The Wrestler (2008) 8/10

Starring : Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
Director : Darren Aronofsky
Running Time : 110 mins

Professional wrestler Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson (Rourke) has led a hard life, his only compensation is his strange relationship with a stripper named Cassidy (Tomei), but when he suffers a heart attack he is forced to give up wrestling and take it easy, starting a job in a store rather than in a ring, but he soon starts to miss his old life and despise his new one, seeking to get back into wrestling even though doing so could kill him.

Simply put, Mickey Rourke was made for this role. His over the top hair and his look of someone who’s been treated badly by life makes this movie all the more believable. His characters wish to basically end his life by doing the sport he loves is a violent yet touching story. And at the age of 44, Marisa Tomei still looks sensational!

You’ll like this if you liked : Blood Sport

No Reservations (2007) 7/10

Starring : Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin, Patricia Clarkson
Director : Scott Hicks
Running Time : 105 mins

Kate (Zeta-Jones) is the head chef at a flash restaurant who is such a perfectionist she can't take criticism from anyone, but when her sister dies in a car crash she is forced to change her life to take care of her niece Zoe (Breslin). But with her away from work, her boss employs a new chef, Nick (Eckhart), to take over some of her duties, much to Kate's distaste.

I was expecting this to be something of a slapstick comedy, but instead it’s more of a light hearted drama with Zeta-Jones character having to make changes in her life to accommodate her niece. In spite of this disappointment this was still pretty entertaining, largely thanks to Eckhart’s character who teaches Zeta-Jones that life isn’t all about work.

You’ll like this if you liked : About A Boy

A Dirty Shame (2004) 5/10

Starring : Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, Chris Isaak
Director : John Waters
Running Time : 89 mins

Sylvia Stickles (Ullman) is the ultimate prude, refusing sex to her husband Vaughn (Isaak) and keeping her overly enhanced stripper daughter Caprice (Blair) under house arrest, but when Sylvia receives a bump on the head she wakes up with an irresistable urge to have sex all the time with anyone who'll come her way.

This one-joke comedy goes to every extreme to make each joke slightly grosser than the last. What starts off as an interesting idea - that an accidental blow to the head can turn anyone into a sex addict - soon spirals into a basic list of all sorts of sexually depraved acts. There are some initial funny moments, but overall they're just too few and far between to make this a repeatedly watchable movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Cry-Baby

Beowulf & Grendel (2005) 6/10

Starring : Gerard Butler, Stellan Skarsgard, Sarah Polley, Eddie Marsan
Director : Sturla Gunnarsson
Running Time : 100 mins

The Danish Lord Beowulf (Butler), at the request of King Hrothgar (Skarsgard), leads a troop of brave warriors against a monster known as Grendel that has been terrorising a local village, but Beowulf soon discovers that the so called monster is simply as vengeful man, a revelation that forces him to re-evaluate his place in the world.

The makers of this movie really went to town on changing the whole legend of Beowulf. After a while it becomes clear that their version of Grendel isn’t even depicted as a monster. Characters are added, removed, and generally messed about with. So anyone who has ever read the epic poem will be bitterly disappointed. However, fans of old fashioned sword and sorcery style movies might find something to like in this.

You’ll like this if you liked : Conan The Barbarian

Head Over Heels (2001) 6/10

Starring : Monica Potter, Freddie Prinze Jr, China Chow, Shalom Harlow, Ivana Milicevic, Sarah O'Hare
Director : Mark Water
Running Time : 82 mins

Art curator Amanda (Potter) moves in with a quartet of models, and finds out that their window over looks the apartment of Jim Winston (Prinze) who she has a crush on, but when she thinks she sees him murder a woman in cold blood, she and her model friends find themselves thrown into an impromptu investigation which could put their own lives in danger.

This starts off incredibly slowly, and it's hard to tell what's going to happen in the first half an hour but, once the apparent murder happens, it becomes clear what direction the film makers are going in. Sadly it's all a case of too little too late as, by the time the comedy of errors really gets going it becomes hard to care what happens. Still, there are some okay toilet humour jokes thrown in which help a little.

