Just like the animated spin offs from 'The Matrix' and 'Van Helsing' we were also given a small animated feature showing us the events leading up to The Riddick sequel. This short was a sequel to the original 'Pitch Black' but was it really required?.

We see Riddick and the other two survivors leaving the dark planet of the original film. In transit to 'New Mecca' they get captured by some mercs lead by the evil villainess 'Antonia Chillingsworth' (Chillingsworth...chilling, scary huh...get it?) who likes to capture famous criminals and put them on display in her ship. She does this by freezing them basically, freezing them into statues, a bit 'Batman and Robin-ish', a bit cheesy but hey.

Now this isn't too old really, its only 2004, but I was amazed at how poor the CGI sequences were. There aren't too many, mainly a few ships, some internal corridors and one or two creatures. But it must be said that they look pretty awful to be honest, really obvious and very plastic looking, quite shocked. The sequences with Riddick's ship look like an amateur did them very quickly, so plain and lifeless!.

Other than that the animation is nice n quirky, not overly fantastic but it does the job. Hard to criticise art and animation styles because everything is more so a matter of opinion and of course some styles can be deliberately hokey/simple/rough looking. This style is typical anime style with a slightly surreal edge, the characters are drawn in exaggeration at times, overly defined or amplified if you will.

What is nice is the fact all the main characters are voiced by the real film cast to give that extra layer of cannon, coolness and fanboyism. I mean lets face it no one can really replace Vin Diesel as Riddick right. The story ticks along fine, a bit simple but its OK, we see the intro of 'Toombs' which is a minor highlight really, not particularly important but hey its there...a small token mainly for the sequel of course.

Overall I found this pretty average really, nothing too special, by the numbers in terms of both animation and excitement. It didn't really need to made in all honesty, it serves no real purpose other than to keep fans happy until the second was released, and does it do that? well maybe I guess. A bit short also I might add but at least it served up plenty of blood n gore which always looks good in these anime adventures. This animation does the odd things a film can't because the bigwigs want a film for the mass audiences, we've all heard that before right, this has more free rein.

Vaughn and Wilson are back together yet again in yet another screwy comedy that really feels totally dated, what year are we in here 2000?!. Straight away I can tell you this film is a complete waste of time and money which feels nothing more than a big advert for Google.

The story follows two middle aged blokes who become unemployed so they try their luck in an internship programme with Google. The fact these guys are clearly out of place and ten times older than everyone within this programme doesn't phase them as they go for broke to try and gain full time employment. Do they achieve their goal?? well that's the million dollar question isn't...yes they do, of course they do, this film is the most cliched predictable piece of crud I've seen in a long time. Oh yeah spoiler...ah whatever.

Google have really scored here, they have managed to get themselves a two hour in your face promotional campaign that has their company name in virtually every scene. If you didn't know about Google before you sure as hell do now, I think the word 'Google' must have been used a gazillion times.

There is literately nothing to laugh at in this entire film, everything you see is just a tired rehash from every other Vaughn/Wilson comedy. The two leads play exactly the same type of characters we've seen over and over again which they do well sure but its just soooooooo old now. The rest of the cast are a bunch of unknown kids that you don't give a crap about, couldn't care a less whether they get these jobs or not...even though we know damn well they will.

I'm not even sure what level this film is aimed at. At first I thought it was a gentle comedy for all ages with nothing threatening at all, no bad language or toilet humour etc...Then slap bang in the middle there is a sequence within a strip club with full on boobies and ass action that is most definitely adults only!. Its quite a departure from the rest of the film which is a light hearted boring wet mess.

Basically you've seen this film before, the plot is completely predictable right from the start, no surprises. The characters are cliched and unoriginal, every turning point in the film is unexciting, generic and unoriginal, Wilson still has that stupid soppy hairstyle, its not funny, its not entertaining, its just a sneaky corporate recruitment video. Come work for Google and have all the fun and success that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn had in the coolest working environment ever!...(fun, success and cool working environment not guaranteed).

The first film in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, this being the red strawberry flavour Cornetto to represent the blood and gore of the horror genre. Yep the ragtag bunch of scruffy oddball Brits from the TV show 'Spaced' are here with more outlandish comedy the likes of which the Americans can only dream of.

Put simply, a regular working stiff must contend with his everyday mundane life that includes various family problems and girlfriend issues. Oh and at the same time there's that zombie apocalypse thing to deal with also, geez some days you just can't catch a break huh.

