Week 10 - the weeks hit double figures!

It's a very late update this week and I can only apologise.  It's been a frantic two weeks which has led to me getting a dream job in a Two Michelin Star restaurant.  The only downside to this is that it may lead to my movie experiment taking a hit, as the hours will be long.  But fuck it, I'll keep it going for as long as I can!

This week was a mixture of mind twisting thrillers, animated superheroes, spaghetti westerns and below average sci-fi.  Bit of a mixed bag I'm sure you'll agree.  Onto the movies........

March 4th - Memento

Most people think that this was Christopher Nolan's debut, when it was in fact his sophomore effort.  His first was a little known black and white thriller set on the streets of London called Following.  It's an entertaining movie with a little edge, and I recommend catching it if you can.  For his 'Hollywood debut', Nolan worked off of a short story by his brother Jonathon (who would later go on to script The Dark Knight) about a man with short term memory loss.  Usually this would be a drama of some kind, where the hero finds love and understanding.  But for Nolan, it was interesting territory for a noirish murder mystery, and it works beautifully.  Guy Pearce plays Lenny, a man whose wife is murdered by two men who break into their home.  Lenny is left brain damaged, and is unable to form new memories.  But he won't let a little something like that stop him from tracking down those responsible.  Add into the mix the fact the story is told backwards and you've got all the ingredients for an entertaining, intelligent night in.  But be warned, this is not a movie you can have on in the background.  You will need to pay attention.  Highly recommended, and it's definitely the kind of movie you'll want to watch more than once.

9/10

March 5th - Last Man Standing

Bruce Willis can play the action man role in his sleep.  And he will always be entertaining to watch.  When given roles where he is actually required to act, he can excel even more.  See Twelve Monkeys and Sin City for good examples.  Last Man Standing is a prohibition era set Spaghetti Western, directed by Walter 'The Driver' Hill.  That should be enough to peak your interest right there.  Throw in Christopher Walken as a psycho henchman and you have one of the most criminally underrated movies of the last 20 years.  Willis plays John Smith, a drifter who settles in a town run by two different gangs.  An opportunist and skilled gunsman, he sees a chance to make a lot of money by playing both sides against each other.  But playing both against each other is a dangerous game, and it's only a matter of time before at least one of them finds out.  What follows is a great movie.  There's some great action sequences, some pathos for Smith and a quick draw showdown.  As I say, very underrated and little known movie, this is highly recommended.

9/10

March 6th - Justice League: Doom

I've been watching quite a few of these Warner Brothers animated movies, and this is the first one I approached where I didn't know the story.  This one is based on the acclaimed 'Tower of Babel' series of comics.  The story goes that Batman has files on all of the Justice League members, detailing their weaknesses.  Being the paranoid loner he is, it's a failsafe in case any of them turn to evil and they have to be stopped.  But what happens when the enemy is able to infiltrate the Batcave and is therefore able to learn how to defeat the Justice League?  The story is big in scale and endlessly interesting, so it's just a shame that the movie seems so small.  The style of animation that continues to be used just pales in comparison to the style and ingenuity of their Manga counterparts.  Entertaining enough, but you always feel that they could do more with these movies.  Oh well, if it inspires a younger generation of comic book geeks then it's all good with me.

6/10

March 7th - Legion

My recent subscription to LoveFilm has been a double edged sword.  I have undoubtedly been getting my money's worth, but every so often a movie pops up on screen that a while ago I thought 'meh',  but it's right in front of me so let's do it.  Legion is one of those movies.  It got pretty terrible reviews but the trailers always looked interesting to me.  It's an end of the world scenario, with Michael the Archangel coming down from heaven to help protect humans.  Instead of a massive scale action piece, it's set in a small diner in the middle of nowhere, with just a small group of characters to lead us through it.  It starts well enough, and the scene with the granny in the restaurant needs to be seen to be believed.  But unfortunately that is as good s it gets.  Everything else goes downhill, follows generic rules with one character dying at a time and ends in a very unsatisfactory way, leaving it feeling like half a movie.  And given its lack of success I don't think a sequel will appear anytime soon.  Not great.

4/10

March 8th - The Killer Inside Me

I first read the book of The Killer Inside Me about a year ago.  A short read at just over 100 pages, it packed quite the punch, detailing what goes on in the mind of a small town sheriff who everyone thinks is the height of timidity, but is actually a twisted psychopath. This is such a faithful adaptation that I think distance was needed in order to enjoy it.  Well, maybe enjoy is the wrong word as this can be tough viewing at times.  Casey Affleck is very well cast as the lead, easily able to portray both the gentle sheriff, but also his dark side.  Jessica Alba plays the prostitute who starts a torrid affair with him, with Kate Hudson playing his high society girlfriend, completely oblivious to his troubled mind.  What follows is a small town scam in which the sheriff and the prostitute plan to extort the son of a wealthy landowner.  You just know that none of this is going to end well.  If you're looking for a story with a happy ending, then look elsewhere.  But if you fancy watching a well crafted, well acted and interesting movie, then settle in for the evening.

8/10

March 9th - Batman Begins

Two Nolan movies in a week?  Well, I had to restore my faith in movies after last weeks awful showings!  The origin of Batman treated with respect, and it delivers on every conceivable level.  This is now the template for Superhero origin movies.  And it's made all the more interesting that you don't actually see Bruce Wayne don the cape until after an hour into the movie.  This is where Nolan was smart.  He understood that for modern audiences to connect with the Batman mythos he had to go back to basics and make people understand what would drive a man like Bruce Wayne to become a masked vigilante.  This is superhero moviemaking with a straight face.  Gone are the over the top stunts.  Gone are the bright colours.  And gone are anyone who was even remotely attached to the absolute debacle that was Batman & Robin.  The fact that this was the follow up Batman movie to that travesty makes it even more of a miracle that it turned out to be as good as it did.  This movie is all about Batman / Bruce Wayne.  Even the villains chosen were not particularly well known to anyone who doesn't follow the comics.  Ra's Al Ghul and The Scarecrow may not have been household names before, but they certainly are now.  Christian Bale was apparently given the choice between being Batman and being James Bond.  And while I would have loved to have seen his version of 007, it's now unthinkable to have anyone else in the black cape.  Essential viewing.  Sidenote, I rather like this Star Wars influenced fan poster.

