People Like Us (2012) 8/10

Starring : Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Hall D’Addario, Michelle Pfeiffer, Olivia Wilde, Mark Duplass
Director : Alex Kurtzman
Running Time : 115 mins

When Sam (Pine) goes home for his father’s funeral, he discovers that all of his father’s money was left to someone called Josh Davis (Hall D’Addario). When he tracks down Josh to find out who his is, he discovers that Josh is Sam’s father’s grandson, and that his mother Frankie (Banks) is Sam’s half-sister from another relationship.

This is actually a really enjoyable light-hearted drama which delves into the characters really well. Granted, some of them are a little stereotyped and predictable, like the alcoholic mother and the angry child, but the actors involved manage to keep the topic light and entertaining without taking us away from the story at hand. Plus there’s a very likeable (though unlikely) final scene to this movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Admission

Snow Buddies (2008) 5/10

Starring : Kris Kristofferson, Josh Flitter, Henry Hodges, Liliana Mumy, Jimmy Bennett, Skyler Gisondo, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Everett Scott, Molly Shannon, Dylan Sprouse, Lothaire Bluteau, Paul Rae, Jim Belushi
Director : Robert Vince
Running Time : 88 mins

Five puppies accidentally find themselves on a plane to Alaska when they follow an ice-cream truck to the airport. When they arrive in Alaska they team up with a little boy and his pet huskie to form a dog sled team to compete in an annual competition.

I suppose that very young children would enjoy this talking-dog movie – to be fair, that’s who it’s aimed at – but even so I thought this was a little lacklustre and really needed the puppies to have less one-dimensional characteristics. The fact that they would even try to compete against full-grown huskies is ridiculous, but children that don’t know better might enjoy this to some extent.

You’ll like this if you liked : Homeward Bound

Frozen (2013) 8/10

Starring : Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Santino Fontana, Alan Tudyk
Director : Chris Buck & Jennifer lee
Running Time : 101 mins

When Princess Anna (Bell) is accidentally injured by her sisters Elsa (Menzel) in Disney's 53rd Animated Classic, her parents separate the two girls to avoid Elsa’s secret ice powers from doing further harm. Years later, with their parents dead and Elsa to be crowned queen, the people of Arendelle discover Elsa’s powers and chase her off into the forest where she accidentally creates a perpetual winter. Anna decides to travel in search of her, hoping that she can talk her into coming home and settings things right with their nation, and she enlists the aid of an ice delivery man named Kristoff (Groff).

Clearly Disney was riding on the success of Tangled with this similar animated movie. Based on the fairy tale of The Snow Queen, this instant classic (aren’t all animated Disney movies considered classic?) takes a simple tale and brings us characters that may not feel original but at least feel realistic. Other than Elsa’s magical powers, there are no magical moments for the first half of the movie, and thankfully no talking animals to speak of. The sudden changes in some of the personalities of the characters did seem a little far-fetched, but I guess Hans was just a good actor.

You’ll like this if you liked : Oz The Great And Powerful

Nativity! (2009) 7/10

Starring : Martin Freeman, Marc Wootton, Jason Watkins, Ashley Jensen, Pam Ferris
Director : Debbit Isitt
Running Time : 106 mins

When primary school teacher Paul Maddens (Freeman) is given the task of producing the Christmas nativity play for the year, he stupidly brags that his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lore (Jensen) is coming to see the play. The fact that she is now a Hollywood agent makes his head mistress Mrs Bevan (Ferris) believe that the school could be famous and, thanks to trainee teacher Mr Poppy (Wootton), the lie spreads like wildfire and Paul finds himself becoming something of a local celebrity.

This is a slow paced but well observed comedy that will appeal to all ages. The little white lie that gets blown out of proportion gives us an entertaining story with some great comic performances from the kids involved. Freeman may not seem like the best lead, but the very fact that he is understated makes the proceedings all the more charming as they unfold.

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

A Thousand Words (2012) 7/10

Starring : Eddie Murphy, Kerry Washington, Cliff Curtis, Clarke Duke, Allison Janney
Director : Brian Robbins
Running Time : 88 mins

Publishing agent Jack McCall (Murphy) is famous for telling any lie imaginable to close a deal, so when he gets on the wrong side of spiritual guru Dr Sinja (Curtis), he discovers a magical tree has appeared in his back yard, and with every word he utters – even if it is written down - a leaf falls from its branches. When there are no leaves left, he is warned that he will die, so he is forced to find other methods to communicate to avoid this fate.

Eddie Murphy movies usually fall into two categories – movies for grownups and movies for kids – but this falls somewhere in-between. I was surprised that the editors didn’t just cut a little language and content to make this more suitable for kids, but even with the swearing and sexual content this is still not a bad little family movie that will keep both children and adults smiling through most of the film.

