No Sparks

Fathers and Daughters (2015)

Directed by Gabriele Muccino this film stars Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Kylie Rogers and Aaron Paul. Over two time periods we see the relationship between a girl/woman and her father who is an author struggling with mental health problems.

Heavy handed and formulaic this film only offers a surprise in that it is not an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book. At various points there are events that could have made for an interesting film but some how the plot manages to avoid those. Even some of the performances were a bit disappointing but Amanda Seyfried does do her best to carry the film.

2/5

Ghost jive

Spook Sport (1939)

Directed by Mary Ellen Bute this film is animated by Norman McLaren with music by Camille Saint-Saens. Set to the Danse Macabre various spirits dance around and get up to mischief.

As with many early animations this is a simple combination of music and image that while entertaining is not overly deep. The animation is not a perfect fit to the music but this is not exactly an attempt at visualisation. I enjoyed the film but it is not one that will stick with you.

3/5

Japanese school teacher psycho

Lesson of the Evil (2012)

Written & directed by Takashi Miike this film stars Hideaki Ito, Elina Mizuno, Takayuki Yamada and Mitsuru Fukikoshi. Initially appearing to be a good and caring teacher it turns out that an English teacher at a Japanese school has dark secrets.

Essentially this is not a very deep film about a psychopath that becomes a slasher type film. While there might not be a great deal of depth to the story the finale has a great back drop and is visually as gory as you would expect from Miike. I enjoyed the performances but maybe the film could have done with being a little more creepy to begin with.

3/5

Half a shell

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

Directed by Dave Green this film stars Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Pete Ploszek, Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher and Jeremy Howard. After their first adventure our heroes find themselves wishing for some of the lime light as they take on Shredder again.

There is nothing intelligent about the plot here that stumbles from one action sequence to another and the less you think about what is happening on the screen the better. If you can be distracted by the avalanche of CGI this is not a bad watch but it is a very simple affair. I was not a huge fan of the action sequences either as at times the geography of the scene gets lost in the action, especially in the final battle.

2/5

Circle dance

A Phantasy (1952)

Directed by Norman McLaren this is a short animated film. We see a fantastical landscape followed by dancing circles.

I found parts of this film really interesting looking but the majority of it is dancing circles which while well done is a bit less impressive. The images fit the sound well but not remarkably so. Using pastels to draw the images this is a different type of animation from McLaren but well done.

3/5

Womack is a bastard

The Goob (2014)

Written & directed by Guy Myhill this film stars Liam Walpole, Sienna Guillory, Sean Harris and Marama Corlett. Having just finished compulsory education a teenage boy spends his summer working for his mother's abusive boyfriend.

This is a well made coming of age film that while it does not add a huge amount to the genre is still a good watch. At times it does feel like there is a bit too little dialogue, keeping the audience at arms reach for no reason but otherwise I had no real complaints about the film. There are some good performances and decent direction.

3/5

Sticking her nose in

The Meddler (2015)

Written & directed by Lorene Scafaria this film stars Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne and J. K. Simmons. A widow that has moved to Los Angeles to be near her adult daughter finds herself becoming a nuisance to her daughter.

This is a fairly gentle but decent look at loneliness of an older generation that mixes comedy and some drama. I enjoyed the film but I do not think it is as challenging or as deep as it could but it does have some chuckles along the way. Rose Byrne gives the best performance in the film with all the others characters being a little bit reserved.

3/5

Love, life, laundrette

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

Directed by Stephen Frears this film stars Gordon Warnecke, Daniel Day-Lewis, Saeed Jaffrey and Roshan Seth. In Thatcher era London a young Pakistani seeks to find his place in the world with the help of his family and a homeless friend from school.

I found this to be a pretty interesting look at the life of second generation immigrants in England and their relationship with their parents. The film also explores homosexuality but not in as much depth as it does with the issues of immigration. All the performances are good but the quality of the film stock used is not great really.

4/5  

A Canadian love story

The Owl Who Married a Goose: An Eskimo Legend (1976)

Directed by Caroline Leaf this is a short cartoon funded by the National Film Board of Canada. An owl and a goose shack up together but find raising a family together difficult.

Taking a simple parable this cartoon is a decent metaphor for the fusion of different cultures in Canada and the problems they struggle with. I enjoyed the animation style which is simple but artistic. The use of dialogue in Inuktitut does make the film a little hard to follow but is still good.

4/5

Fierce but familiar

Mona Lisa (1986)

Directed by Neil Jordan this film stars Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, Robbie Coltrane and Michael Caine. Just out of prison a working class criminal is hired to work as a driver for a high class call girl.