10/10

March 10th - 16 Blocks

Remember I said earlier that Bruce Willis could excel when given a good character to chew on?  Here is another good example.  This movie sort of slipped between the cracks when it came out.  No one took much notice of it which is surprising given Willis's involvement and that it was directed by Richard 'Lethal Weapon' Donner.  Willis plays an aging, uncaring, broken down cop.  He is about to head home for the day when he is given one last assignment to transport a prisoner 16 Blocks from the station to the courthouse.  Simple stuff.  Drop him off, movie over right?  Come on, when does that ever happen in these movies?  Turns out the prisoner is actually a witness and that he is going to testify against some dirty cops.  Said cops try to take him out en route, but you know that Bruce is not going to stand for that.  Pretty standard fare, but a solid and entertaining movie nonetheless.  And if the ending doesn't put a smile on your face, then nothing will.

7/10

Week 10 is over, and week 11 is certainly not far behind.  Will get the update up asap.  On this weeks plate we have Harry Potter, Swordfish and Lost in Translation amongst others.  Hope you guys enjoyed the read and feel free to leave comments below if you take particular grievance with any of my reviews!

Until next time........

Week 9 - Goodbye February, hello March!

Week 9 was a weird one.  I went from the godawful to the ridiculous to the mediocre, finally finishing up with a couple of great movies.  But overall, it was a pretty unsatisfying week with the worst movie I've watched so far, and hopefully that'll be as low as it goes!  Mediocrity was the other order of the day, as Hollywood seems to be satisfied churning out movies with zero percent intelligence and originality, and one hundred percent predictability.

But enough bitching, onto the movies..........

Fenruary 26th - The Whole Nine Yards

Sweet Jesus, this was awful.  I'll watch Bruce Willis in just about anything (though I will certainly draw the line at ever watching the sequel to this train wreck).  This is a man who has been in several of my very favourite movies.  From Sin City to Die Hard.  The Fifth Element to Last Man Standing.  Even the near misses usually are backed up by pretty great ideas (Surrogates springs to mind).  But this movie is just pure, unadulterated rubbish.  It's like some Hollywood hack thought 'Let's get the funny guy from Friends, and get him to play the exact same character. We'll throw in Bruce Willis.  And boom!  Easy peasy.'  Unfortunately they forgot to include a script, any humour, any intelliegence and any characters worth caring about.  Even the photoshopped poster I've put to the side screams of laziness.  There are lines so bad in this I actually cringed.  'Be careful.  Are you kidding?  I'm Mr. Careful'.  This is supposed to be a romantic moment.  Avoid, avoid, and avoid again.  It's gets two points for providing Amanda Peet and Natasha Henstringe as something nice to look at.

2/10

February 27th - The Man with the Screaming Brain


Bruce Campbell is the movie equivalent of marmite.  You either think he's a quirky legend, responsible for memorable turns in Evil Dead, Bubba Ho-Tep and Maniac Cop.  Or you think he's simply a bad actor.  I fall into the first category.  The man is always entertaining, and always throwing a nod and a wink to the audience.  His movies are simply about having a good time in as ridiculous way as possible.  In TMWTSB (come on, I'm not gonna type that title over and over again), Campbell writes and directs as well.  It's the story of a rich American who is in Bulgaria for a potential business deal. Unfortunately he is killed, but has his brain fused with a Bulgarian taxi drivers and is brought back to life.  I don't think I really have to say any more do I?  Low budget in the extreme, this is nevertheless bursting with character and has a damn sight more originality than the movie above.  It's can be laugh out loud at times, though admittedly other jokes do fall flat.  So grab a six pack and order a few pizzas, and have fun.

6/10

February 28th - Mission: Impossible 3


M:I 3 always felt like the safest movie of the franchise.  After the overblown experiment of John Woo's M:I 2, the third outing was given to JJ Abrams, Hollywood's newest hotshot who was basking off of Lost's success.  There was a touch more realism brought to the table, and an emotional element brought in as Ethan Hunt had seemingly been tied down.  More humour was introduced too, with Simon Pegg coming on board as a tech geek.  All the elements are there for an entertaining movie.  But certainly after seeing Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, this just falls a little bit flat.  There are no risks taken with characters, no surprising elements or spectacular action sequences to marvel at.  It's just a solid, functional movie.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is pretty good as the villain I will admit, but he's acting so serious it feels like he should be in a different movie.  In fact, if you changed the title of the movie, and changed Ethan Hunt's name, there would be little to identify this with the rest of the franchise.  So overall, pretty enjoyable, but also pretty forgettable.  Oh, and I really don't like it when movies show you a sequence at the beginning that you know is going to pop up later in the movie.  It removes the suspense and creeping doubts about all of the character's fates, robbing the movie of any potential surprise casualties.

6/10

February 29th - The Losers


Anything based on a graphic novel, I will always give a chance.  After finally giving in and subscribing to LoveFilm, I came across this.  It fell out of the cinema pretty quickly, as the similarly themed A-Team reboot pulled in the audiences more.  The story goes that Five Spec Ops agents are targeted by a enigmatic bad guy called Max.  He tries to kill them but succeeds instead in killing 25 innocent children, and having the blame placed squarely on them.  They are offered a chance to get even with Max by a beautiful woman.  But she has her own agenda.  So overall, the plot is paper thin, but if these types of movies are executed well, then you don't have to care so much for plot and just enjoy the spectacle.  Unfortunately, the set pieces in this are pretty formulaic, and also suffer from bad CGI.  The only characters who are charismatic are Jensen (played by Captain America Chris Evans) and Max (played with relish by Jason Patric).  They both bring humour to the movie and are the only memorable characters.  The rest just feels like noise surrounding it, and it's a shame, because it seems like a missed opportunity.

5/10

March 1st - The Taking of Pelham 123


Tony Scott will never be regarded as highly as his older brother Ridley.  But that's like comparing prime rib to weird brother of prime rib (10 points for you if you get the reference).  Ridley Scott creates unique worlds which we're lucky enough to get a glimpse of.  Think Alien and Blade Runner.  Tony Scott is more rock 'n roll than that.  His movies can be instantly satisfying, but will not really linger long in the memory.  Think Top Gun and Man on Fire (True Romance is his one exception, but I put that more down to Tarantino's script). Unfortunately this unnecessary remake doesn't even achieve the heights of highly entertaining. It's merely 'meh'.  Denzel Washington is always good value, and is easily the best thing in this. John Travolta, on the other hand, is hammier than he's been in years.  He tries to exude menace, but merely comes off as silly.  I also wonder if he was paid for every time he said 'Motherf*cker', as maybe that would explain him using it 20+ times.  There is very little tension in the movie, and you can see every plot turn coming from a mile away. Admittedly, it does earn extra points for casting Tony Soprano as the Mayor of New York.  Brilliantly ironic.

