Captain Phillips (2013) 6/10

Starring : Tom Hanks, Catherine Keener, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M Ali, Michael Chernus
Director : Paul Greengrass
Running Time : 135 mins

Based on a true story, this movie tells the story of Captain Richard Phillips (Hanks) as he commands a container vessel which is delivering cargo to the coast of Africa. The ship is attacked by Somali pirates, and with no weaponry to fight them off Phillips is taken hostage as the pirates negotiate for an exorbitant amount of money.

It’s always hard to judge this kind of movie, especially when you only have the events from one side of the story. Hanks is fine enough in this, though not Oscar worthy, and the supporting cast aren’t bad, but the pirates on the whole feel like they have been written in a very one-dimensional fashion which makes them almost irredeemable, where even the most hateful of villains should have some quality that you can like to hate about them other than being single-minded and focussed on one simple goal.

You’ll like this if you liked : Under Siege

Authors Anonymous (2014) 7/10

Starring : Kaley Cuoco, Chris Klein, Dennis Farina, Jonathan Bennett, Dylan Walsh, Teri Polo
Director : Ellie Kanner
Running Time : 93 mins

A group of struggling writers meet up regularly to help each other by critiquing their work and improving their writing, but when one of their number, Hannah Rinaldi (Cuoco), is offered a publishing deal which soon turns into a six figure movie deal, the rest of the group become increasingly envious and bitter.

This comedy is far from being of the laugh-out-loud variety, but it is still fun to watch the characters as they angrily resent their one time friend for her new found success. The change in opinions is expertly managed, and the irritation that this so-called literary genius doesn’t even know the most basic of authors just adds to the humour of the piece. This could, in some ways, have been better, perhaps by focussing on more of the characters for more of the time, but what we get is pretty good and on the whole carries a satisfactory conclusion.

You’ll like this if you liked : Young Adult

Hick (2011) 6/10

Starring : Chloe Grace Moretz, Eddie Redmayne, Ray McKinnon, Rory Culkin, Juliette Lewis, Blake Lively, Alec Baldwin
Director : Derick Martini
Running Time : 99 mins

Shortly after her thirteenth birthday, Luli McMullen (Moretz) decides to leave her home town of Nebraska and head to Las Vegas, after seeing an appealing advertisement on TV. She hitches a ride with Eddie Kreezer (Redmayne), a limping cowboy type, and she soon finds herself on a journey that will teach her about the real world and how dangerous a place it can be.

In spite of not really having any plot to speak of, this was an interesting movie that gave Moretz a well-deserved leading role, but the characters all felt a little too unlikely, what with everyone seeming to be a potential rapist or a nutcase, and the coincidences of the connections between the characters she meets was a little too far-fetched, considering the distances she was travelling, and I wasn’t a big fan of the ending which made it feel like her character had learned nothing on her journey.

You’ll like this if you liked : Freeway

Edge Of Tomorrow (2014) 8/10

Starring : Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Paxton
Director : Doug Liman
Running Time : 114 mins

Major William Cage (Cruise) is reluctantly forced into combat when an invading alien race arrives on Earth. He is sent on a suicide mission with little or no training and is killed instantly, only to wake up earlier in the day. He finds himself caught in a time loop which sees him dying over and over, until he realises with the help of another soldier, Rita Vrataski (Blunt) that the reason why they have never been able to beat the aliens is because of the temporal anomaly in their blood which is what caused Cage to travel through time in the first place. Together they think they may have the answer to killing the aliens once and for all!

Considering Cruise was so boring in Oblivion, I didn’t have high hopes for this action movie, but I was surprised that it was actually really good. Cruise’s character is actually flawed, which makes a change for him, and is shown as something of a coward in teh opening of the movie. Obviously, as the day repeats, he becomes a far more worthy soldier, but it is the gradual improvement to his character that makes this so likeable and so imaginative.

You’ll like this if you liked : Looper

Dark Tide (2012) 5/10

Starring : Halle Berry, Olivier Martinez, Ralph Brown
Director : John Stockwell
Running Time : 114 mins

A year after a shark attack that killed a fellow diver, Kate Mathieson (Berry) is forced to return to taking people on shark tours, otherwise her business will fold. An offer to show around a wealthy businessman named Brady (Brown) puts her in business with her ex-boyfriend Jeff (Martinez), but danger looms when Brady insists on swimming with a Great White without a cage.

This movie takes so long to get to the shark attacks. Fair enough if you want to build suspension, but at least have something going on while we’re waiting. The tension between Berry and her ex isn’t enough to keep me interested for the build-up, and it’s almost 90 minutes before anything even remotely exciting happens (ignoring the opening attack scene). It doesn’t help that Berry is terrible in this, and the supporting cast aren’t much better. Avoid this unless you really, really, really, REALLY like sharks – the shark sequences are pretty good.

