A Year Long Remembered: 2014 in Film Part 2

With my overall look of the year out of the way, its time to delve into my best and worst films of the year.

I talked about these somewhat on my Radio show but given that about half of it was removed for broadcast (if the full version could've been used it would've been) I began to feel that I should do a column about them so I could recapture the feeling of the pre record of my show where I talked about my picks at length.

Without further ado lets now talk about the 7 worst films of 2014 and these ones my friends just went utterly troppo.

7. Exodus Gods and Kings: A late entry into this list was Sir Ridley Scott's Biblical epic Exodus Gods and Kings which told the tale of Moses and how he would free his people from the hands of the tyrannical Egyptian rule.

But instead it was just laughable to sit through boys and girls now don't get me wrong as a physical production it was handsomely mounted but the script was predictable (frankly Milhouse was a better version of Moses) and the casting oh boy oh boy.

It was utterly ridicolous and at times I just thought "what the fuck" I mean you had Joel Edgerton YELLING HIS LINES LIKE THIS (YOU THINK YOUR GOD, I AM THE GOD) you had Ben Mendelsohn playing the whole thing as if he cares more about his nails than his slaves, Sir Ben Kingsley playing Ben Kenobi (something bad happens and he wakes up suddenly and I thought "He felt a great disturbance in the Force")

Plus there was John Turturro who shows us more man parts in Transformers than I would care to see from a man his age being totally unbelievable as a Pharaoh plus I just kept wishing for Apocalypse from X-Men and his Four Horsemen to show up and destroy everything so the film would be over.

And yet Sir Ridley could once make a good film like Black Rain with Michael Douglas but alas he needs to pick better scripts or otherwise he will ruin his reputation.

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Everyone remembers these loveable Turtles who cracked jokes in a battle, were Heroes in a Half Shell, the World's most Fearsome Fighting Team and when the evil Shredder attacked, these Turtle boys didn't cut no slack.

Well instead of this being a Cowabunga Good Time at the movies for the family it was a dark, dull and noisy Cowabummer experience that kids shouldn't be allowed to watch (and I heard as such from some families as its M rating put some families off from taking their kids to see it, I don't blame them) especially given that Michael Bay's producer credit pretty much means his fingerprints are all over this film.

And to be very honest if he wasn't lured back to direct Transformers 4: The Film that Never Ends (seriously it just goes on and on my friends) I have no doubt he would've considered directing this film instead as the backstory is unforgivably changed, the Turtles look too bulky and are so dull to watch its a joke and the story is the generic loveless Billionaire out to ransom New York City.

In a way I can't help but think these Turtles are in the same camp as Spider-Man in that both are inherent fun characters that are having formulas for darker films imposed upon them and it doesn't work so there's no Turtle Power here I'm afraid.

5. Sex Tape: The "Comedy" if you could say that with Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel from earlier this year with those 2 actors playing a married couple bored with being married so they film themselves doing a sex tape but oh dear it gets put into the cloud and on every iPad Segel's character ever gave away.

The worst thing in the world sometimes is a comedy with no laughs and there were none whatsoever to be had in this movie but in terms of "The Cloud" Jesus Fucking Christ there is some DUMB! shit going on here I mean seriously if you wanted to add it to your fucking Pad just go "Add File to Video Library" then you wouldn't have had to run around for 90 minutes doing dumb shit and worrying if your bestest best buddies or your very important boss seeing you two Rock the Kasbah trying to rekindle that old spark that saw you two bonking away (without any protection probably) until the two of you have to be dragged out of bed by a Wilderbeest Stampede.

Give me a fucking break, seriously and people wonder why Diaz's career has gone down the toilet these days.

4. Free Birds: An animated film from January saw two Turkeys travel back through time to the first Thanksgiving so that Turkeys aren't on the Menu.

If that's as Dumb as that sounds well the film is pretty much that and 2014 has been a good year for family films with Paddington, The Lego Movie and How to Train your Dragon 2 so its a shame that the year started off so badly with this one.

First of all the animation is the standard digimation with no life in it, Woody Harrelson, George Takei and Colm Meaney all good comic performers are given nothing to do, the story makes no sense and at times I just thought to myself "Oh Come On, your having me on here" so one could say that this was in every sense of the word A Turkey.

3. The Monuments Men: Now this would look like a winner on the page, a great historical story about saving artwork from the Nazi's, a talented A list cast and director attached, what could go wrong.

Well just about everything went wrong, the film has no coherent tone or structure to it (at one point its fun another its serious), the cast are very hit and miss (Matt Damon was a poor substitute for Daniel Craig, Cate Blanchett was way too pompous and Bill Murray just looked like a sad tired old man who doesn't care about making movies anymore.) and for Clooney this along with his 3 weddings is not a good look for a star that I normally enjoy in a film but as a director he needs to try harder.

2. Transcendence: The Johnny Depp computer film released back in late April saw him as a scientist who downloads his mind into a computer to avoid dying after being shot.

You know letting someone become all powerful through computers is probably not a smart move as this film was just stupid to sit through as one part of it doesn't blend with the other (again those tonal problems from Monuments Men come back) and as for the cast well Depp just sounds bored, Kate Mara wanders around for something to do, Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy just stand around thinking "have they sent the paycheque yet?" and Rebecca Hall trying her darndest to keep the whole show afloat.

But that doesn't even compare to my number 1 pick which is:

The Equalizer: Yes folks my worst film of 2014 is also the dumbest film I ever sat through at the cinema this year, Denzel Washington's adaptation of the Equalizer.

And this was DUMB DUMB DUMB! action filmmaking that was also way too long (135 minutes is not good enough for what is a silly exploitation film, John Wick was only 100 minutes and that did okay) not to mention dull as dishwater to sit through as after a while you're like "Okay just get to the killing."

And when it does get to the killing it's all just put together in the most ridiculous way you start laughing at it and not in a fun way I mean at one point Denzel tracks the bad guys in the dead of night and one yells out "Who are you?" to which I thought "I'm Batman" then there was his magic formula to make just about everything go KABLAM!!! without even trying.

And then and then there's the utterly stupid climax of the film that takes place in a hardware store (I'm not joking) so imagine if you will Die Hard taking place in Bunnings Warehouse or Masters Home Improvement or even Mitre 10 and the bad guys (who are the Russians AGAIN uhhh) getting killed by the very same parts you use to build a coffee table or a shelf for the garage.

I really thought Denzel was better than this stupid nonsense, I really did obviously I was wrong.

But that was the worst of the year lets now lighten the load and talk about the happy films of 2014 and by that I mean my best of the year list.

Gone Girl/Guardians of the Galaxy/Mandela Long Walk to Freedom: Yes folks there is a three way tie to kick off this best of list.

Gone Girl was a great look at modern marriage and was also a dark and stylish thriller from David Fincher and author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn plus it had a great performance by Rosamund Pike as well as Ben Affleck, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris and Carrie Coon, I didn't want to talk about this film much when I saw it but it was well worth the wait.

Guardians was also well worth the wait as this was a very fun Sci-Fi flick with terrific visual effects, a great pop soundtrack as well as a very good script and direction by James Gunn who mixes tones well, I did toy with taking it off this list but given I had so much fun with this film I decided (rightly) to leave it here.

And finally Mandela pleased both the film fan and political junkie in me and I just adored it, Idris Elba did a terrific job bringing this iconic man to life and the film nicely structures itself in a way that as it goes on the broader issue of Apartheid in South Africa comes to the fore of the world stage and the country tearing itself apart, its just a shame it was overlooked last year as it deserves a bigger audience.

But as good as those films were (and they were very good) they pale in what I consider to be my top 2 films of the year by a long way:

2. X-Men Days of Future Past: Released back in late May was Bryan Singer's return to the X-Men franchise as a Director with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) sent back to 1973 to prevent the extinction of mutant kind.

This was easily my favorite comic book film of the year because I felt that it took the time more to tell a full story, it had much better villains (this is where Marvel Studios have really dropped the ball) plus it was very tightly focused and didn't run on longer than it needed to (I didn't miss Rogue all that much.)

Also watching this film reminded me very much of the impact the first 2 X-Men films had on me when they were originally released and a lot of that is to do with Singer himself who has done a great job translating this comic to the big screen in a way that honors the spirit of the books but also remembers that this is a film first and foremost and it makes me sad that contractual obligations prevented him from directing X-Men First Class as the series hasn't felt quite right without him.

But as good as that was my number 1 hit me in the heart:

Electric Boogaloo - The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films: Yes folks a documentary has taken out the top honor as my favorite film of the year.

But this documentary as I said just hit me in the heart as director Mark Hartley tells us the wild and crazy tale of Cannon Studios who made such notorious films like Superman 4, the Death Wish sequels and Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren and for me whilst watching it I thought to myself "I am in love with this documentary" and when it was over I was craving more in a big way but sadly Umbrella's pathetic DVD release contained no extras whatsoever which is an utter disgrace for such a great doco.

Another feeling I got was thinking how all of these titles were old RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Videotapes as they held the rights in Australia to their titles for the most part (Warner Home Video also held some) and it helped to give me the warm and fuzzy feelings so when this doco was over I knew that this was going to be my number 1 of the year and no feature film that I saw was going to top it.

And so that is my best and worst list in an extended form for 2014, stay tuned for Part 3 of my look back where I reveal my disappointments, regrets and surprises for the year.

A Year Long Remembered: 2014 in Film Part 3

With the overall look at the year now out of the way along with the best and worst its time now to start delving into the final lists of the year.

