Escape from space

Lockout (2012)

Directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger this film stars Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare and Joseph Gilgun. A CIA agent wrongly accused of espionage has to save the President's daughter who is being held hostage on a space prison.

Coming from the mind of Luc Besson the plot of this film is much as you would expect and has a fair amount in common with John Carter's Snake Plissken films. There are no real surprises along the way in this film and the characters rarely have much to offer apart from Gilgun's psychotic prisoner. Most of the film is green screen and CGI which shows, especially in the early Earth based sequences.

3/5

Amazing attempts to keep rights

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Directed by Marc Webb this comic book adaptation stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans and Martin Sheen. A high school student is bitten by a spider in a science lab and gains super powers.

Inevitably this film is going to be compared to the Sam Raimi films and while this film does not do much wrong in comparison it is certainly the weaker film. Where this film falls short is in weaker characterisation and not doing as good a job of exploring the themes of Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man. Mostly the film is well made but the music comes of as decidedly bland and generic adding nothing to the film.

3/5

A storm is coming

Ran (1985)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa this film stars Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Mieko Harada and Jinpachi Nezu. An ageing Japanese war lord tries to divide his lands between his three sons and peacefully enter retirement.

The plot of this film bares a number of similarities to the play King Lear but is not a straight adaptation. Exploring man's destructive nature and his relationship with warfare provides this film with plenty of depth beyond the basic tragedy. Of course the film is excellently executed with a great battle scene in the middle of the film and good use of clouds to fore shadow.

5/5

Sound of the jungle

Oka! (2011)

Written and directed by Lavinia Currier this film stars Kris Marshall, Isaach De Bankole, Will Yun Lee and a host of real Bayaka Pygmies. An ethno-muscianist returns from New York to the tribe he has befriended in the Central African Republic.

Being inspired by real events puts this film in the uneasy position of meshing fiction and fact into something that did not really happen as shown. The plot of the film is fairly average and does not show what I would consider the more interesting parts of a man going to live with hunter-gatherers in Africa. Considering many of the actors have never acted before the film is pretty well made but does not really do much to stand out.

3/5

Major misunderstanding

Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2012)

Directed by Bruce Beresford this film stars Catherine Keener, Jane Fonda, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Eilzabeth Olsen. After finding out her husband wants a divorce a woman takes her two teenage children to visit her mother who lives in Woodstock.

If this is supposed to be a romantic comedy someone forgot to put in any comedy. The plot is the usual contrived rubbish that goes through the motions rather than deals with the characters issues or makes them act logically. There is a lot of wasted acting talent here and it is hard to find much to like about this film.

2/5

Chess with Caeser

The Omega Man (1971)

Directed by Boris Sagal this film based on the novel “I Am Legend” stars Charlton Heston, Anthony Zerbe and Rosalind Cash. A man that is immune to a plague that has wiped out most of humanity is hunted by diseased sufferers.

This is the second of three major adaptations of the same novel and like the others it differs from the novel in various ways. The film explores the ideas of man's role and responsibility for his own downfall pretty well even if not with that much depth. While there are good performances from the cast some of the make up on the infected is a little suspect.

3/5

Retired and funny

RED (2010)

Directed by Robert Schwentke this film based on the comic of the same name stars Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovic and Helen Mirren. A retired CIA black ops agent finds himself a hunted man by his own agency.

Clearly the best thing about this film is the cast which has some great strength in depth with support from the likes of Brian Cox, Ernest Borgnine and Karl Urban. The plot is fairly funny and light but never really manages to capitalise on all the potential this film has. There are a number of departures from the original comic which change the tone of the story which is also a bit of a shame but there are worse ways to spend 2 hours than watching this film.

3/5