Tarka The Otter(1979)
A classic family film from director David Cobham.Following the trials and tribulations of an otter and its family in the wild.Narrated by Peter Ustinov and done in an anthropomorphic style for the benefit of younger viewers,its educational and the stunning cinematography holds up with most natural history films made today.Also starring Peter Bennett and Edward Underdown.
7.5/10
The Curse of Frankenstein(1957)
A great effort from director Terence Fisher that marks Peter Cushing's first appearance as Dr.Frankenstein,a character that later became synonymous with films made by Hammer Studios.This film in particalur has great pathos due to Christopher Lee's touching performance as Frankenstein's creation.
8/10
Arabesque(1966) Gregory Peck stars as a university professor in the city of Oxford asked to decipher some hieroglyphics,which leads to a series of dangerous situations. A rather silly spy comedy thriller with some amusing lines and a couple of good set pieces. Peck and Sophia Loren are fine as the leads but Alan Badel is annoying and miscast as an Arab businessman. Also starring Kieron Moore,Carl Duering,John Merivale and Jimmy Gardner. 5.5/10
Alien: Covenant
The 8th film in the Alien franchise and in my opinion it's one of the best.
It's set 10yrs after Prometheus and it's a slow burner that takes its time setting things up but once the s**t hits the fan it doesn't hold back with the blood, guts & gore as the crew of the covenant get killed off.
The special effects are very good & the origin of the iconic xenomorph in alien is revealed and it carries on setting up the events of Alien.
9.5/10
I'd rank it 3rd in the alien franchise.
1: Alien
2: Aliens
3: Alien: Covenant
A Most Wanted Man (2014) A Chechan Muslim, played by Grigory Dobrygin, who has arrived illegally in Hamburg becomes of interest to an unconventional spymaster(Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and other espionage agencies. Based on a John Le Carre novel and although not a stunningly original piece, it is a slow burner with fine acting, with a mostly underplayed performance from Hoffman, and good turns from Dobrygin, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright and Nina Hoss. Also starring Willem Dafoe,Daniel Bruhl & Rainer Bock. 6.5/10
The Swarm(1978)
Another ridiculous effort from the ever ambitious Irwin Allen.Starring Henry Fonda,Olivia de Havilland and Michael Caine.Despite the stellar cast this never rises above the level of silly B movie status.
4/10
Demolition Man (1993)
Over the top, satire filled, action shoot 'em up that despite the obvious flaws, actually manages to moderately entertain for two hours. Despite failings, it's probably good popcorn watching fun where you don't need to think about a movie for a change. Having said that, the acting is awful in places, and many of the stars are miscast in my opinion. A wooden Sylvester Stallone shows he doesn't really do comedy as he's upstaged in every scene by the ridiculously maniacal Wesley Snipes. Still, some entertaining bangs and crashes and Sandra Bullock in tight leathers (a shallow reason for watching I know
), just about saves it from being a complete car wreck. 2.5 / 5
The Lodger(1927) A landlady (Marie Ault) becomes convinced her new lodger(Ivor Novello) is a notorious killer. Inspired no doubt by the Jack The Ripper murders, but set in contemporary times, this is storywise fairly thin, but it remains tense for its hour and a half running time, with director Alfred Hitchcock employing good crowd scenes and an effective foggy London amongst other cinematic tricks. Novello is a suitably enigmatic leading man. Also starring Arthur Chesney,June Tripp and Malcolm Keen. 7/10
The Fate Of The Furious
So...
1) Wanton destruction of expensive vehicles...
2) Over the top & exaggerated action scenes
3) Random slow motion shots
4)Ridiculous amounts of cheeseball one liners...
And lastly but by no means least...A crazy amount of no need shouting!!!! (Serious, way over the top)
So In conclusion....
Loved it!
8/10
Alien : Covenant
If, like me, you were really looking forward to Prometheus back in 2012 and came out of the cinema thinking "wtf was that badly written, jumbled mess?" then despite a lot to commend it, you will feel more of the same after watching this.
Thankfully there is none of the inanely stupid characters that inhabited Prometheus, and as an ensemble the cast do well, but just like its predecessor this film suffers from trying to be more than one type of film, and never deciding which.
As a straight up SciFi horror movie it succeeds for the most part, but for fans of the Alien mythology who were hoping it would right the wrongs of Prometheus, it falls short in my view.
Fassbender is superb in his dual role and I have to confess I was pleasantly surprised by Danny Macbride, whom I mainly associate with Eastbound and Down (great) and the flick Your Highness (real bad).
Also what I noticed was that in my opinion this film didn't seem to have Ridley Scott's "every frame a stunning visage" visual style, and to be honest some very dodgy CGI on the Neomorphs.
Still worth a solid 6/10 but overall still a bit of a confused effort to follow up Prometheus that is clearly in itself a confused predecessor to Scott's promised next installment.