Disconnect is a very good film, despite being American and despite having some big name stars in it (yes I think Hollywood should stay away from Canne!). In a lot of ways Disconnect talks about the disconnection between human beings that has occurred because of Internet communication.

Told through three stories whose characters interact at the edges at times; We experience an interview that becomes a romance of sorts between a reporter and an Internet sex room performer, the bullying of a socially inept teenager by his peers and the theft of identity and money from a young struggling couple.

A common theme running through the film also seems to be loss: each of the main characters seem to have suffered the death of a significant person in their lives. The main characters cope with this in different ways, variously disconnected either from reality or each other by technology. This film is full of people spending their lives on phones (texting at the dinner table!) and other Internet technology rather than relating to each other. This of courses changes through experience (be no point in the film otherwise), but I won’t spoil the ending for you.

Chucky is the one on the right..

Yes Chucky is back for his usual revenge against anyone and everyone, transported from the 1980’s into 2013. He’s certainly very durable after being burned and chopped many times before, but just like Freddy Krueger we can’t let a good sequel get spoiled by a little thing like continuity!

All in all just the standard Chucky fare, nothing quite as insane as say The Bride of Chucky where we were treated to Chucky trying to reproduce or anything, just lots of blood splattering murders. Chucky turns up one day in the post and sets about his business.

I will be very curious to see if Chucky can connect with a new generation of fans, the films, dolls and hype were certainly a big thing 20 years ago.

Forbidden Ground is a very interesting film about three British Soldiers trapped in no-mans land during World War I. Starring and directed by Johan Earl (indeed watching the credits its apparent he did everything except make the tea) with a cast of little known actors giving very good performances.

The film tended to veer more towards the action of the piece, rather than the futility we are used to seeing in films about the futile World War I conflict. There was certainly enough mud and dismemberment to hint at these things but little development was gone into on this theme.

Running alongside the main story we find out that one of the soldiers wives has been a bit naughty while he is away and is busily shopping around trying to get an illegal abortion. I guess I can sort of see that this was an attempt to show that the war affected everyone in bad ways, but I frankly found it a bit annoying alongside the heroic battlefield story they were trying to tell. The final twist is interesting of course, I won’t spoil it for you.

A fairly standard cops and robbers piece with Dolph Lundgren actually giving a pretty good performance. Also unlike too many of his films we are not “treated” to 20 minute fight scenes where suddenly everyone in the melee becomes an Olympic standard martial arts expert.

Instead Lundgren’s trademark fighting is kept to a minimum and the film concentrates on an actual story with characters. Without trying to say it is anywhere near as good, I can see a lot of Casino in the film stylistically and that’s hardly a bad thing.

Perhaps a tad violent at times and a few deaths that resulted in a remarkable lack of any discernible bleeding, but all in all if you enjoy the genre you will enjoy Ambushed.

The Host: Its brilliantly original because Stephenie Meyer “Wrote” it

Recipe: Take the original invasion of the body snatchers from the fifties, add the remake from the eighties, maybe even the Hidden from the late eighties a couple of bad remakes like the Invasion with Nicole Kidman, a couple of seasons of Stargate SG1 and a famous American author of twilight who no-one has the courage to say “by the way you’ve stolen every idea in your novel” too; and there you have The Host.

Don’t get me wrong The Host is not such a bad movie, actually I enjoyed it, but the fact that Stephenie Meyer got accolades for writing it instead of multiple law-suits is simply just appalling.  Yes I know she wrote the Twilight series (not very original either, ever heard of a film called the Lost Boys Stephenie?) but this doesn’t excuse completely misplaced pats on the back.

It kind of asks the question: is there any originality left in the United states? If you liked all of the films I have mentioned you will probably enjoy this one, even if it does steer a bit towards soppy teen romance at times. A very good performance from Irish/American actress Saoirse Ronan who many would remember from her rather chilling role in Hanna missing everyone’s heart..

You might wonder why my response to a film I admit enjoying is somewhat critical when its just a question of who wrote the thing, but the precise problem is that no one seems to be mentioning where the story was ripped from. What got my heckles up here was Meyer produced the film herself and not once mentioned the other classic films she borrowed from. Instead in her interviews we are treated to a George Lucas style lets-talk-about-me-and-how-talented-I-am as if she had just published Gone With the Wind.