Ender's Game(2013) As the Earth faces up to an alien race, Formics, it recruits child fighters one of whom is Ender Wiggin, played by Asa Butterfield. Some of Ender's challenges to becoming a leader are well done, Butterfield convinces in his role and there's a decent twist. However, the so so story & script is swamped by the use of special effects, Harrison Ford gives us his regulation grumpy turn while Ben Kingsley has a tattooed face and a reasonable South African accent. As I drowned in some special effects, I wistfully thought of an 80s film The Last Starfighter which had some plot similarities but much more charm. 5.5/10
Star Trek: Beyond
Very good 13th film in the Star Trek franchise & for me the best of what has been dubbed the kelvin timeline films.
Special effects & action are very good as are the regular cast, but the stand out performance is Sofia Boutella as Jaylah. Loved all the nods/Easter eggs to previous trek films & tv series to mark 50yrs of Star Trek
The only gripe I had was the villain Krall for the reasons Kal-El has said
9/10
Inner Sanctum(1948)
Lew Landers directed this compelling thriller about a man who,after committing a murder,flees police and hides out at a boarding house in small town.A great performance by Charles Russell is backed up by Mary Beth Hughes and Dale Belding in solid supporting roles.
7.5/10
Island of Lost Souls(1932)
Charles Laughton gives another world class performance this time as the sadistic Dr.Moreau.Director Erle C.Kenton employed some of the best creature makers in the business at the time to create Moreau's fantastic looking beast men that do his bidding.
8/10
Batman: The Killing Joke.
Bitterly disappointing newly released adaptation of my favourite Batman graphic novel. Thought the artwork was rather average, the beginning (which doesn't feature in the comic) was clumsy and poorly written, and the general atmosphere of it was no where near as dark as it's inspiration. Waste of an excellent comic.
4/10
I can't speak for whether the film is good or bad till I see but I know the reason why there's stuff that isn't in the comics is because they needed to stretch it out for a full animated movie so added in extra material.
The Plague of the Zombies(1964)
John Gilling's period Hammer film,with zombie slave labour being used by the upper class.At it's heart it is a zombie film featuring the usual aspects of the genre of course,but like many British horror films from this period, it is really a metaphor for the class system.A bold and intelligent effort from a great director.
7.5/10
Chico And Rita(2010) An enjoyable, intelligent animated feature mostly set in Havana in 1948, detailing the tempestuous love affair of Chico a piano player & Rita, a singer. Nicely animated with a script touching on Cuban & US politics of the time and featuring an excellent soundtrack of jazz and Cuban music. 7.5/10
Star Trek Into Darkness, really enjoyed the film but I felt it wasn't as good as the first one. I did feel the action set pieces and special effects were better then the first and the opening start of the film was great but the film is was too much of copy of a wrath of Khan. Benedict Cumberbatch as the villain was a double sword he was fantastic as the main villain oozed evilness and gave a great performance but at the same time when its revealed who his true identify is he lacks the on screen presence of the original villain his playing which was done better. What happens to Kirk again is a copy from another Star Trek but with the roles reversed and lacked the impact of what happened in the original film. Some of characters lacked screen time and final act of film went a bit too silly thr bit with Spock and Uhura was a bit cheesy for me.
I did like how they did Klingons, my only worry with the Star Trek films now is with the altered timeline they should be doing fresh ideas rather then copy the previous Star Trek films as it defeats the purpose in having a alternate timeline and repeating the same things.
Two Easters i spotted was at Starfleet headquarters they mentain Section 31 who played a big part in later seasons of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, also you see a model of NX Enterprise from Star Enterprise and the ship that Zefram Cochrane used in Star Trek: First Contract. There was a Easter egg in the first film when Scotty lost admiral archers dog in a transporter accident a nod to Captain Archer from Star Trek Enterprise. 8.5/10.