5/10

March 2nd - The Driver


So far, this week has been dominated by misfires and I keep coming back to the word, mediocrity. I needed something to turn me around. Something to break the funk.  I was messing around on LoveFilm again and thought I'd just go for a genre movie.  Something dependable, but with a bit of extra bite to it.  And then I came across this. Drive was one of my favourite movies from last year.  I guess I didn't realise just how much of a debt was owed to Walter Hill's 1978 chase flick. The opening scenes are very similar to say the least as we follow a less than talkative driver as he helps a couple of goons get away after a robbery.  But that's where the similarity ends. This evolves into an obsessed cop chasing the criminal movie and is probably closer to Heat in the end than Drive.  Tremendously entertaining tough guy flick, with some of the best car chases you're likely to see.  This was in the pre CGI days, and you can feel every crunch of metal.  Highly recommended.

8/10

March 3rd - True Lies


And so we come to my favourite movie of the week.  I've talked a bit before about the troublesome nature of nostalgia.  True Lies came out when I was about 13 or 14 and it instantly became my favourite thing ever.  I was a little hesitant to revisit it, but given that it's a James Cameron movie, I needn't have worried.  This is Cameron and Arnie's ode to James Bond movies.  It highlights the ridiculous nature of Spy movies, and enjoys a lot of humour at the expense of the genre conventions along the way. Arnie plays Harry Tasker, an American spy at the top of his game.  Only caveat?  His wife thinks he's a salesman, and has done for 15 years.  When a Middle Eastern terrorist smuggles a nuke into the US, you just know those two worlds are going to collide.  This is nonsense of the highest degree.  The action scenes are spectacular and over the top.  Arnie has probably never been funnier as he and Tom Arnold bounce off each other brilliantly.  Jamie Lee Curtis has probably never been sexier. And I can't remember the last time we saw a Harrier Jet in downtown LA.  Probably Arnie's last 'great' movie (though I have a soft spot for End of Days) and just as good as I remember.  Nostalgia?  Now that's more like it.

9/10

Another week done, and I hope there are much better weeks than this to come!  If anyone has a suggestion for movies I have not covered yet, please put them in the comments below.   Now that I have subscribed to LoveFilm (and getting extremely good value out of it with my movie experiment), who knows what I will watch from day to day?

Until next time.............

Week 8 in the bag........

I had week 8 done pretty much as I was writing up week 7.  Fell behind a bit.  But when you've watched over 100 hours worth of movies so far this year, I'm sure that I can be forgiven!  This week my choices consisted of sequels, nostalgic flicks and the greatest science fiction horror move ever made.  A strange mix I'll admit!

Onto the movies!

February 19th - American Pie 2

Comedy sequels tend to fall into a few categories.  There's the cheap cash in based on the existing brand (See Van Wilder, all the American Pie straight to video spinoffs).  Unsatisfying sequels which try to replicate what made the original great, but fail (The Hangover).  And finally there are true sequels that realise it's the characters that are endearing, and that it's the chemistry between them that makes these movies funny and enjoyable to watch.  A good comedy should be like catching up with old friends.  And after American Pie proved to be such a hit, the filmmakers did not take long in reintroducing us to the Stifmeister & co.  The plot is again pretty thin.  The guys rent a summer house and spend their time trying to hook up with women, perv over lesbians and figure out how to move on from their high school days.  There's an extra helping of Jim's embarrassing dad, and another good payoff with Stifler's mom.  Movies like this are never going to change the world, but that doesn't mean that they are easy to get right.  Good night in all round.

7/10

February 20th - Rocky Balboa

Sylvester Stallone spent quite a few years in the wilderness.  After making solid action fare such as Demolition Man, Assassins and Daylight, he slipped into direct to video hell with D-Tox, Get Carter and (shudder) Avenging Angelo.  It was going to take a spirited comeback to bring him to the table again.  When he announced he was going to make new installments of Rocky and Rambo, everyone thought it was a desperate move which would do nothing but tarnish the memories of the originals.  The the trailers started to filter out.  And those old feelings of what made those movies so great were stirred.  Then THAT music kicked in.  The underdog was back.  And how good it was to see him again.  Rocky Balboa is a triumph.  It follows a theme that will come to us all.  Old age.  What can you do, even when you've had this extraordinary career, when the next big thing comes along and you're considered tired and out of date?  A computer simulation is shown on ESPN, detailing a fictional fight between an in his prime Rocky and the current Heavyweight Champion Mason Dixon.  It has Rocky winning.  Dixon's shallow money grabbing management have dollar signs in their eyes, and an exhibition match is set.  Rocky still with 'some stuff in the basement' accepts.  This is such a heartfelt and genuine movie that I cannot recommend it enough.  There's a scene late in the day, where Rocky has to let it all go, where there are flashbacks of everything the character has been through, and I have no shame in admitting it brought tears to my eyes.  And any movie that can do that, has something special going for it.

9/10

February 21st - Major League

Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing.  I remember taping this off of TV years ago, and thinking it was the funniest thing in the world.  Times change, people change and unfortunately opinions on movies change.  The story follows the recently widowed owner of a baseball team.  She wants to move them to sunny California but to do so will have to make attendances so low, that the league make an exception.  So she hires the biggest ragtag, bunch of losers she can, meaning the team will always lose and people will stop coming to see them.  But they catch whiff of her plan, and decide they should try to win the 'whole fucking thing'.  I'm sure you can see where this is going.  And usually, I tend to like these kind of movies (Dodgeball is a recent example).  There is always joy in seeing the underdog do well (Rocky movies).  But it needs to be funny or heartfelt along the way.  This is simply neither.  It is not dramatic, nor surprising.  Just the definition of generic and predictable with no charm or charisma to make up for it.  Damn nostalgia........

4/10

February 22nd - Aliens

And this is more like it.  After recently watching Alien, it was only a matter of time before this fell into my blu ray player.  Set 57 years after the original, Ripley is woken from her hyper sleep, only to be blamed for the disaster aboard the Nostromo.  No evidence of alien lifeforms were found, nothing to back up her story.  She is demoted and spends her nights suffering crippling nightmares.  That is until mining colonies that were set up close to where the Nostromo crashed, suddenly stop making contact.  A team is dispatched, with Ripley onboard as an advisor, despite knowing what horrors await.  This is pitch perfect filmmaking.  James Cameron has crafted an epic interpretation of Ridley Scott's slow build original.  Instead of one Xenomorph, there are countless.  Instead of a team of scientists, it's a team of rock hard grunts.  The action is tense, exciting, horrific and visually engaging.  This is the kind of science fiction that is simply not made anymore (though Prometheus is giving us hope!).  Another special mention goes to the blu ray transfer as it is quite simply beautiful.  It looks like it was made yesterday.  For all the kids out there who loved Avatar, this is that movie x10 and with an 18 rating.  If I see this tumble onto the big screen any time soon, I'll be first in line.  Oh and finally, the poster is the Polish interpretation.  Way too curious to ignore.

