Quirky might possible be the word for this site. A young girl thinks that she is actually a warrior cyborg. Unsurprising this is set in a mental institution. Cool music on the load of this site (takes a wee while) leads in to a fairly peculiar experience it has to be said. The movie as a pop up book - go figure!

Smokin' Aces

A super cool website of a super cool movie. Explore the world of snitch Buddy Israel, his friends, his enemies, the enemies of his friends - and so on! The film wasn't considered an example of exemplary movie making but the website is excellent!

The Fountain

To enter, you can choose from the three different time zones that featured in the movie. This is a slightly eerie almost ethereal website which will either hypnotize you or make you click the back button quickly. A weird experience indeed, but then so was the movie! You will either love or hate this site - go take a peek and make your mind up!

The Incredible Hulk

Based on the Marvel Comics character, this film has been wowing audiences since June 2008. This flash based site is hugely entertaining with lots of features to while away the time. There is a real 3D feel to the navigation of this hulking great website, with all the usual giveaways and downloads you would expect from a Summer blockbuster and one or two more unexpected features.

The Eye

This is a genuinely creepy interactive website. A single eye widens as you enter the site and that is the only point of navigation for what seems like a very long spine tingling time indeed. Eventually you will get to the stuff you would usually expect from a movie website but not before you have had one or two little bumps in the night. A good site, perhaps, to load up while your loved one is away from their PC and then sit back and watch their reaction!

REC

Absolutely not for the faint hearted, this Spanish horror flick site invites you to pick up the camera and explore the darker side of an apartment block. Once you realize you cannot get out you have to go and see what is upstairs (with the ever useful spooky music to accompany you). The interface is is English as this site is for the UK release of the Spanish language film, but even if you don't speak the language you will feel the tension!

Kung Fu Panda

You would expect a Dreamworks website to be good and this doesn't disappoint (unless you hate animation). The highlight of this site is the six part Micro-series, “The Legend of The Legendary Warrior” which is, as you might guess, ever so slightly tongue in cheek. There are also downloadable PDF files of the characters from the film which the kids can cut out and build - it will keep them happy for hours (and it's cheap)!

2929

Although this site is not about a specific movie it has links to many upcoming features that could be of interest. The goal of 2929 is to finance and make thought provoking and interesting movies - and not only for mainstream audiences. There are many features on this site and it is one where the movie buff with good taste could spend a very long time indeed!

Night At The Museum

This is a beautifully constructed website that allows you to do some rather odd things. You can have a chat to Attila The Hun in his own language, or visit the Neanderthal exhibit. You can also collect nine glyphs as you go through the museum to unlock a mystery. A great deal of fun, especially if you have bored children around the house!

The Magic Flute

This is an interactive guide to the Kenneth Branagh movie of The Magic Flute opera and as such it offers you of the entire score - over 3000 bars. The bars allow you to access various features, such as learning how to play your own virtual flute, to various interviews with writers and actors. A lovely website that is thoroughly unashamed to be a little higher brow than usual.

The first problem is the length. The movie is scarcely over an hour and a half, not nearly enough time, at least in my opinion, to address such a weighty and ambiguous subject as how we, in our various societies and as individuals, deal with our own impending mortality.

Hugh Jackman and Rachael Weisz play two characters whose lives are irrevocably linked across time. We are first introduced to them as a conquistador named Tomas(Jackman) swears allegiance to Queen Isobel of Spain(Weisz) and vows to locate the Fountain of Youth and the Tree of Life which sprouts from it.

Jumping forward five hundred plus years, Tomas is now Dr. Thomas Creo, a physician who has been performing surgeries on a monkey with a malignant brain tumor in the hopes of finding a way to save his wife, Izzie, now in the terminal stage of cancer. He makes a decision to inject the monkey with extracts taken from an unusual tree discovered in the depths of the rain forest in South America to see if this has any effect on its tumor.

Moving ahead another five hundred plus years, Thomas is now a reluctant, troubled immortal and ascetic, haunted by the ghost of his long dead wife as he carries the Tree of Life through deep space inside a large bubble of atmosphere toward a distant nebula.