You’ll like this if you liked : Liar Liar

Daddy Day Camp (2007) 5/10

Starring : Cuba Gooding Jr, Lochlyn Munro, Richard Gant, Tamala Jones, Paul Rae
Director : Fred Savage
Running Time : 89 mins

Charlie Hinton (Gooding Jr) and Phil Ryerson (Rae) are devastated to hear that the summer camp they enjoyed so much as children is closing down due to a lack of funds, so the pair team up to try and make a name for the camp, reopening it to the public and desperately trying to get as many children as possible to attend, but it isn’t long before things start going wrong for them.

I quite liked the original Daddy Day Care, and once you realise that none of the original cast returned for a sequel you can see that this may have been something of a mistake. Gooding plays the slapstick role he has for some reason come to be famous for, though he is one of few actors who can act in both kids films and action thrillers, while Rae plays his crazy sidekick with little or no enthusiasm. The kids, sadly, aren’t as interesting as those in the original, and perhaps a more School Of Rock approach might have made this more fun.

You’ll like this if you liked : Daddy Day Care

Epic (2013) 8/10

Starring : Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Christoph Waltz, Jason Sudeikis, Beyonce Knowles
Director : Chris Wedge
Running Time : 103 mins

MK (Seyfried) goes to visit her eccentric father Professor Bomba (Sudeikis) – a scientist who lives in the woods – but discovers that he is still obsessed with his belief that there are little people living in the forests, but when MK is accidentally shrunken down to miniscule size by the dying Queen Tara (Knowles), she soon discovers that her father’s beliefs are true and that there are whole societies of little people called Leafmen living all around her.

This is an enjoyable kids movie that manages to be entertaining without being patronising. Part of the story’s scenario is similar to Ferngully :The Last Rainforest, with a bit of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids thrown in for good measure, and though the main characters don’t have specific characteristics that make them stand out, the supporting comedic characters do enough to keep very young children amused.

You’ll like this if you liked : Rise Of The Guardians

Amelie (2001) 8/10

Starring : Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta
Director : Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Running Time : 122 mins

Amelie Poulin (Tautou) finds a new direction in her life when she finds a tin in the wall of her apartment. After she returns it to its rightful owner, she decides to make it her life’s ambition to do good deeds for anyone she meets, ranging from her colleagues at the café she works in to random strangers on the street.

This movie which, to be fair, has a pretty limited plot, manages to be entertaining throughout its duration. Audrey Tautou has perfect comedy timing in this romantic comedy, as do the supporting cast, and the style chosen by the director to translate this story to the screen makes it all the more entertaining.

You’ll like this if you liked : Penelope

Antiviral (2012) 6/10

Starring : Caleb Landry Jones, Sarah Gadon, Douglas Smith, Joe Pingue, Nicholas Campbell, Sheila McCarthy
Director : Brandon Cronenberg
Running Time : 104 mins

In a society where celebrities are so loved that fans willingly infect themselves with viruses that have infected their favourite stars, Syd March (Landry Jones) – an employee at one of the clinics that offer this service – accidentally becomes infected by a virus that killed superstar Hannah Geist (Gadon), he is faced with a race against time to find a cure before he succumbs to the same ill fate.

This is pretty much what you’d expect from one of David Cronenberg’s kids, and for Cronenberg Senior fans this won’t disappoint. It’s weirdly surreal and combines technology and biology in a creepy and unusual way, with an ending that is unorthodox to say the least. There is, however, something lacking in this for the everyday movie goer, and sadly this causes it to lose much of its moral in translation.

You’ll like this if you liked : S1m0ne

Love Happens (2009) 6/10

Starring : Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Dan Fogler, John Carroll Lynch, Martin Sheen
Director : Brandon Camp
Running Time : 105 mins

Following the death of his wife, motivational speaker Burke Ryan (Eckhart) writes a book which gives advice on how to cope with the loss of a loved one as a method of dealing with his own grief. It’s only when he meets florist Eloise (Aniston) that he discovers that he hasn’t been following his own advice, and that in order to move on he needs to open himself up to the possibility of finding love again.

This felt like it should have been a comedy, but there were no real laughs throughout the movie. Eckhart was effective in some parts of the movie, nut Aniston was lifeless and annoyed me a little. Again this is one of those films that are enjoyed by only a small section of society, but it really felt like a drawn out dull story that tries to deal with depression but ends up dealing with guilt.

You’ll like this if you liked : PS I Love You

Kick-Ass 2 (2013) 8/10

Starring : Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jim Carrey
Director : Jeff Wadlow
Running Time : 104 mins

Dave Lizewski (Taylor-Johnson) and Mindy Macready (Moretz) have been trying to lead normal teenage lives since the death of Big Daddy, but it isn’t long before Dave dons his Kick-Ass tights and joins super hero team Justice Forever, but when Chris D’Amico (Mintz-Plasse) takes up the mantle of The Motherfucker and creates a super villain team, Kick-Ass and his friends find their lives in terrible danger.

This movie doesn’t have as much focus as the original, what with the introduction of so many other heroes, but it was still pretty damn entertaining. The violence is just as over the top, and the villains are unforgiving in who they target, so fans of the original will no doubt love this action-packed sequel.

