The Eye is a remake of the Hong Kong Psychological Horror Jian Gui but of course with the added Hollywood gloss of Jessica Alba. This time around the story is directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud.

Sydney Wells was blinded in an accident at 5 years of age, after having one failed cornea transplant at the age of 12 she managed to build quite a successful life for herself as an accomplished violinist. The tale of horror begins after she finally has a cornea transplant after what seems to be her persistent sister begging her to. All is not well with these new eyes as Sydney quickly realises what she’s seeing isn’t what every one else does. Just who did these eyes belong to before her?, why does the world keep changing around her? And why do spectral entities keep appearing?

I can’t say I was overly excited about seeing this film, after having seen Jian Gui several years ago and jumping out of my skin on several occasions I couldn’t see a need for a remake. Sadly this film seems to go down the same murky and disappointing road as every other Asian Horror Hollywood remake. The story just don’t translate as well within American culture. The acting was at times very wooden and the story wasn’t handled at all well, being full of cheap glossed over thrills which I can only see being enjoyable on DVD if there happened to be alcoholic beverages involved. If you want to see a genuinely scary, psychological horror then rent Jian Gui and leave this mess in the bargain bucket. This film was only made for those who are unwilling to watch a by far superior version due to it being subtitled. My advice go see the Orphanage instead.

Lars and The Real Girl is a odd but touching black comedy directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Six Feet Under writer Nancy Oliver. Ryan Gosling is Lars an eccentric, shy recluse who lives in his elder brothers garage in a small town.

One day Lars has a surprise visitor whom he met over the internet, he excitedly introduces Bianca to his bewildered brother and his brothers wife played by Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer. At first hearing the news they are all overwhelmed with joy that Lars may finally have found a nice girl, of course Bianca is no ordinary girl she is in fact a sex doll that Lars ordered over the internet. Lars appears to have developed a mental condition where he believes Bianca is actually a living breathing person, who he just happens to be in love with. After initially panicking his family rush Lars to see the local doctor who explains to them the only possible cure of Lars’ delusion is for them to all just play along with it and make Bianca feel as welcome as possible. As you can only guess an interesting and often at times comical series of events unfolds as the town welcomes Bianca their unconventional guest with open arms.

I will definitely say this film is different and often refreshingly so. I do enjoy unconventional relationships, this pretty much being as unconventional as you could possibly get. The acting is superb and at times the script is pure genius, I did feel that what initially started off as an extremely interesting idea did run out of steam towards the end. Sadly the final moments of the film weren’t as memorable or inventive as I hoped they would be. I would recommend this film if you want to see a film that’s heart warming, comical and makes you consider what it is to be human but I do think the film could have been more ground breaking. A very enjoyable if not strange viewing delight.

Most avid anime and manga fans will have heard of Death Note. A chilling tale about how godly power can turn a human being into a true monster.

Very familiar fans of the series will recall the characters L and Naomi Misora mentioning that they had worked on a case together. This light-novel documents that exact case, from the point of view of Mello: One of L’s potential successors. It grants an insight into both L’s life and Mello’s persona and let’s loose some of the secrets behind Wammy’s House. At the same time, it documents the unravelling of one of the most complicated cases L had to solve before the Kira case.

I have not read any previous works by Nisioisin but from my research I have learned that he is very popular in Japan and specialises in light-novels. Upon reading Another Note, I have no reason to doubt his popularity. His writing style is very unique, almost informal whilst being formal, as oxymoronic as that seems. It is easy to read while, at the same time, it doesn’t loose the quality of a fully-fledged novel.

His writing really allows a glimpse into Naomi’s thought patterns and cleverly documents Ryuzaki’s strange behaviour while constantly reminding us it is Mello who is telling the tale: Sniping in his own opinions when you least expect it. This, in fact, leads to some quite comical reading part-ways through the story.

The most interesting feature of Nisioisin’s writings is that you are always made aware of what Naomi is thinking. This usually takes place in one word sentences after she speaks, potentially with some elaboration. However, one word is all that is needed as it represents a thought: A fleeting opinion that has left Misora’s head as soon as you have read it. This technique adds another layer to Naomi’s character and gives you a deeper look into her personality which can carry over into the manga seamlessly.

The case itself is a complicated web of extravagant clues and ridiculously hard puzzles that Naomi and L are left to piece together. This process is portrayed to us well, through dialogue and action. I myself only managed to work out one critical clue before the characters did but that is part of the fun of this book. See if you can beat Naomi and L to it.