You’ll like this if you liked : Down To You

Beautiful Dreamer (2006) 6/10

Starring : Brooke Langton, Colin Egglesfield, James Denton
Director : Terri Farley-Teruel
Running Time : 87 mins

After going missing during the second World War, a fighter pilot named Joe (Egglesfield) is presumed dead by everyone including his wife Claire (Langton), but when she finds him living in a small town Claire discovers that he’s been suffering from amnesia for the past five years and doesn’t remember anything about his life before the war.

Although pretty slow in places, and pretty basic in terms of plot, this still had a heart to it that many will enjoy. The relationship of Joe and Claire straining due to the events of the war is something that I’m sure a lot of older viewers could sympathise with and as such will appeal to an audience of both older people and those who just enjoy a good old fashioned love story.

You’ll like this if you liked : Pearl Harbour

Inkheart (2008) 7/10

Starring : Brendan Fraser, Sienna Guillory, Eliza Hope Bennett, Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis
Director : Iain Softley
Running Time : 101 mins

Mo Folcgart (Fraser) has the ability to read books and pull items and characters from them. Years after his wife was pulled into a novel entitled Inkheart, he finally comes across a copy of the out of print novel and, with the help of his daughter Meggie (Bennett) and an escaped character named Dustfinger (Bettany), he tries to get his wife back from the clutched of the evil Capricorn (Serkis).

This is a thoroughly enjoyable children's movie which doesn't suffer from being too preachy or from talking down to kids. The cast are perfect in their roles, and the creation of the novel within a movie is well played and makes for interesting viewing. This is great for kids and adults alike.

You’ll like this if you liked : City Of Ember

Flawless (2007) 6/10

Starring : Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Lambert Wilson, Joss Ackland
Director : Michael Radford
Running Time : 105 mins

As one of the first high ranking business women in the US, Laura Quinn (Moore) has some pretty big boots to fill, but as her ideas are ignored then stolen by her colleagues, she finally becomes bitter about the whole ordeal, until maintenance man Mr Hobbs (Caine) suggests to her a way to get her own back on her bosses by stealing a valuable jewel.

This is a nice twist on the usual heist movie that seem to come along in droves, and despite some mediocre performances from all involved the story is still reasonably engrossing enough to keep a viewer watching. The beginning and ending sequences, with Moore as an old woman talking to a reporter, felt a little unnecessary in my opinion, but worked well just the same.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Italian Job

Classic Friday : Laputa Castle In The Sky (1986) 7/10

Starring : Anna Paquin, James Van Der Beek, Mark Hamill
Director : Hayao Miyazaki
Running Time : 125 mins

Young Orphan Pazu (Van Der Beek) has his whole world turned around when young girl Sheeta (Paquin) falls from the sky into his life. She possesses a crystal which was once part of a Levitation Stone, a device used to enable ancient cities to float in the air, and Pazu and Sheeta find thesmelves fighting governments and pirates as the search for Laputa, the last of the castles of the ancient floating cities.

In spite of being something of a disappointing follow up to Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, Miyazaki's unmistakeable style is still present and oozes through every scene of this movie. Although not as impressive, this definitely helped pave the way for the later movies of the now established Studio Ghibli and is certainly well worth checking out.

You’ll like this if you liked : Nausicaa Of the Valley Of The Wind

Milk (2008) 7/10

Starring : Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch
Director : Gus Van Sant
Running Time : 129 mins

Disatisfied with the way gay people are treated in his local community, Harvey Milk (Penn) decides to run for office in an attempt to make the world more equal for not only gays but for minorities and the elderly. Unfortunately his aim to make teh world a better place is seen by some to be a race for power, and he slowly makes some very dangerous enemies.

Although incredibly slow in places, this is a reasonably interesting biopic of the later life of Harvey Milk. Though we already know how the story will end, it is no less powerful a message, and Penn is perfectly cast as the forty something gay rights worker who ends up on the wrong end of jealousy.

