Non-Stop (2014) 9/10

Starring : Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, Michelle Dockery, Nate Parker
Director : Jaume Collet-Serra
Running Time : 106 mins

United States air marshal Bill Marks (Neeson) is working on a flight from New York to London when he receives a threatening text message saying that if he doesn’t transfer $150 million to a specific account someone will die every twenty minutes until he does, but when the accounts prove to be in his name it’s a race against time for Marks to prove he isn’t involved and to stop the real culprit.

This is one of the best action thrillers I’ve seen in a long time. It’s funny that Neeson has become something of an action star in recent years, but he works in them so well – even with his overwhelming Irish brogue. Fans of Taken may even enjoy this more, and the pacing and intrigue that this gives us is so good it’s hard to resist watching this to the very end.

You’ll like this if you liked : Flightplan

Provoked : A True Story (2006) 6/10

Starring : Aishwarya Rai, Miranda Richardson, Naveen Andrews, Nandita Das, Rebecca Pidgeon, Nicholas Irons, Robbie Coltrane
Director : Jag Mundhra
Running Time : 109 mins

After being married to her abusive British husband Deepak (Andrews), Punjabi born Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Rai) finally decides to take matters into her own hands and sets her husband on fire out of fear for the safety of not only herself but her two children. When Deepak dies of his injuries, Kiranjit is tried for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, a sentencing she is convinced to fight against.

This is a pretty average movie portraying spousal abuse, and could have been considerably better if the performances weren’t so hammy. Andrews starts to get a little over the top towards the end of the movie, and Rai isn’t very convincing as the put-upon wife – though this may be intentional as her characters is meant to be very submissive. Worth watching just to look out for how many actors from EastEnders you can spot, but there are better efforts out there.

You’ll like this if you liked : Enough

Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013) 7/10

Starring : Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard
Director : Victor Cook
Running Time : 75 mins

In the twentieth of the direct to video Scooby-Doo series, Fred Jones (Welker) and Daphne Blake (DeLisle) take the gang to Chicago where they are finalists in a show called Talent Star, but it isn’t long before the gang discover that an evil Phantom is haunting the shows filming location – an old opera house - promoting one of the finalists over the rest in true Phantom style.

This was a decent enough homage to The Phantom Of The Opera with a modern day twist involving reality talent shows. The mystery is an interesting one, with the kind of twists that were more prevalent in the early direct to video Scooby movies, and the humour and character development – particularly the on-again off-again romance of Fred and Daphne – make this a treat for kids and adults alike.

You’ll like this if you liked : Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo

Switch (2011) 7/10

Starring : Karine Vanasse, Eric Cantona, Mehdi Nebbou, Aurelien Recoing de la Comedie-Francaise, Karina Testa
Director : Frederic Schoendoerffer
Running Time : 104 mins

Unemployed Canadian fashion designer Sophie Malaterre (Vanasse) hears about a website called switch.com, where people can trade homes for a holiday. She chooses a place in Paris opposite the Eiffel Tower and trades places with a woman named Benedicte Serteaux (Testa). Everything seems great until she wakes up the next morning to find the police breaking down her door and Serteaux’s dead boyfriend in the spare room.

This is an energetic and intriguing mystery, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I’m still not sure how Serteaux managed to remove Sophie from the plane's manifest, why Serteaux's neighbours thought Sophie was her (they didn't look that much alike), and how crap is airline security that they didn’t notice a severed head in the hold? The reason behind the identity swap eventually makes sense, so that’s the main thing, but the inconsistencies to the story spoil what could have otherwise been a damn fine thriller.

You’ll like this if you liked : Unknown

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (2014) 6/10

Starring : Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell
Director : Matt Reeves
Running Time : 131 mins

Ten years have passed since a pandemic has wiped out much of mankind and a nation of genetically evolved apes find themselves under threat from the human survivors. Following an alliance of sorts, the apes soon turn on the humans when Cesar (Serkis) is shot, but was it by man... or ape?

