A bit of a classic film from the hey day of Governor Schwarzenegger, when grunting and flexing his biceps pretty much got him through every scene.  That’s not to say that Arnie did not make slightly better films after this as his range improved, but Red Heat was still firmly steeped in the days of grunting!

Arnie plays a hard-nosed Russian cop sent out to America to intercept a Russian gangster. Jim Belushi wise-cracks his way through an hour and a bit with reference after reference to masturbation (well that seemed to be what most of his lines were about) and does a fairly good job as his local cop babysitter. Laurence ‘Larry’ Fishburne looking very thin and young plays a somewhat straight fellow cop who tut’s and huffs about Belushi throughout.

Not much here in the way of story or character development, but it stands up quite well against similar films of the ilk coming out in recent years. Call it a guilty pleasure.

I have always tended to consider the Superman series of movies light entertainment more than any type of serious science fiction film. The older movies with Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder had their particular kind of charm, Superman Returns (or “Superman the Stalker”) however was just way too creepy!

What we have here with the Man of Steel is a serious exploration of the Science Fiction aspects of the entire story. Sure the man of Steel is in their faster than a speeding bullet etc. but he is painted very much as an alien learning to cope with his newly adopted planet.

Drawing on the second Superman film (well it was actually the first if you accept the Director’s cut of Superman I) we see the character of General Zod forming an integral part of the story complete with space ships and futuristic equipment and battles.

Super hero purists will probably hate this film, but for those of us who were not very interested in Super heroes in the first place this is a very interesting Science Fiction film with a stellar cast including Kevin Costner, Diane Lane and Russell Crowe.

Yaaawwnnn!

I must admit to yawning quite a bit through this Underworld copycat film complete with demons, vampires, werewolves…you know the standard sort of fare.

Its not that it was exactly a bad film, it had some interesting moments, just that I’ve kind of seen it all before. Apparently an original book by Cassandra Clare (yes very original) the first book of The Mortal Instruments series. I guess this means there will be some harry-potter-esque sequels in the wings (Actually having brought Harry into the mix, this is probably the thing I most disliked about about the film, all its silly spells and quests; but then I didn’t much like the Lord of the Rings either).

Sex appeal-wise Lily Colins (and indeed Lena Headey) were no comparison to Kate Beckinsale in a tight-fitting cat suit leaping about killing vampires. It was not frightening in the least; perhaps the most “creepy” aspect of the film would be that we find out (spoiler alert..look away) the young couple falling in love and kissing in the garden are actually brother and sister! (..well I suppose everyone knows this from the book anyway..)

A very interesting Iraqi war piece from director Brian De Palma (Dressed To Kill, Casualties of War, The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, Mission to Mars etc.) loosely based on the 2006 Mahmudiyah killings in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, when US Soldiers raped an Iraqi girl and murdered her along with her family.

The film goes to great lengths at its beginning to point out that it is fictitious and that De Palma is not saying this actually happened, just sorta. After all the US Army didn’t prosecute anyone so therefore, it only sorta happened…!

The film uses the now familiar handheld camera perspective with the lead character relating a video diary to his camera.

I didn’t notice that Brian De Palma had directed the film until the closing credits, so didn’t immediately make the connection with Casualties of War. Redacted was a far superior film: it was everything Casualties of War was not (Michael J. Fox frowning his way through two hours or so). The film asked a lot of the questions Western society is asking of just how American troops are acting in these theatres of war and the pressures that drive some of them to atrocities such as this.

Since just seeing this film recently I can’t stop raving about it to people. On the surface Cruising is a film about a Psychopath murdering homosexuals in the gay scene. Al Pacino plays a heterosexual cop (lots of bedroom scenes with Karen Allen to confirm this!) assigned to go undercover and find the killer.

This film pulls very few punches when it comes to depicting gay bars and the shenanigans that consenting male adults get up to in said bars, so if your a bit squeamish about being exposed to the gay leather S & M scene, maybe give the film a miss. However if you want to see an absolutely brilliant film by William Friedkin (also Director of The Exorcist and The French Connection) and can deal with sometimes confronting imagery give it a go.

I will not spoil the ending for you, but the realisation at the end of the film will you leave you thinking and wondering for days.

This is a very funny British film about a young man who is trying to become a journalist by writing an in-depth article about the practice of dogging (or having sex in cars in public while other perverts watch..to the more sheltered reader!).

Whilst the description sounds like a bit of a what-the-window-cleaner-saw-smut-fest, the actual Dogging is kept to a minimum on screen with more concentration on the comedy such a lifestyle is apt to produce.

Certainly not one for the not-broad-minded but very, very funny if you are. The end result is a sweet love story and people who realize they don’t need quite such a lifestyle to care about one another.

Blood is a very well made British film with a police story involving many twists and turns. With the worldwide success of television programs like The Sweeney and The Bill, the UK has something of a reputation for turning out high quality police drama without quite the sordidness of the American variety.

In Blood two policemen decide to take the law into their own hands after a 12 year old girl is found murdered. Whats unfolds is a very telling tale asking questions about mob justice in the face of anger.

White House has fallen Down Olympus Dying Hard

You may perhaps have seen a movie called Olympus has fallen? Its about a group of terrorists who take over the White house in America and try to launch some nuclear bombs. It contains lots of scenes of blowing things up and generally smashing the White House about.

Well not content with smashing the white house up just the once, this year we have almost the identical movie White House Down. I can only imagine it is “Please the Terrorists Month” or something because the timing of these releases is terrible with the two films and their story lines being almost identical. Maybe a couple of directors couldn’t agree on how to make the film, so they both had their own goes…

Either way White House Down is not a bad action film. If you have seen Die Hard (again pretty much the same storyline here) you will love this film, Channing Tatum dons the famous Die Hard white singlet and goes into action. White House Down is at least is original in asking us can we really trust the people in elected government? (in between lots of blowing things up).

I had this film sitting around to watch for quite a while (well a couple of years actually). It was on my if-I-absolutely-run-out-of-everything-to-watch pile for two years because I plain didn’t like the original version with Dudley Moore.

Ok it wasn’t the worst film ever made, but seeing that kind of waste and squandering (even as a comedy) usually makes me want to put my foot through the screen.

I was delightfully surprised with the re-make which, unlike the original, was actually very, very funny. Starring Russell Brand who I loved in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (he particularly cracked me up when he divorced Katy Perry via SMS!) and the multi-talented Helen Mirren who was a brilliant straight person to Brand’s craziness.

As the cat is out of the bag anyway (this is a remake) the story sort of went: Brand mega-rich spoiled, immature, alchoholic heir is forced by his mother to marry a woman she has chosen to try and straighten him out, or lose his mega squillions. The women he is forced to marry is Jennifer Garner who looks fairly typically like the average square-jawed over-toned American woman with the motor mouth to match. Brand much prefers cutsey Greta Gerwig and there the fun begins.

If you hated the original like me, give this remake a try, you will be delightfully surprised.

This is a very important British film which chronicles the life of a young African girl kidnapped from her village and sold into slavery to Arabic couples, first in Yemen then in Britain.

The most alarming feature of the film is that it is based on a true story and is fairly close to the mark for thousands of women and men smuggled into the UK each year to work as slaves for rich people. They are hidden right out in the open.

This film is credited with highlighting the extent of the problem within Britain and the start of changes in legislation to properly prosecute people who keep modern day slaves. It is a hard film to watch and I defy anyone not to feel anything but sympathy for the girl and utter disgust for the people who believe in 2013 it is ok to keep other human beings in servitude.