You’ll like this if you liked : Bobby

Kickin It Old Skool (2007) 7/10

Starring : Jamie Kennedy, Maria Menounos, Miguel A Nunez Jr, Michael Rosenbaum, Christopher McDonald
Director : Harvey Glazer
Running Time : 109 mins

Following an accident during a break dancing contest, schoolboy Justin Schumacher (Kennedy) ends up in a coma. When he wakes up 20 years later, he soon realises how much the world has changed and, with the help of his old friend Darnell(Nunez), decides to reform his break dancing troop, the Funky Fresh Boyz, in a bid to relive his lost youth as well as win back his childhood sweetheart, Jennifer (Menounos), from her horrible boyfriend Kip (Rosenbaum).

This is such a silly movie, but it doesn't go too over the top in its humour. Kennedy is good as Justin, and it's funny that even though he's the one who's supposed to be stuck with his mind in 1986, everyone around him has barely moved on from that era. Well worth watching, if only for the campy 80s moments.

You’ll like this if you liked : Dodgeball : A True Underdog Story

Bobby (2006) 7/10

Starring : Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Lindsay Lohan, William H Macy, Demi Moore, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood
Director : Emilio Estevez
Running Time : 117 mins

In the United States on the day of the 1968 Presidential Election a group of people at the hotel being used as Kennedy's campaign headquarters, ranging from staff, guests and campaign members, find their lives brought together during the events leading up to the attempted murder of Robert Kennedy.

This movie is filled with both drama and humour, and the mix is just enough to keep it entertaining on most levels, but it does run a little long considering how basic the plotline is. The stellar cast really push this movie forward, but in my opinion the stories don't all feel like they reach their natural conclusion

You’ll like this if you liked : Crash

The Stepford Wives (2004) 7/10

Starring : Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Roger Bart, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken
Director : Frank Oz
Running Time : 93 mins

Following an attempt on her life, feminist television executive Joanna Eberhart (Kidman) and her husband Walter (Broderick) move to the sleepy Connecticut town of Stepford, where all of the women are perfect examples of wives and mothers, bowing to their mens every whim and desire. Soon Joanna discovers that the behaviour of the women has less to do with their upbringing and more to do with sinister mayor of Stepford, Mike Wellington (Walken).

This is a clever version of the Stepford Wives story, but all of the mystery has pretty much been removed and replaced with hammy comedy moments. Granted the comedy does work on the whole, and the relationship between Kidman and Broderick is sweet by the end of the movie, but to make this truly brilliant it needed to be far darker.

You’ll like this if you liked : Little Shop Of Horrors

The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle (2000) 7/10

Starring : Rene Russo, Jason Alexander, Piper Perabo, Randy Quaid, Robert De Niro, June Foray, Keith Scott
Director : Des McAnuff
Running Time : 88 mins

With the fall of the Iron Curtain, Fearless Leader (De Niro), Boris (Alexander) and Natasha (Russo) travel to Hollywood where they are accidentally brought to life following the signing of the contract for the live action Rocky And Bullwinkle movie. Now they’re on the lose in the USA, and FBI agent Karen Sympathy (Perabo) must find the only people who could possibly stop them, Rocky (Foray) and Bullwinkle (Scott).

Despite having heard some pretty awful reviews of this, I actually enjoyed the tongue in cheek approach to the original cartoon, giving the characters new life by actually giving them a background and bringing them to life in every sense of the word. Even though it is sad to see De Nrio in this sort of movie, it is still filled with enough laughs to keep it watchable.

You’ll like this if you liked : The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

House Of Wax (2005) 5/10

Starring : Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki
Director : Jaume Collet-Serra
Running Time : 113 mins

A group of annoying teenagers find their way into a remote country town, famous for its House Of Wax. As they venture in, they discover that something isn’t right about the town, and that the House Of Wax might hold the answers to the town’s mysteriously quiet townsfolk.

This had the potential for a good movie, but the cast seriously ruined it. Once the killing began things got swinging as the poor cast get murdered one by one, but the deaths took far too long to begin. If you like slasher flicks with characterless characters then you’ll like this, otherwise seriously don’t bother.