You’ll like this if you liked : Super

Dead Space : Downfall (2008) 7/10

Starring : Nika Futterman, Keith Szarabajka, Jim Cummings, Kevin Michael Richardson
Director : Chuck Patton
Running Time : 74 mins

A holy relic is discovered on a distant planet, and the USG Ishimura is sent to retrieve it, but when they hear reports of outbreaks of strange violent behaviour amongst the colonists on the planet, the crew start to suspect that there may be something infecting the planets inhabitants. It isn’t long before the same suicidal, violent behaviour starts to infect the crew themselves.

This is an interesting and good looking adaption of the popular computer game and, like Resident Evil, produces its own version of a classic horror villain. The Necromorphs (zombies in all but name) are fun because they are very difficult to dispatch of, and this movie tries its best to come up with an enjoyable narrative. It does pretty well, but this could have been better if some of the campy swearing had been removed, because it always makes me laugh when cartoon characters swear.

You’ll like this if you liked : Stranded

Bullet To The Head (2012) 7/10

Starring : Sylvester Stallone, Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christian Slater, Jason Momoa
Director : Walter Hill
Running Time : 92 mins

Hitman James Bonomo (Stallone) is hired to kill a corrupt cop, but his partner is killed after the gig by another hired killer, Keegan (Momoa) When the dead cops partner Taylor Kwon (Kang) turns up, trying to find his killer, he and Bonomo find themselves joining forces to track down the people behind their respective partners deaths.

This was a fun movie and, even though it has the sort of plot line you’d be comfortable seeing in a Van Damme or Seagal movie, this was actually reasonably good. Stallone looks a little old, but that works for him in this, and Sung Kang was good in the duel lead role.

You’ll like this if you liked : Contraband

Winter’s Bone (2010) 5/10

Starring : Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt
Director : Debra Granik
Running Time : 101 mins

Seventeen year old Ree Dolly (Lawrence) spends much of her time in her small Ozark mountain town trying to take care of her siblings, what with her father being missing and her mother suffering from depression, but when she is told by sheriff Baskin (Dillahunt) that her father put the family house as collateral for his bail she sets out on a dangerous mission to discover what happened to her father.

This one of those movies that everyone seems to think is fantastic but turns out to be really boring. It takes too long to get going, and then just drags on with some nonsense about chopping off her dead fathers hands so they can keep their house. Personally I didn’t enjoy this, and found it a little confusing in parts, but some people who like slow dramas (which seem to be all the rage at the moment) might find something of interest in this movie, which received an awful lot of award nominations considering it was so boring.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Road

Drinking Buddies (2013) 7/10

Starring : Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston
Director : Joe Swanberg
Running Time : 91 mins

Kate (Wilde) and Luke (Johnson) work together at a brewery where they enjoy flirting with each other. The trouble is Kate has a boyfriend, Chris (Livingston), and Luke has a fiancée, Jill (Kendrick). So, when things start to look a little strained in their relationships, they both start to wonder if the other would be a better choice of partner.

Although not laugh-out-loud funny, this romantic comedy-drama is pretty entertaining from start to finish. The chemistry between Wilde and Johnson is perfect, and the ending is worthy of Sofia Coppola. Fanso f standard romantic movies might find this isn’t their cup of tea, particularly with the overly long drawn outending sequence, but personally I thought it was pretty enjoyable.

You’ll like this if you liked : Lost In Translation

Last Rites (2006) 5/10

Starring : Noel Gugliemi, Howard Alonzo, Ethan Ednee
Director : Duane Stinnett
Running Time : 83 mins

Two rival gangs find themselves set up by the LAPD when they go to a meeting st an abandoned warehouse, but things take a turn for the worse when a meteor hits the planet at a point frequented by vagrants who are quickly transformed into flesh eating zombies.

This movie, sometimes known as Gangs Of The Dead, is pretty stupid and takes the ideas of George A Romero and limits them to a group of hobos. The premise seems to be one that is overly used in recent years, and the idea that the lead gang member wants to quit the life because he has found God but then doesn’t think of anyone but himself, and not to spoil things but the ending was practically stolen from Army Of Darkness.

You’ll like this if you liked : Day Of The Dead

Red Dawn (2012) 6/10

Starring : Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Director : Dan Bradley
Running Time : 94 mins

When their small town is invaded by Korean soldiers, a small group of teenagers manage to elude them and, led by American marine Jed Eckert (Hemsworth) and his little brother Matt (Peck), they decide to fight back against the invaders and attempt to get their town back.

This remake of the incredibly popular eighties classic that featured pretty much every popular teen actor of the time falls a little short of expectations, even though those expectations are pretty low. I think the main problem was that the kids in this film weren’t famous enough. Granted, it had the guy from Thor and the guy from The Hunger Games, the girl who was almost Wonder Woman, plus that kid that used to be real fat, but the rest of the kids were nobodies in my view. In terms of storyline, this was pretty predictable, and the characters were one-dimensional, but action fans will probably find this okay.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Expendables

Hurricane Season (2009) 6/10

Starring : Forest Whitaker, Taraji P Henson, Bonnie Hunt, Isaiah Washington
Director : Tim Story
Running Time : 103 mins

High school basketball coach Al Collins (Whitaker) decides, in the shadow of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, to try and form a basketball squad made up from the students from five previously opposing schools who have been forced together and tries to get them to work as a team in the hopes of making the state championship finals.

