Hollywood studios just loves franchises. That ability to take an inbuilt audience and milk them through numerous sequels, prequels and all the associated merchandise is just too good to give up on. In Salt Sony Pictures knew they had a potential franchise, but when Tom Cruise dropped out (to focus [...]

Ever wondered what would happen if you assembled every action star of the 80′s and made a super-team of elite fighters? Well wonder no more as with The Expendables Sylvester Stallone manages to (almost) do just that by teaming up with Dolph Lundgren, Jet-Li, Jason Statham, Steve Austin, Randy Couture, [...]

So you work at Disney, or more specifically for Jerry Bruckheimer, and he comes in one day and goes “we have done a movie about a theme-park ride and a movie about a videogame…what’s next? Ideas anyone?” This has to be how The Sorcerer’s Apprentice came about, with the idea [...]

James Mangold is responsible for two remarkably good movies in Walk the Line and 3:10 to Yuma. Tom Cruise is the biggest star on the planet with a string of box-office hits and an entire franchise based on him playing a spy. Cameron Diaz is easily one of the funniest [...]

The original Karate Kid is one of those movies, you know the kind, not particularly brilliant but memorable and special in an unexplainable way. Daniel-san and Mr. Miyagi are once in a generation characters that transcend their medium to become pop-culture legends. While the sequels diminished the originals power it [...]

“If you’ve got a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them…maybe you can hire , The A-Team.” Those immortal lines mean so much to a generation. They stood for action, adventure, intrigue and just plain old good fun. With the benefit of hindsight the show [...]

The origin of Toy Story 3 is important for one simple reason. It almost wasn’t a Pixar movie at all. In 2004, in the middle of heated arguments between Disney and Pixar, then Disney chairman Michael Eisner decided to make a third movie based on the Toy Story franchise it [...]

For an Irish movie site I never get to focus enough on Irish movies. Largely they are a disappointment so when a good one comes along it’s a glorious day. What we have here however is not just a good one. It’s a magnificent one. What would happen if you got [...]

We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all movies based on video-games are crap. With that in mind let’s look at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which is based on a…video-game…oh well never mind. Prince of Persia (I’m not repeating that name all the time) tells the story [...]

Robin Hood is one of those enduring characters of English legend. His cunning, his daring, his leadership and friendship and of course his love affair with the fair Maid Marion is a story that has survived retelling for hundreds of years. Such a story and such a [...]