Nothing much is original in the plot of this crime drama but the antagonistic relationship between the two main characters is at least initially interesting. The film does a good job of showing off the seeder side of London if not being especially deep about it. At the time Bob Hoskins got a lot of praise for his performance in this film but at times his performance is more quantity rather than quality in my opinion.

3/5

Did we really need to?

Bad Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising (2016)

Directed by Nicholas Stoller this sequel stars Seth Green, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron and Chloe Grace Moretz. About to sell their house but stuck in escrow for thirty days a couple find that a sorority has moved in next to them.

There are a couple of funny moments here and there in this film but in general this is a weak sequel to an original that wasn't that great to begin with. What few highlights there are for this film appeared in the trailers that were impossible to miss when the film was released. Most of the cast seems to be sleep walking through this film as were the writers.

2/5

Up your bum

Wish You Were Here (1987)

Written & directed by David Leland this film stars Emily Lloyd, Tom Bell and Geoffrey Hutchings. In the early 1950s a teenage girl living in a coastal town has an attitude that rubs reserved sensibilities up the wrong way.

This is a pretty simple coming of age story that mixes an immature attitude with sexual awakenings in a teenage girl. While I enjoyed the comedic character of the film it left a little to be desired on the dramatic side as I do not think it ever fully explores the characters. There are decent performances and Emily Lloyd does a good job carrying the film at a young age.

3/5

Out of the darkness

Night on Bald Mountain (1933)

Directed by Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker this animated film is set to the music of Modest Mussorgsky. On a stormy night we see a range of strange images.

While the quality of the copy of this film that I watched was not that good the animation and music still shone through. There are some great images that are well animated, especially for the period, and the whole thing fits the music well. I enjoyed this film and would recommend it to others.

4/5

Lust and lyrics

Black Mountain Poets (2015)

Written and directed by Jamie Adams this film stars Alice Lowe, Dolly Wells and Tom Cullen. After an ill fated attempt to steal a JCB from a building site two sisters on the run pose as poets on a poetry retreat.

While not the deepest film you will ever see there is enough charm and chuckles to entertain through out this slightly odd ball film. Not a huge amount stands out there but I enjoyed the film none the less with Alice Lowe being the best thing in the film. There are also some nice location shots as a backdrop.

3/5

From slaughterhouse to outhouse

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Directed by Tobe Hooper this film stars Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow, Bill Johnson and Bill Moseley. A policeman who is the uncle of two of the victims from the first film gains the help of a radio DJ in hunting down the killers.

Where this film's predecessor was surprisingly good this film is unsurprisingly terrible. Character actions often do not make sense, the film is cartoonish in places and is padded out by relying on Caroline Williams standing round screaming a lot. It is hard to find anything to praise about this film as it seems to be as badly made as it is written.

1/5

War and peace in your neighbourhood

Neighbours (1952)

Written and directed by Norman McLaren this film stars Grant Munro and Jean-Paul Ladouceur. Two men living next to each other become obsessed over a flower and who owns it.

This is a simple allegorical short film that pushes peace and anti-militarism. While there is nothing revolutionary about the content of the film it is still well made. I enjoyed the use of stop motion with live subjects and it makes for an interesting style.

4/5

Missed call

Cell (2016)

Directed by Tod Williams this film based on the novel of the same name stars John Cusak, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Stacy Keach. After a strange electronic pulse turns people using mobile phones into rabid monsters a father tries to get back to his estranged family.

I have fairly decent expectations when a film is an adaptation of a Stephen King novel but unfortunately this film falls well short of the expected level. While there are a few interesting elements they are never capitalized on and this is just a flaccid zombie film with far too many familiar elements. Even the cast seem a little uninterested as they stumble through this generic effort.

2/5

The dark side of Greek life

Goat (2016)

Directed by Andrew Neel this film based on real events stars Ben Schnetzer, Nick Jonas, Gus Halper and Daniel Flaherty. After being beaten up in the summer a teenager heads to college in the hopes of joining the same fraternity as his older brother.

As films about fraternity hazings go this is a pretty good film that does not glorify but I am not really sure it goes deep enough into motivations of the older members. Clearly the abuse the pledges suffer is terrible but I was never convinced on why they were willing to go through with it all and the film shows little of fraternity life beyond the abuse. There are decent performances from the cast but nothing that stands out although James Franco's cameo is worth watching out for.

3/5

Clown on the loose

Modeling (1921)

Directed by Dave Fleischer this short mixes live action and animated images. An animated clown runs amok when left unattended by his animator who is helping with a sculpting.