Considering this is a typical triumph in the face of adversary movie that Hollywood lap up, this wasn’t particularly impressive. None of the characters really spoke to me, and though it was interesting to see the before and after effects Katrina had on the population of New Orleans, I really didn’t feel there was enough here to warrant a movie, particularly one that thinks everything will be okay if you win a basketball game – that will rebuild your house!

You’ll like this if you liked : Goal!

Despicable Me 2 (2013) 8/10

Starring : Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand
Director : Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud
Running Time : 95 mins

Retired villain Gru (Carrell) is called back into the world of villainy by a woman named Lucy (Wiig), an agent of the Anti Villain League, who suspect that here is a villain undercover in a local mall who wants to use a secret formula to turn otherwise docile creatures into mutant killing machines.

Although this started off incredibly slowly, this soon picked up the pace and really did its best to match the wit and charm of the original. It would be near impossible to make a sequel that could match the original, but with the romantic storyline and the flipping of Gru to a sort of hero makes this an imaginative follow up to the fantastic original.

You’ll like this if you liked : Cars 2

Psycho Beach Party (2000) 7/10

Starring : Lauren Ambrose, Thomas Gibson, Nicholas Brendan, Matt Keeslar, Charles Busch, Amy Adams, Kathleen Robertson
Director : Robert Lee King
Running Time : 96 mins

Florence Forrest (Ambrose), known to her beach friends as Chicklet, has a terrible secret that isn’t even known to herself. She suffers from split personality disorder, and at the least provocation one of her alter-egos can easily come to the fore, so when a series of bizarre killings take place in the community, it isn’t long before Chicklet is fingered as the number one suspect.

This is an odd movie, that manages to ridicule the beach movies of the fifties and sixties whilst simultaneously capturing them perfectly. The cast are extremely hokey, and you’d easily believe that they were all terrible actors if it wasn’t for the fact that there are so many familiar faces in the ensemble, most notably Amy Adams. If you can sit through this and not take it seriously, then you will probably find it to be an enjoyable little romp.

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

Spring Breakers (2012) 5/10

Starring : Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Rachel Korine, James Franco
Director : Harmony Korine
Running Time : 94 mins

When bored college girls Faith (Gomez), Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Benson) and Cotty (Korine) decide to rob a restaurant at gunpoint in order to fund their spring break vacation, but when their naughty antics get them a night in jail, they find themselves bailed out by local rapper Alien (Franco)

In spite of the comedy looking posters and kiddy friendly cast, this was far from funny and very un-kiddy friendly. There’s plenty of nudity from the outset, but what starts off promising soon becomes very dark and slightly disturbing as the girls almost randomly turn to crime and start dropping like flies. This is a great example of not judging a movie by its poster.

You’ll like this if you liked : Kids

Ticking Clock (2011) 6/10

Starring : Cuba Gooding Jr, Neal McDonough, Nicki Aycox
Director : Ernie Barbarash
Running Time : 101 mins

Reporter Louis Hicks (Gooding Jr) arrives at his girlfriend’s house and discovers she has been murdered and he quickly becomes the number one suspect. So he is forced to investigate the murder himself in order to prove his innocence and find the killer, a man named Keech (McDonough). His discovery of a journal kept by Keech leads him to believe that the killer has planned future murders, and that his reason for the killings is far more unlikely than he could ever have imagined.

In spite of having an original twist that, in spite of its basis in science fiction, really doesn’t delve into the realms of cause and effect, this is an interesting thriller. The fact that, when Hicks meets the young Keech, his life is still rubbish, kind of puts a dampener on the whole idea of travelling through time to fix your life. Coupled with some not-great acting, and you have a nice concept that has some pretty mediocre execution.

You’ll like this if you liked : The River Murders

Parker (2013) 6/10

Starring : Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Bobby Cannavale, Nick Nolte
Director : Taylor Hackford
Running Time : 119 mins

Honourable thief Parker (Statham) is left for dead by a gang of mobsters, but when he survives the attack he vows to take revenge on them. He discovers where they are located and uses estate agent Leslie Rogers (Lopez) to help him look around the area to discover their exact location.

This movie took a long time to get going in my opinion, with the introduction of Lopez almost an hour in. Statham isn’t particularly good in the title role, and the villains were pretty one-dimensional. Fans of standard thrillers would do better looking elsewhere for their thrills as this is something of a disappointing effort.

You’ll like this if you liked : Assassination Games

Van Wilder : Freshman Year (2009) 6/10

Starring : Jonathan Bennett, Kristin Cavallari, Kurt Fuller, Steve Talley
Director : Harvey Glazer
Running Time : 100 mins

In this prequel to the popular series, Van Wilder (Bennett) starts his first year at Coolidge College, discovering to his disgust that the entire campus is completely oppressed and lacks any sense of fun. So, in order to make life a little more bearable, and to snag the girl of his dreams Kaitlin Hayes (Cavallari), Van decides to make it his duty to turn things around.