And in this 3rd part I want to talk about my surprises, disappointments and regrets of the year and boy oh boy there are some big ones to talk about in each of those categories so lets get to the chase and dive right in.

Disappointments of 2014:

Oh dear oh dear there were some major disappointments this year for me, 3 major ones in particular.

3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2: This is my third pick for this list and this was a film that I was really excited to see beforehand having enjoyed the first Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield in 2012 but alas it had to get caught up with the School Holidays here in Australia and as a result I had to wait until the US got it before I could see it.

And the wait sadly was not worth it and the main reason that was is because of the script, frankly it has too much going on as it was wanting to build that cinematic universe but it forgot the fundamental tale of Peter and Gwen and that great chemistry between them was just thrown away like so much else of this film.

And in a way I am reminded of the 1983 film Two of a Kind which was the reunion picture between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and like that film this one felt like it was more interested in everything else rather than the central chemistry and Columbia Pictures is now paying a very heavy price for its meddling with this great character to fit a formula that doesn't work.

2. Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit: This was my most anticipated film of 2014 along with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1 and the Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and it came out in January, a very weird feeling.

But alas it was also very disappointing as I'm such a fan of the early Tom Clancy novels with this character (The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games are great reads) and the 1990 film version of Red October is one of my very favorite films but this new one is just a repackaged, retreaded and tired and so very average.

And by that I mean nothing feels at stake here (Red October dealt with the potential 3rd World War against Russia, here it's just an economic crash ZZZZZZ), the action feels very tedious to watch (Sir Ken Branagh is not an action director despite his good work on Thor in 2011) and the cast just sound bored (Chris Pine was a good choice for Jack but he's given nothing to work with same with Kevin Costner.)

But this is the new PG-13 Hollywood at work in this film: Don't go too far, don't be too risky with the violence and just go through the archives to find a easy to market villain otherwise we risk offending vital markets and with these sort of high energy action pictures where the heroes DON'T wear tights or a mask (Halle Fucking Lujah) it's not good enough and again like with Amazing Spider-Man 2 just because this sort of approach works elsewhere doesn't mean it can be tailored into a one size fits all approach.

But as disappointing as those were, this one just made my heart sink.

1. Interstellar: Coming in at number 1 on this list is Christopher Nolan's Sci-Fi epic Interstellar.

The reason I found this the most disappointing was that this was a big film I was very excited to see (I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan) but whilst I was sitting in my seat in the cinema watching this film I just felt my heart sink as it was going on and when it was over I just said to myself "This did not live up to my expectations."

And that is a shame because this was a very ambitious project but Nolan tried to do too much and while he excels at that dark toned hard edge filmmaking he gave us in the Dark Knight he's not so good at the more emotional melodrama that Spielberg and Cameron can do well and the mix of the two tones at times is very jarring which again is very sad.

But that's the disappointments out of the way its now time to talk about the surprises of the year.

3. August Osage County: This was the first film I saw in a cinema this year and going into it I did not expect much apart from a typical family drama.

Boy was I wrong as I was really surprised by how much effect it had on me when I walked out of it because if you have ever gone to an uncomfortable family gathering where the relatives start fighting and one has a bit too much to drink or too much on their mind to say well you will be reminded of that and not in a good way as was the case with me.

2. Grudge Match: Now this was one I did not expect anything from apart from just Stallone and De Niro doing bad parodies of their iconic boxing movie roles.

But I was wrong as I had a good time watching this film mainly due to Alan Arkin who is almost always good value in a comedy and though this one is not perfect (it's way too long when it should've been just a light hearted 80 to 90 minute boxing comedy but instead its nearly 2 hours) I did have a good time here and for that I was happy.

But my biggest surprise of 2014 was by far this one:

1. The Lego Movie: Talk about having low expectations I had next to none going into this film as I saw the big standees and the posters for it and thought to myself "You have got to be joking" but my weakness for animated films being as such I decided to go and see it.

And boy oh boy was I ever so glad to do so as this was so much fun to watch, Phil Lord and Chris Miller who also made the very funny 22 Jump Street wrote a great script with many great gags, the visuals were stunning, the song "Everything is Awesome" should be a shoe in for best original song at the Academy Awards next year as it is catchy as hell and the vocal performances were terrific across the board especially Liam Neeson (and yes he is doing both of those voices sometimes simultaneously.)

But not only was it a great animated film it was also a great comedy first and foremost and its great to see Lord and Miller giving comedy films a real kick in the ass after stagnation with the Judd Apatow Comedy Club formula of making comedies and like just about everyone else walking out of the cinema I couldn't help but sing:

"Everything is Awesome,
everything is cool when you part of a team,
Everything is Awesome,
when we're living our dream"

But after that bout of happiness it's time to talk about my regrets for the year and these are the ones I sorely wish I could've gotten the chance to see but the opportunity to do so eluded me and there are three big ones.

3. Sin City a Dame to Kill For: This one came out in Australian cinemas in September but like Amazing Spider-Man 2 it came out in the shadow of the School Holidays.

But sadly unlike the Amazing Spider-Man 2 I never got the chance to see this one before the year ends (its Australian DVD release is next month and the US Blu-Ray is region locked) and I would've loved to have gotten to do so as it looked very dark and very adult in its tone (something we sadly see too few of in films these days.)

And I know this film got horrible reviews and there were others telling me not to see it and that I'm not missing much but I would have loved to have had the chance to decide for myself on that front but happily that opportunity is not far away.

2. Boyhood: Richard Linklater's 12 years in the making film about a boy growing up has gotten a lot of acclaim and should win the Best Picture and Director Oscars but its cinema release in Australia was very limited.

And indeed such an opportunity did come my way when my main cinema picked it up for late October and I made plans to see it the week after as that would blend with Interstellar but sadly it was only on for one week and I had to find out why to which the response was "It was difficult to market and because of the 3 hour runtime the session times had to be very limited" and indeed they were as it only had 1 session a day for the week it was on.

Hopefully the disc release is not too far away.

But my biggest regret for the year is:

1. Life Itself: Based off the memoirs of the late great Roger Ebert.

Ever since I heard about this film I knew I had to see it as I'm such a Siskel and Ebert fan but sadly it was only shown on the Sydney and Melbourne film festival circuits and those places aren't the easiest for me to get to at the moment so alas I had to sit this one out and it's such a shame as this film going year for me would've felt more complete if I did get the chance to see it.

But happily my chance to do so is coming as the doco will be out on disc in the US early next year and there is no way in the world I will be prevented from importing it.

And so this was my look back on 2014 (in case you want to know my best and worst of the year be sure to listen to my Radio show as I revealed them there) and 2015 promises to be a huge year for films with some very big releases on the horizon like Mad Max 4, the Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spectre the new 007 film, Mockingjay Part 2 and the new Star Wars film being my top 5 most anticipated of the new year.

See you all at the movies.

On the Air Episode 6: A Year Long Remembered

And that quote is ever so true.

On this my final Radio show for 2014 I talk about:

- The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer
- Best and Worst of lists for the year
- The Holiday Releases I'm keen to see

As always you can click play on the streaming option in the link or right click on download audio and save it to your Computer.

Link is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2014/12/friday-flicks-best-and-worst-films-of-2014.html?site=adelaide&program=south_east_mornings

Film Review - Paddington (2014)

Based off the beloved Book character, Paddington tells the tale of Paddington Bear (Ben Wishaw) as he journeys from Darkest Peru to London in search of a new home but this search could be a perilous one for our plucky young bear.

I have to say that going into this film I did not expect an awful lot mainly because the films previews did very little for me but I decided to go and see the film in the hope I could be turned around.

And so say it that I was turned around by this film as I did find it to be nicely charming and a lot of that is down to the casting, Wishaw is wonderful as Paddington and he brings so much warmth and humour and good natured charm to the role that its hard to not fall in love with the character the moment you see him, Sally Hawkins equipped herself well as does Peter Capaldi and Jim Broadbent but my other standout is Nicole Kidman as the villain, I really enjoyed her here and part of me wishes she would play Cruella De Ville someday.

However my enthusiasm is tempered somewhat by the unnecessary dark tone this movie displays sometimes, the end of the film reminded me of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 with its muted colours and jeopardy plus at times there is some hints at sexual innuendo and I just thought to myself "Why is this in this movie" as I was enjoying the family friendly tone and it was spoiled by the unnecessary dark tone that I'm certain was to aim the film at an adult audience.

But despite that niggle, Paddington is a nice family film that is worth seeing, 3 out of 5.

A Year Long Remembered: 2014 in Film Part 1

Well well it's that time again, the time when like we do with our Christmas list, we cast our minds on what was another 12 months in the movie theatre.

And for me I have to say that of the 6 years I've been blogging reviews for movies, this has been my favorite year of reviewing films and that is mainly because I had the most access to movies in a cinema than I have ever had (though the travel side of it as well as the heavy cost it can incur is still no fun whatsoever) as well as being able to see a much wider variety of films (after all I am a grown up and would like to see more movies for grownups.)

But for me it is impossible to talk about this year in movies without talking about Blue Thursday and by that I mean the Blue Thursday in July where I was offered the ABC Radio gig for which I am eternally grateful even if I fear I'll be cancelled after this year.

But in terms of the trend of the year well it would have to be the huge explosion of Superhero films as not only Marvel ramp up their cinematic universe but also DC and Warner Brothers start putting their cinematic universe together plus 20th Century Fox putting their rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four to work and Columbia well let's not talk about them shall we as they are definitely dead last with their continued bungling of the Amazing Spider-Man (a character that could do with a return to Marvel Studios IMHO).

