Elementary, My Dear Watson!

If you're a fan of director Guy Ritchie's older movies like Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver and RocknRolla, you're in for a treat. Sherlock Holmes has most of his signature moves and with added thrills. Throw in a mystery to be solved and you get quite a hit, literally.

Robert Downey Jr can't seem to shake off the image of being Tony Stark in Iron Man. He is every bit as witty and funny in this one, with a touch or quirky personality. It was enjoyable watching him with the violin, trying to piece together mysteries that he can't understand or solve.

Jude Law had onscreen presence that rivalled RDJ, which made him almost an equal when bringing out Dr Watson, or in some newspaper reviews, Dr Hot-son! Sherlock's ever trusty counterpart and some times faithful companion.

In a good movie, you never have to take off your clothes for the actors to portray their characters. With the exception of the boxing scenes of course! Slow motion moves to disable their opponents brought us back to producer Joel Silver trying to do bullet-time action scenes. It worked better here than in his other movies like Romeo Must Die, which was absolutely horrible. The mysterious man actually turned out to be Holmes arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty, of course, those of you who do not know who this diabolical rival is, I suggest you start reading all those Sherlock Holmes books soon, because it sets the stage for a sequel.

Through it all, this action-mystery does have its flaws. I for one do not remember Holmes having eidetic memory, in other words, I never knew he could photograph or remember scenes or events to piece together and solve a mystery, something Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never really revealed. Though it was interesting, it reminded me of watching Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code trying to piece together the riddle to open the cryptex in that movie. Or watching an episode of Psych trying to piece together pieces of the puzzle to get the whole picture, while pretending he's a psychic!

Oh and Holmes does NOT say the famous words, "Elementary, my dear Watson." in this movie at all - a bit of a disappointment there. Perhaps in the sequel, they will remember to add that in!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and thought that, like some reviewers have said, it was a bold interpretation of one of the most famous fictional detectives in the UK and would highly recommend that you watch it too!

One of Guy Ritchie's better ones!

4 out of 5 stars

AVATAR - Movie Of The Year

Avatar should be watched the way it was originally intended to be watched, in 3-dimension or 3D. This movie will probably win plenty of awards, I find that it's probably the best movie of this year.

The level of detail that went into creating and filming this movie was unsurpassed. I was totally taken in by the detail of every single thing, from the bioluminsence in the forest of Pandora to the HUD or Heads-Up Displays present in all the aircrafts and computer systems on the base. James Cameron has always been known to push the limits of movie-making, merging computer, technology and other forms of digital media and combining it into a blockbuster movie. At the same time, he always manages to combine all these elements into a beautifully woven and very human story.

His fantasy sci-fi terms are not bombastic, they're easy to remember and to relate to, so that you don't go out of your way to try to understand things in the movie and get side-tracked. Using an alien culture to tell a very human story isn't all that different from Star Trek or other sci-fi novels. It always takes something that you need to relate to, for you to actually understand how bad it actually is.

The plot of the movie, a more advanced alien culture sets up a beach-front in your native land. You are one in tune with the land, with tribes and clans still using bows and arrows but giving back to the land in a most spiritual way. This reminded me of native American culture, the red indians, who are in sync with their land and culture, and who had Americans chase them from their land.

However, having said all that, Avatar does have its minor flaws. James Cameron likes to make use of previous actors from his other movies, Sigourney Weaver for example. At the same time, the movie had a plot that was rather predictable, in that, whenever they mention something, 20 minutes later, it became reality, it's almost like foreshadowing events. But these flaws did not overshadow the technologically amazing movie.

Sam Worthington caught my attention in Terminator Salvation. He has reinforced my belief that he will be one of the great and rising actors of our time, on par with all the other Aussie actors like Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett.

Highly, highly recommended movie. If you haven't watched it in 3D yet, make it a point to do so, you won't regret it.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Changing Times Ahead?

A few weeks ago, the people of Switzerland voted to end Muslimisation of their country.

Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets, barring construction of the mosque towers in a strong vote that put Switzerland at the forefront of a European backlash against a growing Muslim population.

It is extremely painful for me to watch the continent become a province of Islam. This news from Switzerland, a nation that hosts so many wealthy sons of Allah, is a prime example of the bold moves that are necessary to protect each country, to preserve its history and keep its rich culture intact.

