Robin Williams- A Comic Icon.

I think that we all know about the recent death of Robin Williams and it is sad to think that we have lost an actor who all of us knew and loved. Whether you grew up with Mork and Mindy or loved Good Morning Vietnam, you will have a favourite Robin Williams movie. He was a funny guy with a serious side too. His films have brought joy and laughter to so many people that you would have to say that he was a comic icon. He starred in so many movies that children love like Aladdin, Jumanji, Hook, Mrs Doubtfire , Flubber and Happy Feet. He was also in the Night at the Museum 1 and 2 movies which were good fun.

On the more adult side, there are good movies such as Good Morning Vietnam, Awakenings, The Fisher King, The Birdcage, Patch Adams and The Night Listener. From a personal point of view, my favourite  Robin Williams film would have to be Dead Poets Society. That film will always be the definitive Robin Williams movie for me. I liked his character in the movie and it stands out for me. I love that movie and it would be my top favourite. Next would be Good Will Hunting which I also enjoyed. Lastly, but not least, is One Hour Photo in which he played a lonely guy who works at a photo place and who becomes obsessed with a family he sees in pictures. This movie is very good and he is brilliant as the lonely Sy. That movie proves that Williams could do serious and creepy. 
 

So, in the end, we will always have his movies to enjoy. Whether you enjoy the comical ones or the more serious ones, most people will have a favourite one. Mine is Dead Poets Society. What is yours?? He was a great actor and a funnyman in his movies and it is sad that he has gone now, but the best way to remember him is to enjoy his work and not to focus on how he died. There is enough misery in the world, so just put on one of his films and enjoy that instead! Robin Williams(1951-2014)- Rest in Peace...

Insidious Movie Review 179

Insidious is a new horror movie starring Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne. It is written by Leigh Whannell who wrote Saw, Saw 2 and Saw 3.

The movie begins with a couple, Josh Lambert(Wilson) and his wife Renai(Byrne) who move into a new house with their son Dalton(Ty Simpkins) and his brother Foster(Andrew Astor) along with their baby. Dalton doesn't like his new room.He goes up into the attic and he falls from a ladder. He hits his head and goes into a coma. The doctors are baffled as he doesn't seem to have any injuries. Cut to three months later and Dalton is still in a coma. Renai and Josh have been taking care of him at home. One day, Renai hears noises through the baby monitor. The baby is crying when she runs up to the room. One night, the parents hear a noise downstairs and Josh goes down to investigate. Their alarm goes off and the front door is open. Renai sees someone in the baby's room and screams. The next day, Renai finds a bloody hand print on Dalton's bed.

Renai tells John than the house is haunted and she wants to leave. John is sceptical but they move house.

Josh's mother,Lorraine(Barbara Hershey) visits them and she tells them that she dreamed of the house and that there was something in the house that wanted Dalton. Renai sees a young boy dancing to music and it scares her. It is a ghost. When Dalton's room is wrecked and they find him on the floor, they decide to bring in two paranormal investigators, Specs(played by writer Leigh Whannell) and Tucker(Angus Sampson). They set up in the house. Tucker sees some ghosts. They call in a medium, Elise(Lin Shaye) and she senses something evil in the house. She tells the parents that Dalton is not in a coma and she tells them that he has left his body and that his vacant body is being taken hostage by ghosts and demons. They want to possess his body and they are waiting until they can claim him. Dalton is lost in a place called The Further and he can't leave.

Josh doesn't believe this. He thinks that they are all mad. He sends them away. But,when he discovers pictures that Dalton drew of the demon before his coma, he agrees to let them try and find Dalton.Elise makes contact with Dalton, but she also makes contact with the demon who is holding him hostage. Elise can't get him out. Then the story takes a turn and it is discovered that Josh can also leave his body and he was in the same position when he was young. His mother, Lorraine tells him that she had to bring in Elise when he was a child to rid him of an old woman ghost who was following him around. She tells Josh that he needs to go to The Further and rescue his son, but can he do it???