You’ll like this if you liked : Catacombs

Bedtime Stories (2008) 8/10

Starring : Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Guy Pearce, Russell Brand
Director : Adam Shankman
Running Time : 100 mins

Skeeter Bronson (Sandler) is a handyman at his late father’s hotel, and is given the opportunity to run one of his own if he can come up with a good enough theme for the new hotel. Following a series of seeming coincidences, he becomes convinced that his niece and nephew can control his reality through their bedtime stories and tries to use them to improve his life.

This is a great children’s story, but many adults probably wouldn’t appreciate it. The idea is simple, yet sort of moves between being coincidence and miracle so that it’s hard to tell which the writers are aiming for. Pearce is just campy enough as the requisite villain, with Lucy Lawless backing him up all the way, but the plot development is a little too obvious to keep adult audiences entertained for long. All in all, a great movie for the young.

You’ll like this if you liked : Jumanji

Apocalypto (2006) 8/10

Starring : Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathan Brewer
Director : Mel Gibson
Running Time : 139 mins

Jaguar Paw (Youngblood) is forced to hide his family in a hole and flee for his life when he is chosen as a human sacrifice for the Gods by the Mayan people, who have been led to believe that the only way to stop their way of life from declining further is to build more temples and sacrifice more lives to the Gods.

Visually this was impressive, and the idea for the movie was a brave one, but the violence was far too over the top and in places unnecessary. There’s enough blood and guts in this movie to please anyone who likes Van Damme or Seagal, but the subject matter didn’t really meld that well with the excess gore. Plus there’s possibly the easiest birth season ever imagined! Still, it’s well worth watching if you’ve got over two hours to spare

You’ll like this if you liked : 10,000 BC

Blue State (2007) 7/10

Starring : Breckin Meyer, Anna Paquin, Joyce Krenz, Richard Blackburn
Director : Marshall Lewy
Running Time : 92 mins

Disgusted with the fact that George W Bush has been elected to office for another four years, disgruntled Democratic supporter John Logue (Meyer) decides, following an invitation from Marryacanadian.ca, that the only thing to do is to leave the USA and move to Canada. To save money on the trip, he advertises for someone to share the travel costs, and winds up with Chloe Hamon (Paquin), who has a secret reason why she wants to go to Canada.

This wasn’t the slapstick romp I was expecting, but it was still pretty good. Meyer and Paquin bounce off each other impressively and don’t make their potential relationship with each other too easy for the audience. There are some nice underplayed comic turns from the supporting class, and if you like your romantic comedy subtle then this will be the movie for you.

You’ll like this if you liked : Garden State

Classic Friday : Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) 8/10

Starring : Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi
Director : Charles T Barton
Running Time : 80 mins

Chick (Abbott) and Wilbur (Costello) are hired to delivery a number of crates to a wax museum. Little do they know that the boxes contain the bodies of Count Dracula (Lugosi) and the Frankenstein monster, and that the Wolf Man (Chaney) is desperately trying to stop them from opening the boxes.

One of Abbott and Costello's better efforts, this movie paved the way for a series of monster movies with the comic duo. Sadly they don’t get any better than this one which, in spite of an awful lot of technical errors, still remains just as funny today as it was when it first got released over sixty years ago.

You’ll like this if you liked : Hold That Ghost

Twilight (2008) 6/10

Starring : Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed
Director : Catherine Hardwicke
Running Time : 122 mins

Bella Swan (Stewart) moves to live with her father in the quiet town of Forks where she joins the local junior high mid semester. There she meets Edward Cullen (Pattinson), a gloomy teen who seems to want nothing to do with her, but she soon discovers that his seeming disinterest is for her benefit as he doesn’t want to endanger her life. The reason? He’s a vampire!

