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Certificate: 
Director: Mike Hodges
Release Date: 5 December 1980
Tagline: He’ll save every one of us!
Main Cast:
Sam J. Jones … Flash Gordon
Melody Anderson … Dale Arden
Max von Sydow … The Emperor Ming
Bloody wonderful. If you were born in the 1970s and loved sci-fi, then you *have* to not only watch, but will also love this. In actual fact who wouldn’t love this? You’d have to be bereft of all sense of imagination and joy to dislike Flash Gordon. Unmissable to my generation (I was born in 1971), but perhaps not to others.
It’s my review and therefore gets five stars and a rating of unmissable!
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Certificate: 
Directors: Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña
Release Date: 29 May 2009
Tagline: Think inside the box.
Main Cast:
Lluís Homar … Hilbert
Alejo Sauras … Galois
Elena Ballesteros … Oliva
Santi Millán … Pascal
Federico Luppi … Fermat
I enjoyed this. However, it is far too much like Cube for me to rate it too highly. In a nutshell, four geniuses have been selected (supposedly on their ability to solve a kind of mathematical problem) to attend a special gathering of elite minds. They are all directed to drive to an isolated location, and are all given pseudonyms. It soon becomes clear that they have fallen into a deadly trap and must use their intelligence and quick thinking if they are to save their lives.
There are, however, two plot holes (see here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016301/goofs) that are far too big to overlook. All in all, though, I did enjoy it, and would recommend watching it.
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Certificate: 
Director: Christopher Nolan
Release Date: 16 July 2010
Tagline: The dream is real.
Main Cast:
Dom Cobb … Leonardo DiCaprio
Arthur … Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Ariadne … Ellen Page
Eames … Tom Hardy
Saito … Ken Watanabe
Ok, first things first. 12A? Ludicrous. Not only is there a lot of violence, you’ll have to be very intelligent and/or are able to concentrate well to follow this if you are twelve. Any child less than this age/and or ability will only whinge, moan, declare (loudly) that they want to go to the toilet (it’s 148 minute long) and, more than likely, run around. Therefore, watch it with children present at your peril – distractions *will* result in you being completely lost.
Secondly, forget what you have heard about how it’s confusing and incomprehensible. The primary plot is very easy to grasp. It’s only when you try to link every subtle and glorious details that you begin to question and mull things over.
The primary plot is this. Dom Cobb and his colleagues are thieves, but not in the ordinary sense. They go into the the dreams of people to extract and steal things that are in the dreamer’s mind. They are architects of dream worlds and are able to manipulate the dreamer. Cobb has been accused of his wife’s murder and is unable to return to his home and children. A powerful business man, Saito, offers him a chance to get this accusation ‘taken care of’ if he helps him plant a seed (an inception) in to the mind of his terminally ill fiercest rival’s son. The inception in question is to place the idea that the son does not simply inherit the company and keeps it as it is, but to convince him that he is his own man and dissolve the company and follow his own path. Saito claims that if the son continues the business as it is, then it will be “the next superpower”. It seems that Saito has the world’s best interest at heart, but this is niether confirmed or proved false. Needless to say, Dom accepts this job.
It makes total sense. At least on the surface. I need to watch it again to fully understand all the intricacies of the film as a whole!
Inception is a true slice of originality that is sadly lacking in today’s remakes and regurgitations of the same plot but with different trimmings and actors. Absolutely bloody marvellous!
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P.S. Leonardo DiCaprio is proving himself to be an exceptional actor with every passing year
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Director: Scott Derrickson
Release Date: 25 November 2005
Tagline: What happened to Emily?
Main Cast:
Laura Linney … Erin Bruner
Tom Wilkinson … Father Moore
Jennifer Carpenter … Emily Rose
This is by far the second best demonic possession/exorcism film that I’ve seen (The Exorcist will, inarguably, never be surpassed). It’s based on the True Story of Anneliese Michel, a German Catholic girl who was possibly mentally ill, possibly an epileptic, possibly possessed by demons, and possibly a combination of two or all three. After the failure of medication (it’s entirely possible that this failed because of her belief that she might be possessed) she underwent sixty seven exorcisms over a period of ten months.
There are photographs of her after the illness(es) and or possession took hold that are really quite shocking. Is it possible that she was ‘only’ mentally ill and the suggestion that she was demonically possessed caused added complications to this? It seems very unlikely that psychosis, epilepsy and/or anorexia was her primary problem and the cause of all her disturbances.
Now, although I do believe (through personal experience and other eyewitness accounts that are absolutely genuine) that there are ghosts and other things that science cannot explain, I don’t believe in Heaven and Hell. Bearing in mind that I’m an atheist (although I accept that I could be wrong; after all the existence of God can neither be confirmed or denied), I find the story of Anneliese very disturbing. The photographs of her before, during and at the end of her life are genuinely shocking.
So, what do I believe? Illness or demonic possession? Surprisingly, I don’t know what I believe. What *did* happen to Emily?
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Director: Daniel Stamm
Release Date: 3 September 2010
Tagline: Believe in Him.