The notion for this movie is almost as worrying as Dumb And Dumberer : When Harry Met Lloyd. Doing a movie where not a single cast member from the original is involved is always risky, and this plays out more like one of the straight to video American Pie movies, even starring one of the Stifler family, but as far as things go this isn’t too bad, and if you like movies which you can watch while switching off your brain then this is definitely for you.

You’ll like this if you liked : American Pie Presents Beta House

Hope Springs (2012) 8/10

Starring : Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell
Director : David Frankel
Running Time : 100 mins

Kay Soames (Streep) and her husband Arnold (Jones) have been married for over thirty years, and as time has passed their relationship has become increasingly distant. When Kay discovers a marriage counselling book, she decides to book a visit to Hope Springs where the author of the book, Dr Bernie Feld (Carell), holds counselling sessions to help rescue failing marriages, but Arnold doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with their marriage and is against the idea of counselling.

This is a cute yet sad movie that really shows what good actors Streep and Jones are. I loved Jones oblivious view that nothing was wrong with their marriage, while Streep’s attempts to fix the marriage were both funny and heart-breaking. Fans of romance movies with a difference will enjoy this bitter-sweet love story for the older generation.

You’ll like this if you liked : It’s Complicated

Justice League : Crisis On Two Earths (2010) 7/10

Starring : William Baldwin, Mark Harmon, Chris Noth, Gina Torres, James Woods
Director : Sam Liu & Lauren Montgomery
Running Time : 76 mins

The Lex Luthor (Noth) from an alternate universe is forced to flee to our universe to escape from the evil Crime Syndicate. Once on our Earth, Luthor enlists the aid of the Justice League to help him defeat the Crime Syndicate, so he brings them over to his universe to confront the villains who plan on either taking over the world or destroying it!

Although this is a fun premise, and there’s plenty for fans of pretty much all of the Justice League, the voice talents just didn’t sound like they had their hearts set to do a great job. With previous DC Universe movies, like Wonder Woman or The Green Lantern, the voices really helped make the movie, but everyone in this sounds flat and uninspired. Watch it for the action and the animation, but don’t expect sparkling acting.

You’ll like this if you liked : Superman : Doomsday

Stoker (2013) 6/10

Starring : Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, David Alford, Matthew Goode
Director : Chan-wook Park
Running Time : 100 mins

Following the unexpected and sudden death of her father, India Stoker (Wasikowska) finds her life changing when her Uncle Charlie (Goode) arrives to live with her and her mother Evie (Kidman). She starts to suspect that Charlie has ulterior motives to his decision to move in with them as he starts a relationship with Evie, but finds herself more attracted by him than repelled.

This incredibly weird effort from first time writer Wentworth Miller – most famous for his lead acting role in Prison Break – leaves you guessing right up until the end, and even past that point. My main issue with this is the ending where, in my opinion, India takes on the role of Charlie and starts killing, but others have claimed they think Charlie never existed and that India was the killer all along. I prefer my theory, but everyone is entitled to the own conclusions.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Uninvited

Head Of State (2003) 6/10

Starring : Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Dylan Baker, Nick Searcy, Lynn Whitfield, Robin Givens, Tamala Jones
Director : Chris Rock
Running Time : 96 mins

After appearing on TV after saving one of his constituents lives, small town alderman Mays Gilliam (Rock) is suddenly asked to run for President of the United States when his party’s front runner dies suddenly in a plane crash. As he starts to campaign for the presidency, he starts to realise that he may have been chosen because his party knew they couldn’t win, but his unique approach to government running starts to win over the general public.

This had its moments, but too m any of the jokes were about stereotypes. It’s a real shame, because I usually like Chris Rock, but the obvious humour mixed with the weird slapstick scenes with Robin Givens gave this an uncertain air that left me unsure about what the writers were trying to achieve. Is this a commentary on how black people are under-represented in society, how Americans hate the idea of a black president (even though they now have one), or just a poorly made satire? You decide.

You’ll like this if you liked : The New Guy

Tower Block (2012) 8/10

Starring : Sheridan Smith, Ralph Brown, Russell Tovey, Jack O’Connell
Director : Ronnie Thompson & James Nunn
Running Time : 91 mins

Several months after a teenager is brutally beaten to death in a tower block, the residents find themselves under attack from a mysterious sniper. As the residents start to get picked off one by one, they are forced to combine their efforts to find their way out of the building and try to stop the killer before they’re all dead.

When this started I thought it was going to be just another annoying Brit flick filled with horrible people that you want to slap because of the dodgy mockney accents, but twenty minutes in things really kick into full flow. The characters are actually interesting – even the annoying ones – and no-one is above being shot by the sniper. This is a very tense thriller that keeps you guessing from start to finish.