I was rather concerned when this started off like one of the terrible Ewok movies of the eighties, with apes milling around and us, the viewers, expected to fill in the gaps of narrative. After about an hour things get going, but the move from simple storytelling to all-out action is something of a huge jump, and it almost feels like there was a change in director half way through the movie, Fans of Rise Of The Planet Of The paes will undoubtedly be disappointed at this basic sequel with little or no character to speak of, but if you like Michael Bay style action then at the very least check out the final hour.

You’ll like this if you liked : World War Z

Superman Vs The Elite (2012) 7/10

Starring : George Newbern, Pauley Perrette, Robin Atkin Downes, Catero Colbert, Melissa Disney, Andrew Kishino
Director : Michael Change
Running Time : 75 mins

Superman (Newbern) meets a brand new team of superheroes that call themselves the Elite, and soon learns to respect their abilities and hopes they will join him in defending mankind from the evils of the world. But when they start to use tactics that are both violent and over the top, the Man of Steel starts to feel that perhaps they aren’t as heroic as he first thought they might be. But with public opinion siding with the Elite, does this mean that Superman’s non-violent approach might be outdated?

It’s hard to say who to support in this movie. The only reason that the Elite go after Supes is because if they don’t he’d try to stop them, claiming that they are villains for killing criminals. But it has to be said that some criminals in the DC Universe should be killed, because innocents will die if they are allowed to live. Fans of Superman might actually find themselves disagreeing with his stand against this team of heroes who want to save mankind by killing criminals, but hardcore fans will want Supes to win with his unrealistic ideals.

You’ll like this if you liked : Justice League : Doom

The Heat (2013) 7/10

Starring : Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Demian Bichir, Marlon Wayans
Director : Paul Feig
Running Time : 113 mins

In order to be considered for a promotion, uptight and ambitious FBI agent Sarah Ashburn (Bullock) is forced to team up with angry unorthodox detective Shannon Mullins (McCarthy). The two instantly take a disliking to each-other, but are forced to work together in order to take down a mysterious drug lord that no-one has ever seen, known only as Larkin.

Bullock feels like she prepared to appear in Miss Congeniality in this hit and miss buddy-cop comedy. McCarthy’s character is so over the top it becomes harder and harder to believe she hadn’t been kicked off the force years earlier, and although the plotline makes reasonable sense, this could have been a whole lot better if there were actual clues for the cops to follow rather than what feels like increasingly dumb luck.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Other Guys

Across The Universe (2007) 5/10

Starring : Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess
Director : Julie Taymor
Running Time : 134 mins

Liverpudlian Jude (Strugess) and American Lucy (Wood) meet by chance when Jude travels to the USA to find his father. Surrounded by friends and family affected by the war effort, the two form an unlikely bond as she tries to cope with her brother being called up for military service and he tries to deal with discovering that his father is a janitor.

I guess you’d have to be a huge Beatles fan to enjoy this musical. There is very little story linking the songs or even the characters together – instead this appears to just be a series of songs linked together by an era rather than a plot, and the whole war-torn world theme is a little weak as a link. The only way this could have worked is if, at the end, all the characters come together (no pun intended) and connect over a single event, but as it is the connection of the war effort feels a little weak and tacked on. Plus the relationship between the two leads does not feel plausible to me – for most of the film I felt that Lucy really didn’t like Jude, so it’s strange that a romance springs from this, and in an unlikely way.

You’ll like this if you liked : Moulin Rouge!

The Hobbit : The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014) 7/10

Starring : Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Evangeline Lily, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Stott, Aidan Turner, Dean O’Gorman, Billy Connolly, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom
Director : Peter Jackson
Running Time : 145 mins

When Smaug (Cumberbatch) is killed and the Lonely Mountain is freed from his rule, a number of armies descend on the area, each wanting the return of the treasures stolen from them over the years by the hateful dragon, but their lust for treasures soon leads most of the clans into an all out war with each other as they try to claim back what they believe is rightfully theirs.