Another entry in the “Out of the Inkwell” series this film does a good job of mixing it's different elements to provide a humorous scenario. I enjoyed the content and there are a few chuckles along the way. The real skill is how well the live action and animation mix, much like the rest of the series this film is from.

3/5

Tame biggots

Jenny's Wedding (2015)

Written & directed by Mary Agnes Donoghue this film stars Katherine Heigl, Alexis Bledel, Tom Wilkinson and Linda Emond. A woman decides she wants to get married to her girlfriend and come out to her conservative parents.

This is the lightweight, apologists version of a coming out story that neither explores the depths or origins of homophobia. I found this to be a disappointing film and probably to some gay people it was patronising. Katherine Heigl does her best but the material is not up to much.

2/5

A real battle

Paradise: Faith (2012)

Directed by Ulrich Seidl this is the second film in his paradise trilogy with this entry staring Maria Hofstatter and Nabil Saleh. A middle aged Austrian nurse spends her time loving Jesus and trying to convert others.

Even for some independent films I found this film slow to get going and when it finally does I am not sure the plot really progresses much. When the protagonists crippled Muslim husband does turn up it certainly makes things more interesting but the conflict never pushes the protagonist to change in my opinion. Of the three films in this trilogy this was my least favourite.

2/5

Dickensian Indian cinema

Sone Ki Chidiya (1958)

Directed by Shaheed Latif this film stars Nutan, Talat Mahmood and Balraj Sahni. A young woman who is an orphan is abused by her family till she becomes a film star and then taken advantage of by them.

Taking a very Dickensian style story this tale of a young woman left at the mercy of others is pretty good. At some points the film is a little melodramatic and has twists just for the sake of extending the film a few minutes. Some of the editing is very abrupt and you do not get the sense of the passage of time between some scenes as you should but otherwise this is a decent watch.

3/5

Art into art

Mindscape/Le Payagiste (1976)

Written and directed by Jacques Drouin this is a silent animated film. We enter the mind of an artist painting a landscape.

Using pinscreen animation techniques this cartoon provides a look into a fascinating little world. The images transform over a sequence that is more than a little trippy. I really enjoyed the animation style and the way the film explores the fantasy it creates.

4/5

No Jules

Just Jim (2015)

Written & directed by star Craig Roberts this film also features Emile Hirsch, Nia Roberts, Aneirin Hughes and Charlotte Randall. A lonely Welsh teenager is taken under the wing of his new neighbour from America.

Taking a classic coming of age narrative and adding a slightly odd ball spin to it this is an entertaining effort. While there is not much new or original here this is a good diversion for 90 minutes or so. As a debut film I was impressed and look forward to seeing more from Craig Roberts.

3/5

Safe, Cage

The Trust (2016)

Directed by Alex Brewer and Brewer this film stars Nicholas Cage, Elijah Wood, Sky Ferreira and Jerry Lewis. Two Las Vegas policemen that work in evidence management stumble upon a criminals stash and decide to rob it.

Taking some off beat characters and a little dark humour this is a fairly decent effort. The plot is pretty standard genre fair but is entertaining and has moments of comedy as well as tension. Nicholas Cage does what he does best and gives a slightly unhinged but restrained performance.

3/5

Betty on the run

Minnie the Moocher (1932)

Directed by Dave Fleischer this cartoon has voices from Mae Questel and Cab Calloway. Our heroine has enough of being shouted at by her parents so decides to run away from home with her buddy Bimbo.

Combining a simple plot with musical numbers this cartoon is pretty similar to a number of the other early Betty Boop cartoons I have seen. Not overly funny this is still a fairly entertaining short. While I enjoyed the cartoon it does not have much to say or a lasting impact.

3/5

The friendship of numbers

The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)

Directed by Matthew Brown this film based on real events stars Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Devika Bhise and Toby Jones. A young man from India with a brilliant mind for mathematics is invited to work at Trinity college in Cambridge.

Covering the points you would expect a film of this type to cover there is not a lot of surprise here and I suspect the film is not entirely historically accurate. While the film is enjoyable it is not very challenging and the part I would most like to have seen more of, our protagonists early education and discoveries, is sadly not really shown. There are some decent performances from the cast but nothing special.

3/5

The weakest of punches

The Challenger (2015)

Written, directed by and starting Kent Moran this film also features Michael Clarke Duncan in his final film role. A young mechanic wants to earn extra money by taking up boxing.

To mix metaphors this is an undercooked paint by numbers boxing movie that is essentially a poor imitation or Rocky. The plot is neither convincing nor works in terms of character arcs. I suppose the direction is not too bad but does nothing to stand out in a very crowded genre.

2/5