You’ll like this if you liked : Open Water

Walk Of Shame (2014) 7/10

Starring : Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden, Gillian Jacobs, Sarah Wright Olsen
Director : Steven Brill
Running Time : 94 mins

Meghan Miles (Banks) works as a reporter at a local television station, so when she is offered an interview to work at a network station she is very excited, until she hears that the network are looking at someone else for the role. She decides to get drunk with her friends and ends up staying the night with Gordon (Marsden), a guy she’s just met. The next morning she receives a call asking her in for an interview but her car has been towed and she ends up wandering the streets trying to get to the station.

It’s surprising that this didn’t get a release in the UK as it is a lot of fun. Banks plays the lost and confused reporter wonderfully, and all the cases of mistaken identity, ranging from people thinking she’s a hooker to a drug dealer, are actually played quite well, albeit in a slapstick tongue in cheek fashion. Some might mind the movie a little sexist, especially as Banks gets offered the job because the network think she isn’t squeaky clean anymore, but if you can get by all the sexist undertones (let’s be fair, they’re the bedrock of the movie) then you might find this a fun poke at how women are viewed by the media.

You’ll like this if you liked : Sex Tape

My Dog Skip (2000) 6/10

Starring : Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane, Luke Wilson, Kevin Bacon
Director : Jay Russell
Running Time : 96 mins

Looking back on his childhood, Willie Morris (Muniz) reflects on how his life had been changed before and after he received a pet dog named Skip during the 1940s. Prior to this his only friend was local sporting hero Dink Jenkins (Wilson), who has been sent off to fight in the war, and through the help of his loveable dog, Willie manages to befriend everyone in town.

Although not as funny as I expected, this is a likeable movie that uses the loveability of animals to tug at our heartstrings but, even though it is based on a true story, this is a little weak in actual story where it concerns the dog. This is really the story of a friendship between a young boy and a shell-shocked vet and how their friendship changed due to the horrors of war, cleverly disguised as a kid’s movie. Worth watching, but not the best animal related movie I’ve ever seen.

You’ll like this if you liked : Shiloh

Chappie (2015) 9/10

Starring : Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver
Director : Neil Blomkamp
Running Time : 121 mins

Deon Wilson (Patel) works for the company who manufacture police robots, and wants nothing more than to prove that he can create a robot that can learn and be self aware. When he manages to create the drive that will enable his dream to come true, he steals a damaged robot to test it out, but the robot is stolen by a trio of thieves who plan to use the mechanoid they dub Chappie (Copley) in order to pull off a bank heist.

There are two sorts of people; those who think Chappie is a badly acted rip-off of Short Circuit and RoboCop, and those that thought it was harmless fun that gave an important message. I fall into the latter camp, and I really enjoyed the old-school feel of this movie. Just because the acting was bad from some of those involved didn’t ruin the film – if anything it made the characters feel a little more real and gave an extra layer of thought to the story as a whole.

You’ll like this if you liked : Short Circuit

Riddick (2013) 7/10

Starring : Vin Diesel, Jordi Molla, Matt Noble, Katee Sackhoff
Director : David Twohy
Running Time : 127 mins

Riddick (Diesel) is stranded on a remote abandoned planet, which is only inhabited by wild dog like creatures and mud demons. After spending a while healing from his injuries, he resorts to setting off his emergency beacon to seek help, attracting the attention of two orbiting ships. He makes them an offer – leave on one of the ships together, leaving him the other to escape on, or die horribly at his hands.

I hated The Chronicles Of Riddick. It was over the top, looked too expensive for what it was, it was slow, and nothing really happened. It was nothing like Pitch Black which was slow in a well-paced sort of way and had a coherent storyline, and Riddick is similar in this vein. Diesel may not be the best character actor, and the supporting cast might be almost entirely absent for half the film, but the action is well done and even the dog character who could have easily been annoying served a vital purpose to the plot.

You’ll like this if you liked : John Carter

Into The Storm (2014) 6/10

Starring : Richard Armitage, Sarah Wayne Callies, Matt Walsh, Max Deacon, Nathan Kress, Alycia Debnam Carey
Director : Steven Quale
Running Time : 90 mins

A team of storm chasers find the mother lode when an unlikely number of tornadoes touchdown in the small town of Silverton. As the townsfolk run for cover to the nearest shelters, overconfident storm chasers risk their lives to get the best footage of the storm that they can, not caring who might get hurt in the process.

This was the slowest paced disaster movie I have ever seen. Granted, the special effects weren’t bad, and once things started getting sucked into the sky and dropped on people’s heads it wasn’t too bad, but the tedious introduction of characters that have no character just felt like a huge waste of time when we could have been watching things fly through the air!

You’ll like this if you liked : Sharknado

The Experiment (2010) 7/10

Starring : Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, Cam Gigandet, Clifton Collins Jr, Ethan Cohn, Fisher Stevens
Director : Paul T Scheuring
Running Time : 97 mins

A random selection of men are offered $14,000 to take part in a two week experiment, where they are chosen either to be prisoners or guards in a prison mock up, in which they are expected to keep peace and order and under no circumstances to use violence, but as the guards start to get power hungry and psychologically torture their prisoners, things get extremely out of hand.