Considering all the hype, this was pretty disappointing. The story took far too long to get going, and the actual plot considering the other band of vampires took over an hour to come into play. To top it off, the ending felt abrupt and poorly conceived, but I’m sure teenagers won’t care and they’ll be more interested in the romance between Bella and Edward to care about consistency.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Covenant

Persepolis (2007) 8/10

Starring : Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Sean Penn, Iggy Pop, Gena Rowlands
Director : Marjane Satrapi
Running Time : 91 mins

Young Marjane (Mastroianni) thinks back on her childhood in Iran under the revolutionary dictatorship following the overthrow of the Shah, and how her uncle (Pop) was killed for his beliefs. As she grows up, she renounces God and decides that He is responsible for all the hurt in the world, wishing only for a world where pain is banned.

This is a sweet movie that tackles an important part of world history. The character of Marjane and her obsession with rock music and Bruce Lee makes for interesting viewing, especially in light of Iranian intolerance for Western culture. Based on the graphic novel by director Marjane Satrapi, this biographical account of life in Iran is both powerful and entertaining.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Kite Runner

American Dreamz (2006) 7/10

Starring : Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Marcia Gay Harden, Chris Klein, Wilem Dafoe, Jennifer Coolidge
Director : Paul Weitz
Running Time : 103 mins

Martin Tweed (Grant), host of popular reality music show American Dreamz, is asked to accept President Staton (Quaid) as guest judge on the final of the show, but the rumours of the President being there spread to terrorist groups who send in one of their men to infiltrate the show and kill the president.

This is an enjoyable enough romp, but is a little too contrived and knowing for its own good. Grant and Quaid are entertaining enough in their lead roles, and Dafoe's bald-wig is worth watching on its own, but the movie falls short of being the political satire it so desperately tries to be.

You’ll like this if you liked : Drop Dead Gorgeous

Nurse Betty (2000) 8/10

Starring : Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear
Director : Neil LaBute
Running Time : 105 mins

When she witnesses the brutal murder of her husband, television obsessed waitress Betty Sizemore (Zellweger) suffers a nervous breakdown which causes her to start having delusions, and she sets out on a journey to find George McCord (Kinnear), an actor who she believes is Dr David Revel, the character he plays in her favourite soap opera. All the while she is being chased by her husband’s killers who are still after the drugs that he stole.

This is an interesting comedy drama, but it’s a little light on the comedy, in spite of an impressive cast. Zellweger is brilliant as Betty Sizemore and her neuroses work brilliantly, and in spite of some loopholes and pacing that ignores important transitions, this is still a wonderfully entertaining little fairy tale.

You’ll like this if you liked : Freeway

Unleashed (2005) 7/10

Starring : Jet Li, Morgan Freeman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry Condon
Director : Louis Leterrier
Running Time : 103 mins

Danny (Li) has been trained from a young age to do nothing but protect his boss, gangster Bart (Hoskins), but when Danny develops a relationship with a blind pianist named Sam (Freeman), he discovers his own humanity, something he has been lacking in his life since the death of his mother.

Jet Li is brilliant in this drama wherein he develops a new kind of humanity that had been lacking in his life. Sadly Hoskins is a little too campy as the over the top gangster who holds Li's will captive from an early age. Freeman is pretty much a non entity here, and anyone really could have played his role, but it is definitely Li who makes this believable both as the violent animalistic killer and the slightly childlike captor.

You’ll like this if you liked : Leon

School For Seduction (2004) 7/10

Starring : Kelly Brook, Dervla Kirwan, Neil Stuke, Tim Healy
Director : Sue Heel
Running Time : 101 mins

A group of Northern housewives and singletons all sign up for a sex education class with the glamorous Sophia Rosselini (Brook), who teaches them how to seduce their men as well as keep their marriages alive and fresh.

Although certainly attractive, Brook possibly isn't the best choice for the lead in this silly comedy. It might just be that her character was written in a pretty two-dimensional way, but when her husband turns up she becomes a very unrealistic character. The supporting cast of ladies and gents are all wonderfully over the top, providing some much needed slapstick to this movie, and those who enjoyed the likes of The Full Monty will certainly find some humour here.