You’ll like this if you liked : Phone Booth

The Iron Lady (2011) 8/10

Starring : Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Olivia Colman
Director : Phyllida Lloyd
Running Time : 105 mins

Former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher (Streep) struggles to come to terms with the death of her beloved husband Denis (Broadbent) as she looks back on the highs and lows of her life, moving from being a simple grocer’s daughter, to attending Oxford and eventually running for government.

Streep, as usual, is brilliant in this, lending both drama and humour to a role that many would find difficult to play without slipping into caricature. She and Broadbent are a wonderful double act, and between them they manage to make the Iron Lady seem less like a tyrant and more like an actual human being. Fans of Streep will love this performance, no matter how one-sided it may at times seem.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Queen

Admission (2013) 7/10

Starring : Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Michael Sheen, Wallace Shawn, Lily Tomlin, Nat Wolff
Director : Paul Weitz
Running Time : 107 mins

By-the-book Princeton admissions officer Portia Nathan (Fey) takes a trip to a prospective school to find students to enrol at Princeton to get them back into the number one slot for admissions, but when she runs into old schoolmate John Pressman (Rudd), he reveals that he believes that one of his students, Jeremiah (Wolff), is the baby she gave up for adoption when she was in high school.

This is a slow-paced, understated comedy that doesn’t try to garner rip-roaring laughs from the cast and rarely slips into slapstick. The story could quite easily have played as a drama, but the likeable characters, specifically Rudd and Tomlin, and of course Fey, make this a realistic but still entertaining comedy romance that, though predictable, remains an enjoyable watch.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Guilt Trip

Doctor Strange (2007) 7/10

Starring : Bryce Johnson, Paul Nakauchi, Kevin Michael Richardson, Michael Yama, Susan Spano, Jonathan Adams
Director : Patrick Archibald, Jay Oliva, Dick Sebast
Running Time : 77 mins

When medical research doctor Stephen Strange (Johnson) is involved in a terrible car accident, he loses the use of his hands, meaning the possible end of his medical career. Feeling suicidal, he tries to take his life, but is stopped by a man named Wong (Nakauchi), who suggests he travel to Tibet to seek the aid of the Ancient One (Yama). Instead, Strange finds himself being trained to become the next sorcerer supreme and enter a battle to the death with the evil Dormammu (Adams).

This is a very well developed story that very slowly leads us down the path that Doctor Strange followed to become sorcerer supreme. It’s pacing is good, but the problem is that I’ve never been a big fan of the doctor and find his comic books a little flat and dull. Still, this is better than any of his stories I’ve read, probably in part because it crams so much into an hour and a quarter, and the design for Dormammu is considerably better than that of the comics.

You’ll like this if you liked : Planet Hulk

To The Wonder (2012) 6/10

Starring : Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem
Director : Terrence Malick
Running Time : 114 mins

Amercian tourist Neil (Affleck) travels to Paris where he meets and falls in love with Ukrainian single mother Marina (Kurylenko). The two fall in love, and Neil invites Marina and her daughter back to the States to live with him, but it isn’t long before Neil’s job forces them to spend less and less time together and the two find themselves drifting into the arms of others.

It may be that I didn’t get what Malick was trying to achieve with this, but I didn’t really enjoy it. Visually this is a ten to watch, but the fact that there isn’t any real sympathy created toward any of the characters makes this, for me, a flat and unimaginative tale of holiday romance gone bad.

You’ll like this if you liked : Like Crazy

American High School (2009) 4/10

Starring : Jillian Murray, Talan Torriero, Aubrey O’Day, Nikki Ziering, Brian Drolet
Director : Sean Patrick Cannon
Running Time : 87 mins

Gwen Adams (Murray) is a high school girl who got married young to Holden Adams (Torriero). As the two contend with the negative reactions of their classmates, Holden finds it increasingly difficult to stay faithful while Gwen worries that she might be pregnant.

This is a weird movie that at some points is like a drama but then all of a sudden slips back into being a gross out sex comedy. This weird mix makes it hard to know what to think of this movie and personally, because the writer couldn’t decide whether this was a drama or a slapstick comedy, this severely suffered from a lack of direction. Jillian Murray was pretty good, but other than that this was pretty bad.

You’ll like this if you liked : American Virgin

Evil Dead (2013) 8/10

Starring : Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore
Director : Fede Alvarez
Running Time : 92 mins

A group of youngsters take a trip to a remote cabin in the woods, hoping to help Mia (Levy), who has recently started her journey of recovery from drug addiction. When one of them, Eric (Pucci), discovers the Book of the Dead in the house he stupidly reads some of the incantations out loud, releasing a terrible evil that starts to take over each of them one by one in an attempt to get a foot hold into the human world.