But sadly this has come at a very big cost as many of the more adult movies like Boyhood, Birdman and Nightcrawler have been relegated to the arthouse and independent markets where they gain only limited cinema releases whereas 10 or 20 years ago those sort of films thanks to the rise of small studios like Miramax got to enjoy more mainstream cinema releases now don't get me wrong some of those still do David Fincher's Gone Girl is one of them.

But it saddens me that those sort of movies are being shoved out of the mainstream market and like I said onto the arthouse and independent markets and for me it is a sad shame as I am 18 months away from turning 30 and would like to see more adult oriented movies but at the moment those films just don't get the widespread cinema run they might have back in the old days.

And given the heavily corporate fanboy culture infesting Hollywood at the moment that lack of diversity in the mainstream market puts me off being more excited for the big Superhero films set to dominate cinemas in the next few years as to my perspective it looks like that's all we're getting (I think this corporate fanboy culture in Hollywood is also why we haven't seen many female leads in films also but that's just my theory.)

And so that is Part 1 of A Year Long Remembered, keep an eye out for Part 2 where I talk about my surprises and disappointments movie wise for 2014.

Film Review - Exodus Gods and Kings (2014)

Long Ago in Ancient Egypt there lived two brothers Moses (Christian Bale) and Ramses (Joel Edgerton) but when it becomes known that Moses is Hebrew by birth Ramses disowns him so Moses sets out to free his people from slavery.

Going into this film I had very mixed expectations mainly because I felt the films advertising campaign was very average plus Sir Ridley Scott who is the director of the film hasn't really impressed me over the years plus its Ancient Egypt setting just kept making me think of En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse's birth name from the X-Men series) and his Four Horsemen.

Could this film claim Dominion over my mixed hopes or did it mainly crash on the crash on the rocks of the eternal shore of expectations.

Well instead it was no closer than Scott's Prometheus from 2012 with its Sci-Fi setting and Alien esque undertones as this was not that good of a film but before I get into that in more detail I will talk about what I did like and that is Arthur Max's Production Design, Janty Yates's costumes and the visual effects work, this is a very handsomely mounted production and on that visual sense you are never bored.

But it does bore where it should count most and that is in the storyline and there are two reasons for this:

- The first is that this feels like a very hollow film to watch as you just sit there not really caring about any of the events going on screen and as a result you just keep thinking that for all of this glorious visual detail there's nothing underneath to give it any resonance.

- And the second point is that this is also a very predictable story, anyone who has seen the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston or even the Simpsons Bible Stories episode with Milhouse as Moses will know how this story plays out and Sir Ridley really needs to find a strong script as that was the key to why his classics in Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise have held up so well over the years whereas here the script falls very flat.

As for the casting this is quite frankly some of the worst I've seen in the last 2 years, Bale does what he can but he again comes across as hollow at times while Edgerton TENDS TO SHOUT SOME OF HIS LINES LIKE THIS AT TIMES!!! and I just kept wishing Joaquin Phoenix from Gladiator had been cast instead as he would've done a better job while Sigourney Weaver barely appears save for a few lines.

But that isn't all, John Turturro and Ben Mendelsohn were woeful in their roles opting for high camp which made me laugh at the film while Ben Kingsley just pretty much ended up playing Ben Kenobi from Star Wars hell I expected him to say "A young Jedi named Darth Vader who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil" in one scene of the film, whoever was the casting director for this film needs a stern talking to.

Oh and last point I did start wishing Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen would show up and end of the film at one point as I was getting bored by what I was watching on the screen.

And so I cannot recommend Exodus and would much rather recommend The Ten Commandments with Heston and Yul Brenner playing Ramses now THAT is a duo whereas this one falls flat, 1 out of 5.

I'll Get you Next Time Mr Bond, Next Time

(A Cat starts purring and snickering)

No that was not done in a James Bond film but rather from a villain inspired by it, the infamous Dr Claw from the Children's TV show Inspector Gadget.

But it is also appropriate as well as last night Australian time (about 10pm so some may have missed it) Columbia Pictures, MGM and veteran Bond producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced the latest James Bond film to be titled "Spectre" and will be released November next year.

The two main new casting announcements I took away from it were Christoph Waltz and Dave Bautista, don't get me wrong it is a great cast and production team they've assembled (though Lee Smith as Editor has me a little worried as his action editing in the past has not been impressive, relying too much on quick cuts, close ups and shaky camera work) but Waltz and Bautista were the main takeouts I took from the announcement in terms of the cast.

In terms of the crew cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (I sure hope he gave his Parents hell for that) will join the production team and it's a good choice as his cinematography in recent years in films Her and Interstellar were very good.

But overall I have to say that the announcement has made me very excited for this new film and the potential it promises in terms of being I think one of the great Bond films and there haven't been very many of them let's be honest with ourselves.

To my mind my 2 personal favorite Bond films are "From Russia with Love" and "Goldeneye" and the reason I feel that way about those films are that they had both an imaginative storyline that got me thinking about the stakes within the film as well as a great adversary for 007 to face off against and both of these things have been lacking in a great many Bond films.

Now this isn't entirely Wilson or the Broccoli family's fault as the Spectre organization and its leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who was originally going to appear in 1977's the Spy who Loved Me before Cubby Broccoli put the kibosh on those plans) have been at the centre of a rights dispute for many years that prevented the official Bond production team from using either of these characters.

But November last year that all changed as Wilson and Barbara Broccoli were able to reach a settlement with the estate of rogue Bond producer Kevin McClory who held the rights to both and with that out of the way do not be surprised if Waltz is indeed playing Blofeld in this new film and this is being hidden from fans until they see the film much like Benedict Cumberbatch was Khan and this was hidden by JJ Abrams and his team.

But to come back on point I think that this could be the great James Bond film that Daniel Craig's tenure has yet to produce as for me as much as I enjoyed Skyfall at the cinema I've had little desire to watch it again since same with Casino Royale and it's a shame as Craig is a fantastic 007 and ranks with Connery and Tim Dalton (who really laid a lot of the groundwork for Craig's tenure in the role) for me.

(As for Quantum of Solace well Props for Trying is as nice as I will get now about that film.)

And so that is my slightly rambling column about the new Bond announcement, its very exciting and very promising and I really hope all involved deliver the goods.

Film Review - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

The third and final book in the series has become a 2 part film adaptation and this story sees Katniss becoming part of the rebellion against the Capitol and President Snow (Donald Sutherland) but Snow has a secret weapon in the fight against the Rebel Scum.

I was very keen going into this film as I was a big fan of the previous film Catching Fire which really got me keen to see where the story was going to go and was overall a much better film than the first, could this new film rise above like a Pheonix or like Interstellar come crashing down to Earth like a Seagull going out to sea to Die.

Well happily this film did indeed do what Interstellar could not and that is fulfil the hopes and desires I had for it, this is a very well made blockbuster and it is anchored first of all by a strong story of Rebellion against a ruling evil, the use of propaganda on both sides to wage war on a mental level against the enemy as well as the physical and the symbol inspiring others to join the fight.

Another thing I must praise about this film as well as the others so far is its wonderful female lead in Katniss who Laurence just brings to life effortlessly in a way that she sort of failed to do with Mystique in X-Men recently and you absolutely believe in her and her character here, she's strong, she has a soft side, she's a great leader and she has her doubts, I really hope we see more female characters like this one in the years to come as other actresses deserve it.

I must also praise the cast as a whole as well, Sutherland is a great villain here and it's interesting to see him here having recently watched him as a conspiracy theorist in JFK the day before, the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman is good here along with Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Geoffrey Wright, Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson.

However the decision to split this film adaptation into 2 parts severely dents any emotional impact the film is striving for as you start to get interested in what is going to happen and where the story is going to go and then it ends with a "Keep watching after this film for more of Mockingjay", I wish that the filmmakers had gone for broke and made a 3 to 3 and a half hour film which covered the book as the current decision to splice it into 2 makes it look like a cheap money grab and the first part failing to impress in its own right.

But that said none of that will matter as the lines for the film will go out the cinema door and the box office worldwide will be very big (I think the biggest of the year) but still at least its not deadly dull or disappointing so there's that, 3 and a half out of 5.

On the Air Episode 5: The Voyage of War

Alright folks,

Here is episode 5 (and my 2nd last) of my Radio show for 2014.

On this episode I talk about:

- Interstellar
- Fury
- Pride
- John Wick

As always you can either click play on the streaming bar inside the link or right click on download audio and save it to you Computer.

If you have Firefox then click on download audio and it should come up in your browser.

Link is here: http://t.co/ROxGMwbySn

Film Review - Let's Be Cops (2014)

Let's Be Cops stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr as a pair of men from Ohio who move to Los Angeles to make a break in life, one in pro football the other in computer games but one night they decide to put on some old police uniforms and pretend to be Cops but as they say be careful what you pretend to be.

Going into this film I feared the worst I had heard bad reviews, the preview didn't do a lot for me and I just got the feeling that this would be awful and unfunny.

Surprisingly this was not as bad as I thought it would be but also I wouldn't give it much of a pass either and I think the reason I feel this is the case is that parts of it did make me chuckle a little and I did like Wayans Jr possessing some of the Jamie Foxx charisma.