Main Cast:
Patrick Fabian … Rev. Cotton Marcus
Ashley Bell … Nell Sweetzer
Iris Bahr … Iris Reisen
Louis Herthum … Louis Sweetzer
I love a good exorcism/demonic film. Unfortunately, this is nothing like one. Like the utterly abysmal Paranormal Activity this had very little funding and used the same viral/word of mouth marketing tactics. I wasn’t aware of this until after watching it, and it explained a lot.
Just when you thought it might get quite good, the end is rushed in a confusing final scene. I would suggest that they had no idea how to end it. On the plus side, I thought that the acting was reasonably good.
The Last Exorcism is a rip off of The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, both of which are masterpieces. It’s not quite as boring as Paranormal Activity, so it gets half a star more than that.
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P.S. Don’t be mislead by the fantastic poster. She doesn’t crawl up the wall – the image has been doctored to make it appear so.
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Director: Louis Leterrier
Release Date: 13 June 2008
Tagline: You’ll like him when he’s angry.
Main Cast:
Edward Norton … Bruce Banner
Liv Tyler … Betty Ross
Tim Roth … Emil Blonsky
William Hurt … General ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross
I don’t switch many films off, so when I do it means that it’s terrible. I have less tolerance these days to seeing rubbish through to the end. This is the second ‘modern’ Hulk films, and both have been bad.
I’ve decided that a boring comic book can only result in a boring film (Electra and Daredevil are boring too and have made very poor conversions to film). The problem with the Hulk is that we only ever see him when Banner gets angry. Batman and Spider-Man make lots of appearances in the comics and therefore make for exciting films.
I’ve never quite worked out the purpose of the Hulk. He is neither good nor bad and all he seems to do is jump around and smash things up. It is impossible to make an emotional connection with him as Bruce Banner is about as interesting as a wet lettuce.
What is it with comic book adaptations and romantic scenes in the rain? It’s cheesy. Why is the American military so dumb? Bullets clearly have no effect on the Hulk yet they keep on firing away.
Finally, the question of how the Hulk keeps his trousers on is still a mystery. A couple of inches longer and they’d have fit like a glove. They were less convincing than the old TV series.
Please stop making Hulk films. It’s a crappy comic and should be left well alone. I turned it off after seventy six minutes. I just couldn’t take any more. It was making me angry…
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Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Release Date: 12 March 2010
Main Cast:
Michael Nyqvist … Mikael Blomkvist
Noomi Rapace … Lisbeth Salander
Lena Endre … Erika Berger
Sven-Bertil Taube … Henrik Vanger
This is an absolute cracker. An adult, engrossing and thrilling film that does not fail to deliver. It’s absolutely brilliant on every level, and if you are a film lover, then you need to see it.
I really can’t give anything away, but the story is about how, forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs the disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate.
Fantastic. What are you waiting for – watch it now!
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Director: Danny Boyle
Release Date: 7 January 2011
Tagline: There is no force more powerful than the will to live.
Main Cast:
James Franco … Aron Ralston
Based on the true story of how Aron Ralston got himself trapped in an isolated and treacherous canyon walk, 127 Hours is, just like Touching the Void, a brilliantly made yet difficult to watch film.
Aron had a freakish accident and found himself trapped by his right arm between a huge boulder and an impenetrable rock wall. 127 Hours documents his harrowing experience and the only solution that he had left to him if he wanted to survive.
It’s a captivating film that never strays into anything other than a pure and simple story of survival.
It’s hard to rate it as this is a real story being played for us, and unlike the average real life biographies (such as Walk the Line), there is not a lifetime of experiences to draw from - only 127 hours. So, I shall rate it purely on the basis of its ability to captivate the audience.
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Director: Steven Spielberg
Release Date: 22 May 2008
Tagline: The adventure continues . . .
Main Cast:
Henry ‘Indiana’ Jones … Harrison Ford
Cate Blanchett … Irina Spalko
Shia LaBeouf … Mutt Williams
Awful, awful, awful. Harrison Ford is too old for this type of roll. He was embarrassingly bad in the first part of this, and only seemed to show any real enthusiasm about two thirds in. It’s full of the same old Indiana Jones clichés – I don’t think that they even tried to inject anything new into it. Why bother when it will put bums on seats with little to no effort? What on Earth was Cate Blanchett thinking when she took this role?
The lack of imagination in the above tagline says it all. This is a tired franchise that should have been laid to rest by now. Let’s hope they don’t dig it up again.
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P.S. I don’t know what it was really made of, but does anyone else think that the ‘crystal skull’ looked like plastic with some scrunched up cling film in it?
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Director: Mark Waters
Release Date: 21 March 2008
Tagline: Their world is closer than you think.
Main Cast:
Freddie Highmore … Jared Grace / Simon Grace
Mary Louise Parker … Mary-Louise Parker
Nick Nolte … Mulgarath
I really enjoyed this. It’s very engaging from the start and Freddie Highmore does a good job playing both of the main characters. Whilst not suitable for very young children, older ones, both boys and girls, will enjoy it as it’s neither ‘girly’ or ‘boyish’.
All in all, a very good film which will be enjoyed by most people, especially fantasy fans.
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