Not a bad movie, based on true events, but it’s a shame that the makers of this film decided to rely on violent scare tactics to get their message across when the true psychological trauma inflicted on those involved in the original Stanford prison experiment was so much more worrying. The very idea of people taking on the roles they’ve been assigned to such a degree that they start unconsciously acting like those they are portraying could lead to some very disturbing events indeed.

You’ll like this if you liked : Unthinkable

Penguins Of Madagascar (2014) 9/10

Starring : Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, John Malkovich, Benedict Cumberbatch
Director : Eric Darnell & Simon J Smith
Running Time : 92 mins

The four Madagascar Penguins, Skipper (McGrath), Kowalski (Miller), Private (Knights) and Rico (Vernon) escape from the circus and break into Fort Knox to celebrate Private’s birthday. There they are kidnapped by the evil Doctor Octavius Brine (Malkovich) who turns out to be a vengeful octopus named Dave from their days in the zoo. He has a plan to stop people thinking that penguins are cute, and with the help of an animal led spy agency called the North Wind, the four penguins must stop Dave before he can put his plan into action.

I really enjoyed this, even more so because I wasn’t a huge fan of the last Madagascar movie. There’s plenty of fun and action to keep both children and adults entertained, there’s a plot that can actually be followed, and there’s some great character building for the penguins who up until now (in the movies at least) have only been secondary characters.

You’ll like this if you liked : Despicable Me

The Big Wedding (2013) 6/10

Starring : Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Ben Barnes, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams
Director : Justin Zackham
Running Time : 90 mins

Adopted Alejandro (Barnes) is getting married to Missy (Seyfried), but when his divorced adoptive parents Don (De Niro) and Ellie (Keaton) discover that he has invited his strict Catholic birth mother to the wedding, they have to pretend that they are still a married couple.

I’d heard this was absolutely terrible, but it could have been worse. There were some dodgy plotlines like the virginal Topher Grace falling in love with who is essentially his adopted brothers sister, the family discovering that it was Ellie and not Don who cheated first, and the return of Robin Williams as a priest / vicar (I’m still not sure which), but all in all it wasn’t that bad a movie if you can get past the unnecessarily slapstick carrying on.

You’ll like this if you liked : Licence To Wed

This Is Where I Leave You (2014) 6/10

Starring : Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn, Connie Britton, Timothy Olyphant, Dax Shepard, Jane Fonda
Director : Shawn Levy
Running Time : 103 mins

When their father dies, four siblings are forced to return to their home town for the funeral, where the secrets they’ve been trying to keep from their family soon come into the open, ranging from cheating spouses and divorces, to problems conceiving, while old rivalries and long forgotten arguments come back to haunt the now grown-up children.

This had potential, and when they mentioned sitting shiva, which would mean not leaving the house for days on end, I thought it would be a nice closed-room comedy filled with witty banter and intriguing back and forth discussions. Sadly this element of the plot soon went out the window and the characters were all over the place, blatantly ignoring the funereal instructions. There are some nice moments, but most of them are so simple it’s hard to find them as funny as they should have been.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Skeleton Twins

The Woman In Black (2012) 7/10

Starring : Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciaran Hinds
Director : James Watkins
Running Time : 96 mins

Four years after his wife dies in childbirth, lawyer Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe) is given one final chance to prove himself by his bosses and is sent to a remote village to perform some standard legal services. Once there he is met by a cold welcome, and soon discovers that the village is haunted by the ghost of woman seeking revenge for the accidental drowning of her son.

This wasn’t a bad little gothic horror film, although most of the scares relied purely on extremely jumpy music that after a while did begin to get on my nerves. Radcliffe is pretty good in the lead – a far cry from Harry Potter as a lawyer and father – and manages to make both his fear and anguish believable to the audience from start to finish. If you like atmospheric horror films, they you could do a lot worse than this.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Others

The Wedding Ringer (2015) 7/10

Starring : Kevin Hart, Josh Gad, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting
Director : Jeremy Garelick
Running Time : 102 mins

Doug Harris (Gad) can’t believe he’s about to get married to Gretchen Palmer (Cuoco-Sweeting), who he considers to be way out of his league, but as their wedding quickly approaches he is faced with another dilemma – he doesn’t have any close friends he can use as groomsmen. So he hires Jimmy Callahan (Hart), a Best Man for hire who has the unenviable job of convincing Doug’s in-laws that he is one of his oldest friends.

From the trailers I didn’t expect to like this movie, but this was actually pretty funny, even though the main character wasn’t exactly likeable. Hart and Gad make an interesting pairing, and in spite of some predictable plot twists and some implausible romantic entanglements this is still fun to watch and reaches a satisfying conclusion that makes sense based on what has happened earlier in the film.

