Ice Age : Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (2009) 8/10

Starring : Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah
Director : Carlos Saldanha
Running Time : 91 mins

Sid (Leguizamo) is feeling left out of the group now that Manny (Romano) and Ellie (Latifah) are planning a family, so when he finds an abandoned nest of eggs he decides to adopt them and bring them up as his own. Unfortunately, when they hatch, he discovers that the new born babies are in fact a trio of Tyrannosaurus Rexes!

This instalment definitely focuses on the romances in the movie; even Scrat finds a woman! The reintroduction of dinosaurs seems a bit odd, especially as they dies out on the first movie, but it works well and Leguizamo plays the doting parent perfectly in this fun-filled family movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Road To El Dorado

The Proposition (2005) 8/10

Starring : Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, John Hurt
Director : John Hillcoat
Running Time : 100 mins

When the Burns brothers, a gang of Australian outlaws, are accused of a terrible crime, middle brother Charlie (Pearce) is made a proposition by British lawman Captain Stanley (Winstone); if he brings him the head of his older brother Arthur (Huston), then his younger brother Mike will be saved from being hanged.

Western fans will enjoy this attempt at an Australian Western, with Pearce and Winstone delivering some powerful performances. There's plenty of violence, and a simple plot that meanders about the place before delivering a strong finale that will stick in the memory for a long time.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Clubbed (2008) 7/10

Starring : Mel Raido, Shaun Parkes, Scot Williams, Maxine Peake, Ronnie Fox, Colin Salmon
Director : Neil Thompson
Running Time : 95 mins

It’s the 1980s, and factory worker Danny O'Grady (Raido) has been living a pathetic life, finally getting tipped over the edge when he is badly beaten in front of his young daughters. When he meets a group of bouncers, he takes a job at the club they work at and is finally given the confidence to stand up to those who would try to humiliate him. Unfortunately this leads to him becoming involved with gangland mobsters, and the possibility of prison time.

This wasn’t too bad for what is basically a British gangster movie, and thankfully it doesn’t fall into the trap of having ridiculously comical characters like those you might find in a Guy Ritchie film. It’s a little over the top in the violence department, and there’s a little too much swearing, but it’s an effective movie none the less.

You’ll like this if you liked : This Is England

Classic Friday : Superman II (1980) 9/10

Starring : Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty
Director : Richard Lester
Running Time : 123 mins

Three villains from Superman's home planet arrive on Earth and join forces with uber villain Lex Luthor (Hackman) in order to defeat Superman once and for all. Once he realises that these three villains, lead by the truly evil General Zod (Stamp), have all of his powers and more, Superman is faced with their real possibility that he may not survive this confrontation.

It's clear from watching the first Superman movie that this sequel had already been planned well in advance. As such it benefits from having had a lot of planning put into it and the audience are rewarded with a follow up to the 1978 classic that is, at the very least, equal with the original. Even today children and adults alike can sit back and enjoy this family favourite, featuring a stellar cast and visual effects that were well ahead of their time.

You’ll like this if you liked : Spider-Man

Untraceable (2008) 8/10

Starring : Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks, Joseph Cross
Director : Gregory Hoblit
Running Time : 101 mins

Jennifer Marsh (Lane) works in the FBI’s internet crime unit, catching criminals who use the web to commit crimes such as credit card theft, but when she and her colleagues come across a website named 'killwithme.com' she finds herself faced with a serial killer who murders people at a pace based on how many people view his website.

This is an interesting premise, though not an original one. I can recall an episode of The X-Files spin off series Millennium in which a similar type of killer existed, but in spite of not being wholly original this is still a fun thriller that allows the viewer to enjoy the tension of watching the victims deaths speed up based on how many people view the website

You’ll like this if you liked : Mr Brooks

Black Hawk Down (2001) 6/10

Starring : Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewan Bremner
Director : Ridley Scott
Running Time : 139 mins

Based on true events, a large number of Army Rangers are dropped into Mogadishu to capture two high ranking lieutenants that work for a Somali warlord, but when two of their helicopters are shot down the rangers are forced into a blazing gun battle in order to rescue their fellow soldiers.