10/10

February 23rd - Rambo

The 2nd part of Stallone's renaissance, this is another solid entry into the franchise.  I don't think it was quite as successful an update as Rocky, though I have already found out that there are many people who disagree!  John Rambo has stayed in Burma and is living the quiet life.  When a group of church aid workers want to go into the villages to deliver medicine and food, they ask for his help.  He warns them against it, that they don't know the true horrors of war and they should just go home.  They don't listen, and of course are tortured and captured.  When the minister of the church hires a group of mercenaries to go in and rescue them, Rambo is talked into going along.  And guess who turns out to be the hardest of the bunch?  This follows very similar ideas to Rocky.  Confronting the past, accepting who you really are.  But this is much larger in scale.  Rocky felt like a small, personal, almost indie like movie.  For Rambo, again written and directed by Sly, he pulls no punches.  The point is continuously hammered home that war is hell.  This is as graphic a war movie as I have ever laid eyes upon.  There are throat slittings, legs blown out, decapitations, arms pulled off, necks broken.  This is certainly not for the faint hearted, and is tough to watch at times without grimmacing.  It is very well made, and knows its place in only being around 85 minutes long, as by that time, even all the gore in the world was in danger of overstaying its welcome.

7/10

February 24th - Midnight in Paris

First up, an admission.  I'm not a huge fan of Woody Allen.  I've nothing against his movies, I mean they are entertaining enough.  But I'm not sure I see what the big deal is.  Most of his recent output has been particularly underwhelming, with only Vicky Christina Barcelona exceeding expectations.  Then came along Midnight in Paris.  In this day and age, a movie to be this original and engaging, I have to hold my hands up.  The story follows Gil, an American screenwriter who has fallen out of love with the hollow art of screenwriting and has come to modern day Paris in search of inspiration for his first novel.  His wife is with him, though she would rather he stuck to the screenwriting so that she can continue shopping on Rodeo Drive.  One night, Gil decides to walk the streets of Paris on his own, to be alone with his thoughts.  The clock strikes midnight and a mysterious, old fashioned car pulls up beside him.  They tell him to get in, that they are going to a party.  It's only when one of the men introduces himself as F.Scott Fitzgerald, and says that Pablo Picasso will be at the party, that Gil realises something is not quite right.  He wakes up the next morning and dismisses it as a drunken dream, but then the car turns up at midnight again, and another shower of literary and artistic greats await......I was so glad to see this take home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay as it is a very good movie.  It's not a typical Hollywood tale, but instead a throwback to the artistic greats of history.  It poses the question of whether our current era will be looked back upon with the same reverence in 100 years.  It is lighthearted, whimsical and dare I say it?  Inspirational.  Owen Wilson's best movie in years, and so to, without a doubt, Woody Allen's.  I may be a convert........

8/10

February 25th - Striking Distance

Here we go with the nostalgia again.  When I was younger I loved this movie.  I had it on video and must have watched it a couple of times a month.  I don't know what it was about it.  Probably that it was 18 rated and I felt like I was getting away with something!  And while it's not the same disappointment I felt with Major League, it definitely is a shallow product of the 90's.  The story follows Tom Hardy (Bruce Willis), a Pittsburgh cop who testifies against his own cousin in a police brutality case because 'loyalty above all else, except honour' is his father's motto.  At the same time, a serial killer is going around killing women, and personally taunting Hardy.  His own father is slain by the serial killer's hand.  His cousin then commits suicide, prompting Hardy to take a job as a river cop, and to extricate himself from everyone.  But then the serial killer shows up again, and is targeting women Hardy has a past with......Bruce Willis is almost always good value, being one of the most watchable movie stars on the planet.  But then Sarah Jessica Parker shows up, and again this is where nostalgia kicks in.  I seem to remember her character being interesting, but no, she's simply annoying.  It also reminds me that she's such a terrible actress.  Overall it's a solid movie, but I don't think I'll be getting into a routine where I watch it a few times a month again.  Or a few times a year.  Or possibly ever again!

6/10

And there we have it, another week with a random assortment of movies!  I have been toying with the idea of themed weeks.  I will definitely be spending the week leading up to The Avengers watching Marvel's output thus far.  Any other ideas?  A Harry Potter week?  A 22 day marathon of Bond movies?  A Police Academy week?  Any suggestions are welcome, just sound off in the comments below.

Until next time..........

Week 7, the movies just keep on coming........

Sorry for the late posting this week, have nearly finished week 8!  I did get complimented on my adherence to my New Year's Resolution this week.  Always nice to hear.......Anyway week 7 is a mixture of cop movies, stoner comedies, romance (Valentine's Day was this week after all) and funny Irishmen running amok in Belgium.

Enjoy!

February 12th - Tango & Cash

My favourite buddy cop movie and I make no apology for it.  Lethal Weapon is a great movie, but if you go back and watch it from the start, the first movie is pretty dark and depressing.  Devoid of any type of humour.  Sure it's a great movie, but it's not a six pack and pizza good ol' time of a movie.  Tango & Cash, on the other hand, has great action, a great pairing of Sly & Kurt and a really funny script.  It follows the two best cops in LA, who are causing numerous headaches for a scenery chewing Jack Palance.  He organises a set up in which they are exposed as cops on the take and are promptly sharing a prison with the felons they've sent down during the years.  Suffice to say they escape and it's all about clearing their names.  This movie is shamelessly 80's, in over the top action and corny one liners, but it just works.  They even have Sly taking the piss out of his other movies, calling 'Rambo a pussy'.  It's such a shame that a sequel was never made.  As a side note, I must have watched this movie a ton of times growing up, but only ever saw the TV edit on ITV.  Watching the original version was a nice surprise with a few extra jokes and more bone crunching action.