Finally the citizens of Europe are realising the destructive growth and take-over of Muslims and their “culture.” I always knew that Europe would wake up; I was just disappointed and still am disappointed that it actually took them this long. Thankfully this awakening has led to legal changes against the Islamic infiltration in many countries. In France and Germany they have banned the wearing or use of burqas in schools. As well, mosques and minaret construction projects in Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have been met by protesters who stand firm in protecting their country’s identity.

The citizens of Switzerland have spoken out and they do not want the Islamic barbarians coming in and erasing the distinctiveness of their country anymore. The government and politicians consistently employ their self-serving political correctness at the expense of their people. Government leaders across the globe are acting as mere puppets singing whatever tune the Middle-Eastern countries want them to—simply for oil gains and election wins. But the general public no longer wants to play these games.

I am proud of Switzerland for telling its government and the world that this Islamic invasion must stop. European citizens cannot sit by and watch while Muslim extremists tear down ancient Christian churches to build mosques, bulldozing freedoms to impose their intolerance and corrupting democracy to place Islamic followers above any law and suspicion that they deserve.

Europeans use the word Muslimisation to describe the immigration and fast breeding of Middle-Eastern citizens in their countries. This infestation has led many Europeans to refer to their continent as Eurabia. There is no question why this moniker is used.

In Marseilles, Muslims have immigrated in like a destructive plague to take up over a quarter of the population and they are steadily encroaching on the majority line. A city formerly known for its stunning architecture and thriving culture now boasts a predominate landscape of the intolerant worship grounds of mosques.

Yet in Islamic countries, there is no allowance to build even the tiniest of churches. All non-Muslim countries should forbid the building of mosques until all Muslim countries allow churches and synagogues to be built. Why should we continue to be tolerant to their bullying intolerance? A popular French joke is, "Marseilles is the first Muslim Republic of France.” Well if you stop and think it’s not that funny because statistically in just thirty-nine years France will actually become an Islamic Republic.

Soon Europe as we know it will cease to exist. The next generation will never experience the great and vast cultures of the continent.

The Muslim population in Europe is continuing to rapidly grow at a speed incomparable to the Christian, Jewish and Buddhist populations COMBINED. They are gloriously multiplying with the purpose of overpowering and taking over the population.

The thirty-one countries of the European Union only have a fertility rate of 1.38, meaning that statistically EU couples are only producing 1.38 children together. This cannot sustain the population with the extremely high rate of Islamic immigration and repopulation. In France the fertility rate is 1.8 children per family and the Muslim fertility rate there is a staggering 8.1 children per family.

Germany is the first country to address this alarming fact. The government has stated, “The fall in the [German] population can no longer be stopped. Its downward spiral is no longer reversible…It will be a Muslim state by the year 2050.”

Devastatingly, Europe will be left with only the Islamic “culture.” I use the word culture loosely because where Islam was once a rich culture filled with astronomy, mathematics, art and history, all that is being brought to western countries now are their minarets, the abuse of social security, barbarism, intolerance, forced marriages, polygamy, wife beatings, burqas, gay bashings, female genital mutilations, honour killings and terrorism.

We have created a civilisation that is the opposite of the Islamic society. We went through centuries to create our world. We persevered through the Age of Enlightenment, the Renaissance, through women’s rights, civil rights, and countless liberations. We went through all of this and we cannot let Muslim society drag us back to the medieval era by means of terror, immigration and fighting us with our own system of democracy. I am not claiming our society is perfect but it is drastically different that the brutal inhumanity of Islam.

Europeans want their Europe back. But is it too late? Is Europe to suffer the fate of Christian Lebanon? Before the 1970’s the country was called the Riviera of the Middle East…and then it was Muslimised. The demographics changed and churches were turned into mosques and the once crowded beaches now sit empty. There were tourists coming from around the world to the welcoming nation and now there are none, thanks to the millions of Muslims that settled in invaded Lebanon. The country is now the war-torn nation of Hezbollah.

With Switzerland’s ban on minarets, I am sure that we will soon see hundreds of thousands of Muslims taking to the streets burning cars and destroying anything that they can get their hands on, as they did in the French riots of 2005 and the riots that occurred all over Europe when the Dutch published cartoons that satirised Islamic prophet Mohammad.

But with this ban the turning-point has begun. Europe must hold strong against the forceful Islamic take-over. Not just Europe, each and every country must preserve the uniqueness of their culture, architecture, values and humanity. I am optimistic; it’s just a question of time.

I have nothing against the Muslim community or Islam, in fact, I admired what Islam used to be, but extremists have twisted religion into blind, fanatical devotion, filled with terrorism that scare even their own people, which does not speak for the rest of their religion.

And that to me, is complete heresy!