Not only was this movie too long, but it was pretty boring to boot. You’d think that a movie that basically has people shooting at each other for over an hour would be thoroughly enjoyable – at least to fans of action movies – but this just went on and on and got nowhere, I suppose it could be the fact that, in reality, it was a pretty drawn out gun battle, but Scott needs to learn how to edit out the unnecessary parts and stick to what keeps the story going.

You’ll like this if you liked : Saving Private Ryan

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) 9/10

Starring : Emily Hirst, Andrew Francis, Alex Zahara
Director : Mamoru Hosoda
Running Time : 99 mins

Teenage school girl Makoto (Hirst) almost dies when her bicycle is hit by a train, but when she comes to she discovers that she has leapt back in time to before the accident, and the accident never occurs. As she investigates the phenomena, she realises that not only can she escape death, but she can relive her embarrassing moments and stop them from being so bad, but soon the power of making her life completely perfect goes straight to her head. But it's when the truth behind her new powers emerges that she realises just how precious they could be.

This is a lovely film that is filled with both comedy and drama. What starts off as a light hearted movie about a girl time travelling so that she can stop embarrassing moments from happening soon turns into a race as she tries to save he friends from dying. With some great moments and some wonderful animation, this is sure to become a long time family favourite.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Cat Returns

Beneath (2007) 7/10

Starring : Nora Zehetner, Matthew Settle, Warren Christie, Jessica Amlee, Carly Pope
Director : Dagen Merrill
Running Time : 82 mins

Six years after a car accident that hideously disfigured her older sister and left her in a psychiatric institution, Christy Westcot (Zehetner) returns to her childhood home for a funeral and discovers that her niece has been seeing what she calls dark things in her room. As Christy looks into the possibilities of someone being in the house with her niece, she starts having hallucinations again and becomes convinced that her dead sister was prematurely buried alive.

This wasn't that bad a horror thriller, even though it does feel at times as if it were made for TV. The horror isn't too over the top, and the pace is near perfect, even though the plot is very predictable. Fans of slow paced horror films like the recent Haunting In Connecticut will enjoy this, although just to warn you this isn't technically a horror film.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Haunting In Connecticut

Drag Me To Hell (2009) 7/10

Starring : Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao
Director : Sam Raimi
Running Time : 100 mins

Loan officer Christine Brown (Lohman) leads what could be considered the perfect life – she earns a decent wage, has a nice home, and a doting boyfriend – but when she is ordered by her boss to evict an old woman from her home, she finds herself on the business end of an evil curse that will see her dragged off to hell within three days unless she can some have the curse reversed.

Fans of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies will love this, but those who aren’t familiar with his work might feel a little confused and disgusted. The effects are over the top and intended to make the viewer cringe in revulsion, but it’s all intended in the best possible sense and the gross out moments seem to be there to abuse rather than appal. Well worth watching, although it isn’t brilliant.

You’ll like this if you liked : Army Of Darkness

Classic Friday : Only Yesterday (1991) 7/10

Starring : Miki Imai, Toshiro Yanagiba, Youko Honna
Director : Isao Takahata
Running Time : 115 mins

Office worker Taeko (Imai) decides to take a trip to the countryside to visit a farm she once stayed at as a child. When she arrives she starts to think back on her childhood, remembering her family life and her school friends and how much she disliked her older sisters, and soon begins to wonder if she has lived the life her childhood self (Honna) would have wanted her to.

This is an odd movie that flicks back and forth through time to the childhood of Taeko and finally reaches a resolution that is unsatisfactory to say the least. This isn't one of Studio Ghibli's best efforts but it is still lots of fun for children and adults alike, and evokes a pitch perfect view of life in Japan in both the 60s and the 80s.

You’ll like this if you liked : Grave Of The Fireflies

Enemy At The Gates (2001) 6/10

Starring : Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hoskins, Ed Harris, Ron Perlman
Director : Jean-Jacques Annaud
Running Time : 132 mins

Vassily Zaitsev (Law) is a Russian shepherd fighting during World War II at the Battle Of Stalingrad who finds himself the focal point of a folk legend created by a man named Danilov (Fiennes) when he starts a snipers game of cat and mouse with German Major Konig (Harris).