10/10

February 13th - A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

I have to admit I was late coming to the Harold & Kumar movies.  Two of them had already been made before I even took notice of them.  But then, as a big fan of How I Met Your Mother, I heard about the 'greatest cameo of all time(tm)', with Neil Patrick Harris aka Barney Stinson, playing a surreal, coked up version of his real life self.  And I couldn't resist.  I wasn't sorry either.  They are crass, over the top and exceptionally juvenille, but they are also damn funny as well.  This is due in part to NPH of course, but also a great pairing of John Cho and Kal Penn.  Harold is career minded, Kumar a genius who only wants to get high all the time.  After the first two movies, this Christmas themed threequel begins with the two having drifted apart.  A package arrives at Kumar's apartment, so he sets out to deliver it to his former best friend.  And hilarity and chaos ensues.  You can never guess where these movies are going, as the writers must have been higher than any of the characters!  There are claymation segments, rides upon Santa's sleigh, Eastern European gangsters and Danny Trejo as a Christmas loving father in law.  Just watch it with a few beers and you'll be fine.  Oh, and of course the NPH cameo is legen - wait for it - dary!

8/10

February 14th - Serendipity

Well it was Valentine's Day, so I suppose conventional wisdom had me watching a rom-com (though I didn't exactly wait until December 25th to watch the previous movie!).  This is a genre I have a distaste for.  They are predictable, generic in the extreme, and often forget about the comedy part at the end of the genre definition.  However, every so often there is one example that slips through.  Serendipity is that movie due to the bromance of a pre Ari Gold Jeremy Piven and John Cusack, as well as the romance of Mr. Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.  It actually has the comedy to go with the romance.  The story follows two people who randomly meet in New York at Christmas, and despite both being attached, they feel an instant connection.   So they decide to leave it up to the universe to see if they are meant to be together.  He writes his name and number on a $5 bill and she puts her info into a second hand book.  Years pass, and they have both ended up with someone else, but they both still remember that fateful night.....This is not the kind of movie that will change the world, but it's well written, has a good soundtrack and some charasmatic actors.  Without going quirky or off centre (see Eternal Sunshine or (500) Days of Summer), this is about as good as modern rom-coms get.

7/10

February 15th - Timecop

Believe it or not, there was a time when JCVD was one of the biggest action starts on the planet.  Along with Arnie, Sly and Bruce Willis, his movies were hitting theatres and finding a pretty good audience.  Fast forward a couple of years, and he was languishing on direct to video movies and bargain bins.  And it's a shame, as given the right script and the right amount of talent involved, he made some quality movies.  The other two that instantly come to mind are Sudden Death and Hard Target.  But Timecop may have been the most crowd pleasing flick he ever got to star in.  Adapted from a graphic novel (before it became the norm in Hollywood), the story follows Walker, a cop who can be sent back in time.  And it's just as well, as an ambitious presidential candidate is using the technology to fund his push for the White House.  Timecop is packed with great ideas, certainly more than your average Blockbuster.  It has some inventive action sequences and a sweet love story at its core.  Holds up pretty well given that it was made nearly 20 years ago.  If you've never caught a JCVD flick, this is definitely a good place to start.

8/10

February 16th - In Bruges

Now this is a great movie.  Original, funny, sharp and heart breaking at the same time.  Tough trick to balance all those variables, but when it's done right, this is the result.  The story follows two Irish Hitmen (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson), who flee to Bruges, when Farrell's character Ray accidentally kills a young altar boy when executing a priest.  Story wise, that's about it.  While in Bruges, they get mixed up with a movie star midget, a drug dealing sexpot, an alcove loving gun runner and everything in between.  It does a great job of selling Bruges.  Despite Ray's insistence that it's a 'shithole', it's actually a pretty enchanting place.  But it's the script and the characters that make this movie.  Colin Farrell has never been better, and Brendan Gleeson is the perfect foil.  The wise old head to the young, inexperienced pretender.  The script is hilarious in places, but be warned, if you're easily offended then this movie is not for you.  If however, you can del with plenty of vulgarity and non PC humour, then you're going to have a great time.  Oh, and ignore the terrible posters and taglines of 'shoot first, sightsee later'.  The studio clearly did not know how to market this movie.  Hardly surprising, it is a bit of an oddity.  But the very best kind.

9/10

February 16th - Naruto: The Movie

Naruto is an awesome Japanese anime.  It has been going for many years now, and has actually grown into Naruto: Shippudden, where the characters are far more experienced, much more skilled as Ninja and global conflicts have just grown and grown.  Naruto ran for almost 250 episodes.  Having seen them all, I'm now about 60 episodes into Shippudden.  It is quite a commitment, but I cannot recommend it highly enough.  Anyway, this was a nice throwback to when the show was much more innocent, the characters largely naive and optimistic, and the tone that little bit more playful.  The story has Team Kakashi (consisting of Naruto, his best friend/rival Sasuke, his crush Sakura, and his mentor Kakashi) escorting a famous actress back to the Land of Snow.  There are many people who are out to harm her, and this team is the best.  Being a movie, the animation is more extravagant, the action a little more intense, and the humour more over the top than usual.  This is a cracking movie in its own right, and serves as a great introduction to Naruto's world.  If you have even the slightest interest, then I highly recommend checking it out.

8/10

February 17th - Trainspotting

The greatest British movie ever made?  I'm sure lovers of The Italian Job, Lock, Stock and Harry Potter may have a different opinion, but for me this is perfection.  There is no attempt to dumb down the Scottish brogue, no attempt to pander to a larger audience.  There is not a typical love story running through the middle of it, and no happy ending.  Just a story following a bunch of drug addicts, psychos and thiefs.  And it is outstanding.  Coming from someone who has read the book (took at least 20 pages to get used to reading Scottish as opposed to just listening to it), Danny Boyle and his team could not have pulled off a better adaptation.  The casting is pitch perfect, the script perfectly placed and funny.  It's just one of those perfect storm movies where everything comes together.  Has there ever been a funnier character than Francis Begbie?   A better use of any song in a movie than Underworld's Born Slippy?  A more fitting ending?  This movie single handedly rejuvenated the British movie industry and put us back on the map.  If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to do so as soon as possible.

10/10

And there's week 7 in the can.  Almost 50 movies.  As I say, this weeks post is pretty late, and I'm already knee deep in week 8 which includes Aliens, Rambo, Rocky and American Pie 2.

Check back in a few days and week 8 will be written up.  I promise it won't be as late as this weeks!

Until next time..........

Week 6, over 10% through my movie odyssey.....

Back again with an update on my movie watching.  For those new to this blog, I am attempting to watch a movie a day for a year.  As luck would have it I chose a leap year just to squeeze one extra movie in there.  This week I had a mixture of stone cold classics, comic book anime and teen comedies.  Feel free to sound off in the comments below if you agree or (more likely) disagree with any of my reviews.  Enjoy.......