Now I will admit I'm not a zombie fan, I'm more of a vampire and werewolf person, my reasons? simply because all zombie flicks are almost identical. This comedy/parody/homage is again no difference from the myriad of other zombie flicks out there accept its funny. There is no real explanation for the zombie outbreak, it just happens, but that's not important, this is simply an amusing sketch that has been stretched out into a film.

That's not to say it doesn't work as it does, but its not as good as many rave on about in my personal opinion. I didn't really get on with the film when I saw it the first time round and this time I can still see why. The start of the film is great fun, I really enjoyed watching'Shaun' flounder in his dead end job with his young teenage staff that don't give a shit...a typical British trait that I've seen in reality. I liked to watch him and his best mate 'Ed' in their trashy rented accommodation that is easily a 'Men Behaving Badly/Bottom' type scenario that we Brits do so well.

The set up for the film is perfect, a slobby male couple who seem to crawl through life having work/girlfriend issues but plenty of time for drinking and Playstation. Nick Frost is the perfect pub dwelling, overweight, student-like representation and Pegg is the perfect down trodden bloke dreaming of better things. As the zombie outbreak starts to flare up I loved how these two guys don't really notice and when they do it still takes time for it to sink in (as it would). Small sequences where they attack zombies, try to work out what's going on by sitting on the couch, having a drink and watching TV and then trying to get to Shaun's mums house are the best moments early on in the film.

I guess what I don't like about the film is the fact it turns into a semi serious weepy/drama...almost. As the film progresses and the small band of survivors haul up in a pub (how typically British), the film does tend to get quite emotional in parts, little moments that do actually put a lump in your throat (when Shaun's mum dies). Its these points that make me wonder what the film actually wants to be. Essentially the film splits and takes on a whole new approach, first half is a funny sight gag parody, second half becomes a more serious action thriller with emotional deaths, I'm just not sure that I liked that decision.

Its certainly an amusing jaunt that adheres to the old school original zombie school of thought...or laws. In that I mean the zombies are slow moving, lurching creatures that groan a lot and stagger around arms outstretched in a cliched manner. They don't run or think or assist each other, they just stumble around and eat whatever happens to fall in their path, oh and there are are plenty of little tributes to various other zombie classics of course. Think of it along the lines of 'An American Werewolf in London' but not as dark or adult, but as I've said in my other reviews this could so easily be the next Monty Python flick.

Plenty of offensive British language which we all love so much, toilet humour, gore and pop culture references galore. The cast are excellent, the whole film looks good in that quirky little England type of way (good old North London eh) and the dialog is sharp...but I still think 'Hot Fuzz' is the superior of the trilogy.

Dreamworks are on a roll here people, 'The Croods' 'Rise of the Guardians' and now this slick little number. Yet another insect tale and another creature checked off the to do list (will there be an animated flick about every creature?), this little story is so obvious and easy I'm amazed it hasn't been done already.

A simple snail is turned into a super fast snail when he accidentally gets sucked up into a modded cars turbo engine and he somehow mutates into this supersnail (yeah you missed this idea Marvel). So this story is gonna be even more outlandish than the regular insect animations.

At first the angle of the film is much like any other creepy crawly kids flick, its silly but its still based around how that creature actually exists in reality. In a garden munching on leaves, lettuce, tomatoes, getting eaten by birds and avoiding dangerous situations like evil kids. But as the film progresses it slowly morphs into a clear 'Fast n Furious' rip off for kids. At first I wasn't too sure if I was gonna like it but luckily the plot takes us into the realms of F1/Indycar racing...I feared an all out cheesy chav filled bling fest.

The visuals are filled with neon which tends to be a cheap way to try and make things look cool but admittedly it does look quite good here. I do like the neon snail trail 'Turbo' leaves and how it follows the coils in his shell. Although the fact his little body made all sorts of car noises and his eyes lit up as headlights was a bit too far for me. I did also find myself liking his fellow snail friends with their ridiculous shells, it was totally daft but kinda cute at the same time. The snail crew were actually really amusing I must admit, S.L. Jackson really makes the most of his well known loud aggressive persona which was funny coming from a little snail. The rest were kinda cliched with the obligatory hip hop snail in a small crew that were clearly a parody of the characters in '2 Fast 2 Furious', 'White Shadow' was easily the best snail for me.