This is a strange film that for some reason just doesn't feel right. Maybe it's the English actors playing Russians (with English accents), or the Americans playing Germans (with American accents), but this is definitely one of those films that has too little going on in too long a period of time. Avoid this unless you really enjoy political war films.

You’ll like this if you liked : Saving Private Ryan

Babel (2006) 7/10

Starring : Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho
Director : Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Running Time : 137 mins

Four seemingly unconnected stories are brought together as American tourists Richard (Pitt) and Susan (Blanchett) find themselves at the centre of a suspected terrorist attack. Although the whole shooting is an accident, the authorities still treat the issue as an act of terrorism and try to find the culprits responsible for the attempted murder.

Although an interesting idea, and in spite of initially working quite well, the intertwining of the four stories feels in places extremely forced and unnatural. The overly convoluted feel to the story line does in parts jar with the viewer, especially the connection of the deaf Japanese girl and the Moroccan goatherds, but overall it remains entertaining and visually pleasing, in spite of some odd directorial choices.

You’ll like this if you liked : Crash

The Final Destination (2009) 8/10

Starring : Bobby Campo, Shantel VanSanten, Nick Zano, Haley Webb, Mykelti Williamson
Director : David R Ellis
Running Time : 82 mins

When a group of youngsters narrowly avoid death at a race track due to one of them having a premonition about the disaster they can not believe their luck, but they soon discover that the danger isn't quite over as one by one they all meet with increasingly unlikely deaths in the order they should have originally died.

Although this was in many ways just as good as the other instalments of the Final Destination series, this felt like it was trying too hard. It really concentrated on the gore of the matter, showing a lot of unnecessary violence and gruesome close ups that linger a little too long, and even tried to double bluff the viewers with too many twists and turns. Despite this, it's very watchable and most fans of the series will enjoy this latest addition.

You’ll like this if you liked : Final Destination 2

Redline (2007) 5/10

Starring : Nathan Phillips, Nadia Bjorlin, Angus MacFadyen, Tim Matheson, Eddie Griffin, Jesse Johnson
Director : Andy Cheng
Running Time : 94 mins

When Carlo (Phillips) returns from a tour of duty in Iraq, he finds that his brother Jason (Johnson) has become involved with a gang of thugs who are illegally fixing car races. When Jason becomes the latest casualty in this illegal enterprise Carlo sets out, with the help of racing driver Natasha (Bjorlin), to avenge his death.

This could have easily have starred Jean Claude Van Damme as Nathan Phillips sets out to avenge his brothers death. The plot is flimsy, the acting isn't the best, and the soundtrack at times sounds like it was stolen from James Bond. Still, fans of fast cars and sexy women might find something to keep them glued to the set, even if the story leaves much to be desired.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Fast And The Furious

Mission : Impossible II (2000) 6/10

Starring : Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh
Director : John Woo
Running Time : mins

Ethan Hunt (Cruise) launches back into action with another impossible mission. This time he is sent to Australia where he must track down and stop international terrorist Sean Amborse (Scott) who is holding the entire world to ransom with the threat of a genetically modified virus called Chimera that can rapidly kill anyone that it infects.

This was something of a weak sequel, but to give it it's dues this in no way set out to simply do the same movie again. After a slow start, John Woo soon pumps up the action in this epic action spy thriller, but sadly it came out at a very similar time to Charlie's Angels and worryingly felt quite similar in many ways.

You’ll like this if you liked : Charlie's Angels

Classic Friday : Carry On Spying (1963) 8/10

Starring : Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Cribbins, Charles Hawtrey
Director : Gerald Thomas
Running Time : 83 mins

A group of British Secret Service men and women are sent to Vienna on a mission of national importance related to a secret formula, but the hapless quartet soon find their lives at risk when they fall foul of the evil group STENCH, who also want the formula for their own evil ends, and are forced to track down their secret underground headquarters to stop their wicked plans.

This is a wonderful and quickly conceived parody of the Bond movies, which started their worldwide invasion in 1962. The story is slow in places, but the set pieces such as the escape from the underground STENCH head quarters, and some great cameos by the likes of Jim Dale and Eric Barker, this is definitely one of the finest of the Carry On movies which is still as effective today as it has always been.

