Tom-AVA

Being 16 years old i guess makes you too old for children's TV programmes now. But luckily i have a lot of younger brothers and sisters and so it gives me an excuse to go back into my adolescence every once in a while. When i was a kid, the best super-hero show on TV was the original Power Rangers. Come on, they were awesome. About 10 years after the Power Rangers first became good, the youth of today is being shown the rubbish that is Operation Overdrive. I'm sorry, but its time to lay the Power Rangers to rest, because the shows are getting worse and worse. This, in short, is a perfect demonstration of terrible children's TV has become. And so when my 2 younger brothers began getting mad over some programme on Cartoon Network called "Ben 10" i naturally assumed that it was just another rubbish children's show. One day when i got home from school i found my brothers already watching TV, and this programme Ben 10 was on. The options were to either do homework, put a DVD on or play on the xbox 360. Being incredibly lazy, i decided to just sit down and watch the TV. 2 hours later i had watched 4 episodes of the show and couldn't believe it. I mean, Cartoon Network had finally made a show that is half decent. Lets face it, the show has every cliché in the book, its fairly predictable at times and also very convenient how there's always a monster around whenever Ben is there. But what show isn't a little rough around the edges? Ben 10 is something fresh and relatively original. I think Cartoon Network Jetix, Nickelodeon and other kids TV channels should learn from this programme and then perhaps children's TV might get back to the glory days of Power Rangers.

OK, so it is the summer of 2007, as a movie lover you would expect me to be at the cinema watching one of this years summer blockbusters that people have been going on about for a fair amount of time. However, aside from the fact that I've already seen all this years summer blockbusters (excluding Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which isn't yet out), you have to realise that this summers films haven't quite been as good as we expected.

So this evening, i sat down, turned of Sky Movies Premiere and watched Lucky Number Slevin. I'll be honest, i really thought this film was gunna be bad, which was the main reason i hadn't bought this film on DVD or even watched it in the cinema last year. But for the first time this summer i was truly blown away by a film, and this one wasn't even a summer blockbuster.

This film us truly phenomenal. Its pacing is fairly quick and it always keeps you interested. The characters are all brilliantly played, especially Slevin by Josh Hartnett. He is a truly great character and really well acted. His small, one liners will really make you laugh, but when you see him being a lil' bit serious, he is serious. The story of this film takes many twists and turns and through the whole film you will sit there trying to think of what could happen next and what he twists are going to be. The killings are brilliantly done, perhaps even Tarintino-esquire.

I highly recommend that this summer, if your bored of the rubbish summer blockbusters and you haven't seen this film before, maybe you should, cos its just brilliant and one of the best films i have seen in a long time.

Thank you 20th Century Fox and Marvel, you have saved the summer for me. So we kicked off the summer with Spiderman 3 which was one of the most anticipated movies in history, and it was such a let-down. Next to take the plunge was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which i just couldn't sit through. And in quick succession was Shrek The Third and Oceans 13. Now while Oceans 13 wasn't all bad, Shrek The Third was just not great.

So as i walked into the cinema today with all my friends i was hoping and praying that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer could save the summer from all these huge let-downs. Walking out of the cinema i felt very elated, because this film is phenomenal. It wasn't too long, the story wasn't too complicated, the characters were all brilliantly played, the action was awesome, the special effects were great as well, the list just goes on. However there was one thing that made this movie so great, and that was the fact that it felt like a summer blockbuster. I was sat in the cinema thinking to myself, this exactly what it was meant to be like watching Pirates of the Caribbean and Shrek and that makes this film the bar for this summer.

So lets all thank the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer for saving the summer for finally entertaining us and giving us something that was worth going to the cinema for.