The Last Boy Scout (1991), a very good and very exciting action thriller from director Tony Scott and Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black. This has private detective (former secret agent) Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis), who is assigned to keep an eye on Cory (Halle Berry), the girlfriend of disgraced former football star Jimmy Dix (Damon Wayans), however, when Cory is murdered in a drive-by shooting. Hallenbeck and Dix team up to find out who is responsible for the shooting, alot of explosions, property damage and shooting follows afterwards!! :P One of those big, dumb action films from the early 1990's, and one of the more violent offerings. But, it makes for very entertaining viewing, and Brucie and Wayans make a good team, and director Scott keeps a good eye on the action, (he's always good when it comes to action films), and Brucie comes up with the wisecracks which pushes it into comedy territory, but what would you expect from a film from this era?? It's good fun in the long term!! ;) 4/5

8/10

Pufnstuf (1970), the forgotten film version of the cult, psychedelic kid's TV show H.R. Pufnstuf, created by puppet maestros Sid and Marty Krofft. It has English kid Jimmy (Jack Wild), living in America, and kicked out of the high school band, finds that his flute is a magical one called Freddie that can talk!! Freddie the flute takes Jimmy on a boat ride to Living Island. Plotting to steal it is evil yet imcompetant witch Witchiepoo (Billie Hayes), who needs it for the Witches convention to impress Boss Witch (Martha Raye) and her friend Witch Hazel (Mama Cass Elliot!! :shock:) Jimmy is saved from certain doom by dragon H.R. Pufnstuf, who is mayor of Living Island. When Freddie The Flute is nicked, Jimmy, Pufnstuf and the inhabitants of Living Island plan to get it back from the clutches of evil!! You can't believe such freaky film were made back in the late 1960's/early 1970's, this has some of the weirdest and maddest imagery ever put in a kids film, (hippie trees, smoking mushrooms and a rat dressed as a Nazi!! :shock:) But, it does make for good viewing, the sets are mind-blowing and the songs are top-notch as well!! :D It's a product of it's time, and proud of it!! We need more films like this today actually!! ;) 4/5 Melody (1971), a sweet and innocent British film from director Waris Hussein, producer David Puttnam and written by Alan Parker. It's about two young lovers Daniel (Mark Lester) and the titular Melody (Tracy Hyde), who fall for each other over their first year at Secondary School, and declare to their parents, friends and teachers that they want to get married, to much dissuassion and ridicule. Daniel's rogueish friend Ornshaw (Jack Wild), is at first scornful of Daniel spending so much time with Melody, but eventually, he and the rest of their classmates decide to come together and help them go ahead with their plans to get married!! You'd probabily never get away with a film like this now, and it does take a while for it to actually get going, but the lead performances in the film, (all by kids, whilst the grown-ups take the supporting roles), are near-perfect, Lester and Wild reunited after starring in Oliver! (1968) together, (Wild was playing an 11 year old, but was nearly 18 when filming it!! :shock: But, you'll never tell!! ;)) The film's performances and direction are complimented by an easy going soundtrack by The Bee Gees, (with a couple of songs contributed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. ;)), with good cinematography by Peter Suschitzky, it's a gentle tale of young puppy love, it takes a little time to get into it, but it's well worth it!! :D 4/5

Enigma 8/10 Sexy Beast 8/10

Taken Surprisingly better than expected. Its just great to see Liam Neeson kicking arse ala Bauer, Bond and Bourne. Good little popcorn flick 8/10 Mutant Chronicles What a pile of shite. The first twenty minutes I thought was promising until the crap mutants and Ron Perlman as a monk :shock: came into it. People started walking out of the cinema at this point as well :-o The film in a nutshell is boring and a waste of time. its only get the mark below because of Sean Pertwee and Benno Furmann. 3/10

Becket 7/10

Taken - The trailer for this didn't look too promising but I could watch Liam Neeson watching paint dry and I was pleasantly surprised. The story itself doesn't make much sense, revolving around an ex-agent whose daughter gets abducted in Paris and him getting her back. There's plenty of Bourne style action, it looks realistic and you actually see people get hurt which makes a change. This won't win any awards but its entertaining and well worth a watch. Just try to ignore Maggie Grace's increasing annoyingness.

The Mutant Chronicles - This could have been awesome, instead I swear I thought I was watching a Uwe Bollocks classic. Apart from a few moments of goodness, the whole movie is a exercise in lazy film making. Still, this comes high on the wibble-o-meter, thanks to Benno and Jane. :dribble: One to catch on dvd.

Nights In Rodanthe - I don't rate Richard Gere as an actor, however, when he works with Diane Lane, something happens and they share a great chemistry. My heart sank with the opening credits when I saw this is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks; the fact that this is a weepie had bypassed me completely. As such, it delivers. I would have liked it more had I watched this on a Sunday afternoon. It's not bad but it's not great, either.

The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - An account of the Holocaust as seen through the naive and innocent eyes of eight year old Bruno, the son of the commander of a concentration camp. I haven't seen a more eloquently narrated film recently, the adults will of course fully understand what is going on yet it is appropriate for older children as well. I thought it was a good starting point to educate them on the subject. Unless you've read the book nothing, and I do mean nothing, will prepare you for the ending. An absolute must-see.