You’ll like this if you liked : Get Smart

Adventureland (2009) 8/10

Starring : Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Martin Starr, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Margarita Levieva, Jack Gilpin, Ryan Reynolds
Director : Greg Mottola
Running Time : 107 mins

In desperate need of some extra cash, James Brennan (Eisenberg) takes a job working at Adventureland, a local theme park that makes its money by ripping off its clientele with unwinnable games. There he meets Em (Stewart) who he instantly takes a liking too, but things get complicated when he also becomes interested in the infamous Lisa P (Levieva).

This was a pretty good effort which only suffered from a somewhat rushed ending. The characters seem real, and at no point did this ever feel like it wasn't the eighties. Eisenberg and Stewart make a likeable on screen couple, and it's good to see that Stewart isn't limiting herself to the Twilight movies so should enjoy a successful career even when they dry up.

You’ll like this if you liked : Wet Hot American Summer

Things We Lost In The Fire (2007) 5/10

Starring : Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny, Alison Lohman
Director : Susanne Bier
Running Time : 108 mins

When her husband Brian (Duchovny) is murdered when trying to prevent a stranger from being attacked, Audrey Burke (Berry) decides to try and get some closure by inviting Brian's junkie best friend, Jerry Sunborne (Del Toro), to live with her and her children, and in return Jerry tries to kick his habit once and for all.

Personally I didn’t enjoy this movie. The acting alternated between being completely stinted to downright hammy, and the progression of the characters made no sense at all. Why Berry would invite Del Toro into her home when she harboured so much hate for him really confused me – if any can enlighten me, please do – and the ending really just made the film seem totally pointless.

You’ll like this if you liked : Mysterious Skin

Dinosaur (2000) 6/10

Starring : D B Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis
Director : Ralph Zondag & Eric Leighton
Running Time : 82 mins

Baby dinosaur Aladar (Sweeney) is abandoned by his real parents and ends up being raised by a family of lemurs until a deadly meteor storm leads the young dino to join with other dinosaurs as the head for a safer land in which to live.

This is an incredibly basic storyline which does little to even try to liven up events, but the animation was an unusual first step for Disney who have used this as a stepping stone into no conventional computer animation. Sadly, this marked the beginning of the end for the usual Disney animation which I really miss since it's last installment with Home On The Range, but fans of pre-history and family fun will no doubt find something to like in this.

You’ll like this if you liked : Tarzan

America's Sweethearts (2001) 7/10

Starring : Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci
Director : Joe Roth
Running Time : 98 mins

Hollywood's perfect couple Eddie Thomas (Cusack) and Gwen Harrison (Zeta-Jones) have split up, and movie publicist Lee Philips (Crystal) finds himself having to get the couple back together for a press conference in order to stop their final movie together from becoming an instant flop, but when Eddie starts falling for Gwen's sister Kiki (Roberts), and Gwen's boyfriend Hector (Azaria) starts causing trouble, Lee finds himself faced with an almost impossible task.

Although this is a very predictable affair, and the characters are pretty one-dimensional, there is still something rather enjoyable about this movie. The script might be flimsy and the ideas might be obvious, but the actors do their best to liven up an otherwise feeble plotline.

You’ll like this if you liked : Notting Hill

Hamlet 2 (2008) 7/10

Starring : Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joseph Julian Soria, Skylar Astin, Phoebe Strole, Melonie Diaz
Director : Andre Fleming
Running Time : 92 mins

Dana Marschz (Coogan) is a failed actor who now teaches high school drama. Following a number of bad reviews in the school paper, and following some perhaps unsound advice, he decides to write his own play in the hope of preventing the drama class from being closed down like many of the other extra-curricular activities at the school. So Dana writes a musical sequel to Hamlet, involving time travel and Jesus Christ.

This movie starts off incredibly slowly, with no apparent direction to the plot and a group of stereotypical characters lumped together in what appears to be a standard high school comedy, but once the story gets going and the set up comes together this is actually very funny. The closing scenes are oddly reminiscent of Little Miss Sunshine, but to a much wider extent, and I challenge you not to laugh at the sure to be classic Rock Me Sexy Jesus.

