filmsExaminer

Film from the novel. Courtroom drama. Emma Thompson is a prominent high court judge, her specialty is family law, she is extremely busy, her heavy workload has distanced her from her husband and her marriage is suffering. Her marriage is childless, and now sexless to the husbands growing frustration, it comes to the point where he announces his desire for an affair. Her next case is a 17 year old boy, still a child in the eyes of the law, suffering from leukaemia, he is refusing a lifesaving blood transfusion due to religious beliefs (Jehovah Witness). The dilemma is for her to decide whether the boy can refuse the blood transfusion, her judgment will ultimately save or end a life. The child's welfare was always the courts paramount consideration, and the transfusion goes ahead, the boy recovers. The film falls a little flat for me from this point forward. The husband has his affair, two days later returns to a frosty home. The boy is infatuated with the judge and turns into a st

Drama (with some comedy) documentary, which is set in the 1970's but depicting very current racism themes. You could very easily exchange some of the characters with modern day individuals. Based on a true story of the first Afro-American detective to serve in the Police Department, who infiltrates and takes down the Ku Klux Klan. This is a well-made film, and I enjoyed enormously. BUT the problem I have with this is the possible violent influence it might have on a white suggestible audience. This is the kind of dangerous call to arms propaganda that we don't need right now. 8/10

Live action with animation. We see Christopher Robin has grown up with a job, a middle class family and responsibilities. He works for a luggage company in the 'A Fish in the Sea' (efficiency) department. The family go on a weekend break but he needs to stay at home to work on 20% cost savings. While on his own he gets a surprise visit from Winnie the Pooh, and they return to The 100 Acre Wood to find the other imaginary friends, along the way we see how he recaptures his childhood. Winnie always sees life in the most simplistic way and encourages Christopher Robin to so the same. Ultimately your family is more important than your work. 6/10

British 'FILM4' Production. Cringey comedy with coarse humour, sex drugs and Rock n Roll. Plenty of 'Inbetweeners' style characters graduate and go to a large muddy outdoor music festival. Some very funny sketches with 'Lick'(Nick) and his girlfriend made me laugh, the Druid / goat sketch was a little too strange for me. If you're a 20 something fan of The Inbetweeners T.V. shows or more recent full length films, then you'll enjoy this. 6/10

Action adventure. The film is a mash up of Jurassic Park and Jaws, though not as good as either. Whoever knew that there was more abyss below the deepest abyss and lurking in that area was at least one Megalodon (dinosaur shark)! Stars Jason Statham, who is a deep sea diving / rescue expert. He has a reputation for leaving some accident victims behind in order to save the bigger group. The film highpoints are some exciting action sequences, though these would have been a better if the film were a C15 or C18. Nevertheless this was fun nonsense and better than I expected. 6/10.

Marvel sequel to a pretty naff 1st movie. Superhero fantasy adventure, the plot revolves around 'The Wasp' character's mother being trapped in something called the quantum realm. She's been stuck for 30 years and needs to be rescued. The best thing is the villain, who is an interesting character. Some comedy sequences but not the level of humour seen in Guardians of the Galaxy or more recently Thor. I couldn't help thinking a ten year old would probably like this. The post credit scene is a dull setup for a 3rd movie. Pretty disappointing. 4/10

Animated slap-slick comedy adventure (though I'm being generous describing it comedy) Dracula goes on a cruise vacation, he's lonely and goes on a dating website, the predictive text bit is funny. While on the cruise he falls in love with the female captain, unfortunately she's a Vanhelsing, so any possible relationship would be consequently difficult. I only laughed very occasionally and couldn't wait for this to finish. Best stay away from this or they'll probably make a 4th installment. 2/10

Action adventure. Spy thriller with relentless action set-pieces, including car, foot, motorcycle, and helicopter chases and some truly amazing stunts. Ethan Hunt's mission in this 6th instalment is to retrieve a quantity of plutonium and prevent a nuclear war. You'll need to concentrate on the plot as there's a multitude of twisting double crossing themes through the intertwining sub-plots. Many familiar spy film themes as well, including a nuclear bomb counting down to disaster. An entertaining thrill ride. 7/10

Musical sequel. This is definitely a chick flick demonstrated by the fact that I was one of only 4 blokes out of a packed theatre. The plot structure, with frequent flash-back sequences were interesting. The musical numbers were almost mostly 'B' sides, you probably need to be an ardent fan to recognise the tacks they used. I suspect almost all the 'hits' were used in the first film. The problem that I have with this film is that the young girl protagonist sleeps with all the 3 possible fathers in the space of a week (ish). Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I feel this sends out the wrong message! The cinema was nice and cool so I we were able to escape the recently sun and heat. This does not compare favorably with 'La La Land', and certainly not 'The Greatest Showman'. 5/10

Dark gritty fantasy action thriller. Set in the near future (2028), in a secret members-only hotel/hospital for criminals, where you can only get treatment if you are a member and strictly follow the rules, this point is repeated several times. The décor is from the 1930's, though the medical technology is very futuristic. The main plot revolves around a drought in California which causes serious rioting. Several sub-plots (including a foiled bank robbery) converge on the hotel. The nurse provides frantic treatment, but I'm afraid her backstory, told through frequent flash-backs wasn't very interesting. The scarce fight scenes are well choreographed, especially a fight scene towards the end involving the female Italian assassin character, resembled 'Atomic Blonde', the majority of the themes are a 'John Wick' rip-off. In summary, this film resembled several other films but not consistently delivered as well. 6/10