Nights in Rodanthe Not my thing but it was ok. My main reason for watching was the lovely Diane Lane. One of the other highlights was the stunning location it was set in. 6/10 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Very powerful and moving little film. It's the only film that i've seen in the cinema that when the credits rolled, nobody moved. :-o 8/10

Mammoth (1st view) – Spectacularly dodgy TV movie about a mammoth, frozen in a block of ice, that comes to life after a meteorite carrying aliens crashes into the museum in which it is housed. Vincent Ventresca (who?) stars as the museum curater, Tom Skerrit as his UFO-obsesed father and Summer Glau his daughter. Just plain bad, but quite funny. It was Emmy nominated for best effects. I have no idea why, Snuffleupagus was a more realistic mammoth. Still it does contain this gem of a line – “We have an alien possessed mammoth on the loose and if we don't stop it the government's going to kill all of us” – 2/5 Tropic Thunder (1st view) – Frat pack comedies aren’t really my cup of tea, and this stars two of said pack, Ben Stiller and Jack Black. Still, it did have a fine premise, and the addition of Robert Downey Jr. made me decide to see it at on the big screen. It wasn’t a disappointment, but I feel it could have been better. Downey Jr. was excellent, easily the best on show, with some hilarious lines and perfect delivery. Whenever a cameoing Tom Cruise appeared, that was worthwhile also. Still, many of the jokes fell flat; particularly those involving Black and it seemed to be at least 20 minutes too long. The trailer for Satan's Alley was top-notch though, and any film that uses a Creedence Clearwater song can't be all bad – 3/5 Jackie Brown (4th view) – Quentin Tarantino’s 3rd film and 11 years down the line it’s still the best thing he’s done (apart from that episode he did of ER back in series 1, he’ll probably never top that!). It feels like more of an actual film than some of his other efforts, rather than an in-joke that you’re not being made a part of. An excellent cast is on fine form here, Pam Grier and Robert Forster especially (whatever happened to him?); the script of often wickedly funny and, as ever with Tarantino films, there’s a superb selection of tunes. Across 110th Street is just plain awesome – 4/5

Southland Tales (2006), Richard Kelly's difficult second film after the cult success of Donnie Darko (2001), it had a disasterous premiere at Cannes in May 2006, and Kelly spent the next year or so re-editing the film to help it make more sense, he succeeded, just about. It is set in an alternative vision of 2008 during the Independence Day weekend in Los Angeles. America has become a police state after an atomic terrorist attack in Texas in 2005, and the country is now on the verge of economic and environmental collapse. It has amnesiac action movie star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), who thinks he's a character in a script he's written. He becomes interwined with porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who has aspirations of having her own reality TV show. Boxer also becomes involved with twin police officers Ronald and Roland Taverner (Seann William Scott), one of them is a Neo-Marxist, and they both hold the key to human existance. It's going to take more than one viewing to try and decypher alot of what goes on in this film, but after seeing it, you won't want to watch it again, there's too much going on in this film, but it's visually perfect, and it does have a funny sense of humour about it. Plus, it does have one TERRIFIC supporting cast including Christopher Lambert, John Larroquette, Jon Lovitz, Mandy Moore, Amy Poehler, Lou Taylor Pucci, Miranda Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Kevin Smith and Justin Timberlake as the film's narrator, Pilot Abilene!! :D It's good that Kelly was able to salvage something from the original wreckage. 3/5 Kingdom of Heaven (2005), Ridley Scott has always wanted to do a film about the Crusades, but was waiting for the right opportunity to make it. When his planned historical film Tripoli was axed, he took advantage of the film's crew and the set's they'd built to make his Crusades film!! Set in 1184, it has bereaved blacksmith Balian (Orlando Bloom), following his illegitamate father Godfrey (Liam Neeson) to the Crusades in Jerusalem. When Balian gets there, the city is occupied by the Christians, under the rule of leper King Baldwin IV (Edward Norton). However, there is an uneasy truce going on between the Christians, and the Muslim Saracens, led by Saladin (Ghassan Massoud), who want to take the city back. However, after a few military skirmishes break the peace, it is up to Balian to lead whatever men he can put together to defend the city from attack by the Muslims. Ridley Scott is a perfect visual director and he is well within his element with this film. Although it was inexplicably cut to 2 hours or so for it's original cinema screening, Scott's Directors Cut is the definitive version, allowing his film to breathe and more room for story and character development. It captures the era perfectly and he is able to get a performance out of Bloom, and it's complemented by a good supporting cast including Neeson, Norton and Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, David Thewlis, Kevin McKidd, Jon Finch, Michael Sheen, Philip Glenister and Spider out of Coronation Street!! :P One of Sir Ridley's better films, this longer version should have been the one that was released in cinemas!! ;)

A very high quality tense,serious film concerning a father who's son mysteriously dissapears after he returns from the Gulf war. A superb performance from Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon who are the parents of the missing soldier. Charlize Theron also deserves some praise for her role as Det Emily Sanders who ends up helping Tommy Lee in his quest to find his son. Highly recommended 4/5