You’ll like this if you liked : Little Miss Sunshine

Classic Friday : Star Trek IV The Voyage Home (1986) 8/10

Starring : William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols
Director : Leonard Nimoy
Running Time : 114 mins

A strange alien force is orbiting the Earth, evaporating the seas and destroying the atmosphere, and the only way to communicate with the creature is by using the calls of the Blue Whale, but as the whales are extinct in the 23rd Century, the crew of the Enterprise hatch a plan to travel back in time to 1986 and steal a whale to bring back with them and save the world.

Although this is one of the least likely plotlines of the Star Trek series, this is also one of the most popular. There's a lot of humour - something which was sadly missing from the previous three instalments - and the story is far more character driven than simply relying on special effects and science fiction standards, with Kirk even finding a love interest on 20th Century Earth. A great movie that even non-Start Trek fans will enjoy.

You’ll like this if you liked : Just Visiting

Donkey Punch (2008) 6/10

Starring : Jaime Winston, Robert Boulter, Sian Breckin, Tom Burke, Nichola Burley, Julian Morris, Jay Taylor
Director : Olly Blackburn
Running Time : 99 mins

A trio of English girls on holiday in Mallorca meet a group of young men who invite them back to their yacht for a night of dodgy sex games, booze and drugs, but when the sex games get a little too frisky and one of the girls is killed, the tone of the evening takes a turn for the worse as the boys try to cover up the death while the remaining girls try to get off the boat and back to shore.

This wasn't a bad movie, it's just that the deaths were ridiculously over the top and unnecessarily gory. The sort of deaths shown here would work well in a slasher movie, but when the murders are largely accidental it feels a little too forced. Couple in with that the saucy sex scenes and you've got yourself an exaggerated horror-thriller that leaves a lot to be desired.

You’ll like this if you liked : Dead Calm

This Is England (2006) 8/10

Starring : Thomas Turgoose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure, Joe Gilgun, Rosamund Hanson
Director : Shane Meadows
Running Time : 97 mins

It's the mid eighties, and Shaun Fields (Turgoose) doesn't enjoy his life until he finds himself taken under the wing of a group of kindly young skinheads. But when Shaun finds drawn towards a group of National Front supporters - a group who have a very different view of the world to his skinhead friends - he discovers a much darker side of human nature.

This is a very funny and very thought provoking movie, which doesn't take sides in its view of the National Front in the time of Thatcher's Britain. Thomas Turgoose is wonderfully likeable in the lead role, lending a credibility to a character that quite easily could have turned out to be totally one dimensional. A must see for anyone who's a fan of British cinema.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Outsiders

Orphan (2009) 8/10

Starring : Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Aryana Engineer
Director : Jaume Collet-Serra
Running Time : 123 mins

After they lose their third child, a young couple decide to try adoption as a way of filling the gap in their lives. They instantly take to a young girl named Esther (Fuhrman), who at first seems to be the perfect well behaved child, but soon accidents start to happened when she's around, and the mother starts to suspect that there might be more to Esther than there first seemed.

This is a surprisingly engrossing thriller that has some great paced action. We aren't thrown into the mayhem that soon comes to the surface in this weirdly fascinating movie, but once we're in the thick of the horror there's really no going back. Well worth checking out, and try not to spoil the imaginative twist in the tale.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Omen

The Crocodile Hunter : Collision Course (2002) 6/10

Starring : Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, Magda Szubabski, David Wenham
Director : John Stainton
Running Time : 85 mins

When an important part of a space satellite crash lands in the Australian outback, the CIA send two of its top agents out to retrieve the item, but don't consider the problems they might face from territorial land owner Brozzie Drewitt (Szubabski) and the infamous crocodile hunter himself, Steve Irwin.

Kids will love the late Steve Irwin's exaggerated enthusiasm for wildlife as he gets up close and personal with both the native creatures of the Australian outback as well as the audience itself. In spite of a clearly tacked on story line, the rehearsed encounters with wild animals is really what sells this movie, and the subplot is just there really as filler.

You’ll like this if you liked : Kangaroo Jack