got here, a movie with guts, a film overloaded with special effects, or an

anti authority cinema verite?

I opt for the second. While the CGI effects, are the largest, possibly the most costly, maybe the best you'll ever see on celluloid; they don't maketh a movie.

It could be argued that this piece of cinema 'eye candy' is clearly targeted at the video game chomping, web addicted under 25 year old male side of the planet.

Why we have a hacker out to save the world with a renegade half dozen team, a kind of half apostle contingent. The pseudo-religious overlay is remarkably upfront and disconnected. I.e. Morpheus= moses the prophet or Joshua or John the baptist (take your pick). Neil/Neo is of cource Christ, the resurrector, the redeemer, saviour, messiah.Half way through the film I thought, 'I bet Neil gets nailed!'

When I noticed 2/3rds into the movie they were setting up for a sequel, that's the point where it all became a huge turnoff for me. That told me marketing had highjacked the project. Crass commercialism became like the Matrix itself, out to delude us by parading before us illusion of originality while the marketing execs where really the dark 'agents' hell bent on preserving this illusion and making suckers out of all of us.



The acting, well I absolutely cringed on seeing Neil's meeting with the prophet, (is that an insert from another movie).

well how about the viewing experience... a bad Bruce Lee movie caught in a time warp. My advice see Dark World, infinitely better.

rating 4

What would you do under these circumstances: your one of a group of three individuals, 2 of you are brothers. You've just stumbled across a big bag of money in a snow-fielded forest. The money came from a downed plane, the only occupant, a pilot is dead. Do you hand it over to the authorities and claim the reward? What if there is no reward? Do you keep it and hope that nobody comes looking for it....for that you'll have to come up with a SIMPLE PLAN.

However, as soon as the plan is forged, it's broken. Before you know what's happening shame, doubt, double-dealing, murder, guilt, lying, deceit and general mayhem pile up like dead bodies smothering out integrity,family, friendship, hopes, dreams, ambitions, and not forgetting human honesty.

It's the aspect, human frailty, that drives the action along. It's the engine being stoked by human nature. Can our lucky few discoverers hold their collective heads over the possibility of splitting $4.4 million between them?

Bill Paxton plays one of the brothers, Hank Mitchell, an educated soon-to-be family man who has 'good intentions', and a 'moral compass' maybe. Paxton is married to Bridget Fonda,as Sarah, his much pregnant wife. Jacob, Hank's brother, played by Billy Bob Thornton, is almost the opposite, uneducated, boozem buddy of his friend, the town drunk, Lou played by Brent Briscoe.

Jacob, to my mind is the most interesting character of the four. What happens after they find the money changes their lives and personalities, forever. I particularly liked the way they discover the lucre. It's highly plausible, believable and could happen to anybody. I know that if a white cat passes across your sight, it's regarded as an unlucky omen, what about the lore on foxes?

This movie is a moral tale (how novel) through and through, wearing its morality on its sleeve. In fact if the screenplay were converted to a story, you could easily read it to your older children and they would understand.

Intriguing is the aspect of Jacob acting tragically on impulse and his brother Hank hiding the shocking consequences of Jacob's actions.

There are surprises galore here as the whole thing unravels. Some shocking, some predicable,some sad. Watch out foe a key clue to let the audience know that somebody other than our adventurous 'foursome' is aware of their actions. It concerns a communications device.

Finally, to commend the director's choice of little or no dramatic score. This is tragedy, Greek style. There are no heroes, only victims. 10 out of 10.

In Blackadder III, we have three main 'stable' characters.The sly, scheming, satorially suited Edmund Blackadder, butler to the Crown Prince Regent (Hugh Laurie), played with great measured sarcasm and epiphany by Rowan Atkinson.

Blackadder is forever attempting to scheme his way through elaborate con games and out of tricky,sticky situations that he invariably winds up in.

Assisting him ,and the embodiment of Murphy's Law ,is his ever 'fateful' servant Baldrick (Tony Robinson).

A man of few skills bar breathing and moving in the right direction, to which thinking is a vast 'uncharitable' territory somewhere 'out there'.When asked did he have any recollection of his mother,replies with great confidence,"No,..she died before I was born".Whose sole ambition in life is to be the top organ donor of London's elite downtrodden masses.Only to lose out to a gammy-legged pet pig called Rupert who has chronic emphysema and lives in a sodden slimy slurry pit somewhere in Tottenham.

However Blackadder refutes this story and will convince anyone willing to bet a considerable wager that the 'organ grinders' or physicians of his day have already begun the process starting with Baldrick's shrivelled brain stem and working down.

As for our third partner in this incredible triumvirate,The Prince of Wales,played with salubrious exuberance by Hugh Laurie, carries with him the genetic equivalent of a royal illness that renders him playful,and downright stark raving mad like his father George III.Unperturbed by this, and some would say unaware of this trifle detail,our Prince is happy to waver about the King's Court lording it over his loyal subjects who just happen to be Blackadder and Baldrick.

This TV series combines the considerable comic talents of Atkinson et al and the writing skills of Ben Elton(a stand up cabaret comic himself) and Richard Curtis, who between them have manage to forge a truly unforgettable comedy series of which 'The III' is but one of four series altogether and definitely my favourite.

a particularly amazing episode deals with the fate of a newly compiled dictionary of the English language by Dr. Samuel Johnson,here played wonderfully with gusto by the Scottish comedian Robbie Coltrane. Here Blackadder entrusted with minding the huge work of literature, goes and accidently destroys it.

Now he is forced to compile it again as it was the only copy in existence, otherwise he will suffer a fate worse than death.He enlists the Prince and Baldrick to help him do this task in 24 hours.

Baldrick walks in to Blackadders study where Blackadder is still stuck on 'a for

aardvark'. Baldrick announces that he has successfully 'done' C and D letters. "Ok,lets have it then", inquires Blackadder. "C", starts our fledging scholar. "That big blue wobbily bit in between land", Blackadder gives him one of his famous looks. "go on" "That's all I have for 'C'". "How about 'D' then", Blackadder says "Dog", begins Baldrick. "definitely not a cat"

Enjoy them all, they're gems.