There’s nothing like a good documentary. Anvil, I can happily say is one of the best music docu’s I’ve seen. Anvil is the name of a Canadian metal band that has been together for 30 years. Yeah, I never heard of them before this either.

It’s a remarkable human story of dreams and percerveriance. This guys saw their greatest success in the early 1980’s, shorty before Slayer and Metallica hit the scene and became world wide names in music. “Metal on Metal” was their hit and got them as far as touring Japan in a world tour that included Bon Jovi! But something happened. Nothing!

These guys were pretty much forgotten and left for dead. With a tiny fan base, Anvil put out 12 albums (with a fairly steady roster through the years too) independantly. Going from tiny label to tiny label, they never found traction and every single manager they had was garbage. But they never gave up. The original founding members, Lips and Robb swore that they’d make it as metal gods as kids and to this day are still going for it.

It’s a brutal but inspiring story. The documentary follows them while recording their 13th album. Everything from playing tiny shows to hooking back up with their original producer in England. They’re depressed to lose money on a 5 week Euro tour that has to be seen to be believed (I don’t think the manager they had knew what a manger does). They find hope when they hook up with their great old producer and then a huge fight breaks out 6 weeks into recording. They have meaningless jobs back home that barely pay the bills while they stretch everyday to get to that dream, but it always seems to move out of the way…

But there is a silver lining at the end. It doesn’t matter what kind of music you like, Anvil is a human story that everyone should see. And yes, the similarities to Spinal Tap are eerie, but this wacky ride is a real one.

Drag Me to Hell could also be called Evil Dead 4. Director Sam Raimi goes back to his horror roots with this one. Christine, a normal, friendly girl, is a loan officer. One day an old gypsy woman swoops in to her office for a loan extension, which Christine denies to help herself move up the corporate ladder.

Taking a page from Stephen King’s “Thinner”, you don’t upset old gypsy women because they will curse the shitout of you. Christine spends the rest of the movie running from hell, seeking help to break the curse to keep her on this mortal coil.

So if you’ve seen an Evil Dead movie, you know what to expect. The main character is tortured through bizarre and scary events, trying to the last frame of the picture to save their lives. Jump scares, demons, gross out effects, dirt, blood, bugs and a whole lot of yelling is the main course for viewers. While the premise of the movie is actually very scary (if you don’t break the curse, you are literally dragged to hell), the move really isn’t. It’s funny and exciting really. The acting is great, especially Alison Lohman who plays Christine, the effects are top notch and there is actually very little gore. It’s edited just right, sound work is great too, lots of wild surround work done to really push the intensity at you. There are a lot of fantastic scenes in here, I would have loved to have made this movie. The fight in Christines bed room was wild, the feeling of being stalked by something supernatural was perfectly done.

I liked Drag Me to Hell a lot. It’s the kind of material that Raimi excels at (I think the Spider Man movies have been overly praised). It’s not for everyone but as far as I’m concerned it’s worth watching (especially with friends)/

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

This one is a simple affair; summer action blockbuster. It’s based on decades long toy line, G.I. Joe has an ensemble cast that blows shit up (or tries to keep shit from blowing up) around the world for an hour and 25 minutes.

It’s the classic tale of the good guys teaming up to stop the bad guys from taking over the world. And you know what? It works better than Transformers 2 despite it being just as outlandish at times. It’s CG overload, I think 90% of this movie is digital effects. It ranges from passable to very good and honestly I had a good time watching it. Don’t expect Die Hard in terms of quality and you’re good to go.

You can pretty much walk into any Pixar movie and expect to have a good time at the very least. Everyone rates the movies differently, but Pixar is pretty much the only studio on the planet that hits big with every single picture they make. Up doesn’t deviate from that historical line.

78 year old Carl is up for an adventure. Living his life with his beloved wife, she passes away without them going on the big life adventure they always intended to make since they met as kids. After being fed up with all the changes going around him, he decides to give a middle finger to the world and pack up and leave all the kids to ruin things the way they see fit. Except he takes everything that is his. With baloons tied to his house! Just after lift off he finds a stow away passanger, the neighborhood kid Russell. Russell meant well, he just wanted to help old man Carl so he could earn his last Wilderness Explorer badge.

So off the odd pair go, to land in the lost legendary lands somewhere in South America. Up is a touching adventure of two people who are worlds apart that soon discover they have more in common than they ever thought. The typical charm and magic of a Pixar movie is here. Great characters, a solid story, fun dialog and animation to die for. Things do get more juvenile and wacky closer to the end of the movie (dogs flying bi-planes? Okay, aerial dog fight but still) which is pretty rare for a Pixar movie. So while the action gets low brow the movie doesn’t really suffer for it. It’s a great flick for anyone to enjoy.

Watch in confidence. Pixar did make it you know.