This brings me to my second problem with the movie; the seeming lack of continuity. How did Dr. Creo obtain these extracts? And why did he abruptly decide to use them to treat the monkey’s condition? The lonely, immortal Thomas and Dr. Creo seem to be one and the same. If so, how did he eventually locate the Tree of Life? What was the technology that allowed him to enclose the tree in a bubble and sling it out into space? These, to me, seem like very important story and plot points. Some are either mentioned in passing and never brought up again, some are simply not explained. True, this movie is no doubt supposed to spark deep philosophical thought and conversation but the enormous logical and intuitive leaps the filmmakers seem to expect the audience to make are just too great.

The story has great potential and should have made for an intense drama and character study but the final problem that arises, in relation to this complicated storyline, is an all-together lack of character development. Hugh Jackman and Rachael Weisz are both great, versatile performers and it’s clear that they are doing the very best they can with what they have to work with, which isn’t much. But there is no memorable dialog and the actions and reactions of the characters bear no resemblance whatsoever to the behavior of real people in those situations.

The short running length again works against the production and apprehends how much time can be spent with the characters in each time period. There’s barely enough of an opportunity to get to know them in one scene before the film jumps abruptly to the next. There is no chance to get a sense of the emotional turmoil the characters must really be experiencing and thus Tomas/Thomas and Isobel/Izzie begin to seem more like cardboard cut-outs than fully realized individuals. One finds him/herself not being able to care about what happens to them. It’s here that the brisk pace becomes compounded by confusing editing, especially toward the end. And when the three timelines begin to intersect and influence each other all cohesion goes out the window.

Having not seen either of Darren Aronofsky’s other offerings, Pi and Requiem for a Dream, I can’t speak as to his skill as a screenwriter or director but I had heard that the funding for this movie had been cut in half, leaving its budget at $70 million. This is still a handsome sum and one wonders why it wasn’t spent more wisely. Instead of concentrating so much on the look of the film, more time should have been spent on writing a more character driven story. What could have been a stirring and thoughtful meditation on how we deal with death and loss instead seems somehow self-congratulatory on the part of the filmmakers. One gets the uncomfortable feeling that they may have been a bit to clever and a bit too pleased with themselves.

Characters

Tomas/Tommy/Tom Creo: Hugh Jackman

Isabel/Izzi/Iz Creo: Rachel Weisz

Running Time

96 long minutes of my life that I want back.

Don’t see “The Fountain”.

I got dragged out to see this film against my better judgment. I should have listened to myself. The best thing about this film was the popcorn.

I haven’t seen Arnofsky’s other films “Pi” or “Requiem for a Dream” so I don’t know if they stink as bad as this film. If Melville, Dostoevsky, Charles Manson, and the Bahgwan Shri Rajneesh all sat down together to write over a pot of mushroom tea they might have written this but they’d have had the sense not to actually film it.

I almost never summarize a film plot but this time I couldn’t—there isn’t one. Hue should have turned this film down, like Brad Pitt and Russell Crowe did. Rachel Weis was already on probation with me after “The Constant Gardener,” which was a potentially good movie until the last 5 minutes. I’m going to have to through her in the bin with Dianne Keaton where I won’t see a film if she’s in it.

Imagine this film as a deck of cards where each card is a scene and each suit is a plot line. Sort all the heart cards out and throw them away. Now shuffle the three remaining suits together. Now imagine $70 million got cut from your budget (which it did). So you deal the deck into two piles. One pile you throw away and the other you film in sequence. Oh and every time the Ace of Spades comes up you put it back in the deck to be seen again.

What about the “PG-13” Rating?

The violence in this movie isn’t the kind that comes with great action scenes. It’s people dieing stupidly, and one guy whipping himself. There’s some husband and wife play that doesn’t really equate to much and some language.

Larger Story

Spoiler alert. This is a movie about turning yourself into a tree and launching yourself into a dieing star. It’s retarded. There is no larger story here. There is nothing the least bit redeeming about this film.