You’ll like this if you liked : I Love You, Man

Dom Hemingway (2013) 5/10

Starring : Jude Law, Richard E Grant, Demian Bichir, Emilia Clarke, Kerry Condon
Director : Richard Shepard
Running Time : 94 mins

Following a twelve year stint in jail, safe-cracker Dom Hemingway (Law) is released back into the community where, with the help of his best friend Dickie Black (Grant), he tracks down Ivan Fontaine (Bichir), his former boss who he refused to grass up to the cops. Demanding a payout for keeping silent, Hemingway is paid off by Fontaine but loses the money which is stolen by Fontaine’s girlfriend following a car accident. Hemingway then sets out to prove himself once more as the country’s best safe-cracker.

There’s something not quite right about his movie. I’m only really a fan of movies where the hero is a villain if they are a loveable villain, but Hemingway to me is not very likeable at all. Law does his best with what passes for a witty script, but the wit and charm feel far too forced for my liking and make this movie drag out for far too long until it reaches its somewhat anti-climactic conclusion.

You’ll like this if you liked : Bronson

Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) (2014) 6/10

Starring : Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts
Director : Alejandro G Inarritu
Running Time : 120 mins

Riggan Thomson (Keaton) has been typecast as the superhero he played twenty years ago, but now he wants to prove he is more than just a man in a cape by producing his own Broadway show, but fate doesn’t seem to be favouring him as one of his leading men is taken out of the picture and he is forced to employ a new lead with only days before opening night.

This was an interesting movie that gives us a view of a failed actor trying to rise above and do something worthy with his skills, but for me it failed because of its inability to produce any truly likeable characters. I know there are movies like Sideways where you’re not supposed to like anyone, but with this I felt like we were supposed to be rooting for Keaton, and I didn’t feel the impulse. Granted there are some good performances, particularly Norton who I thought was very good, but all in all this felt piecemeal and not very well thought through.

You’ll like this if you liked : Adaptation.

Colombiana (2011) 6/10

Starring : Zoe Saldana, Jordi Molla, Lennie James, Amanda Stenberg, Michael Vartan, Cliff Curtis
Director : Olivier Megaton
Running Time : 104 mins

Following the murder of her parents as a child in Bogota, young Cataleya (Saldana) grows up wanting to nothing except exact vengeance upon their killer. After years of training by her uncle Emilio (Curtis), she soon become a highly skilled assassin and, after lots of practice, heads out in search of the mobster responsible for her parents death.

This is a pretty standard revenge movie, with the slightly dated twist being that the person seeking revenge is a woman. The storyline feels like it is simple enough to follow, but when you look at it closely there are a lot of things that don’t make sense, such as Cataleya’s belief that the FBI would know the location of the man who killed her family. This movie is okay on the surface as a pointless action flick, but if you think of it too deeply you may become disappointed.

You’ll like this if you liked : Hanna

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) 8/10

Starring : Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Ed Oxenbould, Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey
Director : Miguel Arteta
Running Time : 82 mins

Alexander (Oxenbould) leads a terrible life – not only is nobody coming to his birthday party, but pictures of him superimposed onto bikini models have surfaced on the internet. On the evening before his birthday, Alexander makes a wish that his family could understand what it would be like to have a terrible day, and it soon seems to him that his wish has come true...

This is a fun kids film, filled with slapstick moments that will keep the kids happy. On the whole the bad things that happen are pretty well thought through, and it feels a little like Licence To Drive when the car starts getting wrecked. I half expected this to turn into a fantasy movie when Alexander makes his wish, but thankfully things don't ever go in that direction. Don’t expect the humour to be too clever, but this is a likeable movie that has a satisfying conclusion and some reasonable performances from the cast.

You’ll like this if you liked : Imagine That

Iron Man & Hulk : Heroes United (2013) 6/10

Starring : Adrian Pasdar, Fred Tatasciore, Dee Bradley Baker, Robin Atkin Downes, David Kaye
Director : Eric Radomski & Leo Riley
Running Time : 72 mins

Iron Man (Pasdar) and the Hulk (Tatasciore) are forced to join forces when an evil being of electrical energy named Zzzax (Baker) is unleashed as a team of villainous Hydra agents use Hulk’s gamma energy to supercharge one of Iron Man’s inventions.

Fans of The Hulk and Iron Man should get a kick out of this straight to video animated movie, and I didn’t think it was that bad. It’s just I hated the animation. It was heavily computerised which really put me off, especially when some of the earlier efforts had more standard animation (some even had an anime style, which was great fun to watch). If you like the characters and can live with the animation style, then this is great fun, but the style was just too distracting for me to find it as enjoyable as it could have been.

You’ll like this if you liked : Ultimate Avengers

Life After Beth (2014) 7/10

Starring : Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C Reilly, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser, Matthew Gray Gubler, Anna Kendrick
Director : Jeff Baena
Running Time : 89 mins

As Zach (DeHaan) tries to get over the death of his girlfriend Beth (Plaza), he thinks he sees her at her parents’ house. He soon discovers that Beth has come back from the dead as a sort of zombie, and he manages to continue their relationship from where they left off. But Beth’s increasingly erratic behaviour starts to cause Zach to wonder if her return from the dead has brought her back exactly as she was before.