February 5th - The Usual Suspects

'Give me the keys you fucking cocksucker'.  Undoubted classic scene in an undisputed classic movie.  There are certain movies that everyone in life should just see.  The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather and Goodfellas are just a few examples.  I would add The Usual Suspects to that list.  It came out about a year after Pulp Fiction, when there were so many crime movies trying to copy the lightning in a bottle genius of that particular Tarantino masterpiece.  In my mind, this is the only one that managed it. It's certainly the best movie any Baldwin brother has been in (not that hard admittedly).  It's the story of 5 guys who meet in a police line up, only to go on to pull a couple of heists together.  But were they put in that line up by luck or design?  Features one of the best endings of any movie you will ever see, and undoubtedly holds up to many repeated viewings.  Trust me, I've probably watched it at least 20 times!  Also, how cool is the poster up above?  To anyone who's seen the movie, they'll recognise the simplistic genius of it.

10/10

February 6th - American Pie

It's pretty hard to imagine given the glut of movies that Hollywood churn out now, but for most of the 90's teen comedies weren't in fashion anymore.  The days of Porky's and Animal House had long been and gone.  Then a script got floated around Tinstletown called 'Untitled Teenage Sexy Comedy That Can Be Made For Under $10 Million That Most Readers Will Probably Hate But I Think You'll Love' (How could they change that title?).  A cast of unknowns were found, a few apple pies were baked, a few beers desecrated and the rest is history.  Despite the fact the formula has been repeated to death, American Pie still stands up as a genuinely funny movie.  Mostly down to clever writing and Sean William Scott's iconic Steve Stifler.  Another sequel is on the way (groan...), but I have to admit that from the trailer I'm ready for another slice of pie.

8/10

February 7th - Fast & The Furious 5

Any movie series that lasts as far as five movies is usually exclusive to the horror genre.  Yet somehow, Fast & the Furious is still going strong.  I'm not really sure why as they are the very definition of generic and uninspiring.  There is some good action beats, but why they continue the stories of these characters is beyond me.  The only reason that this movie scores points is for the heist at the end involving the trailing of  bank vault through the streets of Rio and for the presence of the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment, The Rock.  His relentless FBI agent is by the far the most interesting character and they should build any future installments around him.  The punch up between The Rock and Vin Diesel is actually pretty good as well but ends badly as there is no way that Flabby Riddick could beat down The Rock.  He'd People's Elbow XXX through the ground.

7/10 (Would be 5 if The Rock wasn't in it)

February 8th - Alien

It's enough that Sir Ridley Scott made one of the most definitive Sci Fi movies of all time in Blade Runner.  But to make two is just plain greedy.  And if Prometheus can live up to the hype he may just sign off with  hat trick.  Up until Alien, sci fi movies were pretty much monster movies.  Big scares, loud growls and bad make up.  Alien changed that.  It was a slow burn of a movie.  It took its time, establishing characters and relationships, before having them be picked off one by one.  The creature effects are still fantastic, even when compared to today's standards.  The chestbuster scene is still tense and shocking, a fact made even more so as the actor's were not fully expecting the Alien to come out of John Hurt's chest.   And a special mention must go to the Blu Ray transfer, that makes it look like it was shot yesterday.  I will admit that I actually prefer the sequel (James Cameron's Aliens), but this is almost note perfect filmmaking.

10/10

February 9th - The Thing

John Carpenter's best movie bar none.  And given that he made Halloween and Big Trouble in Little China, that's no small compliment.  Again, it followed a template laid down by Alien in favouring a slow burning atmosphere before the large scale set pieces.  The story follows six scientists in the Antarctic, who are confronted by a shape shifting alien.  It is able to assume the form of anyone it kills.  This is the central reason that The Thing is a great movie.  You're never quite sure who The Thing has killed.  You're not sure who is human and who is not.  Even Kurt Russell is under suspicion.  The scene where they test everyone's blood is tense and well paced, and has been imitated many times since.  The creature effects are all practical as well and that only adds to it.  I think some modern CGI is just too fake looking, whereas the slightly jerky movements of puppets and monsters only adds to their creepiness.  Remade recently, this is a classic that should have been left well alone.  PS I really want that poster!

9/10

February 10th - The Ice Harvest

A modern noir thriller starring John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton, directed by one of the writers of Ghostbusters and Groundhog day?  Where do I sign?  Sadly, the reality is that this is the definition of mediocre cinema.  The acting is all good, and the characters interesting enough, but the story is just lacking.  It is so generic, and there isn't one genuine twist to be found, normally a staple of the genre.  The story follows two men who steal money from a local mob boss and just have to survive the night in a small town, having been swamped in by the weather.  Can they trust each other?  Will they try to steal it all for themselves?  How predictable can one movie be?  In fact, I will admit there was one very good joke, as one of the small characters in the movie is called Peter Venkman.  Gotta love a bit of meta comedy.  But if that one second moment is as good as a movie gets then you know you're in trouble.

5/10

February 11th - Batman: Under the Red Hood

Warner Brothers continues to plunder the back catalogue of Batman graphic novels with this cartoon take on the story of The Red Hood.  If you read the graphic novel, it's a pretty dark piece.  It follows the death of the second Robin at the hands of The Joker.  Years later, a mysterious Red Hooded figure starts to terrorise the Gotham underworld, but unlike Batman, isn't afraid to kill.  All clues lead to Jason Todd, but how can he be alive after Batman saw him die?  It's an interesting story and it is handled here with care.  A lot of the darker moments remain such as The Joker getting a taste of his own medicine with a crowbar, the Black Mask and his crew set on fire, and the fight scenes are quite violent as well.  If you've read the story you won't find anything new here, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

7/10

And there we have it.  Onto week 7.  This week I have Tango & Cash, A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas and some sort of soppy Valentine's day movie lined up.

As I say, remember to click follow and feel free to leave comments below.

Until next time........

Week 5, almost a 10th of the way there!!!

These weeks are just starting to fly by.  A curious mix this week of comedies, modern noir, Bond movies and IMAX treats.  Obviously most of the flicks I catch are at home, and while a 42" HDTV is certainly not a shabby way to watch any movie, there's no substitute for going to the cinema.  Especially when said cinema is the IMAX in London, and that IMAX theatre is showing the prologue to my most anticipated movie of the year (possibly all time...???).

More on that in a separate column as I'm still trying to digest what I saw.  Suffice to say, Nolan did not disappoint.  But then again, when does he?  Onto week 5........

