The long awaited Johnny English sequel has been out for a while now, and I've finally watched it!

Johnny's got some gray hair, and the action scenes sometimes look a bit slow when he runs them, but overall the movie manages to combine action and comedy the same way the last one did. Maybe not better, but at least just as well.

A traumatizing incident in Mozambique (deja vu on the incident that killed all agents in the last movie) has made Johnny go into exile and training in a Shaolin temple. That's where we meet him, before he is put back in service by M17 (now owned by Toshiba), and another ridiculously funny mission starts. Sometimes the humor can be a bit lame, but overall, it's not too lame to laugh at. The plot twists unexpectedly at times, and very expectedly at others, but it's varied and the action sequences are much flashier than in the last movie. Better budget I suppose.

There's a boat chase, a helicopter ride, a fight on a ski lift, a wheelchair chase... so there's plenty of watchable content. Rely on Rowan Atkinson to deliver family-friendly comedies. There's been way too few of these lately. The movie features crazy inventions, pokes fun at James Bond regularly, borrows some humor from the Pink Panther movies and I wonder if the black Tucker agent is inspired by the Rush hour trilogy? The frequently present old Chinese assassin/cleaner lady opens for much humor as well.

Johnny English in this movie is more like Pink Panther than James Bond, though there's a lot of similarities between these two series. If Roward Atkinson makes another sequel I suppose it will be a series btw, for now it's just a couple. But if not, this is a well-deserved final. Not a perfect movie, but thoroughly entertaining.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Read on...

Apparently someone heard my wish back in my old Mortal Kombat movie review, and finally made something based on the game worthy of the effort! At least that's what I thought, until I realized there have been plenty of sequels since the 1995 failure, and since I didn't know about any of them I guess none of them are any good. I could be wrong though, only way to know for sure is to watch them, so when I have some extra time (not today), I will do so. For now, here's a quick review of the mini TV-series from last year (or movie, as some call it, even though the credits roll after each episode).

It's a good series, or movie... or whatever you wish to call it. After watching the cinematic versions of other classic games such as Tekken and Street Fighter however, it falls short. Sure the fighting sequences are nice, the effects are stylish, and the scenery is varied. Yet the atmosphere is always dark and somehow the plot doesn't captivate me at all. It's not cliche, it just isn't very interesting. Maybe I'm not Mortal Kombat fan enough for this movie, but it didn't really cut it for me. It was good, but at the same time disappointing. I'll give it a...

 rated 3/5: not bad

The official title seems to be just Adventures Of Tintin, but I'll go with the added Secret Of The Unicorn since I sincerely hope this is just the first in a series of remakes following the whole series. :)

Overall, this movie was great. The graphics took a few seconds to get used to with the realistic yet strangely unrealistic character faces, and I never got used to Milou. Something about his eyes, or his face, it just doesn't feel as energetic as it does in the comic. I did get used to Milou being called Snowy instead of Milou, but I'd rather they had stayed with the original name. All the other characters have origi... of wait, what happened to Dupont & Dupont? Did they just cut out all these French names to Americanize the movie? I'd rather they stay true to the original script, but setting those minor grievances aside...

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I watched a few movies that weren't too great recently. They're not worthy of a one review post each, so I suppose it's time to revive the old Three Reviews series I used to be posting in ancient times.

Courageous (2011)

Courageous is the story of 3-4 police officers and a Mexican worker. It's mostly a drama about their struggles within and without the job and how fate steps in and gives them a shot, and about the brave things they do. The brave things they do are not at all as brave as the things regular action heroes do, this is more like a fictional documentary-style drama movie and though there are 3-4 chases there's only one real chase that ends in a shootout. Though you might say it's realistic and personal and down-to-earth, it just isn't my type of movie. Too much talk, too little action, so I'll give it a

 rated 2/5: decent

Arena (2011)

Arena is another take on the plotline in the movie Gamer. Not exactly the same, but similar. Nobody's controlling the characters that do battle, but they're not doing it of free will either, so it's pretty much the same. The movie features a few fights, bloody, filmed in a way that they look taken straight from a videogame. Weaponry and costumes are important things, but overall it's just a sad movie. Not sad as in I almost cry movie, but sad as in there's nothing positive about it. The action is slow and brutal, without any real stunts to liven it up. There's a lot of blood, a lot of pained expressions, a lot of viewers grimacing or laughing or making a O face. I'm sure they put a lot of money into this film and a lot of people like it, but movies like this are just crap. The plot is ok, the acting is ok, Samuel Jacksson is in the movie, but it'
s just a piece of crap. It's not that I dislike violence in movies, or violence that tries to be stylish (thin 300 or Equilibrium), but this just doesn't reach me. It's not stylish, it's not emotional, it's not heavy, it's just a sad crappy movie.

 rated 1/5: shit shit shit

Inside Slade - The Singles 1971-1991 (2004)

Slade is a band I've known about for some time that most people I talk to about it don't seem to know about. They've made a lot of rock music. It's rhythmical, it has catchy refrains, and it makes you happy. All their songs are great, I love the band, but this documentary was a disappointment. I had looked forward to seeing a lot of footage of the band, live performances or music videos or whatever, as long as I could see the band and hear their music at the same time. I've only heard them on tape previously (yeah, tape, oldschool) and I was hoping this would give me an image to sync with the music. What I did get was a whole lot of talking on how and why the band was great and how they tried to reach out to different audiences or change their musical style and yada yada. Sure, for a fan there's a lot of interesting things being said, but there's way too little music. There are previews of the different singles, but they never let you hear a whole one, and they're all bad quality, there's nothing new, you'll find better footage on YouTube than in this documentary. Disappointing.

 rated 2/5: decent

Usually when I watch a movie it's a relatively random event. I mean, I don't plan ahead. I don't wait restlessly for a cinematical production of a game I've played, or of a book I've read, or a remake of an old version I liked. I don't watch trailers to find movies I look forward to, nor am I very involved in the movie buzz. I really don't know what new movies there are out there unless I happen to walk by a cinema and glance at posters through the glass.

The exception to my lack of interest in upcoming movies is probably when I've watched something great and it ends in a way that promises a sequel. There doesn't have to be a 'To Be Continued' message after the film. It's usually clear if there will be a sequel or not, and if it isn't clear, than all the more pleasant the surprise when a sequel does arrive. There are a few movies I really look forward to this year, so I thought I'd write them down for you all right here. First... Read on...

Yamakasi! 2 is more known as Les Fille Villes or The Great Adventure, as you may know it as in English. It's not a continuation of the previous movie even though it stars the same characters. In fact it is actually a prequel. It tells a tale of how they all met, though really, we don't get to know jackshit about any of them.

Still, it's a good movie, in many ways much better than the original. Maybe because there's a girl involved? Nah, there's just a lot more action. The ending may seem a bit strange with all those people fighting and no one getting killed, except that one guy that commits seppuku, it's just not realistic at all. All the gangs get together and a big war breaks out. There's a whole lot of knifes but still nobody's slashed up. They should have either realisticized that part a bit or left it out completely.Otherwise, great movie! If you liked the first one, you'll like this one!

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle