No brain, still entertains

Big Bullet (1996)

Directed by Benny Chan this film stars Lau Ching-wan, Jordan Chan, Theresa Lee and Cheung Tat-ming. Following a shoot out gone wrong a hot headed police detective is sent to work in a unit of rejects.

While this film is thin on both plot and character development it does contain a suitable amount of action sequences. We may not be getting John Woo levels of direction here but there is enough action to keep the viewer entertained at least. If you can switch off your brain this is not too bad of a watch.

3/5

Action hackers

Blackhat (2015)

Directed by Michael Mann this film stars Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Wang Leehom and Viola Davis. Chinese and American law enforcement work with a convicted hacker to investigate a cyber crime.

This film is show with Mann's recognisable style of using digital, hand held cameras for a level of realism. While the plot aims for realism it quickly stretches believability in terms of what the characters are allowed to do despite trying to state rooted in real jargon. Despite being well made I found the film a bit flat as it struggled to over come the problems common to any film where people sit at a computer a lot.

3/5

Flush with disappointment

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Written & directed by The Wachowskis this film stars Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean and Eddie Redmayne. A young woman stuck cleaning toilets finds out she is a space princess.

Disappointingly this film has so much unfulfilled potential, the characters completely lack depth and the themes are explored too little, too late. There is far too much emphasis on plot, too much telling over showing when it comes to back story/character and I found the protagonist far too passive. I was also not a huge fan of some of the special effects. It could well be that a three hour version of this story would have given room to solve a lot of the problems here.

2/5  

Musical magic

The Melomaniac (1903)

Directed by and staring George Melies this is a short film from the silent era. A band master uses telegraph lines to write music on.

Essentially this is a short built around using trick photography like many of Melies's early films. The plot is pretty simple and does not have much to it. Compared to other Melies films I have seen this is not the most impressive or entertaining but it does hold together.

3/5

Little honour

Honour (2014)

Written & directed by Shan Khan this film stars Aiysha Hart, Paddy Considine, Faraz Ayub and Harvey Virdi. A young British, Muslim woman's relationship with a non Pakistani man leads her family to plan an honour killing.

At times the plot of this film skirts cliché, especially in the characters, but is still a rare look into a closed community. The character of the bounty hunter is forced but I liked the use of a non linear narrative here. In the end this is a fairly middle of the road film with a decent, if not remarkable, delivery.

3/5

Fifty shades of shite

Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)

Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson this film based on the novel of the same name stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. An inexperienced young woman beings a relationship with a billionaire who clearly wants different things to her.

As you might expect this is a pretty had film, the plot and dialogue are beyond weak at times. There is barely a surface level to this film which I suppose might not be too bad if the elements that were supposed to carry the film were not equally shallow and mostly reduced to montage sequences. It is hard to find anything positive about this film but some say it is better than the book even if I find that hard to imagine.

1/5

Origins of a master

The Sugarland Express (1974)

Directed by Steven Spielberg this film inspired by a true story stars Goldie Hawn, William Atherton, Michael Sacks and Ben Johnson. A young woman breaks her boyfriend out of prison and the kidnap a highway patrol officer while trying to get their baby back from the state.

This film is an early example of Spielberg's ability to handle comedy, drama and tragedy all in the same narrative without any feeling out of place. The plot sits somewhere between Dog Day Afternoon and Raising Arizona, with a very poignant ending. There are decent performances from most of the cast and while Goldie Hawn draws most of the attention I really enjoyed the more subtle performance from Ben Johnson.

4/5