Mahler (1974), Ken Russell rides again, this time he's in familiar territory with another film about one the great classical composers. This one is about Gustav Mahler (Robert Powell), the Austrian composer who, now an old man on a train journey with his wife Alma (Georgina Hale), looks back upon his life, and all the struggles he faced in it, whether it be his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism, because of anti-semitism, his troubled childhood and his brother killing himself. As expected from Ken Russell, it has his usual touches of madness, (the religion conversion is Nazi themed), but for a film made on a shoestring budget, it is beautifully shot and Ken gets the best out of his locations, (Cumbria's Lake District doubles for Bavaria), which would be used again for Russell's next film, Tommy (1975), which Powell also appeared in. Oh, and Oliver Reed makes an uncredited cameo as a station conductor, it also brings out the best in Mahler's music... ;) 4/5 Need I say anymore about the excellence of Ken Russell?? ;)

The Green Mile (1999) I love this movie.It would seem the only person these days who can properly adapt (and in many cases improve on) Stephen King's writings is Frank Darabont. This is the story of an 8 foot giant sentenced to death for the murder of two little girls and how his stay on death row changes the lives of the guards and inmates alike. Great performances from an excellent cast (Tom Hanks,Michael Clarke Duncan,James Cromwell,David Morse to name but four...),imaginitive and powerful direction from Darabont,beautiful cinematogaphy by David Tattersall,and another awesome score by Thomas Newman. Great stuff. 4.5/5

F for Fake (1974), Orson Welles' last completed film, and one which could be one of his finest ones, is a playfully, playform experimental quasai-documentary about forgery, and he uses two examples, art-forger Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving, who wrote the supposed "authorized biography" of Howard Hughes. Welles lectures the audience that a forgery is a form of art, and that he himself used forgery to get into theatre. The whole film is a deception, a piece where Welles tells us the truth for an hour, and then, for the last 17 mins, tells us a very convincing story about Picasso, which is all false. Alot of this was from an abandoned documentary by François Reichenbach, but Welles makes it his own, using some clever tricks to deceive his audience and it does put in a good case for forgery, no matter how wrong it is. 4/5 Kung Fu Panda (2008), a very enjoyable animation from DreamWorks, maybe their best animation in a few years. This basically does what it says on the tin. It has Po the Panda (Jack Black), who is lazy and bumbling, and he lives with other animals in the Valley of Peace. But when their way of life is disturbed by the evil snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane), Po is unwittingly selected as 'The Chosen One', who will help defeat Tai Lung, but Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) sees Po for what he is, but is determined to make a warrior of him yet. It's a very good film, and even for an animation, it's got more eye-popping action than any other summer blockbuster could offer, and it's got a good sense of humour as well, and Jack Black's voice is spot-on PERFECT for Po the Panda, it also looks beautiful as well. 4/5

Wanted Brilliant! It reminded me of seeing the Matrix for the first time. Best action film i've seen in a while. All in all it was loads of fun, Over the top, Well paced and very cool. 9/10

The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian - The second story in the Narnia series, I really enjoyed this although it took a while for me to suspend my disbelief. First of all for recognising half the Telmarine cast, at one point I thought I had stumbled into a screening of Fuente Ovejuna... Once I had gotten over that, I was taken back into a world I hadn't revisited in a long time. As expected in a movie such as this, the youngster's acting left something to be desired (acting lessons were obviously not taken in the filming hiatus), and the non-humans were the best thing in it. Stealing the show was Reepicheep, voiced by Eddie Izzard. Also worth mentioning is Lucy's hero shot, one of the best moments of the film! The good thing about this film is that you don't need to know anything about Narnia or even have seen the previous instalment to "get it". I did get slightly distracted wondering how much Tolkien and Lewis influenced each other discussing Middle Earth and Narnia, to be a fly on that wall... Highly recommended on my part, I'm already looking forward to the dvd release (I'd love to see Reepicheep doing the "cake or death" routine as an extra!) and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it again at the cinema!