But the reason I don't give this much of a pass is that it is just a very very very predictable comedy for the moment they put on the uniforms you pretty much know what is going to happen and as a result a lot of the film just felt like killing time until the third act and also I really find the loudmouth obnoxious boorish man child not very appealing as a lead for a feature film or even in life, where are the confident people to lead films these days as I miss them and also feel that the movies should sometimes reflect a confidence we have in ourselves.

And although we may not notice it there should be characters (and there are some I will admit) that reflect it and want to inspire us to become that but instead it's this man child mentality that thumbs its nose at any sort of authority or responsibility and just wants to blame others for his or her own mistakes, smegging hell give me a break.

So all in all Let's Be Cops is not terrible but it's also very predictable and I cannot recommend it to anyone, 1.5 out of 5.

Film Review - John Wick (2014)

John Wick is played by Keanu Reeves who was a former hitman who retired to settle down with his wife who dies of an illness but sends him a puppy after she dies to keep him company but Russian gangsters break into his house and kill the puppy so he takes revenge.

John Wick is actually really good fun, much more than Denzel's Equalizer remake which was just DUMB! and not in a fun way as well as the Liam Neeson film A Walk Among the Tombstones which I found disappointing and the key reason I think is that unlike those films this one knows exactly what it wants to do and wastes no time getting down to business, Reeves is a very likeable lead here and he has good backup support by WIllem Dafoe and Ian McShane as well as Adrianne Palecki and Michael Nyqvist.

Not much more to say here other than its good old fashioned exploitation fun that had me smiling and will highly recommend it, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Pride (2014)

Pride takes place in the UK in 1984 a year after Margaret Thatcher won her 2nd election as Prime Minister convincingly but the Miners have gone on strike and they just might have some unexpected help in their fight from a very different section of the community.

Pride is good fun, it has a great soundtrack (the highlight for me was a Phil Collins song), a nice cheery and positive tone to its story and has some very good performances by Bill Nighy, Paddy Considine, Imelda Stanton as well as George Mackay, Faye Marsay and Ben Schnetzer.

Sadly my knowledge of UK political history undercut some of the dramatic tension on show in the film here as the late Baroness would go on to win the 1987 UK Election and the British Conservative Party would go to win the 1992 election after she lost the leadership in 1990 and as the film went on those facts just kept coming to the surface as well as the fact that UK Labour didn't really go anywhere until Tony Blair took the Opposition Leadership in 1994 and then won the 1997 British election where he would not reverse any of the changes Thatcher made to Britain.

But despite my political junkie problems (and they're not problems that affect the film at all, not in the slightest) I did have a good time at this film and would recommend it to filmgoers, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is the new film by Christopher Nolan who gave the Dark Knight Trilogy and the story here takes place on a future Earth that's running out of food so Cooper (Matthew McCounaghey) is tasked to lead an Interstellar mission to seek out a new world and boldly go where no man has gone before.

I was so SO excited for this film going into it, I'm a big fan of the Dark Knight that Nolan made and a new Sci-Fi film has me automatically racing to see it as fast as Quicksilver from X-Men, could this new voyage soar for the stars or just come crashing down to Earth.

Hmmmm.

It pains me to say this, it pains me to say it to the point where I want to cry but this movie is a major disappointment for me, almost on the same level as Jack Ryan was back at the beginning of the year.

But before I delve into those I will talk about what I did like and that is Nolan's technical achievements, the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema who also did Her and the Visual Effects work are extraordinary and they demand to be seen on the biggest screen one could find (unless a Christmas Pageant sees you booted into the smallest which happened with me) as they are marvellous to look at and study.

However this film's storyline is all over the place and Nolan is just not that same kind of filmmaker that Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are or even Peter Jackson to a certain extent as while his spectacle is truly special this film lacks a beating human heart and emotional resonance to go with it and those three men are far more capable of pulling this sort of film off (the project originally started with Spielberg in mind) and after coming out of the film I started to miss the Chris Nolan that gave us the Dark Knight which was a very cold and dark film that took no prisoners and went balls to the wall.

And that sort of dark edged filmmaking is what Nolan excels at whereas this sort of sugary sweet and melodramatic style of filmmaking is a very specialist skill which Spielberg, Jackson and Cameron can pull off but Nolan isn't capable of it and I hope that with his next film he will go back to the Dark Knight tone.

But finally in terms of the performances McCounaghey and John Lithgow are the best performers here whilst Anne Hathaway is stuck with a 2 dimensional and poorly thought out role and Jessica Chastain is just wasted in her role and someone of her calibre and beauty (I swoon when I see her on screen) just doesn't deserve it.

And so to wrap it up, Interstellar is a sad sad sad disappointment for me despite its amazing visual effects, I cannot recommend it and it saddens me to even say it as I wanted this to be good I really did but it was not and I just cannot take any pleasure in saying this, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Fury (2014)

Fury is directed by David Ayer and stars Brad Pitt as Wardaddy a tank commander in the dying months of World War 2 but one day a greenhorn named Norman (Logan Lerman) is assigned to his tank division and a dangerous mission may be the making or breaking of him.

Going into this film I felt very mixed mainly because seeing the preview for the film made me think "This will be either Great or Terrible" so was it either of those?

Nope it was actually neither of those things for me, don't get me wrong it isn't a bad film not in the slightest but I also didn't think it was all that great either.

Before I delve into those I will talk more about what I did like and those are the battle scenes with the tanks and the ensemble surrounding Fury (which is the name of the tank in the film), the battle scenes are nicely put together and I did like Pitt in the lead role, he's definitely surprised me recently with his good work in this film as well as World War Z and Inglorious Basterds, I actually liked Shia LaBeouf here (the day has come) and Lerman shows more of the promise he gave us in Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Also worth talking about are Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal as well as Jason Issacs in his small role but at the same time I just found the film overall to be lacking in that visceral emotional punch that it wants you to feel but I just didn't mainly because I was like "Yeah they're all going to die now" which makes it hard to care by contrast Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlberg from earlier this year gave me that feeling of a group down and out fighting against the odds and it was faster paced, more exciting and emotionally visceral than this film is.

And I recommend that film over this one as whilst it is well made and performed emotionally it falls short, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Electric Boogaloo was actually the sub title to Breakin 2 and it also is the name of this new documentary by Mark Hartley who also made the terrific documentary Not Quite Hollywood but this one deals with Cannon Studios the brainchild of Israeli filmmakers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and the wild ride they took through the film industry of the 1980s.

And I just fell in love with this documentary folks I really did, Hartley brings the same joyful storytelling he brought to NQH and Jamie Blanks along with Hartley and Sara Edwards bring the same editorial tricks they used on NQH and like in that doco it works to great effect here.

One other delight I had whilst watching this doco was looking at the titles on display and going "That was an RCA/Columbia Pictures/Hoyts Video release" as that company back in the 80s distributed a lot of their titles on VHS here in Australia back then and among them were King Solomon's Mines (which was previewed on White Nights), Invasion USA, Invaders from Mars and Superman 4 (which was previewed on Robocop) though Cannon would later branch out on their own in that regard at the cost of Thorn EMI (they would distribute the initial big box release of Highlander.)

If I have a complaint (and it's a VERY minor one in the proceedings of things) is that I wish it had been 20 minutes longer now that is a very rare complaint to have that what you are watching you want more of but I really did think that as I was enjoying what I was watching so much and I suppose you could say that is a good thing or a bad thing but it would have to depend on which way you're looking at it.

And so Electric Boogaloo will definitely be up there as one of my favourite films of the year for sure I just loved it that much and I give it my highest recommendation as well as a 5 out of 5.

Film Review - Frank (2014)

Frank is a British film co written by Jon Ronson who created the Men who Stare at Goats but this is a very different tale about a man named Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) who joins a band as a keyboard artist led by a man named Frank (Michael Fassbender) who wears a giant head to hide his face but there may be more under the surface when it comes to this man.

I liked Frank really primarily because I was a fan of the Men who Stare at Goats which like this film has a very offbeat quirky charm to it that appealed to me and my love of British comedy which sometimes has a very different feel to it than American comedy does, Fassbender is extremely good here despite not seeing his face and Gleeson is fine in his role though he is not as effective as he could have been.

Another good performer is Maggie Gyllenhaal as Clara who is a real bitch in this film and she does very well almost stealing the show from Fassbender and the script co written by Ronson and Peter Straughan has a nice lightness of touch to it that did make me laugh on occasion.

Frank is not a film for everyone but it was one that I liked a fair bit mainly because I knew what I was in for, 3 out of 5.

On the Air Episode 4: The Age of Men

Alright folks,

Here is the audio from my 2nd last Radio show for 2014 (my last show will be next month as the program it airs on goes off air over December and January) and in it I talk about:

- The teaser trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Gone Girl
- A Walk Among the Tombstones
- The Judge
- X-Men Days of Future Past

To listen just right click on "download audio" and save it to your computer or if you have Firefox click on it and it should come up for you to listen to.

The link is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2014/10/friday-flicks-gone-girl-a-walk-among-tombstones-the-judge.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings

Superhero Films: Is Genre Fatigue soon to come?

Today Marvel Studios head producer Kevin Feige announced the full roster of what would constitute the third phase of their film franchise.

Needless to say I have very mixed views on this while I will be excited for the 2nd Guardians of the Galaxy film and the Infinity War Avengers 2 parter the rest of the lineup left me feeling fairly cold especially the announcement of the Inhumans film to come in November of 2018.