You’ll like this if you liked : Calendar Girls

Marley And Me (2008) 8/10

Starring : Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston, Eric Dane, Kathleen Turner, Alan Arkin
Director : David Frankel
Running Time : 116 mins

When John Grogan (Wilson) decides to buy his wife Jennifer (Aniston) a dog as a way of slowing her biological clock, they end up with Marley, the most badly behaved dog imaginable, yet as the years pass and Marley gets older, the couple soon learn to love the dog like it is their own child and learn some important life lessons along the way.

When I sat down to watch this I was expecting a slapstick comedy in the vein of Turner And Hooch, but instead I was given an emotional portrayal of the life of a naughty dog. Wilson and Aniston aren’t particularly brilliant in the lead roles, but some fine writing and a cute dog easily keep this entertaining and engaging from beginning to end.

You’ll like this if you liked : Cats And Dogs

Michael Clayton (2007) 8/10

Starring : George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack
Director : Tony Gilroy
Running Time : 120 mins

Unambitious lawyer Michael Clayton (George) finds himself caught up in a conspiracy when his friend Arthur Edens (Wilkinson) has a seeming nervous breakdown, insisting that the agrochemical company his law firm has been representing are in fact guilty of the crimes they've been accused off and are responsible for thousands of deaths.

This starts off slowly, and at a very strange choice of position in the movie. This could have worked just as well if it was purely linear, rather than taking a roundabout route to get to the same point. Wilkinson is definitely the key actor to watch in this movie, and his plays his role beautifully, with Swinton putting in a suitable performance throughout, but Clooney is actually unnusually understated in the lead role.

You’ll like this if you liked : Erin Brockovich

Death Note : The Last Name (2006) 7/10

Starring : Tatsuya Fujiwara, Takeshi Kaga, Shidou Nakamura, Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Nana Katase
Director : Shusuke Kaneko
Running Time : 140 mins

Light (Fujiwara) finds himself confined by L (Kaga) when a number of copycat killers, using the name Kira, emerge in Japan and start killing people indescriminently, and he become the prime suspect in the murders as more evidence emerges. With them held captive, the new possessor of the Death Note, Kiyomi (Katase), uses the death power to further her journalistic career.

This is a worthy follow up to the original live action movie, but it didn't have the same impact as the first. Although the story has progressed, with Light manipulating the police so that he appears innocent and L finally finding out how the Kira's kill their victims, this was a little too long and too involved to be truly enjoyable, with the story moving a little too quickly for the viewer to enjoy the story to its full potential.

You’ll like this if you liked : Ring

Classic Friday : Police Academy 3 : Back In Training (1986) 6/10

Starring : Steve Guttenburg, Bubba Smith, David Graf, Michael Winslow, Art Metrano, Marion Ramsey, George Gaynes, Bob Goldthwait
Director : Jerry Paris
Running Time : 80 mins

Due to drastic budget cuts, only one Police Academy in the area can be kept open, so the raw recruits of Lassard's (Gaynes) academy, led by the charismatic Carey Mahoney (Guttenburg), have to fight to keep their academy open, and try to stop Mauser (Metrano) from beating them at their own game.

Basically this is almost a complete remake of the first Police Academy. Some of the scenes are exactly the same, but slightly changed so as to be an homage rather than an outright rip off, and perhaps also as a way of trying to show that the new recruits will be as bad as the old ones. Sadly this really didn't work as well as the first two instalments, but it did bring back some good characters from the second movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Police Academy 5 : Assignment Miami Beach

Let The Right One In (2008) 9/10

Starring : Kare Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
Director : Tomas Alfredson
Running Time : 110 mins

A young boy named Oskar (Hedebrant), a boy with no real friends and who is constantly bullied at school, makes friends with Eli (Leandersson), the strange girl who has moved in next door to him, but Eli has a secret that she wants to keep from Oskar – that she is actually a vampire - and she doesn't want this fact to effect her newfound friendship.

This Swedish horror focuses far more on the relationship between Oskar and Eli than on outright scares, which actually makes the few scares all the more effective. The swimming pool scene is particularly effective, with it's lack of soundtrack music and it's well paced violence, and it's nice that Eli isn't forced as a character to change who she is to make the movie more acceptable.

