A first for TBOTAM

I'm slightly tempted to do a mini-film review here, having been stuck on planes for around 20 hours ish with little else to do:

300 = Sinbad meets The Lord Of The Rings with a little eroticism thrown in. 20 years ago this would have sat happily with an X cert, but now butchery is commonplace as film makers reach for greater extremes. The key parts of the story are good, and the acting strong, however the films credibility falls apart with the appearance of monstrous human characters that are utterly unfeasible. The soft porn sections (fortunately only 2 and early on) bring nothing except eye candy, and will probably keep some viewers watching, hoping they'll see more. The biggest flaw is to prop up the human story (which is one of sacrifice and strength) with daft items from the costume department. A little less splattery action would make a much more watchable film too.

Pathfinder = a scaled down '300' set in America 600 years ago. Having seen this a couple of days after 300, the similarity is striking, but the storyline and acting weaker, credibility low and the monochrome 'grittiness' obscuring rather than highlighting detail. Miss.

Ghost rider = a story so weak it should never have left the cartoon. The hero made a pact with the devil to do various unlikely things that are good for mankind. He rides a chopper wearing immaculate black leather jacket and jeans, and this plus his receding hairline makes him look like the father of the bikes owner. His girlfriend also appears at least 10 years younger, despite having been contemporaries, although with cinema who knows? This is a film with too much Hollywood theology and not enough of anything else except industrial light and magic. Miss.

There was one more, but that was so forgettable I can't remember ANYTHING about it right now. Maybe later, but for now my scathing gland is empty.

Ah yes, got it.

Shrek the third coming = a nice family film in the same mold as the rest. There's nothing really fresh here, so much as a mix and match of what's been before. There is nothing wrong with that, and the film is quite enjoyable, although with a slight sense of deja vu. Because of the lack of novelty there's little that will stick in the mind as high moments. Puss and Donkey swapping bodies was a great idea, but wasn't exploited quite enough to really sparkle. Having said that, I'm not sure how much longer I could continue watching fairy tale characters wise-cracking, no matter how good the CGI. Overall definitely worth seeing, if for no other reason than to complete the set.