Allow me now to talk a little more about Inhumans as the comic basically dealt with a race of super humans located in space with powers not all that different to the X-Men as they too had genetically engineered powers and to put my cynic hat on I wonder if Mr. Feige and Marvel Studios are pushing ahead with this property as a stick to beat 20th Century Fox over the head with given that Fox controls the film rights to X-Men and Marvel Studios does not but we will simply have to wait and see on that front given that I'm sure some comic book fans would love to see the X-Men back in Marvel's hands.

But the main point I want to make in this column is that when I looked at this lineup as well as the recently announced slate of films from Warner Brothers and DC Comics the word "fatigue" started coming to mind.

And the reason I felt that way is that there is going to be an onslaught of these films coming from 2016 onwards for not only will we get the start of DC's slate of superhero films as well as the start of Marvel's Phase 3 but we will also get Fox's X-Men Apocalypse in cinemas and I can't help but wonder if during that year we start to see audiences get fatigued by all of these superhero films opening in cinemas virtually at the same time (Captain America 3 and Apocalypse will open within 3 weeks of each other in May 2016.)

Earlier this year when I was waiting to see Edge of Tomorrow I saw a little bit of this happen as along with myself there was an older man there waiting as well and he said to me "I'm sick of all the superhero ones" (ones being movies to clarify the point) and that comment has stuck with me ever since.

They've also had me wondering if those comments will not become as small a scale as they are at the moment during the 2016 to 2020 phase of this genre as all it can take for a genre to go off the rails is for one of them to fail dismally at the box office as happened with the buddy cop genre of the late 80s and early 90s which was going on strong with multiple studios putting out those films until 1993's Last Action Hero crashed and burned at the box office after that you didn't see very many of them being made.

And although Marvel are good at oiling their cinematic universe machine very well DC may not be I mean look at the changes that Dawn of Justice has gone through on its path to production and if one of theirs fails well it may accelerate the feelings of fatigue that could be bubbling under the surface.

But as to whether it will actually come to fruition on a public scale well we will simply have to wait and see but as for myself well I have to say yes in that as much as I have enjoyed these superhero films as a sort of cinematic soft drink that's fun to have as your sitting there in the cinema or at home on a DVD possibly with a real soft drink in your seat's cup holder very few of them have held up for me in terms of replay value because of reasons I have documented elsewhere.

And also looking at both of these Marvel and DC lineups also made me yearn for an old fashioned action film where the hero didn't wear a mask or a suit of tights as well as a more adult film like a good drama which sadly has been pretty much relegated to the independent and art house circuits whereas 10 or 15 years ago they were much more a part of the mainstream of our cinema going lives.

As this column is getting fairly lengthy I will wrap it up here but I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts on this whole matter and it gives you something to think about at the very least.

Film Review - Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

Adjust your Tracking is another VHS doco but unlike Rewind This which focused on the history of the format this one focuses much more on the collectors themselves.

And boy oh boy did I have fun watching this doco as the collectors interviewed here were kind of interesting telling their tales of how they find their tapes (stories that yours truly can identify with) as well as some who show off their collections and there are some fantastic ones on show here with some of the interviewees admitting they have thousands of tapes on large shelves, makes mine look puny in comparison.

Also discussed here is how communities and friendships have sprung up because of collecting these tapes and also how some pay huge amounts of cash just for that one rare tape that's very hard to find.

I don't have a lot to say about this doco other than I really enjoyed it but it isn't for everyone but I will give it a 4 out of 5.

Film Review - Video Nasties (2010)

Video Nasties is a UK Documentary that details an infamous period of UK history which surrounded what was deemed to be "Video Nasties" which were horror VHS tapes released during the early 1980s when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of Britain and the campaign that to that country's Video Recordings Act of 1984.

Video Nasties is simply a must see documentary by anyone that any level of interest in history for not only does it talk about these Horror tapes that here in Australia were released by major distributors (House by the Cemetery which was one of the Nasties on the UK's list to be prosecuted was a Roadshow release to name one example) but it also talks about censorship as a whole.

And that wider point is why I think this documentary is a must see for historians as the tale of censorship presented here is one that is sadly far too often repeated around the world, we saw it here in Australia a few years ago when it came to internet censorship and the R18+ certificate for video games, the same hysteria, the same brave few trying to be heard above the den and the same eventual acceptance after a long period of trying to effect change then again it is often said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

But before I wrap things up I have to talk about these three VHS documentaries I've seen this one as well as the 2 American ones "Adjust your Tracking" and "Rewind This" as while watching them the Australian example of VHS releases came to mind and for the most part we were fairly lucky to escape a lot of the problems the US and UK had in terms of their video releases.

For example, Palace created their own sub label called Palace Explosive in the early to mid 80s and some of the horror titles like the Beyond which was another Video Nasty were released on that label and given an R certificate and then distributed to video stores, another example is that our releases tended to advertise upcoming and/or now available titles on the same label (Roadshow would pioneer this in 1982 when they launched their Home Video division) whereas the US tended to go more for the sell through route (though CEL would pioneer that in Australia in September 1985 with Roadshow following suit a year later.)

And so that was Video Nasties, a must see documentary that tells an important tale of both the past and the future, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

A Walk Among the Tombstones stars Liam Neeson as Private Detective Matt Sculler who is hired by a Drug Dealer to find who kidnapped and later murdered his wife but this mystery will not be an easy one to solve.

A Walk Among the Tombstones is not a terrible movie but it's also not a very good one either but before I get into that side of it I will talk about what I did like and that is mainly Neeson himself who brings a nice seasoned grizzly quality to this role and he is the main person that holds your attention in this film.

Sadly however the film around him is not that great and its mainly due to the script here for not only is it a very generic tale of kidnapping, murder, ransom and "I will find you and I will kill you" climax but also it feels very anticlimactic as all through this film I kept waiting for another element to come into play that would elevate the material into something special and instead it just sits there in first gear and just plods along to its predictable ending.

But lastly I really need to talk about Neeson's action career and more and more I am becoming reminded of Stallone's action film career instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger as like Sly, Neeson hit it big with Taken in 2008 and it still holds up as a great action film but almost all of them since have been either second rate or flat out mediocre which is where Sly's went following his Rambo success, by contrast Arnold's breakout success with the Terminator was followed up with the likes of Predator and the original Total Recall, I really hope Neeson will make another great action film soon but I won't hold my breath.

And so this Walk Among the Tombstones suffers from a not so good script and plodding direction, go and see Gone Girl instead, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Interview with the Vampire is based off of the book by Anne Rice who also authored the films script and stars Brad Pitt as Louie, a vampire who has lived for centuries after being made one by the mysterious Lestat (Tom Cruise) but a life of immortality is both a blessing and a curse.

Interview with the Vampire is a very interesting take on the Vampire mythos which has frequently descended into a blood and guts fest or either a tragic love story like we saw in the recent Twilight series here Rice and director Neil Jordan give it a great Gothic feel that really does these creatures a real justice that has been lacking in this genre in recent years.

The film also has some fantastic production design by Dante Feretti with its grand houses and dark halls and old fashioned look to the world Louie walks in as well as some great Vampire make up and effects by the late great Stan Winston, Pitt is on good form as is Cruise and the two make a surprisingly effective pair, Kirsten Dunst is good here despite her young age and I also enjoyed Christian Slater in his role.

So all in all Interview with the Vampire is a good watch and worth a recommendation, 3 out of 5.

Blu-Ray Review - X-Men Days of Future Past

The Film:

Released back in May of this year, X-Men Days of Future Past is based off of the 1981 comic arc of the same name though big changes have been made for this film version directed by Bryan Singer who makes his proper return to the X-Men franchise after having to abort his plan to do so for 2011's X-Men First Class to honor his commitment to Jack the Giant Slayer for Warner Brothers.

This film sees Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) go back in time to 1973 (1980 in the comic) to prevent the assassination of Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) who will go on to create the Sentinel program which has almost exterminated the entire Mutant race in the future but reuniting Charles (James McAvoy) and Eric (Michael Fassbender) to accomplish this goal will not be easy.

I really enjoyed this film when I saw it in cinemas though it has to be said part of me was reluctant walking into it partly because while I greatly enjoyed the first 2 X-Men films that Singer had directed the ones without him were either fine (First Class) or forgettable (The Wolverine) or bloody terrible (X-Men 3 and Wolverine: Origins) and coming out of it and thinking about the film in the day or two afterwards it really grew on me and I became reminded of the big impact the first 2 films had on me.

I've also began to think of these films particularly the ones Singer has had a hand in making as being much more Sci-Fi oriented than Comic Book oriented which I would say the non Singer films feel more like in terms of their tone and structure, his direction is also fantastic and he keeps a very tight rein on the film as it runs the risk at times of everything just falling apart into a great big mess as screenwriter Simon Kinberg's script gets very clunky at times and the film has some great music and editing by John Ottman as well as nearly every major actor in the film bringing their A game to the piece.

The Video:

Presented in 2.35:1 which was the original cinema aspect ratio, the film looks near faultless on Blu-Ray which is combination of muted 70's colors, stock footage which was a great move by Singer and his DP Tom Sigel and colorful futuristic scenes.

Speaking of which, the colors in this film especially in the future scenes are just gorgeous and watching them on the disc really made me think I was looking at a cinematic comic book on screen which did have strong colors in some of their panels plus the look of the 70s is near spot on with its boxy cars, stock cameras and carefree attitude which by contrast the 60s in First Class looked almost too clean for my taste whereas here you can see the grime and the grain of the period at times, this is a great transfer.