In closing, any fan of Death Note should read this book. It gives valuable information on L’s character and allows you to see Mello from another point of view, too. Whilst reading Death Note, I did not have much respect for Mello. Since reading Another Note, I see him in a different light.

Be warned, however: The strange thing about the setting of this story is that it is set before Death Note but in the form of notes made by Mello during Death Note, so pieces of information that are introduced in the manga are mentioned. In other words, it contains spoilers.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Kimi Raikkonen got his title defence back on track with a dominant victory for Scuderia Ferrari in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The world champion had a frustrating race last weekend in Melbourne, with two driving errors at turn 3 followed by an engine failure. Making up for that disappointment, the Iceman drove a perfect race here in Sepang beating Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber and Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren.

Australian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton struggled with race pace. It didn’t help that he was demoted down five positions due to ‘blocking other cars’ during Q3 in which Lewis and team-mate Kovalainen was at fault… Adding insult to injury, Lewis had a problem in his first pit stop with the right-front tyre (the wheel nut locking mechanism failed). Without these problems, the championship leader could have finished on the podium. Fifth was the best Lewis could have hoped for…

The manner in which Kimi Raikkonen dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix means Ferrari has finally reveal the true pace of the F2008. Though the performance from the blue and white cars (BMW Sauber) could suggest that this championship battle may be a three-way fight. Kubica’s second place finish follows on from team-mate Nick Heidfeld’s impressive result in Australia. Both drivers have now finished in second position in two consecutive races. In addition, this was the Pole’s first podium since the 2006 Italian Grand Prix.

Sure, Kubica benefited from Felipe Massa’s spin on lap 31 to take the runner-up spot, but the German team do have genuine pace to keep up with the top two teams in Formula One. It will be a matter of when BMW scores its first victory this season.

For Massa, the pole sitter was baffled in how he lost control of his Ferrari while running second. It was the Brazilian’s second consecutive retirement following an engine problem in Australia and with no points in these two races, Felipe faces a difficult challenge to regain lost ground over Hamilton and Raikkonen. The cause of the spin remains a mystery but I believe he may have accelerated a bit too aggressively…

In Melbourne at the first corner, Massa lost the back end of his car in a bid to out-accelerate Heikki Kovalainen. This resulted him to hit the tyre wall but he was fortunate enough to get away with only a damaged front wing.

And as he pirouetted out of the Malaysian Grand Prix in a spin, it points to the hallmarks of a driver asking too much on his rear tyres… The Ferrari team admitted afterwards they couldn’t see anything obviously wrong from the car’s telemetry. A potential one-two result for Scuderia ended with a beached Ferrari in the gravel…

Finishing in fourth went to Toyota’s Jarno Trulli who managed to resist a late race charge from Lewis Hamilton. Nick Heidfeld was sixth while Mark Webber scored two points for Red Bull Racing after the team started the weekend poorly.

Close behind Webber was Fernando Alonso, who scored the final remaining point. He finished six seconds ahead of the second Red Bull of David Coulthard, with Jenson Button rounding out the top ten in the Honda.

Despite the poor race for Lewis Hamilton, the Brit retains the drivers’ championship lead with 14 points but following Raikkonen’s commanding victory here in Sepang, the Iceman is only three points behind. In the constructors’ chase, McLaren Mercedes leads with 24, ahead of BMW Sauber on 19 and Ferrari on 11.

Malaysian Grand Prix result - 56 laps

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1h31m18.555s
2. KUBICA BMW +19.5s
3. KOVALAINEN McLaren +38.4s
4. TRULLI Toyota +45.8s
5. HAMILTON McLaren +46.5s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +49.8s
7. WEBBER Red Bull +1m08.1s
8. ALONSO Renault +1m10.0s
9. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m16.2s
10. BUTTON Honda +1m26.2s
11. PIQUET Renault +1m32.2s
12. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
13. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
14. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
16. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
17. NAKAJIMA Williams +2 laps
R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +17 laps
R. MASSA Ferrari +26 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +51 laps
R. GLOCK Toyota +55 laps
R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +56 laps

Fastest lap: HEIDFELD 1m35.366s

World Championship standings, round 2:

Drivers:
1. Hamilton 14
2. Raikkonen 11
3. Heidfeld 11
4. Kovalainen 10
5. Kubica 8
6. Rosberg 6
7. Alonso 6
8. Trulli 5
9. Nakajima 3
10. Webber 2
11. Bourdais 2

Constructors:
1. McLaren-Mercedes 24
2. BMW Sauber 19
3. Ferrari 11
4. Williams-Toyota 9
5. Renault 6
6. Toyota 5
7. Red Bull-Renault 2
8. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2

NEXT ROUND: Bahrain Grand Prix, Bahrain International Circuit. April 6.