This is a well made film. It is directed by James Wan who directed Saw. There are some clever touches in this movie. Leigh Whannell has a cameo as Specs, the directors name appears on a blackboard during the movie.

Also on a blackboard appears the face of the Billy Doll from Saw and the number 8. Is this a sign that there will be another Saw movie? Let's hope so!!!! Let me just say that this movie takes ideas from Poltergeist and 

Paranormal Activity. It is a homage to those films, I think. Some people see it differently, but I think that this film is better than a lot of movies I have watched recently and I liked it a lot. It was genuinely scarey and there were some good moments in it.. I am giving it an 8/10.

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane Movie Review 151

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane is a thriller starring a young Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen.

Rynn Jacobs(Foster) is a young thirteen year old. She is celebrating her birthday alone. She is living with her dad who happens to be a poet in a house in New England. It is Halloween and she hears a knock to the door, it is a guy called Frank Hallet(Sheen) who is the landlady's son and a pedophile. He shows an unnatural interest in Rynn but she ignores his advances and tries to avoid him. He watches her and is always around...His mother is Cora Hallet(Alexis Smith) and she comes over to see Rynn. She wants some jars and she asks Rynn to get them for her, but it is obvious that she is just snooping around.She is rude to Rynn but Rynn stands up to her and she gets very annoyed.

Rynn meets Officer Miglioriti (Mort Shuman) and he asks her about her dad and he wants to meet him, but she tells him that he is busy and that she can't disturb him. Cora comes back to get her jars and she argues with Rynn again. It results in her going into the basement and seeing something horrible. She gets hit on the head by the basement door and she falls down dead. Rynn tries to cover it up. She leaves Cora in the cellar and hides her umbrella. She tries to drive Cora's car away but she can't start it. A young man called Mario(Scott Jacoby) sees her and he starts chatting to her. He is heading off to a party but tells her he will call back later. He does and he hides the car for her.

They have dinner together and chat. He thinks that Rynn is hiding something from him. It turns out that Mario is the nephew of Officer Miglioriti and when the officer calls by to see Rynn's dad, Mario tells him that her dad has gone to bed and can't be disturbed. Rynn is grateful to him for his lie. Frank Hallet comes by and he asks about his missing mother. He asks Rynn questions and he turns nasty and kills her pet hamster when she won't help him. Mario manages to get rid of him by threatening him with a sword. Rynn confides in Mario about what happened to Cora. She also tells him that she killed her mother with poison because she was abusive. Rynn's dad told her to do it before he killed himself. He provided for his daughter as he was dying of a terminal illness and he was afraid that Rynn's mother would come to get her.

Mario doesn't run away. In fact, they begin a relationship. They become very close and he helps her to bury the bodies of her mother and Cora which were in the cellar. He gets very wet and develops pneumonia and ends up in hospital. Rynn is alone again. She is confronted by creepy Frank that night as he figures out that her dad doesn't exist. He blackmails her. He tells her that he will keep quiet if she gives him sexual favours.Rynn is making tea when she gets the poison her dad left her and puts it into her cup of tea. Frank thinks that she has posioned his cup so he switches them and drinks the poison. He dies as Rynn watches him......

I enjoyed this movie. It was interesting to see Jodie Foster in this movie. I will give it a 7/10.

Batman:Under The Red Hood Movie Review 141

Batman:Under the Red Hood is an animated movie and it is the eight in the DC Universe Animated Original movies line. Bruce Greenwood is the voice of Batman here when usually Kevin Conroy does it. Greenwood does a good job, but to me Kevin Conroy will always be the voice of Batman.The Joker is voiced by John Di Maggio and again, Mark Hamill will always be the voice of The Joker to me. These two quibbles aside, this movie is a very entertaining one with a good story and good action.

The story begins with R'as al Ghul voiced by Jason Isaacs of Brotherhood fame and he is lamenting getting into business with The Joker. We cut to the The Joker beating up Robin in Sarajevo with a crowbar and cackling as he does it which is classic Joker stuff! This Robin is the second Robin who is called Jason Todd. He took over from the original Robin, Dick Grayson, who is now Nightwing. Batman is seen hurrying his way to save Robin but he fails to get there in time. BOOM!!The building explodes and Batman is seen with the dead body of Robin.. Now the credits roll and things get going!!