January 29th - Brick

I happened to catch this when I was living in LA after seeing the movie performing well at Sundance.  It was pitched as a modern noir, a nod to the classics of Bogart and Nicholson.  It was refreshing to see a movie set in a high school that wasn't a gross out comedy or a coming of age tale.  Instead, it was a detective story as Joseph Gordon Levitt's intelligent outsider investigated the murder of his ex-girlfriend.  Staples of high schools are all present - the loud mouth jock, the mysterious drama student, the druggies and even the nerds.  But it's all presented in such an original way and played totally with a straight face.  The early posters even had an urban dictionary attached to them so people would understand the slang the characters were using.  Intelligent, witty, well paced and with interesting twists and turns, this is highly recommended.  It's the movie that made Gordon Levitt a talent to watch, and director Rian Johnson a hot prospect for the future.  His upcoming time travel tale 'Looper', with Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis along for the ride looks like one of the most interesting movies of 2012.

9/10

January 30th - Comedian

I'm a big fan of Seinfeld.  I was late in becoming a believer, waiting until the show had been finished 10+ years, before embracing its' genius.  And it really is fantastic.  I even shelled out £200 for 2 tickets to see the great man himself do a stand up show in London 6 months ago.  Worth every penny.  And the reason it was worth every penny is because it was 100% new material.  Comedians, they always have fall back jokes.  Jokes that will hit the funny bone, no matter who the audience are.  But Jerry Seinfeld did a show a few years back titled 'I'm telling you for the last time...'  It was his final show using said material, before putting it to rest once and for all.  I highly recommend checking it out as it is still comedic gold.  Thus, he decided to start all over again.  Testing new material in the smaller venues of his native New York.  And this forms the basis of Comedian.  In addition to those bits, there's another up and coming comedian, who is managed by Jerry's manager, and it follows his efforts to make it big.  The scenes with Jerry are great, following the genesis of a joke and it's evolution into a finished bit.  The scenes with the up and comer 'Orny Adams' are not.  He's a whiny, egotistical and frankly not very funny guy, who you cannot possibly root for.  Truly a movie of two halves.

5/10

January 31st - Infernal Affairs

Anyone who is reading this column will in all likelihood have seen Marty Scorsese's The Departed with Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon.  If not, why not?  Great movie, solid performances, the most fun Jack Nicholson has had in years and brilliant plotting.  Said plotting however came from this Asian classic, starring Tony Leung and Andy Lau.  The original version and for me, definitely the best.  The Departed for me was a little long, a little flabby, and threw in an unnecessary love triangle.  Infernal Affairs is sleek, polished with not a wasted frame or subplot.  It follows the lives of two men, one a cop infiltrating the mob and the other a mobster infiltrating the cops.  It's a story of dual identity, loyalty and honour.  It also boasts some of the most suspenseful scenes you will ever see as the two men try to flush each other out.  It spawned two sequels which expand significantly on the story, with one being a prequel and the other a direct continuation.  It is a great mythology all round and some of the best movies to ever come out of Asia.  I even forked out £50 to buy an original quad cinema poster (pictured above), and it hangs proudly on my wall.  Highly, highly recommended.

10/10

February 1st - The World is not Enough

Pierce Brosnan's third outing as 007 may well be his weakest (though the special effects laden and Halle Berry co-starring Die Another Day may have something to say about that), and it's such a shame, as the first half of the movie is very, very good.  It all starts out with one of the best ever opening sequences which takes Bond from Madrid and back to London, culminating in a pulsating boat chase down the Thames.  The story then gets personal as one of M's friends has been killed and his daughter, Elektra is the target of Robert Carlyle's madman.  There's a rich backstory established between Elektra, and how she had been kidnapped previously by the same madman.  It then all starts to go downhill.  I don't know if it's the idiotic casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist, action scenes that aren't inventive or simply don't make sense, the presence of Goldie as a henchman or the totally underwhelming finale, but it all just feels like a missed opportunity.  Bond movies always require a suspension of disbelief but they're always still entertaining.  Unfortunately The World is not Enough is, well, not enough.

5/10

February 2nd - The Incredible Hulk

I have to admit that I'm a little sad that in The Avengers, we will be seeing a third different actor in a row filling Bruce Banner's purple trunks.  That's nothing against Mark Ruffalo, he's a fine actor.  But Eric Bana did a great job in a pretty mediocre movie.  And here, Edward Norton does a great job in a better movie.  Whether there's some truth to him being difficult on set, or demanding an input to the scripting phase I don't know, but The Incredible Hulk is an entertaining flick.  It's not quite at the level of Thor or Captain America, but I would put it on a par with Iron Man 2 with the last 20 minutes being an exercise in pure adrenaline action as Hulk and Abomination tear up NYC.  Bruce Banner is on the run, hiding out in Brazil as he desperately tries to find a cure to his...ahem...anger problems.  General Ross is determined to track him down and somehow weaponise his Hulk form. Throw in Betty Ross who still carries a torch for Banner and Tim Roth's angry mercenary with something to prove and you've got a great night with a bowl of popcorn.  Just don't bring your brain to the party....

7/10

Week 4 down, 48 to go......

Another seven days in Movie Land, and a hell of an interesting one it was.  We had Asian anime and fantasy, 90's exploitation action, 80's horror and award-hunting drama.  There are some fantastic movies I would highly recommend from this week.  Try your best to catch them on a high def screen, the bigger the better!  Over half of the movies this week I was catching for the first time, and for most of them, it won't be the last.  Onto the flicks...........

January 22nd - Shame

Otherwise known as the movie where 'Little Magneto' is the star of the show.  This is a movie that had Oscar hunting written all over it, and I must admit I'm surprised that it has been nominated for next to nothing.  The story follows Michael Fassbender (surely one of the best acting talents working today), and his descent into sexual addiction.  A man who thinks he just has a healthy appetite for the ladies, gradually begins to crave physical contact in any form, in the end be it male or female.  Love?  Forget about it.  Throw in an enfant terrible in the form of his sister, played by Carey Mulligan, and you have a recipe for disaster.  Make no mistake, this is a tough watch.  There is tons of full frontal nudity, coarse and sexual offensive language as well as same sex relations.  It's one of those 'serious' films that runs classical music over the top of ridiculous imagery and it will be considered art.  It has definitely left an impression on me, and I will be curious to check it out again in the future.  But I'm in no rush.  Definitely worth catching once though.