After the disappointment of Melbourne, Ferrari strikes back with a commanding performance in qualifying in Sepang, with Felipe Massa taking his second consecutive pole position.

The Brazilian lapped the Malaysian circuit with a time of one minute, 35.748 seconds, half a second quicker than his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The margin between the pair suggest Massa is running light… No matter, the red cars were comfortably faster than the McLaren pair of Heikki Kovalainen and Australian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton.

Unfortunately, the Woking team’s prospect of challenging their main championship rivals took a dive after the race stewards decided to dock the McLaren drivers five places on the grid, for blocking other cars in Q3…

How did this happen? After completing their laps in Q3, both Heikki and Lewis started to save fuel by touring around the track at a reduced pace… on the racing line! This meant that faster drivers such as BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld and Renault’s Fernando Alonso had to dodge through the field. This was unsporting and dangerous. The race stewards made the right call with McLaren accepting the punishment.

With the silver cars push down to eighth and ninth (Kovalainen and Hamilton respectively), the top ten of the grid move up two positions. Jarno Trulli – who was fastest of all in Q1 – is promoted to third for Toyota. Alongside the renowned qualifying expert is Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber followed by team-mate Nick Heidfeld. Mark Webber lines up in an impressive sixth for Red Bull Racing with double world champion Fernando Alonso in seventh for Renault. Completing the top ten is Timo Glock in the second Toyota, just edging out Honda’s Jenson Button.

After the highs of Melbourne, Williams’ Nico Rosberg was frustrated by his qualifying pace and could do no better than P16. That is much better than his team-mate Kazuki Nakajima, who will start at the back following his ten-place grid penalty after crashing into Kubica last weekend… As for Nelson Piquet, the Renault driver seemed to be more comfortable here compare to Melbourne. The Brazilian was unlucky not to out-pace his team-mate Alonso and will line up in P13.

With the Ferraris up front and the McLarens down in the mid-field, Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix will be fascinating. Heavy rain is expected during the course of the race and with no traction control, driving these powerful single-seaters in tricky conditions will certainly test the drivers’ skills to the extreme!

Revised Malaysian Grand Prix starting grid

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:35.748
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:36.230
3. TRULLI Toyota 1:36.711
4. KUBICA BMW 1:36.727
5. HEIDFELD BMW 1:36.753
6. WEBBER Red Bull 1:37.009
7. ALONSO Renault
 1:38.450
8. KOVALAINEN McLaren* 1:36.613
9. HAMILTON McLaren* 1:36.709
10. GLOCK Toyota 1:39.656
11. BUTTON Honda 1:35.208
12. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:35.408
13. PIQUET Renault 1:35.562
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:35.622
15. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1:35.648
16. ROSBERG Williams 1:35.670
17. FISICHELLA Force India 1:36.240
18. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso 1:36.677
19. SATO Super Aguri 1:37.087
20. SUTIL Force India 1:37.101
21. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:37.481
22. NAKAJIMA Williams** 1:36.388

* Penalised 5 places for impeding Heidfeld
** Penalised 10 places for Melbourne incident

Japan has appointed Doraemon as it’s first ever Anime diplomat, it is hoped that by acting as a charm ambassador he will promote Japanese culture and ‘make friends by travelling the world’. As Japan’s foreign minister Masahiko Komura looked on Doraemon (or more precisely someone in a character costume) said,

“Through my work, I will do my best to tell people in foreign countries about what Japanese think, how Japanese live and what kind of future the Japanese hope to make,”

Only in Japan would an anime blue and white robo-cat become a diplomat, I eagerly await his official debut as Ambassador and good luck to Doraemon, I believe he has a good message.

I’ll try to keep this going every month with the release schedule in the UK, if there are any missing then just let me know and I can add them here!