One hell of an extended battle scene, this movie may be visually rewarding but the story is spread so thinly it’s amazing that it manages to stay entertaining for the most part. As everyone’s favourite Tolkien characters seemingly show up for no apparent reason, we are given a somewhat repetitive story that tries to distract us with special effects and random deaths.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Lord Of The Rings : The Return Of The King

And Soon The Darkness (2010) 6/10

Starring : Amber Heard, Odette Yustman, Karl Urban
Director : Marcos Efron
Running Time : 92 mins

American tourists Stephanie (Heard) and Ellie (Yustman) take a bike trip through Argentina, having missed their bus due to a drunken night out, but when Ellie mysteriously disappears Stephanie finds herself in a fight to free her from a kidnapping ring that is operating in the area.

You’d imagine with this being a remake that there’d have been a reason to remake it. Perhaps if the writers or director had some new ideas they wanted to add, or they wanted to engage us in some way, but this movie is just so humdrum and dull, with little or no tension, that there’s no way anyone could find it gripping. The acting is pretty bad, and the logic behind Heard’s discovery is far too coincidental for my liking. The only thing this has going for it is tension, which is pretty well executed throughout, but the payoff isn’t worth the wait as, to be fair, there are only really two suspects in the whole movie.

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

Jackass Presents : Bad Grandpa (2013) 7/10

Starring : Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Niccoll
Director : Jeff Tremaine
Running Time : 103 mins

Following the death of his wife and the incarceration of his daughter, octogenarian Irving Zisman (Knoxville) takes a cross country trip with his grandson Billy (Niccoll) to get him to his real father who has been charged with taking care of him. Along the way Irving tries to teach his grandson some valuable life lessons, including how to pick up women, and Billy soon starts to wish he could stay with his grandpa forever.

If you’ve ever seen Betty White’s Off Their Rockers and Jackass, then you can pretty much imagine what this is about. Grandpa gets thrown about the place and injured in various imaginative ways that would kill any true elderly fellow. This movie benefits from the presence of Jackson Niccoll, the young actor who anyone who’s seen Fun Size will know is going to be a future acting genius. This is fun filled and action packed, and fans of silliness will enjoy every minute of this.

You’ll like this if you liked : Big Daddy

Flyboys (2006) 6/10

Starring : James Franco, Martin Henderson, David Ellison, Jennifer Decker, Jean Reno
Director : Tony Bill
Running Time : 139 mins

During World War I, a group of American soldiers are sent to France in order to fight as pilots against the Germans. Initially excited by the prospect of battling the enemy, the young pilots soon realise just how lucky they will have to be to make it through the next two years...

The flight scenes of this war movie are pretty impressive, but the characters really didn’t do anything to make this movie gripping, especially considering I like Tyler Labine who is not his usual whacky self her whatsoever. Reno is wasted in this, and Franco is so wooden it’s scary. If you like war films, this might whet your appetite in part, especially the flight scenes, but as a complete movie this is on the whole too boring and gives us little in terms of historical learning or character development, in spite of the fact that the characters are meant to change drastically throughout the course of the film.

You’ll like this if you liked : Red Tails

Lucy (2014) 8/10

Starring : Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman
Director : Luc Besson
Running Time : 89 mins

After finding herself unwittingly involved with a group of Chinese gangsters, Lucy (Johansson) has a bag of drugs stitched into her body and is forced to become a drug mule, but when the bag bursts and releases the drugs into her system she soon discovers that the drug increases her brain capacity to ten times that of a normal human being, transforming her into an amoral killing machine.

This starts out great, with a surprising twist as Lucy is dragged into the world of a drug mule, then finds herself obtaining bizarre abilities from the drugs in question. Johansson is fantastic in the lead and the movie progresses perfectly, almost until the very end when time travel gets involved and ruins everything. If the ending had have been slightly different, or less ridiculous, then this could have been a five star movie.