It is now 5 years later and the Gotham City mob bosses meet up for a chat as they always seem to do! Someone called The Black Mask has taken over the city and they don't know what to do about him. Then out of the shadows, the mysterious Red Hood appears. He offers protection from Black Mask and Batman as long as they pay him 40 percent.To make them comply he shows them a bag full of their top guys' heads. Naturally, they agree!

This sets up a confrontation with Batman later on as Red Hood is part vigilante and part crime lord. Is he a good guy deep down or is he just another bad guy? Who is he? Where did he come from? Jenson Ackles voices the Red Hood with Neil Patrick Harris voicing Nightwing. Wade Williams voices Black Mask and you will recognise his voice as he played Bellick in Prison Break. There are some other great voice work by Gary Cole, Kelly Hu, Phil LaMarr and Dwight Schultz of A Team fame.

The story here is very good and the movie only takes one hour and fifteen minutes. There are some great action scenes with fights and explosions, all leading up to a showdown at the end!! The Joker is involved also and this movie is very good. If you like the animated series of Batman and the animated movies, then you will love this so check it out now!It gets marked down only for the voices of Batman and The Joker as they will always be Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill!!

Batman: Under The Red Hood-8/10

Martyrs Movie Review 140

 Martyrs is a  2008 French horror movie directed by Pascal Laugier and starring  Morjana Alaoui and Mylene Jampanoi.

The movie begins with a young girl running from an abandoned building and she is terrified and screaming. She seems to be injured. Then, we cut to a film of this girl in which it is shown that she was tortured and held captive by unknown persons. She is in an orphanage and she doesn't talk to anyone. A young girl, Anna tries to make friends with the withdrawn girl who is Lucie and they become friends. The police want Anna to help them to find Lucie's tormentors and Anna tries to get Lucie to talk, but she doesn't remember. Lucy has cuts all over her body and Anna thinks that she has done them herself, but there is some creature following her around and it is hurting Lucie. Cut to 15 years later and a normal family are together at the breakfast table. In comes a young woman and she shoots them all. It turns out that she is a grown up Lucie(Mylene Jampanoi). She thinks that the parents in the family were responsible for her capture and torture.

Lucie calls Anna(Morjana Alaoui) and tells her what she has done. Anna comes over to help Lucie clean up the mess.Meanwhile, Lucie is in the house and the creature is with her. It is running around and hurting Lucie every so often. Anna turns up and they get to work cleaning up the mess. It turns out that one of the family are still alive and Anna tries to help them escape but gets caught by Lucie.Lucy kills the survivor and they set about trying to bury them. Lucie is tormented by the creature again and this time, she slits her own throat and dies. Anna is horrified and devastated. She is looking around the house when she finds a secret tunnel. She decides to investigate and it is a torture chamber underneath the house. There is a woman being held captive there. Anna releases her and she tries to  help her, but in come a lot of people with guns. They kill the captive and take Anna. She meets a woman who is the boss of this organisation which tortures young women so that they can find out  about the afterlife. They think that if a young woman experiences enough pain, she will become a martyr and transcend this world and enter the next. These people want to know what happens then.

The woman called Mademoiselle tells Anna that Lucie escaped them 15 years ago. She tells her that the creature after Lucie didn't exist. It was a result of psychological damage caused by her capture and torture. Lucie was hurting herself. She gives the order for Anna to be taken down to a room where she is chained up and tortured and beaten every day. She eventually goes crazy and begins to break down.She begins hallucinating and she thinks about Lucy and even talks to her. People look at her and she is skinned alive. Somehow, she survives this and she tells Mademoiselle what she has discovered as she has become a true martyr. She whispers it in her ear. 

The final scene is where a group of people have come to see Anna and they are gathered together at the request of Mademoiselle. She shoots herself so that nobody can know what Anna told her and that is the end of the movie. This movie was good. I liked it. It was interesting and there are some brutal scenes. All in all, I will give it a 7/10.