Monday, 17th Mar 2008
Final Fantasy Unlimited Complete Collection - ADV Films
Shadow Skill #6 - ADV Films

Monday, 24th Mar 2008
Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad #3 - Revelation Films
Crest of the Stars Box Set - Beez
Gunbuster 2 - Beez
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny #10 - Beez
Moon Phase #5 - Revelation Films
Peach Girl #4 - Revelation Films
S-CRY-ED Box Set - Beez
Stratos 4 Box Set - Beez

Monday, 31st Mar 2008
Guyver: The Bioboosted Armour #5 - ADV Films
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Box Set 1 - Beez

Ones that stand out for me are the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Box Set, Gundam Seed Destiny and GunBuster 2. Gunbuster 2 was a great laugh and I shall see if I can get a review for it once its out!

Or Break(s) the Ice to be more exact, Britney Spears has released a new Anime style music video for her song “Break the Ice”. The Animation production was done jointly by Korean company Motif RMC and Los Angeles based HSI Productions, with the post production being carried out by 310 studios and the animation itself created by Korean Studio Animal. What will be interesting now is what impact this video actually has on the western world when it comes to anime. I believe most people are aware this video is a clever PR stunt by JIVE due to Britney being in no current condition to star in the video herself. I’m unsure if it is just me but the video appears to draw heavily on Anime classics such as GitS and I am also reminded of the animated sequences used in Kill Bill.

Whatever the impact on the anime industry or indeed the reception by anime fans, I’m sure Britney will end up with a hit on her hands and a very interesting video to add to her repertoire. Only time will tell if other bands will choose to follow suit and embrace anime yet again as a clever marketing ploy, one wonders if this will start a resurgence of anime influenced music videos. Either way the video is an interesting watch.

The Other Boleyn Girl is a historical romp directed by Justin Chadwick and based on the best selling novel by Philippa Gregory. The film stars Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Scarlett Johansson as her sister Mary Boleyn with Eric Banna as Henry VIII.

As you can guess by the title the film it’s about The other Boleyn girl i.e. Mary, who was a one time mistress to Henry VIII prior to his marriage to her elder (or according to some historical evidence younger) sister Anne. I always loved Tudor history and given Anne’s renowned feisty nature I though this could indeed be a very interesting film. The film is extensively about sibling rivalry with Anne the feisty, precocious schemer and Mary the quiet, homely and beautiful even though she is unaware sister. When the Boleyn family find out Henry is unhappy in his marriage to Catherine, the family sets about a scheme to raise the families power within the court. This involves using the Boleyn sisters to woo and eventually bed the unhappy king.

Given this is a historical film we all know what eventually happens, Anne marries Henry and sets about the establishment of the protestant church within England. She also causes uproar within the country as a whole, is accused of incest and eventually loses her head. The film looks great as most historical epics do but I can’t help but find the meat of the story really lacking. I have heard a lot of the book was cut out due to the wish of the films makers to keep the piece closer to the historical truth. I’m unsure who you are indeed meant to sympathise with as I personally prefer Anne to Mary even though she is difficult and egocentric not to mention very cunning. I was hoping for more from this film but it left me not feeling much apart from when Anne took to the scaffold at the end of the film, where I did feel for her and how misguided she was even though she did indeed cause her troubles herself.

I would say wait for the DVD with this one unless you want to just see Natalie or Scarlett on the huge screen in corsets, as I can’t exactly say this film was bodice rippingly good.

The Orphanage (El Orfanato) is a Mexican psychological Horror/ Thriller Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. Let me begin by saying I personally adore Spanish/Mexican Horror, I believe they do the whole psychological aspect as well as the best Asian cinema, but with a little fairy tale flare added to the mix. So when I heard about this film at Fright Fest I was literally chomping at the bit to see it. I know there have been a lot of comparisons with Pan’s Labyrinth due to Guillermo del Toro’s name being tied in with this film but I must say this is all together a different beast but as thrilling a ride as the other title.

Laura once an orphan is delighted to find her childhood home for sale, she instantly decides to embark on running the orphanage but this time for handicapped children. Upon moving into the old house her son Simon begins to communicate with an invisible friend. When Simon goes missing without a trace, Laura goes on a frantic search to find him, but is he indeed missing or are children just playing games.

I really loved this film, anything that can have me jumping in my seat and close to tears the next minute is a winner in my book. There are so many twists and turns in the plot, the film looks sumptuous and there are many thrills and jumps on the way to the films dramatic conclusion. I will say I did guess the end about half way in but I won’t reveal any details. If you want a thoroughly good psychological horror this is the film for you.

Visit The Orphanage they are all waiting to play with you.