8/10

January 23rd - They Live

A John Carpenter movie starring the one and only Rowdy Roddy Piper.  It does exactly what it says on the tin.  And a little bit more.  It starts out slowly enough, with Piper's Nada (literally 'nothing' - not sure if that's lazy or inspired writing!) arriving in Los Angeles, looking for work.  He starts on a construction site and makes some friends, who put him up in a homeless community for the night.  He sees some strange goings on at the church across the road, and decides to investigate.  Inside he sees a band of people forming a resistance, and they happen to have some special glasses, which allow people to see the world as it really is.....At its base level, this is a simple 'Aliens taking over the world story', but it has hidden depths about consumerism and the effect of television and advertising on the waking world.  The ideas are maybe a bit too big for its budget, but I guess that's part of its charm.  Plus it has a 5 minute fight sequence between two best friends who are arguing over one of them wearing the special glasses for the first time.  Choreographed by a WWF legend.  And who doesn't want to see that?

7/10

January 24th - Woochi: The Demon Slayer

Now we are talking.  This is another movie from the Cine Asia label, recently released on blu ray and two of the most fun hours of your life waiting to be discovered.  The titular character is Woochi, a trickster and magician (trust me, he's definitely a cut above Gob Bluth) in 16th Century Taoist Korea.  When his master is killed and he is the number one suspect, he is banished into a painting (yes, really) to be left inanimate forever.  But when an ancient evil arises 500 years later, he is released, along with his faithful companion (a dog who takes the form of a man, and forever wishes to be only human), to catch all of the demons and bring peace back to modern day Korea.  Throw in 3 useless and disaster laden immortal monks (surely an ode to The Three Stooges), a reincarnation of a 16th century princess and an ambiguous Stoic Villain, and once again Asia is showing so much more imagination than their Hollywood counterparts.  This is equal turns farcial, funny, action heavy, heartfelt and sheer ridiculous moviemaking.  I thought this was going to be my pick of the week until it was usurped on the last day.  But it's a very, very close second.

9/10

January 25th - Collateral

Now this is the kind of movie Hollywood excels at.  And when it gets it right, it's hard to beat.  Jamie Foxx was nominated for Best supporting actor for his role as Max, an LA cabbie.  But I think Tom Cruise was criminally overlooked for his performance as Vincent, a cold hearted assassin.  Anyone who has read my blog up until now will know I'm a fan of the Cruiser (hell there's even another guilty pleasure coming up), and this is why.  He's an actor who isn't afraid to take risks.  Playing a thoroughly cynical and evil guy, he is almost unrecognisible from the matinee idol we are used to seeing.  In this movie, Vincent has five hits to make in one night, and through a chance meeting, it is Max's bad luck that he has been chosen to be his driver.  This is a great thriller, with some fantastic action set pieces thrown in.  Hardly surprising, when you factor in Michael Mann as the director.  This is second only to Heat in his repertoire, though Collateral also suffers a little in the same way as Heat, where they make the bad guy so charismatic that you want him to get away with it.  But as we all know, Hollywood don't do bad guys not getting their comeuppance!  Still though, great moviemaking.

9/10

January 26th - Desperado

I watched this at 2am, after a pretty long shift, and I just wanted to turn my brain off.  In other words, I watched this at the perfect time.  A couple of beers to go with it, this was Robert Rodriguez's first major Hollywood flick, after the minor miracle that was El Mariachi.  Antonio Banderas is hunting for the crimelord who murdered his girlfriend.  And that is it.  Well, we also have to factor in the outrageously hot Salma Hayek in her English language debut I guess....The action in Desperado is superb.  It is extremely over the top, wholly unrealistic and hyper violent.  It's actually the kind of violence you would expect to see in a comic book or anime, such is its ridiculousness at times.  Will forever be one of my favourite action flicks, and was an example of Hollywood being able to match the action theatrics of Tsui Hark and John Woo.  Has Rodriguez made a better film on his own since?  I'm not so sure.  (N.B. Sin City is undoubtedly better, but he only co-created it!)

8/10

January 27th - Cocktail

The guiltiest of guilty pleasures, I make no apology for enjoying this movie.  Hot off the success of Top Gun, Tom Cruise was the biggest movie star on the planet.  As the 80's were coming to a close, people were starting to wean themselves off of Arnie, Sly et al, and instead preferred a man who stands about 5 feet tall but has charisma to burn.  Cocktail further endorsed that perception.  It follows Bryan Flanaghan (don't you just love Hollywood scriptwriters attempts at names with an Irish heritage?), who comes back from a few years in the service with dreams of making it in New York.  As door after door is shut in his face, he ends up working in a bar, taken under the wing of Bryan Brown's Aussie Coglan.  A man who has seen it all and has a soundbite for all occasions (or Coglan's law if you will).  After Bryan learns that Coglan's made a move on his girlfriend (a young Gina Gershon), he ups sticks for Jamaica (as you do), where he uses his bar skills and charm to woo the ladies.  It goes on from there after he meets Elisabeth Shue, and ends up back in New York again, hoping to make 'Cocktails & Dreams' a reality.  This is not just fluff piece, there are some genuinely dark moments (especially Coglan's eventual fate).  But you know that Bryan is going to be treated kindly by the powers that be in the end.  And isn't that what we all want in a guilty pleasure?  A movie where the end is not in doubt, but makes you smile

8/10

January 28th - Redline

And so we come to my pick of the week.  This is a Japanese anime movie, 100% hand drawn, and you can see the love and imagination in every frame.  Incredibly, this movie took 7 years to make.  That is some amount of dedication, and it doesn't go unnoticed as this is quite simply one of the most beautiful things your eyes will ever settle upon.  I'm pretty sure if I took drugs and watched Driving Miss Daisy, this is what I would see.  This is the movie all of the Fast and the Furious movies combined wish they were.  The story follows JP, a reckless but amazingly gifted race car driver, who throws a race to help out his friend, but manages to qualify for the much heralded Redline Main Event by default (the two sweetest words in the English language Simpsons fans).  The race will take place on a hostile planet, who are worried if the race is broadcast all over the galaxy, that their national defences and security will be exposed.  So we have a war movie one minute, and a race car movie the next.  And it all gels perfectly.  I cannot recommend this movie enough.  I have even put a trailer below, but it will in no way do it justice.  For this, you need the blu ray, a big ass tv and the volume turned up to 11.  My final tip would be to watch the English dubbed version as the voice work is actually very good, and you won't want to miss a single frame whilst reading the subtitles. Cracking soundtrack as well.  This will be watched again, and pretty damn soon.  Those damn Asians, they just keep blowing my movie watching mind......

10/10

And there we have it, almost a month down!  Hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I'm enjoying the movies and also that you discover a few movies you maybe wouldn't have heard of before.  Remember to click follow to receive updates.  This week I have Brick, hopefully finally Warrior and Scarface on my radar.

See you back next week.  Maybe not the same Bat time, but definitely the same Bat channel.

Until next time..........