Category Archives: Adventure

Blood Diamond (2006)

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2007 #19
Edward Zwick | 143 mins | cinema | 15 / R

Blood DiamondIn some respects this also suffered from hype, though only to a small degree — Jonathan Ross loved it, which is usually a very good recommendation to me; I ‘merely’ thought it was very good.

Its most impressive achievement is mixing important real-life information with a compelling narrative in a way that does not feel preachy. It also doesn’t compromise on its moral messages for the sake of a twist, and has some great action sequences to boot. There are almost as many endings as Lord of the Rings mind.

4 out of 5

Blood Diamond placed 10th on my list of The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2007, which can be read in full here.

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

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For Your Eyes Only2007 #7
John Glen | 122 mins | DVD | PG / PG

As you may have gathered from #6, I think that both of these films are fine examples of Bond filmmaking. FYEO is probably the better of the two, but not without its faults — no Moore film would be complete without some moments that threaten to utterly balls it up, and this one has a painful, outdated comedic ending, as well as an unnecessary pre-titles.

4 out of 5

Octopussy (1983)

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2007 #6
John Glen | 126 mins | DVD | PG / PG

OctopussyI dislike Roger Moore as Bond, mostly based on the number of piss-poor films he starred in. It seems I may just have been watching the wrong ones.

Whereas FYEO (see #7) is relatively widely praised, Octopussy is relatively widely panned. I’m not sure why. Yes, there’s a crap bit for about 10 minutes in the middle; yes, the clown outfit is a little silly; but, for the most part, it’s pretty darn entertaining.

Not the franchise’s all time high, but far from the worst entry.

4 out of 5

Basil the Great Mouse Detective (1986)

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The Great Mouse Detective2007 #3
Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener & John Musker | 71 mins | DVD | U / G

A seriously underrated Disney film, though it does appear to have a substantially large cult following based on it being seriously underrated.

If you like your Disneys musical this may be one to avoid, though the couple of songs present are quite decent, but if you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan you should definitely catch it.

4 out of 5

Eragon (2006)

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2007 #1
Stefen Fangmeier | 104 mins | cinema | PG / PG

EragonThe first film I saw in 2007, and I saw it on New Years Day!

Eragon wants to be the next Lord of the Rings / Harry Potter / Narnia, especially with its utter lack of resolution at the end, but it just isn’t. It has its entertaining moments, but it’s also lumbered with huge lumps of bad dialogue, bad acting and fantasy clichés abound.

I have no idea how it compares to the book.

2 out of 5