You’ll like this if you liked : Limitless

Parasitic (2012) 4/10

Starring : Bianca Holland, Amanda Beck, Miguel De La Rosa, Marcus Jordan
Director : Tim Martin
Running Time : 79 mins

A batch of contaminated fish, infected with an alien parasite, causes the inhabitants of a night club to fear for their lives as they find themselves trapped in a building with their infected manager Val (Holland) running around infecting them with the parasitic worm that has set up shop inside her throat.

Wow. The acting in this movie is by and far the worst I have seen in a long time. Even the varying arrays of bouncing bosoms couldn’t distract attention away from the fact that this flick has some of the most poorly written and delivered dialogue ever committed to film. The random need for people to get naked was interesting, “Oh, I’ve just been sick and none of it got on my top, I’d better take it off anyway,” “Oh, I’m so sick, maybe taking off my bra will help,”, but it wasn’t even done in a funny way, more in a ‘this is porn, but it’s too gross for porn’ way. Seriously, steer clear.

You’ll like this if you liked : Zombie Strippers

August : Osage County (2013) 6/10

Starring : Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard, Misty Upham
Director : John Wells
Running Time : 121 mins

When the patriarch of the Weston family dies, the rest of the family find themselves thrown together in an unwelcome and uncomfortable way, having to play nice with the people they have grown to hate over the years, specifically pill-addicted cancer suffering matriarch Violet Weston (Streep) whose opinions and views on life make her children even more miserable.

From the trailers, the movie posters, even from word of mouth, this sounded like it was going to be a light-hearted comedy drama, perhaps with an edge that would delve into some darkness towards the end, but other than the odd bit of slapstick and some one-liners, this was nothing but solid drama. It was uncomfortable to watch at times, and the characters are both unlikeable and, on the whole, irredeemable. If you don’t like movies that delve into addiction, child-abuse, and all sorts of horribleness, then skip this.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Savages

Insomnia (2002) 8/10

Starring : Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Maura Tierney, Martin Donovan, Nicky Katt, Paul Dooley
Director : Christopher Nolan
Running Time : 119 mins

While investigating the death of a young girl in a small Alaskan town, police detective Will Dormer (Pacino) accidentally shoots dead his partner Hap Eckhart (Donovan) while in pursuit of a suspect. Rather than come forward, Dormer claims the suspect shot his partner, but when he is approached by the suspect, Walter Finch (Williams), who saw him shoot his partner, he is forced to cover for the killer or face murder charges.

This intriguing thriller manages to give us surprises without actually throwing them in our faces. The performances are pretty good and the plot is reasonably believable, and as the movie progresses the holw that Pacino has dug for himself makes the action increasingly tense. Well worth watching, even if the title is a little misleading and only refers to the months of daylight experienced by the small Alaskan town.

You’ll like this if you liked : A Simple Plan

The Inbetweeners 2 (2014) 8/10

Starring : Simon Bird, James Buckley, Blake Harrison, Joe Thomas
Director : Damon Beesley & Iain Morris
Running Time : 91 mins

Bored with life in the UK, Will (Bird) and the boys decide to take a four week trip to Australia to visit Jay (Buckley), who claims he is running a night club and swimming in girls, but they soon discover that as usual he is full of it and the truth is he went out there to find his ex-girlfriend, while Will runs into the girl of his dreams from prep school and desperately tries to win her affections.

This is pretty much what you’d expect from the Inbetweeners, filled with gross out comedy and offensive humour, and it works wonderfully well. The boys are just the same as they were in the show, and their relationships with each other are perfectly examined. Some of the highlights include Will being chased down a waterslide by a turd, Simon being accused of being a paedophile, and a great montage of Jay’s fictitious life in Australia.

You’ll like this if you liked : Kevin And Perry Go Large