The Audio:

Presented in 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio this is a fantastic sound mix with a very nice balance of the loud action scenes and the quiet dialogue moments which sometimes on Blu-Ray releases can be a problem as you almost always have to adjust the audio so it's not too loud during the action scenes and not too quiet during the dialogue moments.

That is not the case here as you can very easily leave it on a consistent volume and not worry about having to change it and that is very reassuring as sometimes having to do that can take you out of the viewing experience your wanting to enjoy though watching films at home is fraught with problems sometimes which is why I'll always prefer the cinema experience as you can sit in a dark room for a couple of hours and let the wider world fade away with the sound of a projector going off.

The Extras:

There are a small handful of extras here so let's get into them:

1981 Days of Future Past Comic: I got this little beauty as the pre order bonus from one of the Australian retail outlets and boy I was glad I did as this was a very interesting read even though its only 2 issues and it shouldn't take you more than an hour to finish reading.

And talk about some MAJOR changes from this version for the film first of all Dr Trask is nowhere to be seen as is Bishop (who was invented for the version the 1990s animated series did of this story) there are only 6 X-Men on the team in the story (which should put to bed the notion that there are too few on the team in the movies) and also Ellen Page's character is the one that goes back instead of Wolverine who is one of those 6 X-Men as is Storm in the comic and as I said it is 1980 and 2013 that are the respective past and future time periods the story takes place in.

After I read it I also began to think about the version created for the animated series in the 1990s which like this film version has the basic story structure and framework but also makes its own fairly big changes Bishop being first and foremost who also appears in a small role in the film version and there is a specific Sentinel named Nimrod in that version as well which takes the role that the futuristic Sentinels play in the film version not to mention that its 2055 and the 1990s that are the future and past time periods this version of the story takes place in.

The reason I bring this up is that some of the reviews I read for this film were complaining about the fact that so much was changed from the comic version to the film version and while Marvel Studios themselves have had success in translating their specific comic properties to the big screen in a way that feels like the comics themselves we sometimes need to remind ourselves that translating these books to film can sometimes be tricky.

And to wrap this point up X-Men Apocalypse which will be the next film after this one I expect will follow down the path that Days of Future Past has crafted here in that I feel elements from both the animated series version of that storyline (which did have Apocalypse and his four horsemen in the present day as well as Mystique being a servant of that character though not as one of his Four Horsemen) as well as the Age of Apocalypse comic which was written a couple of years later so there is room for Singer and his team on that front and boy oh boy can I not wait to find out.

With that out of the way let's dive into the disc based extras:

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary by Bryan Singer: 5 Deleted Scenes are presented here and each are presented with an optional commentary track by Singer.

Quite frankly the 5 scenes presented here had no place in the film at all and they also weren't that interesting either save for the alternate ending of the film which while fun to watch Singer felt he wanted to change for its "been there told that" feel and that he wanted to change the story for X-Men Apocalypse so if you hear anything about Hugh Jackman being Wolverine in that film do not be surprised in the slightest.

Sadly the much discussed Rogue scenes are absent here and this section feels incomplete without them as quite frankly I was more than happy to just see those scenes presented here instead of cynically putting them back into the film to squeeze more green blood from the film's financial returns and for my money it will play out like 99.99% of extended versions, special editions and director's cuts of films in that it will be fun for one watch and then you'll think "Yeah you were right to cut it in the first place."

Gag Reel: A fairly standard gag reel that is mainly worth a watch for Jennifer Lawrence mugging for the cameras and showing more of her fun loving side that has made her a charming presence in the movies in recent years, she is definitely someone I would enjoy hanging out with that's for certain.

Kitchen Sequence: Sadly this is not a featurette about the creation of the famous Quicksilver scene but a 6th deleted scene which Singer suffered fron an ulcer during the shooting of and had to not speak at all and direct his actors via iPhone notes (some of which were in the director's issue of Empire magazine a while back)

He explains the scene and shows us some outtakes from directing it where he talks in a very high pitch voice which makes Lawrence laugh and then the scene itself which like the other deleted scenes presented here it was best left out.

Double Take - Xavier and Magneto: This is the first of 4 featurettes about the making of the film and this one focuses primarily on the 2 sets of actors who play Xavier and Magneto in the film.

X-Men Reunited: This second featurette focuses mainly on the origins of the film and how Singer wanted to get back the original cast to take part along with the First Class part.

Classification M: This third featurette focuses on the new group of mutants that are introduced in the film ranging from Quicksilver to Blink to Bishop and in a very nice touch Omar Sy and Fan Bingbing talk in their native tongue with subtitles to translate what they are saying.

Sentinels for a Better Future: This fourth and final featurette focuses on the creation of the Sentinels for the film and the combination of practical and digital effects to pull them off.

Trask Industries Galleries: 3 Small Galleries are present here that focus on the mutant profiles from Dr Trask's files to the Blueprints for the Sentinels and finally their construction for the film, these are nice but I wish the propaganda posters created for the film's advertising campaign were also present here as I thought they were quite good.

Theatrical Trailers: The films 3 theatrical trailers round out this small package of extras and these were quite good so it it's great to see them presented here on this disc.

Any Regrets:

Yup I've got a couple and they all relate to the extras package and first and foremost is that I wish Bryan Singer had gotten to record a commentary track for the film itself as he is a very fast talker in the Deleted Scenes commentary and he is clearly very passionate about the film but sadly I suspect his having to withdraw from the film's advertising back on its cinema release due to his legal battles may have prevented that from happening which is a shame.

The second is the absence of those Rogue scenes in the Deleted Scenes section which should have been here and lastly is that I wish the featurettes had been a 1 hour making of doco like the one made for the X-Men First Class disc release but given that the studios would rather everyone go to digital files for their films these days which to my mind has more to do with reasserting their control over distribution that the Video Revolution in the 80s took away from them I am not surprised at the next to zero treatment special features get on disc releases these days which is very disappointing as without a physical copy of a film for people to own I really don't see the point of a digital copy but that is a column for another time.

Overall:

X-Men Days of Future Past is given good but not great treatment on Blu-Ray with its rock solid A/V presentation but sadly fairly light extras package but still if you want to own it it is worth picking up but not with any major enthusiasm.

Film Review - The Equalizer (2014)

Based off the 1980s TV series of the same name (recently seen in a memorable scene in the Wolf of Wall Street) this film version stars Denzel Washington in the role made famous by Edward Woodward who meets a young prostitute (Chloe Moretz from Kick Ass) and when she is beaten by her bosses he decides to use his particular set of skills to hunt down those responsible.

I was keen to see this film as it looked like a fun action picture and I also like Denzel Washington as both an actor and an action hero so I thought I'll give this a go.

How wrong I was as this was the stupidest film I've seen all year and also one of the worst I've seen this year for a few reasons:

- The first is that the film is no fun to watch whatsoever, the first half of the film is deathly dull and after about 30 minutes I just sat there going "Okay can we just get to the killing now" as that is pretty much what I came to see.

- Which happens to lead into my next problem and that is the film is simply too long, at best this film should have been 90-99 minutes but instead its 2 and a quarter hours and boy oh boy do I wish Denzel's character had edited this film as a film of this type simply has no right to be that long.

- And last but also my principal problem is that the film's action scenes are just ridicolous to watch as Denzel's character comes across as a magician whose line would be "Abra Kadabra, Ala-ka-Zam, watch as I make everything go KABLAMO!!" and then in one scene the bad guys ask "Who are you" to which I thought "I'm Batman" and then there's the climax (and I'm not joking) which takes place in a home hardware store that plays out like the Terminator goes to Bunnings and at that point I literally just started laughing my head off and not in that "Oh this is good" way but in that "Oh Come on" way and I was very glad when the film was over as the ads for Bunnings should now be saying:

"Bunnings Warehouse. Lowest Bodycount Guaranteed."

And so that was the Equalizer, avoid it at all costs and rent Taken with Liam Neeson instead, .5 out of 5.

Film Review - The Judge (2014)

The Judge stars Robert Downey Jr as Hank Palmer, a hot shot Chicago Lawyer who returns to his small home town for the funeral of his mother Mary here he sees his brothers Glenn (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Dale (Jeremy Strong) plus his father Judge Joseph Palmer (Robert Duvall) but soon this Judge is accused of Murder and Hank might have to help represent him in court.

The Judge is well okay, its neither a terrible movie but it's also a film that I found to be fairly forgettable after about a day or so and the main reason for that is that the film's script is very routine and by the book to coin that phrase for example:

- There's the big city boy going home
- The bitterness in the family
- The girl that got away
- The rival lawyer
- The courtroom showdown

And all of these elements sadly have been utilised better in other films apart from this one and as a result you start to see the genre tripes on display here.

But this film is not a complete write off and that is mainly due to the performances on show here, Downey is his usual charismatic devil may care self and it's always fun to watch him do it, Duvall is good here as is D'Onofrio, Vera Famiga and Billy Bob Thornton and all of them go a long way to lifting this very average script.

And so the jury will hand down its verdict, on the count of its performances they find the Judge not guilty but on the count of its script it finds the Judge guilty and as such it is sentenced to a 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Dracula Untold (2014)

Dracula Untold is a retelling of the classic Dracula story this time being played by Luke Evans who's kingdom faces an invasion by the Turk army so he journeys to Broken Tooth Mountain which is said to be haunted but this is one prince determined to save his people no matter the cost.

Dracula Untold is actually a fairly fun Happy Slide of a film and a lot of that credit goes to Evans who actually equips himself very well as a leading man having done a supporting role as Bard the Boatman in the Desolation of Smaug and soon to be released Battle of the Five Armies, Charles Dance enjoying a small career revival thanks to his work on Game of Thrones is also good here and the film has some pretty cool action scenes.