The story is insane though, this fat guy (Mexican?) finds Turbo and decides the best thing to do is enter him in the Indianapolis 500...yes the real Indianapolis 500. Now I have to say this concept is beyond surreal frankly but there we go. I can't really moan about it as this is in no way suppose to be taken seriously. I mean the snails supposedly only know of their little garden world, so how would they know what Mexican food is or anything in the outside world? oh right Turbo watches TV...I'll stop right here. Anyway if it were me I'd just get the snail on the news and travel the world showing him off, why risk getting the little fella crushed straight away?!.

Its definitely more of a kids film but I'm sure adults will enjoy some of it, the whole thing is so cozy and cheerful how can you not like it?. The quick little quips from various snail characters kept me amused, Giamatti as 'Chet' was good for that. The classic underdog (undersnail hehehe) tale, there aren't any surprises here lets put it this way. What happens in the race (the whole plot) is basic 101 story telling and you know what will happen a mile off. This isn't a problem though as the film is all heart, full of bright colourful visuals and some great little characters (crank up the merchandise machine).

The film that kick started the long long long TV series that was basically Star Trek under the sea. So the success of this film of course lead to the TV show which in turn was a big success and encouraged the creator Irwin Allen to go ahead and make other sci-fi TV series that all had a similar look and feel about them...'Lost In Space' 'Land of the Giants' and 'The Time Tunnel'. So this original film was the spark that ignited a whole genre of classic TV.

Yet despite all that...holy crapenstein this film was errrr...crap!. Now I've seen a lot of these old fantasy flicks from the 60's but this has to be the most boring sci-fi I've ever seen I kid you not. The plot is nuts, something about a meteor shower that is on fire threatening the Earth with an extreme rise in heat temperatures. So the Captain of this fancy ass submarine comes up with a plan to extinguish these flaming meteors by firing a nuke at them on a certain day and at a certain time. It has to be this exact time and day so the nuke will put out the flames and blast the meteors back into space. Wut?? say again? repeat all after the plot is nuts.

The 'excitement' comes from the fact that this plan is rejected (really?) and only the US President can authorise it. So the devious Captain ignores this, gets his sub into position and tries to get in contact with El Presidente before the time slot is missed, of course there is a saboteur on board which makes things even more exciting!.

I mean seriously there is nothing happening in this film! the plot is too stupid for words and makes no sense. When you watch the film you do agree with UN that the main plan is nuts and its probably best to leave the meteors alone. So you spend the entire film thinking this bunch of sailors on this fancy sub are doing something really really dangerous and stupid...without permission!. Of course we all know it will work but you still know its utterly stupid.

There are various issues the subs crew must battle against to try and complete their illegal mission, typical stuff like under sea mines, debris, a mutiny, equipment being damaged blah blah blah, oh and a giant squid attack too. Yep that's right, you can't have an underwater adventure without a giant sea beast of some sort attacking the main vessel. So right away that compromises the films semi realistic approach, at first I thought it was sort of serious, outlandish sci-fi but kinda serious with sensible elements. The giant squid kinda turns the whole thing into complete fantasy and ruins that feel, I mean what next? mermaids saving the crew?.

I think one of the main issues for me was the fact the film just looks totally dull, the action is lifeless and visually its just bland and plain. All the sets are clearly sets (they used the same sets for the TV show), the colours are stale, the costumes are drab, the sub model looks like something you'd see in 'Flesh Gordon' (a dildo with a windscreen) and most of the film is set within this monochrome tin can. I get the feeling the sub has been designed like a spacecraft, sleek, smooth and intimidating like a shark, as apposed to the steampunk-like design of the classic 'Nautilus'. A wondrous and fantastical craft ready to set sail into unknown deep sea adventures...so what happened?.

There are a few scenes outside the sub but nothing much inspiring goes on, the only sequence with some life is the squid attack naturally...but don't go expecting anything of Disney standards now.

Imagine the original Star Trek show but without any planet hopping or alien encounters, just the crew on the ship having mechanical issues and chats...constantly. Yep well this is pretty much this film to a tee, a tonne of blokes on a sub with the obligatory blonde female sidekick doing virtually nothing but talk, with the odd shaky cam action sequence for good measure (with obligatory red flashing emergency light). I don't think any of this film cast star in the TV show, but it really doesn't matter as even the likes of Peter Lorre can't make this film any better.

The films title sounds awesome and thrilling, how wrong could it be!. I was straining to get through this, I do recall the TV show being pretty boring when I was a kid but I hoped this would be much better seeing as it was the acorn that spawned the oak tree. I can't see how this was popular I really can't, there were so many other better fantasy/sci-fi films out around this time and this film totally pales in comparison.