Change Your Image
joeker-betts
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Talkin' Toons (2017)
A gift of a show!
I've always loved cartoons and as a child I would always practice my own voices. When I got older I grew more and more fascinated with voice actors and their amazing talent.
I discovered the podcast for Talkin' Toons and it very quickly became my go-to podcast and I would listen to it whenever I got the chance. Rob Paulsen was a hero of mine and hearing him talk to more heroes and finding out just how damn talented these people are was amazing.
I missed it when it went away and I was so shocked to hear why, but now it's back and better than ever! More amazing guests, great production value, more wonderful stories and I adore the final segment when the read famous movie scripts but with voices from their careers. What an absolute joy this show is to me. Long may it run!
I Know That Voice (2013)
An interesting, fun and joyful watch
I have always been a lover of animation and voices. I remember being in the playground and practicing voices from shows. Then one day I realised that somebody actually has to do that as a job. They don't just generate voices from a computer or record random stuff. Someone has to perform a character to bring that character and show to life. That was when I began my fascination with voice actors. This documentary was so lovely to watch. It was wonderful to hear the people behind so many of my childhood heroes, (and villains), talk about their careers and experiences. The film covered some great topics from Daddy of all VO Mel Blanc to how video games are becoming the next big thing in Voice acting. It was so nice to hear how genuine and humble these incredibly talented people are. I suppose I would have liked to have seen more from certain actors, but you can only do so much in one documentary. It would be incredible if this was picked up and turned into a show, similar to Voice Actor Rob Paulson's podcast "Talkin' Toons" which is also excellent. A fantastic watch for anyone interested not only in Voice acting but also acting in general and filmmaking.
Sleuth (2007)
A pity....
I loved the original. It was brilliant and always will be. Strangely though, I actually looked forward to seeing the re-make. I'm usually a little bit against re-makes because there's far too many of them, but somehow this intrigued me. I was really enjoying it to begin with. Caine brilliant, as usual, and Jude Law managing to hold is own next to him. It was quite clever how it was modernised and it was working. What stops this from being really good is the last seven minutes. It goes completely away from the original, so far in fact that is ceases to be clever and just gets annoying. The end in the original was fantastic! So much tension was built up and it was unbelievably clever! This? It grows not in tension but in frustration as it seemed they decided to make Caine's character a homosexual. It was if they were trying far to hard to be different. And then... BANG! Law's dead. Roll Credits. This film is worth the watch simply for the performances, but those last seven minutes really do drag it down. What a pity....
Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
Wow!
OK, so this film has been around for a year, but I saw it for the first time tonight. It is fantastic! I can remember the old cartoon version and Horton, the Wickershams and Kangaroo have all been translated into CGI brilliantly! And the Whos are exactly how they should be! And the voice-casting was perfect. This is the best kid's film I have seen in a long, long time! I'm a huge Disney fan but they haven't really been delivering for some time.... Yes "Bolt" was good, but it wasn't classic Disney. This film reminds me of "Shrek" in a way because when that first came out everyone was saying how it was up there with the best of Disney. I believe "Horton Hears A Who!" is up there too! (Yeah! Go ryhmes!) I would have liked it to have had some of the little songs from the original, but apart from that little detail, this is an absolute joy for the whole family! Dr. Seuss would be proud!
Watchmen (2009)
A Shame
This had the potential to be amazing and, quite simply, it wasn't.
When I first saw the trailers I was really hyped up! They looked amazing! This inspired me to read the book. It was not what I expected, but it was brilliant. But I couldn't see how it could work as a film.
Some parts seem to be taken directly from the book, which is great, but then there are added bits which are unnecessary and it misses parts that could be great! The best thing about this is Jackie Earle Haley's performance as "Rorschach". He is awesome! Exactly as the character should be! Probably the worst thing about this film was the soundtrack. The songs were mostly pretty silly choices. They made some scenes laughable, which ruined them. That was a great pity.
The film had some great things going for it, such as "Rorschach", "The Comedian" and some good special effects, but it had too many flaws. The soundtrack, skipping important parts, the pace, the lack of any real feeling, etc. These flaws kept "Watchmen" from being what it could, and what it should, have been.
In summary, this is an average adaptation and an average film. What a shame....
Disaster Movie (2008)
Just awful
This is BAD! I could go on and on about how this is awful but I'm just going to give three points: 1) It is called "Disaster Movie" yet none of the films it "spoofs" are disaster films. It's a poor excuse to carry on with this joke of a franchise. 2) It spoofs "Superbad". Why would you try to spoof a film that already is a comedy? It especially doesn't work with "Superbad". 3) As I was watching this a genuinely felt angry. I love films and I watch a wide variety of them, from "Schindler's List" to "Airplane!". One tries more to inform and provoke emotion another just simply wants to entertain and make you laugh! This was made for one reason and one alone, to make money. It's embarrassing and degrading to all film lovers. I apologise if this was a bit extreme and I apologise again if this offends any genuine fans of the film. At the end of the day this is just one man's opinion. But I'll back it up with this. As of today, out of the 14,584 votes that have been casted here concerning this film, 12,358 people gave 1 star. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, read it and weep!