The first hour of this movie is really fun, with DeHaan thinking Beth faked her own death, and then their weird relationship together and how Beth reacts to things, but it takes a decided left turn and turns into a full on zombie movie at roughly the hour mark. I guess there was no other direction for this to go in, and the writers and cast handle the transition well, but people who are expecting a standard comedy might be surprised to see that this is quite a gory horror, though the gore is very much tongue in cheek.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Voices

Far From Heaven (2002) 7/10

Starring : Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, Viola Davis
Director : Todd Haynes
Running Time : 107 mins

Fifties housewife Cathy Whitaker (Moore) finds her life thrown into disarray when she catches her husband Frank (Quaid) in his office kissing a man! As she struggles to come to terms with this, she begins a friendship with Raymond Deagan (Haysbert), a black man who works as a gardener. Cathy and Frank try to save their marriage by taking trips together and by Frank going to therapy, but Frank’s homosexuality and Cathy’s growing love for Raymond seem to get in the way of any hope for their marriage.

It’s funny that the reaction to the possibility that Cathy is seeing a black man seems worse than Frank being gay. Less than sixty years later, neither of these issues is really that big a deal, but the writers give us a view of mid-century American society that you wouldn’t often see portrayed on screen (at least not before Mad Men). This is melodrama through and through, with some strong performances from Moore and Quaid, and fans of this kind of drama will find little to fault here, but this is at times a little too hammy.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Hours

Residue (2015) 6/10

Starring : Natalia Tena, Iwan Rheon, Jamie Draven, Danny Webb, Franz Drameh, Adrian Schiller
Director : Alex Garcia Lopez
Running Time : 103 mins

Following an explosion in an area of London, quarantine zones have been erected to keep people away, but photojournalist Jennifer Preston (Tena) decides to investigate by going into the quarantine zone. What she discovers is a deadly paranormal phenomenon that could have the potential to wipe out mankind if someone doesn’t act quickly...

For something that is such a good idea, this was almost hopelessly mismanaged by everyone involved. It almost comes across like the horror movie Shutter, just not as creepy. It might be that this is based off a TV mini-series that makes it feel so disjointed (I haven’t seen the mini-series so it might even be simply a cut down version with 30 minutes cut here and there) but whatever it is this great idea could have been done so much better if there was a bit more characterisation and a little less focus throughout on the government conspiracy.

You’ll like this if you liked : Shutter

Delivery Man (2013) 7/10

Starring : Vince Vaughn, Chris Pratt, Cobie Smulders
Director : Ken Scott
Running Time : 105 mins

Childish and unreliable David Wozniak (Vaughn) receives a visit from a lawyer informing him that the sperm he donated twenty years ago to make some extra cash has been used to father over 500 children, and that over 100 of the children want to know who their father is. Due to confidentiality laws, the kids are trying to go through the courts to overthrow the ruling, and it looks like a distinct possibility that they could win. So, having taken a peek at some of the files on his children, reluctant father David decides to visit some of the children to see if he wants to get to know them in return.

Few people probably realise this, but this movie was actually a remake of a Canadian movie made only a few years earlier called Starbuck. Quite why this was remade so quickly is anybody’s guess – perhaps it was suggested that a bigger star might sell the story to the masses and make more money. In any case, this was a likeable movie with some interesting ideas, though it does fall short of its expectations at times, with some of the children being pretty stupid at not guessing who Vaughn really is when he approaches them.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Switch

Someone Marry Barry (2014) 8/10

Starring : Tyler Labine, Damon Wayans Jr, Lucy Punch, Hayes MacArthur, Thomas Middleditch
Director : Rob Pearlstein
Running Time : 88 mins

Three friends have grown sick and tired of their annoying friend Barry (Labine), so they decide to try and marry him off by purchasing a mail order bride for him. This doesn’t work out, but he meets Melanie (Punch), an English girl who is every bit as annoying and abrasive as Barry is. Now they are faced with having two Barry’s in their group, and decide to make the ultimate decision in terms of friendship.

This may not have been the most high brow or complex of comedies but I really liked it. Labine and Punch were wonderful as the happy couple, and the supporting cast of characters playing Barry’s friends manage to bring their own stories into the mix and show just how terrible they are even without Barry’s influence. In spite of the fact that the characters are over the top and at times ridiculous, they are instantly identifiable and you can immediately see how they are going to develop as the movie progresses.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Wedding Video

The Deal (2005) 6/10

Starring : Christian Slater, Selma Blair, Robert Loggia, Colm Feore, Angie Harmon, John Heard
Director : Harvey Kahn
Running Time : 108 mins

When Tom Hanson (Slater) agrees to act as the go-between for one of his investment firm’s clients and a Russian oil cartel, he soon discovers that the deal is not what it seems. With the help of new associate Abbey Gallagher (Blair) – a tree-hugging graduate who wants to put a stop to big business oil production – they discover that the corporations involved will stop at nothing to ensure that their deal goes through.