However those aforementioned action scenes needed to be much better edited as there is too much close up and quick editing present in them and the central romance I didn't really care about as I pretty much began to think a while later "yeah she's gonna die" which took a lot of the feeling out of those scenes for me.

And so that was Dracula Untold it does what it says on the Box and should make of a Fun Happy Slide at the movies at a matinee price, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - Gone Girl (2014)

Gone Girl is directed by David Fincher and stars Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne who wakes on his 5th Wedding Anniversary to find his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing but there may be more to this marriage than first meets the eye.

I really do not want to say all that much about this movie as it is one of those where the less you know going in to seeing it the better off you will be but what I will say is that this is one of my favourite films of the year and Fincher does a good job in the director's chair whilst Affleck is well Affleck you take him or leave him and there are elements of both here and Pike is just exceptional and should sweep the Best Actress awards next year.

And so that's Gone Girl a very short and sweet review I know for such an anticipated release but it is one I am really not wanting to say an awful lot about but I will easily give it a 4 out of 5.

Film Review - The Jewel of the Nile (1985)

The Jewel of the Nile is the sequel to Romancing the Stone and again we see Jack (Michael Douglas) and Joan (Kathleen Turner) back on the chase this time for the mystical Jewel of the Nile in Africa but Omar (Spiros Focas) and Ralph (Danny Devito) are also on their trail.

Jewel of the Nile well it's not a terrible movie and I will get to that in more detail but it is also a sequel that really struggles to justify its existence as its key problem is that it lacks the romantic novel charm Romancing the Stone had which was also a rousing adventure in the style of Indiana Jones but at least the style and structure of it felt at times like a romance novel whereas here that charm and style of characterization is gone and as a result the film as a whole really suffers.

What is also the other main problem with this film is that the quest and the people surrounding that are no fun to watch and they come across as very bad stereotypes that either are always wanting to kill each other and also sound like they're applying for a job at the Kwik-E-Mart and it gets really bothersome rather quickly and how the quest resolves itself well as I said it makes you leave the film asking yourself "Why did you bother?"

But this film as I said is not terrible and the main reason for that is Devito who easily has the film's best comic moments and I liked the Billy Ocean song "When the Going gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" which plays at the end of the film but even then it feels like I'm giving this film faint praise.

And so Jewel Hunters, the Jewel of the Nile is not a bad sequel but it's one that really didn't need to be made all that much, Romancing the Stone ended just fine and frankly you should just watch that one and skip this one, 1.5 out of 5.

On the Air Episode 3 - The Cowabunga Kids

Okay here is episode 3 of the Radio show I do for ABC South East South Australia.

On this show I talked about:

- The Giver with Jeff Bridges
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Of the 3 episodes I've done so far this one would have to be my favorite mainly because I felt the most comfortable doing the show this time around and I didn't freeze or choke up whilst doing it.

As always if you want to listen just click on the play button in the link or right click and save to your Computer.

http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2014/09/friday-flicks-the-giver-and-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings

Film Review - The Boxtrolls (2014)

The Boxtrolls is about a group of creatures called the Boxtrolls who prowl the streets at night and abduct a baby boy who grows up with them and becomes known only as Eggs after a box of Eggs but an evil man named Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) is determined to find them and destroy them.

2014 has set a high watermark in terms of animated films with both the Lego Movie and How to Train your Dragon 2 proving to be strong family films with fun to be had for both young and old audience members which is why it saddens me to say that this one does not measure up, don't get me wrong it is far from terrible and there is fun to be had but there were a couple of reasons I feel this way:

- The first is that unlike the studios previous film Paranorman, this movie lacks a strong beating heart at its centre and tends at times to divide its focus between the Eggs and the Boxtroll creatures and as a result I began to not really care all that much about the films climax.

- The second is that the story here is also very predictable and by that I mean that I began to predict what was going to happen in the climax of the film and again as a result of this I didn't really care about how it all played out which ties it back to the lack of heart that the film has.

But as I said this is not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination as the film has some great animation (it was animated with stop motion) and some of the fast motion is very good here as well especially during some of the running and sliding scenes but I would also say that this film might be a little too scary for under 5 or 6 year old children so I would think twice before taking them to it.

So all in all the Boxtrolls is nicely animated and has some good motion but I found the story predictable and lacking in heart, 2 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Giver (2014)

The Giver is directed by Phillip Noyce who you may remember from such films as Newsfront, Dead Calm, Rabbit Proof Fence and his horrible adaptation of Patriot Games but here this film takes place in the future where everyone and everything is exactly the same and Jonas (Brenton Thwaites) is chosen to be given the memories of the past by his mentor (Jeff Bridges) but some feelings may be stronger than others.

The Giver is merely okay, Noyce does an okay job here (better than he did with Patriot Games I'll say that much) and I do like the Black and White photography the film opens with as indeed I enjoyed Jeff Bridges in his role as he seemed to have started talking more like a normal person than just doing his True Grit voice like he has in his last couple of movies and I also liked Alexander Skarsgard (son of Stellan Skarsgard I must add) in his role though Meryl Streep is pretty much sleep walking through her role in the film which is a shame as I enjoyed her very much in She Devil when I watched it recently.

And so the Giver is decent overall but very forgettable and like the upcoming Maze Runner film seems designed to just keep the YA base in cinemas whilst they watch the time tick away until the next Hunger Games movie comes out in November, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Into the Storm (2014)

Into the Storm stars Richard Armitage (Thorin from the Hobbit) as the principal of a High School in Silverton, a town in America which comes under threat from a Tornado but this Tornado might be the first of many.

You know, part of me was actually looking forward to this movie going into it as I like the idea of a giant storm destroying us all being the subject of a horror type film (this was the same appeal factor that Russel Crowe's Noah had for me) as unlike guys like Mick or Freddy or Jason or Michael there is no bad person to defeat but Mother Nature herself who is malevolent and not easily defeated as she who is eternal can never be claimed Dominion over by man and is as far beyond humans as we are beyond bugs (hey some storms can feel like the Age of Apocalypse is coming) but at the same time the film did look like a bad Twister knockoff.

But to my surprise I actually didn't mind this film for the most part, I enjoyed Armitage in his role and the scenes of the giant storm in action were kinda cool but I also had a couple of problems with the film:

- The first is that the film's climax does get very silly with the Giant Tornado that looked like it was the size of NSW and would surely devour everything in its path but kinda doesn't and as a result I was pulled out of the film by the end.

- The second is that some of the characters seemed utterly clueless at times when it comes to the nature of Thunderstorm systems, at once point one of them goes "But how can a storm system regenerate" or something along those lines and my reply was "Pretty easy sweetheart" as if the place in the path of a storm has enough instability then it can easily fire back up again with the thunder and the lightning and oh god its terrible Feeling that it can generate.

So all in all despite those, I did enjoy Into the Storm but would recommend the Day After Tomorrow instead as that was a more believable film in this field and has much stronger characters but I still hope for the day when a storm front gets the proper dark horror treatment it deserves, 2 out of 5.

Film Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

They're the world's most fearsome fighting team,
They're heroes in a half shell and they're green,
But when the Evil Shredder attacks,
These Turtle boys don't cut em no slack.

Going into this film I feared the worst I genuinely did as I was a big fan of the TMNT cartoon series as a kid in the early 90s (I even had one of the Roadshow Home Video releases of that series, Heroes in a Half Shell was the one I had) though the earlier films in live action weren't that great and the omens for this one weren't much better as it was produced by Michael Bay who pretty much gave us the film that never ends in Transformers: Age of Extinction recently then there was the design of the Turtles themselves and the rumours of them being space aliens (I began to call the film Teenage Mutant Zeist Turtles as a result) and finally Megan Fox as April O'Neill, could it become Cowabunga Dudes or a Cowa-Bungle.

Well it was more a case of the Cowa-Bummer as I just could not say this was a very good film and there are a number of reasons for this:

- The first is that the film changes the back-story of the characters quite significantly and I just sat there thinking as those scenes played out "THIS IS NOT HOW IT WENT" and it put me off a lot of the film as I began to not really care about the rest of the film which was pretty much a twisted loveless millionaire wanting to rule the world with the Turtles playing 2nd fiddle, gee that takes me back to the treatment of the Autobots in the Transformers movies then again what else to expect from Bay these days.

- The second is that the Turtles themselves look too bulky and their group dynamic just again didn't feel right, the Turtles in the animated series were a well trained fighting force that got on well as a team and each had a specific feel to them whereas they talk over each other a lot, have interchangeable characterizations and come across as very loud and as a result I didn't really enjoy watching them all that much save for Donatello who comes across as the most well realized of the four.

Splinter and Shredder meanwhile aren't as lucky, for starters neither of them are Japanese which leads back into the changes to the back-story made for this film which made me mad but what felt as bad if not a little bit worse is that Splinter is boring to watch and Shredder looks more like a cross between Megatron and Wolverine plus his voice is the same dark bass voice the Decepticons had the recent Transformers movies, I kept wishing Ken Watanabe was in this film but alas he wasn't.

- Third the action sequences in this film are so overproduced to the point where your head starts spinning as they have that very fast motion crossed with super slow motion and heavy bass on the sound mix and like in Transformers it takes you out of the action and it becomes less exciting to watch.

