IN: Review: The British claymation series putting "witty" conversations taped from "average" people in the mouths of "cute" fanciful creatures at least had the advantage for non-British viewers of seeming droll and the kind of rarefied cultured humor you couldn't get on U.S. television. Someone made the mistake of PUTTING it on U.S. television.

Sort of like the sadly miscast American version of the sublime Brit-com COUPLING which died in a month on NBC when the same basic scripts didn't "translate" from British English to American English, what seemed droll and cultured (and just a BIT dull) in England, comes across in CREATURE COMFORTS, the American Version, as simply boredom with puppets. There's no through plot-line, no characters and after one and a half episodes watched (of the three ultimately aired), no reason to suffer through more.

The only positive thing to be said about the new summer series and the mercifully brief run it had is that the claymation is at least professionally done and coming as a set-up for the single worst show on the CBS schedule, The New Adventures of Old Christine (or "how to be a HORRIBLE mother - or person - in one interminable, unfunny lesson"), kids who wanted to stay up past their bedtime happily ran to bed rather than sit through this show, and the adults could wait to tune in until 9pm when "Two and A Half Men" (guilty pleasure) and "How I Met Your Mother" (actual quality writing) come on.
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OUT: negative

IN: Review: This is a really cool movie! I remember first seeing it when I was really young and I used to watch it all the time like once a week...Shadow was my favorite character in the movie. Homeward Bound is really funny and its really cool how they train the animals to do all those things. Parts of the movie are sad though (such as when Sassy, the cat, falls down the waterfall, and when Shadow falls in the hole at the end.) I have seen the second Homeward Bound but I gotta say its not as good as the first. Shadow is the smart one, Sassy is, well, Sassy, and Chance is the funny idiot. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes comedies, or talking animals. This is one of my top ten favorite movies!
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OUT: positive

IN: Review: My first impression would be this is Beowulf only with all the good bits of fighting Grendel and dragons intact, making it one thrill ride from start to end. Written by Frederic Lanoir and Arthur Qwak, the two of them had created a fantastical landscape that becomes a character in itself within their story, with its ever changing environment made up of small spheres of land floating around, which can either be wastelands, or globes of greenery.

The story's a simple one, which tells of a land which is cowering in the expectation of a mighty dragon's unwanted visit to plunder and destroy, and the resident knights have all but been annihilated. Enter the king's granddaughter Zoe (Marie Drion) who gathers Lian-Chu (Vincent Lindon), a huge brute with immense strength but truly a gentle giant, and his partner-in-arms Gwizdo (Patrick Timsit), who balances the partnership with his cunning brain. Lian-Chu and Gwizdo (together with their pet creature which too proudly spews incipient fires) share a common dream of owning a farm land and spending idyllic days tending to their farm animals in retirement, but in order to do that comes the requirement of being financially free, hence their career in monster-extermination which doesn't exactly pay off.

That's basically the whole gist of it, but what makes this film a spectacle, is its CG graphics, which is solidly rich, detailed, and an eye-popping marvel to behold. It has some wonderfully crafted set action pieces that were painstakingly designed to draw you into the thick of the action,, and during those fight sequences, there's nary a boring moment. Photo-realistic moments of non-existent landscapes make you put aside the fantasy of make-belief, and it's easy to be in awe of the landscape which goes beyond the usual three-suns and a kaleidoscope of flying thingamajigs (here's having at you George!) And I couldn't get enough of the finale battle as well, though the usual brick-bats will find some fault at the indestructibility of the principle characters.

I guess this film had opened my eyes that there are many more computer-animated companies out there around the world that have quality in their product to match that of Pixar's. And this is definitely a movie that the local filmmakers of Zodiac: The Race Begins and Legend of the Sea can learn from to keep the story effectively simple, and let your moving artwork do all the talking. Definitely highly recommended!
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OUT: positive

IN: Review: The Sentinel represents everything about the soul-lessness of Hollywood and the saddening lack of imagination present in so many movies these days. I cannot possibly think of one good thing about it, it's all so generic, so factory-made and so lazy assembled that it really only exists as an infomercial on how to make money from the unsuspecting, undeserving public.

A plot about a Secret Service Agent planning to assassinate the Prez could well be entertaining. If handled by a good director or caring cast that is. Douglas is the one who is framed. Basinger is the First Lady, with whom he is having an affair (an undeveloped, unresolved plot contrivance). Sutherland is the best pal who believes his guilty because there would be no movie if he didn't. And Longoria is nothing. A woman with a fortune of Maybelline and...that's it. I guess there are less requirements for women when entering the Secret Service. As usual in a film like this the role of the Prez himself is nothing more than a tool, a token and is very badly written.

Clark Johnson's, he who gave us the equally as pathetic SWAT back in 2003, mechanical direction lacks any kind of signature and has all the visual sophistication of a cheap TV-movie. Douglas, Basinger and Sutherland look incredibly bored and phone-in their performances from afar. Eva Longoria, the most over-exposed woman of the 21st Century, is basically only in this to attract to the Desperate Housewives audience. Her role is 100% pointless and she does absolutely nothing to further the plot or add to character development. She barely has 2 lines to rub together. A truly shameless marketing ploy.

If you're a glutton for punishment then don't let me stop you. But it IS time and money you won't be getting back.
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OUT:
negative