Although not the best thriller I’ve seen in recent years, this wasn’t too bad. Slater and Blair work reasonably well, though the notion that everyone fancied Blair seemed a little far fetched. The plot was simple but effective, and although some of the relationships between the characters weren’t that believable, this managed to sustain some interest in me and the potentially obvious twist worked pretty well.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Pelican Brief

Night At The Museum : Secret Of the Tomb (2014) 7/10

Starring : Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Dan Stevens, Rebel Wilson, Skyler Gisondo, Rami Malek, Patrick Gallagher, Mizuo Peck, Ben Kingsley
Director : Shawn Levy
Running Time : 98 mins

The magical tablet of Ahkmenrah (Malek) that allows the exhibits at the New York Museum of Natural History to come to life at night is strating to corrode, and its magic is slowly going out of control. With the exhibits acting strangely, Larry Daley (Stiller) heads to London to visit Ahkmenrah’s parents at the British Museum, but things go horribly wrong when the tablet is stolen by Lancelot (Stevens), who believes it is the Holy Grail.

I’ll admit it, I enjoyed this movie. It wasn’t that clever, and most of the action was stretched out so it could last for the full duration of the movie, but it was still a lot of fun. I think of this movies as being primarily aimed at children, and as such they are actually quite informative while still being slapstick and silly. Fans of the originals will no doubt enjoy this, which feels like the close of the trilogy.

You’ll like this if you liked : How To Train Your Dragon 2

Mandela : Long Walk To Freedom (2013) 7/10

Starring : Idris Elba, Naomie Harris
Director : Justin Chadwick
Running Time : 142 mins

Telling the life of Nelson Mandela (Elba), from his early years as a lawyer in 1940s South Africa when he was forced to resort to joining the armed resistance against the tyrannical system of Apartheid which posed no protection for blacks, to his life imprisonment for treason. His stoic manner in facing his punishment becomes a symbol to the world, and his cause soon opens the eyes of the world powers.

This movie wasn’t bad, but it did have a limited focus. I would have loved to have seen more of Mandela’s childhood, and not get so caught up in the events that led to his imprisonment, although those are the events he is most famous for. There is little about his time as president, and if anything this doesn’t give enough detail about why the resistance group he joined finally gave up on peaceful ways and turned to violence. The acting in this movie isn’t that impressive either, considering the two leads are usually so good, and it might be a case that another writer or director could have done a better job with this epic story..

You’ll like this if you liked : The Last King Of Scotland

Sin City : A Dame To Kill For (2014) 7/10

Starring : Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe, Dennis Haysbert, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach, Jaime King, Christopher Lloyd, Jamie Chung, Jeremy Piven, Christopher Meloni
Director : Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller
Running Time : 103 mins

A femme fatale (Green) claims her husband is beating her to persuade a private eye (Brolin) to kill him for her, a gambler (Gordon-Levitt) tries to prove he’s better than a powerful senator (Boothe) at cards, with deadly consequences, and a stripper (Alba) employs the aid of a mobster (Rourke) to take out the man that killed her friend (Willis).

This movie has a couple of problems: one, it is far too similar to its 2005 original; two, some of the stories feel rushed in places; three, it’s in 3D! I hate 3D! Fans of the original movie will either love this for being a faithful continuation of the series or hate it for being too similar and for ruining their memories of the original. It’s not bad, in spite of some continuity issues with characters, especially Marv, and I liked the main story and the one with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but I’d have loved it to go into more depth.

You’ll like this if you liked : Machete

Universal Soldier : Day Of Reckoning (2012) 5/10

Starring : Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, Andrei ‘The Pitbull’ Arlovski, Dolph Lundgren
Director : John Hyams
Running Time : 114 mins

A man named John (Adkins) witnesses the murder of his wife and daughter by a group of home invaders lead by government experimental soldier Luc Deveraux (Van Damme). When he wakes from a coma, he finds himself being hunted by another UniSol named Magnus (Arlovski), but the truth behind the death of his family and his own connection to the UniSol’s leads him to question his very existence.

This starts off well and feels like it’s going to be an interesting story, but it starts to fall apart about half way through when it begins to rely too heavily on fight sequences to move the story along. Fans of the original will feel this is a poor cousin that does nothing much to expand on the universe of the movies, though it attempts to give as an evolution in the UniSol’s by having them become self-governing. I get the impression that there won’t be any more movies in this series, but you never can tell what direct-to-video movie might show up in your local store.

You’ll like this if you liked : Terminator 3 : Rise Of The Machines

88 (2015) 6/10

Starring : Katherine Isabelle, Christopher Lloyd, Tim Doiron, Kyle Schmid, Michael Ironside
Director : April Mullen
Running Time : 89 mins

A girl known simply as Flamingo (Isabelle) finds herself in a diner with no memory of who she is or what has happened to bring her to that location. On discovering a gun in amongst her belongings, she accidentally shoots a waitress and goes on the run in an attempt to piece together what has happened to her, finally realising that she must have been out for revenge against the killer of her boyfriend.

Although this isn’t the best movie I’ve ever seen, and quite a departure for director April Mullen whose only other work I’ve heard about was comedy horror Dead Before Dawn, Katherine Isabelle manages to bring at least some of the performance that made her so good in American Mary and Ginger Snaps to this and rescues what could have been a worthless pile of drivel with a weak premise. Thankfully she makes this at least a little bit interesting, and the twist at the end might not be predictable but it is a little bit unlikely.