- And lastly Fox is a complete blank as April and it only seems like she was cast as a fence mending measure by Bay following her comments about him which saw her fired from the Transformers series, I have thought for a long while now that Anne Hathaway would be a great April O'Neill but it's doubtful she would've done it but Fox doesn't even bring anything to the role and give the large focus she has in the film it gets very tiring very quickly.

But there was one bright light in this film (strange to read I know) and that was Will Arnett who tries at least to do something with his role and doesn't always succeed but at least he is trying and has some fun in that Bill Paxton esque way, it's just a pity given his stellar voice work as Batman in the Lego Movie that he isn't used better here.

And yet it didn't have to be this way, the path forward for a Ninja Turtles film for me could not be more clear: You make it fun and light hearted, make Shredder and the Foot Clan the villains, let the Turtles be central to the story and let them play off each other like they did in the cartoon series and you'll have a winner on your hands but instead we get this mediocre trash and it makes me feel very sad saying it.

So all in all, this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot is not that great and I just cannot recommend it, it's always a sad feeling when your gut instinct is realized and you just feel horrible afterwards, 1 out of 5.

The Uncanny X-Factor

A while back I got the chance to go and see the new X-Men film Days of Future Past directed by Bryan Singer and I really loved it, so much so that I mark as one of my top three films of the year and went back to see the film a 2nd time in cinemas.

But this also had me thinking about another thing and that has been that this series for the most part is arguably my overall favorite Super Hero film series now don't get me wrong I really love the first two Superman films as envisioned by Richard Donner and I also thought Joss Whedon's the Avengers was great as was The Dark Knight and 2012's Dredd reboot but I just keep thinking that there's something that little bit more about this series and allow me now to explain.

- The first reason for me is that this series unlike a lot of comic book movies feels much more rooted in Science Fiction, a genre which I am a near lifelong fan of and like the best Science Fiction works be it literature or movies this series is willing to deal with themes and ideas that also feel rooted in our own history be it Alienation, Genocide, Fear of the Unknown or Racism and Homophobia.

All of these themes and ideas were very much rooted in the X-Men comics and these movies for the most part have been willing to bring them to the forefront and as a result I really feel that these movies actually seem to be about something at their core rather than just be another Visual Effects show piece with a few Comic geek fanboy references that some of these films can feel like at times.

- The second is that there is a terrific roster of villains for the X-Men characters to face off against and on both the mutant and human sides to be they Magneto/Eric Lensherr who is a long running foe or Dr Bolivar Trask who in turn creates the monstrous Sentinels to exterminate the mutant race not to mention Colonel William Stryker who has a history with Wolverine and Senator Robert Kelly clearly inspired by Joseph McCarthy but then there's Apocalypse, he who is eternal.

And when it comes to the Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe to make the more direct comparison this has been the one constant area where that group of films has fallen very short of the mark and like a good action picture be it an Arnold Schwarzenegger film or a James Bond installment a good villain is essential to the long term health and success of that film and with the MCU I've found they've fallen very short of the mark in the long term, hopefully James Spader as Ultron in the Avengers sequel Age of Ultron next year and Josh Brolin as Thanos can see Marvel Studios can finally break that curse.

- And the last reason I have to say is Bryan Singer himself, Singer started the series in 2000 with the first film and built on that with his 2nd in 2003 before leaving the franchise to make Superman Returns in 2004 and it has to be said that without him the franchise not only lost its way quality wise but also the fans of the series started dropping off from seeing them in the long term despite X-Men 3 and the 2 solo Wolverine films both doing solid numbers.

And my last reason has to do with Bryan Singer himself, Singer started this series with his first installment in the year 2000 and then topped that work with his second film in 2003 before leaving the series in 2004 to go and make Superman Returns for Warner Brothers and it has to be said that without him the franchise not only lost its way in terms of the quality of the films that were being made but also the fans started walking away in the long term despite X-Men 3 and the 2 solo Wolverine spin offs doing fairly solid numbers.

Along with that Singer's own career as a director lost its way with Superman not flying high with filmgoers nor did his 2008 thriller Valkyrie or last year's Jack the Giant Slayer which I found to be a complete borefest but despite that his return to his pet franchise was in the works starting with 2011's First Class before his commitment to JTGS saw him step away from the director's chair but with Days of Future Past he was now available to take back the big chair and with it the fans have come rushing back as well for despite solid reviews for First Class in 2011 the film did not perform well financially.

But where does this leave the franchise at the moment, well I'd say in good stead with X-Men Apocalypse due for release in May of 2016 and fans are already very excited for that film and the potential it promises, hopefully the dark cloud of the abuse allegations surrounding Singer will quickly be resolved and he can honor his deal to direct that film as is currently planned.

And so that's that for my column on the X-Men movies, hopefully it was worthwhile for you as a read.

Film Review - She Devil (1990)

She Devil stars Roseanne Barr as Ruth, a clumsy housewife who meets her favourite author Mary Fisher (Meryl Streep) at a party one night but she also discovers that her Husband Bob (Ed Begley Jr) is cheating on her with Mary so she masterminds a plan to bring him down.

She Devil is a terrific example of what I call the "Oh No" comedy in that a scene plays out and then something happens in it that makes you go "Oh No" and sure enough that happens and this film also had me smiling almost all the way through it as it is a terrific dark comedy with not only a great comic performance by Streep who does the manic timing very well in contrast to her near perfect looks but Roseanne Barr is simply fantastic as the scorned wife and watching her in this film it's easy to see why she became so successful on television a couple of years later.

Another thing I noticed watching this film is how brisk it feels in its pacing, no moment ever feels wasted here and I also noticed that this sort of story plays a lot better nowadays given we're more cynical than we were in 1990 when this film was first released and also movies about female empowerment also have much more resonance now than then, its a big pity this movie won't get re released in cinemas as I think it would get a much different reaction to the one it got on original release.

All in all She Devil is terrific fun and is well worth a watch, 3 and a half out of 5.

Film Review - The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

A remake of the 1968 film which starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway (who also appears in this remake) and directed by John McTiernan, the story here sees Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) hijacking a priceless Monet painting said to be worth 100 million dollars which catches the eye of the Insurance Officer assigned to the case named Catherine Banning played by Rene Russo.

I really had fun with this version of Thomas Crown and there are three people responsible for this:

- The first is John McTiernan himself and he is clearly having a ball here as he keeps a very firm hand on the whip and gives the film a real sense of movement and as a result there isn't a wasted frame of film here at all and it's nice to see him cut loose like this in the way that he did in Predator, Die Hard and the Hunt for Red October and it's a big big shame Brosnan didn't recruit him to direct Die Another Day as I can only imagine how much better that film might have been with a proper action director in the captains chair.

- Speaking of Brosnan, he is the 2nd reason this film works very well as he is so smooth and slick and charming here that I couldn't help but think "Why didn't the post Goldeneye James Bond films he made capture this quality" as the post GE Bond films just saw him going through the motions whereas here he gives a great performance.

- And lastly I have to talk about Russo who is just wonderful in this role and just with a few facial expressions gives you so much in terms of how her character is feeling in that particular moment and she is also every inch Brosnan's equal in the mind games the two characters play with each other, it was such a shame to see her so criminally wasted in the recent Thor movies.

Sadly however the film's second half is not as strong as the first and at times it gets a little convoluted and lost in itself in terms of what is going on and although it wraps itself up well a part of me would have liked a more clear cut way there.

But hey that's only a quibble compared to the fun on show here and fun I had whilst watching it, 3 out of 5.

Film Review - The Player (1992)

The Player is directed by Robert Altman and stars Tim Robbins and Griffin Mill, a Hollywood studio executive who hears a lot of story pitches but one day he is sent a Postcard that says "In the Name of All Writers, I'm Going to Kill You" which sends Griffin mad as Hell and determined to find who is responsible.

The Player is simply terrific stuff and I just loved sitting there watching it unfold, Robbins is superb as Mill and along with his work on the Shawshank Redemption and Jacobs Ladder he proves that he can be one of the best actors going around, I also really loved the performances by Peter Gallagher and Brion James as two of the other studio execs as well as by Vincent D'Onofrio as a frustrated writer and Whoopi Goldberg as a Pasadena detective.

But I have to also talk about the script by Michael Tolkin and on who's novel this is based as it is incredibly clever in its mixture of satire and insight and I wonder if Altman's long experience as a director up to that point helped him as well as while I was watching this film I started wondering "I wonder if that is how it really goes down as it would feel right if it did" plus there are some fantastic cameos that really made me laugh.

So yeah I had a big smile on my face watching the Player and any film fan owes it to themselves to check it out, 5 out of 5.

Film Review - The Hundred Foot Journey (2014)

The Hundred Foot Journey is the tale of an Indian family who leave Mumbai to make a new life for themselves in France near a Village, one day they come across an abandoned area that they believe is perfect to build an Indian restaurant, the only problem is the French restaurant across the road led by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren.)

I don't have an awful lot to say about this movie but I will say that it is nicely charming in its own way and not too dark in its tone to put off some viewers, Mirren is her usual likeable self despite the bitchy French accent and Om Puri is very good here as the Indian Papa and the bickering between the two provides a lot of the film's best laughs.

I also enjoyed the performance by Charlotte Le Bon as another French Chef though one word of warning is that do not see this movie on an empty stomach as during it you will be hungry and will also want a big lunch afterwards.

So that is all on the Hundred Foot Journey, it does what it says on the box, Mirren and Puri are fun and it's a light hearted feel good film that will also make you want to eat afterwards, 3 out of 5.