Fans of the horror elements of the original movies will love what’s been done with this reboot of the franchise. This actually manages to be far creepier than the original, which tended to come across as unintentionally campy and fun when it was trying to be genuinely frightening. If you like your horror films visceral and cringe-worthy, then this will definitely be up your street. And the rumours of Army Of Darkness 2 being made after this – it’s been 21 years, so I can wait another three to see which ending it will follow on from.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Evil Dead

Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare (2010) 7/10

Starring : Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, Matthew Lillard, Grey DeLisle
Director : Ethan Spaulding
Running Time : 70 mins

In the fifteenth of the direct to video Scooby-Doo series, Fred Jones (Welker) invites his friends to spend some time at his childhood summer camp, Camp Little Moose, where Fred is volunteering as a councillor. But when the gang hear of a camp legend, the Woodsman, coming to life and scaring the campers, they decide to investigate what’s going on to prevent the camp from being permanently closed down.

This is one of those rare Scooby-Doo movies where the clues are actually really well placed and subtle so you can join in on the fun of solving the mystery without feeling like everything has been spelt out to you. Fans of the Scooby gang will enjoy seeing Fred take centre stage for a change, though there are still plenty of laughs from Shaggy and Scooby.

You’ll like this if you liked : Scooby-Doo And The Loch Ness Monster

Fun Size (2012) 7/10

Starring : Victoria Justice, Thomas Mann, Jane Levy, Chelsea Handler, Thomas McDonell, Osric Chau, Thomas Middleditch, Jackson Nicoll
Director : Josh Schwartz
Running Time : 87 mins

Wren’s (Justice) plans to go to the big Halloween party are scuppered when her mother Joy (Handler) forces her to babysit her little brother Albert (Nicoll). Things take a greater turn for the worse when Albert goes missing, and Wren and her friends April (Levy), Roosevelt (Mann) and Peng (Chau) help her search with disastrous results.

Although probably not the most imaginative movie ever made, this is just a kids film and as such it delivers enough humour and slapstick to keep most kids entertained. The kid that plays Albert is awesome, and a film just about him would have been just as fun (although incredibly similar to Baby’s Day Out). The only issue I have is that this came out pretty soon after The Sitter and, aside from the target audience, has a lot of similar aspects.

You’ll like this if you liked : Adventures In Babysitting

Wrong Turn 4 : Bloody Beginnings (2011) 5/10

Starring : Jenny Pudavick, Tenika Davis, Kaitlyn Wong, Terra Vnesa, Ali Tataryn, Samantha Kendrick, Victor Zinck Jr, Dean Armstrong
Director : Declan O’Brien
Running Time : 94 mins

A group of teens who have decided to go snowmobiling find themselves lost in a terrible snow storm. They eventually find shelter in the Glenville Sanitorium, an abandoned hospital – or so they think. It isn’t long before they find themselves under attack from the former patients who had killed the staff thirty years earlier and have developed something of a taste for it.

This movie is supposed to act as a prequel to the prior three movies, but all it did was spoil them slightly. I liked the idea of them always living in the woods, but this makes out that they only moved to the cabin a matter of months before the first film. It also makes no sense that no-one went to investigate what had happened at the hospital for the past thirty years. This instalment is beyond the realms of suspending disbelief, and the characters are so one dimensional it’s ridiculous. My advice – don’t watch this.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Hills Have Eyes

Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) 6/10

Starring : Alexandra Daddario, Tremaine “Trey Songz” Neverson, Scott Eastwood, Tania Raymonde, Dan Yeager
Director : John Luessenhop
Running Time : 92 mins

Heather Miller (Daddario) inherits a Texas estate from a grandparent she didn’t know she had. Upon investigation she discovers that she was adopted and that the grandmother in question is her real one that she never knew about. She travels down with a group of friends to check out the place, which turns out to be a huge mansion in the middle of nowhere, but little do they realise that one of Heather’s murderous relatives is lurking in the cellar.

There are so many mistakes in this movie, like Heather should be pushing forty and the burn mark on her chest should be so much bigger as she received it as a baby, but if you just switch off your mind and watch Daddario bounce around as she tries to escape from Leatherface then you might feel like you’re watching one of the classic bad horror films of the 80s.

You’ll like this if you liked : Wrong Turn

Hellraiser : Hellworld (2005) 5/10

Starring : Lance Henriksen, Katheryn Winnick, Christopher Jacot, Khary Payton, Doug Bradley
Director : Rick Bota
Running Time : 91 mins

Following the death of one of their friends – who was obsessed with an online game called Hellworld – five teens receive invitations from the game to attend an exclusive party in a remote mansion. They arrive to find an orgiastic atmosphere, but behind the scenes they discover that they may in fact be in hell.

Yet another horror movie that had the mythos of Hellraiser copied and pasted into it, which forces all of the movies to have a bluff ending. Throughout this movie I got more and more cross as Pinhead and friends started killing people who had nothing to do with the puzzlebox, only to have the whole movie be a complete cop out as it comes to a close. Fans of the original series will be annoyed by this, but it might go down reasonably with those less familiar with the original.