You’ll like this if you liked : Memento

Superman Unbound (2013) 7/10

Starring : Matt Bomer, Stana Katic, John Noble, Molly Quinn
Director : James Tucker
Running Time : 76 mins

Superman (Bomer) is alerted to the appearance of a meteor that is heading to Earth and, when he stops it, finds that a robot drone is inside and that it has alerted its controller to the location of Earth. Soon Superman is faced with an evil cyborg named Brainiac (Noble) who plans on miniaturising Metropolis and adding it to his collection, including the city of Kandor, the capital of Krypton.

I loved the cartoony animation in this DC comics movie, and actually found myself believing the characterisations of Lois and Clark, although Supergirl seemed a little weak (possibly because she is being faced with the being that seemingly destroyed her home world). Fans of Superman will definitely like his portrayal, though the story is for the most part focussed on only two topics – Brainiacs’ attack and the relationship between Lois and Clark – and probably could have expanded to give some of the supporting cast some more time in the spotlight.

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

Hercules (2014) 7/10

Starring : Dwayne Johnson, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell, Aksel Hennie, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Joseph Fiennes
Director : Brett Ratner
Running Time : 102 mins

Hercules (Johnson) wanders the world with a band of mercenaries, using the legendary tales of his past to convince people of his might and that he can help them in their time of need – for a price. With his latest task being to help train the army of Thrace so they can prevent an invasion from a bloodthirsty warlord, but Hercules soon learns that sometimes helping people can lead to more trouble in the long run.

This has an incredibly slow start, and I was almost tempted to switch off for fear this would another one of those movies that are nothing but voice over and bad animated sequences, but once it got going it was actually quite clever. All of the fabled labours of Hercules are explained away as mere fable in some parts, with appearances of some of the creatures proving to be tricks of the light, which made this quite a fun watch.

You’ll like this if you liked : Wrath Of The Titans

The Tortured (2010) 5/10

Starring : Erika Christensen, Jesse Metcalfe, Bill Moseley
Director : Robert Lieberman
Running Time : 82 mins

When the son of a young couple is kidnapped, tortured and murdered, they are devastated, and the only thought that keeps them going is that the killer, John Kozlowski (Moseley), will get put away for life. But when he is sentenced to 25 years in prison, the mourning parents decide to take matters into their own hands and treat him to his own medicine.

Terrible acting and lazy script writing makes what could have been a decent revenge movie little more than mediocre. Both Christensen and Metcalfe perform weakly throughout the movie, and their plans for revenge – which should have been incredibly complicated as anyone who has seen and enjoyed The next Three Days will agree to – seemed too easy by far. Perhaps some elongation to the freeing of the murdered by the angry parents could have made their quest feel more meaningful, but their lazy attacks make this feel incredibly dull at points.

You’ll like this if you liked : 100 Feet

Taken 3 (2014) 7/10

Starring : Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace, Dougray Scott
Director : Oliver Megaton
Running Time : 105 mins

When his ex-wife Lenore (Janssen) is found dead in his home, one time government operative Bryan Mills (Neeson) finds himself framed for her murder and goes on the run in an attempt to clear his name, all the while being pursued by not only the police, but also the FBI and the CIA as he tries to figure out the real reason behind his ex-wife's murder.

Although nowhere near as much fun as the original, this is by far and away superior to the second movie. In spite of coming across like a poor mans The Fugitive, with Neeson playing the Richard Kimble role and trying to find the people responsible for killing his ‘wife’, this is an action packed, plot driven, and most importantly fun action movie that brings a nice ending to what is hopefully going to remain a trilogy of movies.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Fugitive

The To Do List (2013) 8/10

Starring : Aubrey Plaza, Johnny Simmons, Bill Hader, Alia Shawkat, Sarah Steele, Scott Porter, Rachel Bilson
Director : Maggie Carey
Running Time : 104 mins

Brandy Klark (Plaza) graduates high school as one of the most successful students in their history, but she never did manage to be a success when it comes to sexual exploits. So when her slutty sister Amber (Bilson) tells her how important sexual experience is, Brandy writes up a list of all the sexual acts she wishes to accomplish before she starts college.

This gross-out comedy takes the usual plots that are reserved for teenage boys and turns them on its head. Plaza plays the sexually inadequate Brandy perfectly and keeps the deadpan laughs coming from start to finish, with a superior supporting cast managing to make the unlikely scenarios all the more believable. Fans of American Pie will love this inverted sex comedy that feels so original in spite of taking a lot of story lines from other teen comedies and flipping them around.

You’ll like this if you liked : American Pie

The Maze Runner (2014) 7/10

Starring : Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter
Director : Wes Ball
Running Time : 114 mins

Teenager Thomas (O’Brien) wakes up in a lift with no memory of how he got there, and is launched into an environment filled with other young boys who are trying to survive and find a means of escaping their seeming captivity. Their only clue to a way out is an ever-changing maze that surrounds the glade in which they are trapped, but no-one has ever come back from the maze once they have entered.

