filmsExaminer

Historic action adventure. The story of Robin of Loxley, the wealthy lord turned super hero of the poor. An origin film. Think of a mush up between Batman Begins, Riche’s Arthur and 300, set in a mixture of different locations. I found the atmosphere to be wrong, should have been muddy with dirty downtrodden citizens. But the actors were too clean, and pristinely made up.   Not sure who this was aimed at, but definitely another franchise starter.  Not a great film, but not a bad film either. Not one I’d watch again.  5/10

Fantasy nonsense aimed at teenagers, young adults and Harry Potter fans. High action opening scene made me anticipate a reasonable film ahead, unfortunately, the plot quickly dives into GCI confusion and chaos. I'm not a big Harry Potter fan and found it hard to follow but also relentlessly boring. My wife is a huge HP fan but was disappointed, even told me she fell asleep! So ... in summary, this is yet another prequel to the first HP installment that I didn't much like either. I only decided to watch for my wife's sake. This film is actually worse than the first spin-off and is simply an overlong set-up for yet another (third) film. 3/10

The Grinch hates Christmas, the local town people, the 'HOOS' love Christmas. The town is decorated sparkly, tinselly, but this year the HOOS are making an extra special effort. The Grinch is miserable and decides to steal Christmas, he disguises himself as Santa and visits every house to steals all their presents on Christmas Eve. This involves some slapstick comedy. All get returned and Grinch is forgiven. I recommend seeing in 3D, there's plenty of effective depth. Best sketches are in the trailer. Sadly Robin Williams is no longer with us, so couldn't provide the voice part. (The Minions prison break short film, shown before this, looks excellent) 6/10

Very violent fantasy horror. American paratroopers are shot down over Nazi-occupied France, their mission is to destroy a tower holding a radio transmitter. Under the tower is a lab where the Nazi's are experimenting on the locals, their intention is to create super soldiers. They generally end up with zombie creatures. There's plenty of gory fights. The whole plot is very predictable and made me think this was a remake of 'Universal Soldier'. All in all pretty mediocre. 5/10

British made film from Mike Leigh. An atmospheric historical costume drama, based on actual events in Britain from almost precisely 200 years ago, at this point in history political disheartenment within the working class led to a large peaceful demonstration of 60,000 men, women and children. Set in Petersfield, Manchester - outside in broad daylight on a Monday. Their aim was to establish voting rights for every working class citizen. The assembly was dispersed by the military, they trampled the crowds on horseback and cut down many with their cutlasses. This is a carefully presented character driven piece with some heavy dialogue, leading to the climatic massacre. This would also make a great modern day stage play, where it is evident that the working classes (anywhere) are still struggling for food and jobs. 9/10

Heist movie. Steve McQueen has a great pedigree and was the immediate attraction for me. The film starts with a 5 minute extreme action scene, similar to a JBond opening. This is the story of four widows with nothing in common except a $2 million debt left by their dead husbands. A slow burning drama with an additional political sub-plot, where (strangely) we see the black and white led parties have both good and bad motivations. McQueen takes his time to flesh out the female characters through flash-back scenes, they follow the meticulous plans to their husband's next job, and we see how they carefully prepare for this. There's a lot to like but the film is overlong and left me unsatisfied. About half way my wife wanted to bail out and would have gone home if she had been on her own. Not OSCAR material. 7/10

Children's animated fantasy adventure mixed with live action from Disney. A little bit of "Lion, Witch & Wardrobe"... ... with some "Harry Potter"... ... and a sprinkling of "Alice in Wonderland". They could have made a better film if it had included some humour for parents, but still just about passable if you're eight years old. 5/10

Fantasy adventure sequel (Mild horror for kids). The cinema was busy made up of a fairly young audience, obviously released to coincide with the Halloween period. I hadn't seen the first installment, my granddaughter had recently seen this on network TV. She enjoyed this but said it was a lot like the first film, she is definitely the target audience. Personally I think the plot was poor. Not a bad film but I admit that I was bored. 5/10

Horror. C18. I'm not a horror genre fan and I haven't seen any of the other instalments. The antagonist is Michael Myers, he is not a man, more a supernatural relentless, emotionless and completely evil killing machine. He escapes while being transported between prisons. The plot revolves around his hunt for Laurie, the only survivor from the first film. Laurie's house has become a heavily defended fortress with a secret basement. Michael gets trapped in the basement and is incinerated. This is a very violent, tense and brutal film. The killing scenes are particularly gory. I bet Michael comes back for Halloween 3, 4, 5 etc.! 6/10