Little Britain USA (2008)
A Shame
When "Little Britain" first hit British screens it was groundbreaking. I fell in love with it and it's characters. Clever, ridiculous and down right absurd and it was great. The second series came along. That was alright but not as good as the first. Then the third series. I was genuinely upset. It went way over the line and the cleverness of the earlier series flew out the window. Then I watch the first episode of this, "Little Britain USA". I'm not going to go on about it and rip it to shreds but I will say I feel they have sold out. There were very few funny moments and I feel that this has killed "Little Britain". It's had it's day, which is a damn shame.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Fantastic entertainment
I was quite young when I watched this film for the first time and it freaked me out. I didn't find it funny, and when the dentist dies I thought it was creepy. But after I watched it I realised how I couldn't stop humming the songs. Recently I bought the soundtrack, then had to buy the film itself. And it's just so good. Audrey II has to be the best film puppet ever. Yeah you've got Yoda and other legendary puppets but none have the matching lip movements. Those lips continue to amaze me! Audrey II looks amazing and sounds fantastic, Rick Moranis was made for Seymour, I could go on. If you've seen this film and later didn't find yourself any of the songs, (especially "Feed Me" and "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space") there's got to be something wrong with you. If you want an evening filled with laughs, amazing songs and an alien blood sucking plant this is the film for you!
Thunderbirds (2004)
Stop ruining my childhood!
When I first saw the trailer to this I thought to myself, "Wow, this looks epic". Thunderbird 2 landing with "Thin Lizzy" playing in the background was awesome. But then, like so many other awful films, the trailer was very misleading. My friend forced me to watch it saying that it was one of those films that was so bad it was funny. When it had finished I literally shaking with anger. There were just so many things wrong with this film, one of the most annoying ones was the new character of Brains' son. Why oh why? This seriously couldn't have been less like the show even if they tried. And since when was Parker a hard arse fighter. But one of the most upsetting thing was Sir Ben Kingsley as "The Hood". There's nothing I hate more than to watch a great actor star in a film that should never have been made. And his performance is so bad you can almost hear him thinking, "Hurry up and give me my money". Oh, then there's Bill Paxton, but he's so terrible anyway that there's no point in talking about him anymore. The one shot that really irritated me was the extreme close up of a hand pulling a lever, accept it's a puppet hand with strings. Terrible. 1, it just looks awful and 2 everyone knows that when there was an extreme close up of a hand in the show that it was a real person's hand, not a puppet's I know it's bit of a stupid reason to get frustrated, but I loved the show and this terribly acted, directed, poor excuse for a film just about ruins all your found memories of that classic show. I can honestly say that this was the worst film that I have ever seen. If you loved the show and don't won't your memories ruined, do not watch.
Batman: The Movie (1966)
A Joy!!!!
This Movie is an absolute JOY to watch! I defy anyone to watch this and not enjoy it. I used to watch it as a small child and back then I liked it because I saw it as cool and epic. As I grew older, I slower began to see how funny it was! I have so many fond memories of watching this and it never fails to put a smile on my face! What I loved most about it is that it has, in my opinion, all the best baddies in it! The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler and Catwoman are so cool! I just wish they could have been in it a bit more. I recently had some friends over to watch it and they were in stitches! I'd never seen one of these friends laugh so hard! The riddles are so ridiculous that you simply cannot help bursting out with laughter! And how can you not laugh at the world's most fake looking shark! Oh, and just thinking about the bomb scene cracks me up! I am proud to say I own this and what's more I am proud to say, without a doubt, that I LOVE it! I'll now finish with possibly the best line from the film.... Batman: Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!
Un chien andalou (1929)
Sweet mercy
Oh sweet mother of mercy how we laughed. I watched this film for the first time today in Film Studies and I can honestly say I've never seen such a film.... if you can call it that. Surrealism and abstract stuff, I think, are just easy ways out to make anything, no matter how stupid and silly, look good. I was in absolute stitches throughout!!!! I was watching it and thinking this looks like something me and my friends would film for a laugh!!!! I didn't know what was funnier, the film itself which or the fact that people actually made it!!!! It's past bizarre and beyond surreal. It's just stupid. Please, only watch this film for a laugh. To watch for any other reason is just a waste of time. People may argue saying I'm not looking at the deep political undertones. I'm sure there is some meaning, somewhere, in this film but, my goodness, there's better ways to show them!!!!