I watched this with no expectations as I hadn’t read the books, and found it to be quite entertaining. It doesn’t patronise its teen viewers too much, not like Twilight or some other recent franchises, and it manages to keep an air of mystery about the maze itself without leaving all of our questions unanswered. Fans of series such as The Hunger Games will enjoy the life or death situations produced here, and may also like that the CGI seems to have been largely limited to those scenes that are actually inside the maze.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Hunger Games

Hero Of The Rails (2009) 7/10

Starring : Michael Angelis, Ben Small, Keith Wickham, Teresa Gallagher, Togo Igawa, Matt Wilkinson
Director : Greg Tiernan
Running Time : mins

While Thomas (Small) is racing Spencer (Wilkinson) to prove he is just as useful an engine as he is, he discovers a long forgotten old train named Hiro (Igawa) who is in terrible need of repair. Worried that the Fat Controller (Wickham) will send Hiro off for scrap, Thomas sets about trying to repair the old train, but Spencer becomes suspicious of what Thomas is up to and makes it his duty to find out.

Kids will love the new look Thomas, though older fans might be sad to see the disappearance of the classic miniature train sets that we remember from the 80s and 90s. My son loves this movie, and it usually keeps him quiet for the majority of it’s almost an hour duration. There is a plot, which is unexpected in shows intended for the very young, so adults won’t go mental trying to figure out what the characters are doing.

You’ll like this if you liked : Misty Island Rescue

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015) 7/10

Starring : Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Gillian Jacobs, Chevy Chase
Director : Stev Pink
Running Time : 100 mins

When Lou (Corddry) is assassinated, his best friends Nick (Robinson) and Jacob (Duke) hop into the hot tub time machine with is dying body to try to save him by travelling back to find out who shot him, but they find themselves transported into the future, leading them to the conclusion that the assassin was another time traveller.

This was not as good as the original movie, but is still quite entertaining. The humour is even more low brow, and there are some moments that could have been cut completely like the virtual rape game show, but all in all this is a fun movie that, if you don’t take it too seriously, will keep you entertained from start to finish.

You’ll like this if you liked : Horrible Bosses 2

Blue Jasmine (2013) 7/10

Starring : Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins, Alec Baldwin, Louis CK, Bobby Canavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Peter Sarsgaard, Michael Stuhlbarg
Director : Woody Allen
Running Time : 99 mins

Wealthy New York socialite Jasmine French (Blanchett) is forced to stay with her adopted sister Ginger (Hawkins) in San Francisco when her husband Hal (Baldwin) is arrested for tax fraud. She finds herself thrust into a working class life which she feels is beneath her, and it isn’t long before she also starts to realise that her husband was cheating on her with anyone he could.

This is better than some of Woody Allen’s movies, which seem to be turning up more and more frequently, but I still don’t think it was great. Allen’s apparently witty scripts seem to fall flat, and some of the lines here just don’t fit in with the situations (specifically when Blanchett is assaulted by her boos). Both Blanchett and Hawkins perform admirably considering what they have to work with, but considering Allen is supposed to be one of the best I expected more.

You’ll like this if you liked : A Streetcar Named Desire

Not Safe For Work (2014) 6/10

Starring : Max Minghella, Eloise Mumford, JJ Feild, Christian Clemson
Director : Joe Johnston
Running Time : 75 mins

Thomas Miller (Minghella) is fired from his law firm after taking issue with a case against a pharmaceutical company, but when he returns to the office and witnesses a murder he find himself caught up in a problem that even his legal skills won’t be able to get him out of, and things get even worse when his girlfriend Anna (Mumford), who doesn’t know he’s been fired, comes to the building to meet him!

In spite of being incredibly low budget, and clearly made on a shoe string, this wasn’t actually that bad of a movie. The action could have been handled better in places and the script and in some cases the acting are a little weak, but the concept – although perhaps not the most original – is still a fun one to watch unfold and does have the odd surprise pop out at you and genuinely catch you unawares.

You’ll like this if you liked : Steel Trap

Jane Eyre (2011) 6/10

Starring : Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell, Judi Dench
Director : Cary Joji Fukunaga
Running Time : 121 mins

Jane Eyre (Wasikowska) takes a job as a governess at Thornfield Hall, working for the dark and brooding Mr Rochester (Fassbender). She soon finds herself forming a close friendship with her boss, and starts falling in love with him, but a secret in his past may lead to the end of their friendship forever.

The Bronte’s are famed for their depressing tales of woe, and this is no different. I always hated Emily Bronte, who in my opinion was a terrible writer whose only novel Wuthering Heights repeatedly treads over the same ground with different characters and similar outcomes, but this offering from Charlotte at least has a slightly more upbeat ending. Fans of period dramas who don’t mind there being no humour should enjoy this, but personally I like a little more comedy in my classics and this contained none.

You’ll like this if you liked : Great Expectations