You’ll like this if you liked : Stay Alive

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) 6/10

Starring : Katie Featherston, Kathryn Newton, Sprague Grayden, Stephen Dunham
Director : Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
Running Time : 97 mins

Five years after the events of the Paranormal Activity 2, teenager Alex Nelson (Newton) and her family start to experience strange goings on when they’re new neighbours move into the neighbourhood and they have to take in their son when the mother is rushed to hospital. Weird shapes and figures start showing up on their video cameras, and

The makers of this series of movies are pretty much treading the same ground with this fourth instalment. The twist with this one is that it’s a younger group that are terrorised by the entity, and that the creepy kid next door is kidnapped baby Hunter from the previous films. Fans of the series might find this a bit tired, and the shock effects are pretty much the same with things there to make you jump and lots of confused people watching videos and asking “What was that?”.

You’ll like this if you liked : Paranormal Activity 3

Lake Mungo (2008) 7/10

Starring : Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe
Director : Joel Anderson
Running Time : 88 mins

When sixteen year old Alice Palmer (Zucker) dies in a drowning accident, her family start to believe that her spirit is haunting them when her image starts showing up in photographs taken after her death. When it is revealed that her brother Matthew (Sharpe) had faked the videos and photographs, the family are lead to a far more sinister video and a recording on a cell phone that may explain the reasons behind Alice’s suicide.

This starts off like a more documentary style version of Paranormal Activity soon proves itself to be far more human and far more character driven. This could have been so much better if it hadn’t have turned back to the supernatural explanation for why events occurred. The fact that she was exploited in a sex tape would have been a far better explanation than that she saw her own bloated ghost!

You’ll like this if you liked : The Fourth Kind

Dark Skies (2013) 7/10

Starring : Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Kadan Rockett
Director : Scott Stewart
Running Time : 94 mins

When strange occurrences start happening around their house, including their food being mysteriously stacked to ceiling height in the kitchen and flocks of birds killing themselves by flinging themselves at their house, Lacy Barrett (Russell) and her husband Daniel (Hamilton) start to worry for their children’s safety. When Lacy sees a figure in their son’s room, they decide to install security cameras to find out what’s going on, they discover that all the members of the family have been having blackouts and that a sinister alien force may be out to get them.

Fans of Paranormal Activity and The Fourth Kind will find this movie runs over some very familiar territory, but at least it doesn’t claim to be found footage. The pacing is slow and the scenarios are over the top, but this is perfect for people who like ridiculous alien invasion movies and the twist ending might come as a surprise to even the most jaded amongst you.

You’ll like this if you liked : Sinister

Cabin Fever 2 : Spring Fever (2009) 7/10

Starring : Rider Strong, Noah Segan, Alexi Wasser, Rusty Kelley, Marc Senter, Giuseppe Andrews
Director : Ti West
Running Time : 87 mins

When the water supply for popular local bottled drink Down Home Water is infected by a flesh-eating virus, the local high school prom finds itself the prime location of the spreading disease when the water is used in the punch. Only Deputy Winston Olsen (Andrews) realises what is happening when he discovers the remains of an infected teen in the woods after it has been hit by a bus, and he soon realises that there may be a cover-up for the infection!

This silly comedy-horror is made in the worst possible taste, but that doesn’t stop it being funny. Fans of recent teen-comedy horrors will feel right at home watching this, although it does go a little further than most with its gross out disgustingness as the movie progresses, and the last half an hour pretty much has no humour whatsoever, except in the scenes with Deputy Olsen.

You’ll like this if you liked : Poultrygeist : Night Of The Chicken Dead

The Collection (2012) 7/10

Starring : Josh Stewart, Emma Fitzpatrick, Christopher McDonald, Lee Tergesen
Director : Marcus Dunstan
Running Time : 82 mins

After he survives being held hostage by a serial killer known as The Collector, a man named Arkin (Stewart)finds himself kidnapped and forced by a group of mercenaries lead by the mysterious Lucello (Tergesen) to go back into the warehouse hideout of the killer in order to rescue a young girl named Elena (Fitzpatrick).

This is a pretty decent thriller from he makers of Saw. It starts out ridiculously over the top, but the pacing soon slows down which makes for a much more interesting film. Fans of slasher films will get a kick out of this horror flick, which is definitely not for the feint hearted.

You’ll like this if you liked : Saw III

Return To House On Haunted Hill (2007) 7/10

Starring : Amanda Rhigetti, Cerina Vincent, Erik Palladino, Tom Riley, Andrew-Lee Potts, Jeffrey Combs
Director : Victor Garcia
Running Time : 82 mins

Ariel Wolfe (Rhigetti), whose sister apparently committed suicide after escaping a terrible night at the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, has it made it her mission to find out what really happened to her. She soon discovers that her sister was in fact murdered by dodgy art dealer Desmond Niles (Palladino), who forces her to go back to the institute to locate a valuable artefact with a number of his business associates but they soon discover – along with some other people who have wormed their way into the building – that the place is haunted by its former residents.

In spite of a ridiculously convoluted plotline and some obvious coincidences, this was actually pretty good. Fans of the original will be surprised that this is on a par with the 1999 classic, and it’s a shame it didn’t get a cinema release as many will assume that this is terrible.

You’ll like this if you liked : Thir13en Ghosts