American Beauty (1999)
Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey give some of their finest ever performances in Sam Mendes' brilliant suburban black comedy drama. There's plenty of exploration into a variety of different character's stories with both dark humour and emotional upheaval high on the agenda. I've seen this many times but it's been a firm favourite movie of mine now for nearly two decades. A good film that's always worth staying in for. The multi-layered cast also includes Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley and Mena Suvari. 5/5
The Amazing Spider-Man, liked it a few problems I had where pacing, the special effects are fantastic but when they did the CGI Lizard it looked really dodgy. Andrew Garfield was a good Spider-Man but wasn't a big fan of him as Peter Parker 8.5/10.
Trainspotting 10/10
was on Channel 4 as the sequel is out on Friday
Have to say still as good as it was in the 90's when first watched it. both funny and shocking in equal measures the cold turkey bit with the Baby on the Ceiling still freaks me out as it did then
La Belle Et La Bête(2014)
Christophe Gans' little seen version of the classic tale is brilliantly dark and stylish,done in the same vain as his 2001 effort,The Brotherhood of the Wolf.Collaborating once again with the superb Vincent Cassel as a panther type beast who falls in love with Belle,played with a realistic sensitivity by the very beautiful, Léa Seydoux.
8/10
Trainspotting 9.5/10
The sequel is now less than a week away.
Another Earth (2011) On the day a duplicate earth is discovered in the Solar System a 17 year old student, played by Brit Marling causes a crash which kills a professor's wife, son and an unborn child, and leaves the professor(William Mapother) in a coma. Four years later, on leaving an offender's institution, the student gets a job cleaning for the unsuspecting professor and from there a relationship develops. In some ways, a cliched indie film, with a thinnish story, quirky cinematography and the occasional pointless small scene, but the scenes with the lead actors grip and the film gets stronger in the second half. Also starring Jordan Baker,Flint Beverage,Robin Lord Taylor & Kumar Pallana. 6.5/10
^^^William Mapother is Tom Cruise cousin William kept the surname where as Tom changed his and Robin Lord Taylor plays the penguin in Gotham.
Dragonslayer(1981)
Despite boasting brilliant performances from Ralph Richardson as Ulrich of Craggenmoor and Peter McNicol as the title character.Mathew Robbins' dark,fantasy adventure film is mostly remembered for its amazing combination of live action animatronics and go motion animation(that Phil Tippett invented for this film)to create what still is one of cinema's greatest dragons ever.
7.5/10
The Boy (2016) Lauren Cohen stars as an American girl who takes a job as a nanny in a secluded house in the English countryside. She finds the child is a life size doll, the way for the parents( Jim Norton & Diana Hardcastle) to deal with the grief of losing their son. When the parents go on holiday, strange things occur... When you get over the initial scenario, this is a mixture of familiar and genuinely creepy, with a good performance from Cohen. It also some things to say about loss too, but does lose its way in the last twenty minutes or so. Also starring Rupert Evans, Ben Robson & James Russell. 6/10