You’ll like this if you liked :

Atonement (2007) 8/10

Starring : James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai
Director : Joe Wright
Running Time : 123 mins

When aspiring young writer Briony Tallis (Ronan) witnesses something happening between her older sister Cecilia (Knightley) and the son of a family servant, Robbie Turner (McAvoy), she misinterprets what is happening for the worst, so when her cousin is raped by a visitor to their estate, Briony assumes it was the apparently deviant Robbie and accuses him of the crime.

This is such a sad story, with little redemption for the character of Briony, but it works well and keeps the audience guessing right upo until the end. There are a few moments where I felt cheated, such as the revelation that much of the story had been fictionalised by Briony in order to pacify her own guilty conscience, but other than that this is an intriguing and engrossing movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Reader

The Covenant (2006) 7/10

Starring : Steven Strait, Laura Ramsey, Sebastien Stan, Taylor Kitsch
Director : Renny Harlin
Running Time : 98 mins

A group of four teenagers, descended from a group of powerful wizards, are soon due to ascend to higher power on their 18th birthdays, but when people start to mysteriously die power related deaths they discover that a fifth wizard, one descended from an evil banished clan, exists and that their certain power may not be as certain as they thought.

Basically this is The Craft with a male cast and a worse soundtrack. The visual effects are actually pretty good, and teenagers who like movies like Twilight will get a kick from this, but the plot is so simple that it gives little to the audience in terms of character development and complexity.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Craft

Long Time Dead (2002) 5/10

Starring : Joe Absolom, Lara Belmont, Melanie Gutteridge, Lukas Haas
Director : Marcus Adams
Running Time : 90 mins

A group of South London youngsters hold a séance and accidentally summon up an evil demonic Djinn that predictably sets about killing them all one by one. As the death toll mounts, the youngsters discover that the evil Djinn may have actually possessed one of them, and that they are committing the murders.

This badly made horror movie suffers horribly from having a cast of nobodies who didn't have one personality between them. There are a few faces to recognise from TV shows, but you really need to have a vested interest in the characters when a horror movie basically has no visible villain for the duration. Coupled with Lukas Haas's distractingly large ears, this really isn't worth bothering with unless you thought Halloween was a good movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Séance

What A Girl Wants (2003) 7/10

Starring : Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston, Eileen Atkins, Anna Chancellor
Director : Dennie Gordon
Running Time : 100 mins

American teenager Daphne Reynolds (Bynes) is shocked to discover that her real father is a British politican named Henry Dashwood (Firth). She decides to travel to Britain to meet him, but has to maintain secrecy as Dashwood is running for office and can’t have the scandal of an illegitimate daughter leaked to the press.

The basic premise is simple and enjoyable enough, but the British people's abject hate of Amanda Bynes seems a little over the top, as does her being blamed for a poorly erected chandelier plummeting to the ground. There are some okay set pieces, and Firth and Bynes play off each other well, but this definitely isn't either of them at their best.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Princess Diaries

Evil Woman (2001) 6/10

Starring : Jason Biggs, Steve Zahn, Jack Black, Amanda Peet, Amanda Detmer
Director : Dennis Dugan
Running Time : 92 mins

Darren Silverman (Biggs) is a life long romantic who gets together with the psychotic and controlling Judith (Peet). As she gets her clutches further and further into Darren, taking control of his social life and even his private hobbies, his friends Wayne (Zahn) and JD (Black) decide that the only way to stop her from destroying their friend's life is to kidnap Judith, make Darren think she's dead and then get him together with his childhood sweetheart Sandy (Detmer).

Zahn and Black really make this film, with their ridiculously pathetic attempts to stop Amanda Peet, but even these aren't that well worked out. This probably won't be everyone's cup of tea, as most of the set pieces aren't that funny, but there are a few moments between Biggs and Peet that worked well.