Zathura: A Space Adventure (1st view) – I really, really enjoyed this. I know I probably shouldn’t have, but I did. Great fun, almost equal to Jon Favreau’s most recent directing gig, Iron Man. The kids aren’t always great and some of the more tender moments are quite sappy, but the action scenes thrill and there’s some great imagination on show. Highly enjoyable – 4/5 Black Hawk Down (5th view) – Ridley Scot’s excellent war film. The Private Ryan-esque battle scenes are never less than impressive, and Scott does well in handling all the different storylines of the main battle, helped by the fact that it’s chock full of recognisable actor (I counted no less than 29 people I knew by name). Still, maybe I’ve just seen it too many times, but it has lost some of its impact, and has gone down a star. Practically faultless in execution though - 4/5 The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2nd view) – Not seen this in the two and half years since the cinema, so this is my first viewing on the extended version (what was new though, I’m not sure). Anyways, I liked it still, but the problems are also more obvious. Mostly, it’s the bloody annoying kids. Susan and Peter seem to do little more than bicker and want to go home, and their sudden change into warriors willing to die for Narnia and Aslan is unbelievable. At least Edmond had some motivation. Why on earth Ray Winstone voiced the beaver I will never know, and some of the effects, both CGI and practical look a tad iffy (mostly I don’t mind this, but the wolves looked particular naff). Still, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy (I still think it’s his best performance) George Henley all pull their weight, and the conceptual design is often excellent. (I didn’t realise until just a few hours ago that both Alan Lee and John Howe were involved!) – 4/5 (As a side note, I watched it with my sister and every few minutes one of us uttered “Lord Of The Rings” as elements and shots continually reminded us of them! ;D)

Shichinin no Tomurai Watched this quite funny and cute film some days ago. The premise is quite intresting, abusive parents take their children to a camp trip with the intention of selling them for their organs. beyond this twisted plot, there's a lot of comedy from witnessing the overacted sudden care the parents show for their kids to the latter being picked like fruit by a wealthy client. We also learn that if some kid gets "disqualified", the money would be shared into less people, which leads the parents that are already quite colorful characters to some very fun and ridiculous situations. the films suceeds very well in softening the crudeness of the situation via comedy. a real fun watch :)

Twelve Monkeys (1995), Terry Gilliam creates the most complex film of his career, but also one of his best. Set in the year 2035, after a virus wiped out 5 billion people, the Earth's population has retreated underground, in a bid to restore humanity, prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent by a team of scientists back in time to find clues regarding the virus, but he finds himself going back between World War 1, 1990 and 1996, all the while he finds himself with Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), who tries to convince Cole he's a paranoid schizophrenic, and Cole also finds himself with insane virus expert's son Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), leader of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, who the team of scientists believe are responsible for the virus outbreak. It's a film which requires your full attention, but by the end of the film, it all makes perfect sense. Gilliam has created a sort of thinking-man's Terminator, (both this and Terminator were inspired by Chris Marker's short film La Jetée). The film is a visual triumph, the futuristic scenes of 2035 are pure Gilliam, as is the slums of 1996 Philadelphia. He brings the best out of his actors, especially Brucie and Brad, who have never been as good as this since!! :D 5/5

If.... (1968), one of the most controversial British films of the 1960's, but one which has stood the -*test*-('") of time after 40 years. Set in a very strict, traditional English boarding school, and it has 3 boys, led by Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell), who fail to conform to these traditions, and are scorned upon by the 'Whips', (senior boy prefects). But eventually, Mick has a plan to rebel against the establishment, even if it means violence and death. Probabily the best film director Lindsay Anderson made, and proof that Malcolm McDowell was, and probabily still is, the best actor of his generation. It's a very surreal black comedy, punctuated by the abrupt changes from colour to black and white. You'd never get away with a film like this today, and it's a miracle it was made back then. It stands as a -*test*-('")iment to powerful, effective British filmmaking... 5/5