You’ll like this if you liked : Tomcats

Stuck (2007) 6/10

Starring : Stephen Rea, Mena Suvari, Russell Hornsby, Rukiya Bernard
Director : Stuart Gordon
Running Time : 86 mins

Brandi Boski (Suvari) is a nursing assistant who accidentally hits the recently homeless Thomas Bardo (Rea) in her car while under the influence. Worried she might lose her job over the incident, she drives home with the barely alive Thomas still stuck in the windshield until she can decide what to do.

This is a very cringeworthy movie that takes the true life story of a woman who heartlessly left an apparently homeless man to die in her garage, then joked about it to her friends and tries to make the villain more appealing. Suvari starts off as a likeable person who makes a simple mistake, but soon her involvement with her drug dealer boyfriend and her wish to kill the victim so that she won't lose a possible promotion deaden her to the audience and make the film into nothing but a borderline snuff flick, mixing sex with death.

You’ll like this if you liked : Best Laid Plans

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008) 7/10

Starring : Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Tilda Swinton
Director : Ron Howard
Running Time : 166 mins

As a new born baby, Benjamin Button (Pitt) is abandoned and consequently brought up in an old people’s home by the couple that found him. Believed to be hideously deformed from birth, suffering from the sort of illnesses that would norrmally only afflict the elderly, Benjamin soon discovers that he is in fact ageing backwards, and over the years he becomes younger as everyone around him ages and dies.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I sat down to watch this, but what I got was pretty disappointing. The characters were all either completely one dimensional or had no character at all. Pitt pretty much relied on CGI and make-up to do his acting for him, but Blanchett put in a good turn as the ageing friend of Benjamin who listens to his life story.

You’ll like this if you liked : Big Fish

Keeping Up With The Steins (2006) 7/10

Starring : Daryl Sabara, Jami Gertz, Jeremy Piven, Cheryl Hines
Director : Scott Marshall
Running Time : 84 mins

With his bar mitzvah looming over him, Benjamin Fiedler (Sabara) invites his estranged hippy grandfather to stay with his family in the hope that his visit will make his mother and father forget about trying to throw him the perfect bar mitzvah party. Inside the visit teaches Benjamin the value of family.

This wasn't a bad movie, but it suffered from having little real direction. Benjamin's decision to contact his grandfather to disrupt his bar mitzvah plans is a little convoluted and seems to not really have any effect and the Steins themselves, played by Larry Miller and Sandra Taylor, are sadly underused.

You’ll like this if you liked : The In-Laws

Classic Friday : Evil Dead II (1987) 9/10

Starring : Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks, Kassie Wesley, Ted Raimi
Director : Sam Raimi
Running Time : 85 mins

S-Mart employee Ashley Williams (Campbell) takes his girlfriend to a secluded cabin in the woods for a romantic getaway, but when he plays back a tape left there by a professor studying ancient literature, he accidentally releases an evil presence in the woods that possesses his girlfriend and tries to kill Ashley himself.

In this, a sort of sequel / remake of the ultimate video nasty, the entire concept has been vastly improved. The humor feels more intentional and the stereotypical characters are more over the top and feel more welcoming. The special effects are marginally better, and the scares may not be as controversial but are definitely just as cringeworthy.

You’ll like this if you liked : Re-Animator

The Invasion (2007) 6/10

Starring : Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright, Veronica Cartwright
Director : Oliver Hirshbiegel
Running Time : 100 mins

Following the crash of a space shuttle, psychiatrist Carol Bennell (Kidman) starts to notice drastic changes in the behaviour of her patients and her ex-husband. When she finds what looks like a piece of skin, she jumps to the conclusion that an alien virus has come to Earth with the wreckage of the space shuttle; a virus that has the ability to recode human DNA.

This wouldn’t have been a bad take on the Invasion Of The Body-Snatchers idea, but Kidman is practically lacking in personality, and she really needed one to counter the personality-less alien-possessed humans and, even though the infected weren’t supposed to show emotion, a lot of them seemed angry and this really distracted from the story. Coupled with the fact that war seems to be promoted as a simple part of human nature, this really didn’t give the moral message I was hoping for.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Happening