filmsExaminer

Children's fantasy adventure, adapted from a best-selling novel. About a young girl with a close relationship with her scientist father, she's on a journey to track him down after he's been experimenting with bending time and instant space travel, they call this 'Tessering' or some-such. 3 celestial beings help to find her father, they're called ... WHATSHERNAME, DOWECARE & WOTITS. There's some interesting 3d visuals, especially the flower scene but unfortunately the director fails to deliver a clear story, there's some engaging, emotional moments, but they are literally only moments. The complicated plot is hard to understand, especially towards the end. Parents (and some children) may need to prepare to be bored, especially towards the end. Aimed at a young audience, but not too young as there are some scary scenes. 3/10

Tense and gripping psychological thriller. The story of a woman (Claire Foy) who moves to a new state to rebuild her life after some traumatic stalking events. She still has some lingering feelings of insecurity so goes for counselling, this results in a short stay at a mental health clinic for observation. She wants to be released but is unable to, the clinic is running an insurance scam. While there she recognises one of the ward assistants is the stalker, we gradually believe he is her stalker who has taken up a job as a ward assistant. Basically he's up to his old tricks again, his aim is to live with his infatuation in the woods forever. All filmed in iPhone 7, to give a claustrophobic, personal diary feeling, which works to a point but also suffers some image quality for it. There is a satisfying ending. 8/10

Action adventure. Taraji P. Henson is an assassin (Mary) for one of two rival gangs, she completes a hit but feels regret for the youngster she makes into an orphan and takes him under her wing. The start is positive, looks like a retro 70's film, but almost immediately abandons that idea and quickly goes downhill. The action scenes are dull, the plot is formulaic, and the acting is wooden. For instance, the hit-woman's gunshot wounds magically seem to vanish, there are several gunfights where thousands of bullets are flying around but all miss, basically seen it all before. What starts well enough loses all potential. Looks like an amateur project. Go and see 'you were never really here' instead. 3/10

Don’t know what category – Rubbish! The first film was hardly any better so why make a sequel! The plot is a real mess, the film is unwatchable. I’m surprised that I stayed until the end! Poke out your eyes with hot pins would be more enjoyable! 1/10

Calvin Joyner is an accountant, his high school reunion is approaching, and he tries to make contact with some of his old schoolmates. An old pal, Bob Stone contacts him, he was previously known as Robbie Weirdicht. Calvin remembers that Bob was bullied at school and eventually left, they agree to meet and Calvin is surprised by how much Bob has changed. Bob needs Calvin’s help. It turns out that Bob is a CIA agent that is trying to find a person known as the Black Badger who is planning to sell information that in the wrong hands could be disastrous. They get into many slapstick situations with plenty of action, and humour along the way. Not great but not bad either, watch if nothing better on. 7/10

This is a video adaptation, an action adventure origin story. There are thrilling action sequences, a twist on a car chase but on bikes at the beginning, a ship wreck, an escape down some rapids sequence, it's pretty tense in places. Unfortunately the plot is a little lame and the dialogue is pretty poor, although it's probably perfect for the intended 12 year old audience. Alicia Vikander was the best thing about the film, she carries it throughout, almost all my 6/10 grade is for her contribution. I know the Lara Croft character normally carries 2 enormous guns and by golly we see them in the final sequence. I'm NOT a computer games geek, so I can't be sure if it's an accurate interpretation of the computer game it originates from. However, I can be sure there is a tomb and it gets raided in the style of 'Indiana Jones'. 6/10

A secret government agency assemble some of the most dangerous incarcerated super-villains to form a defensive task force, they are provided with the most powerful weaponry at the government's disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat a super villain, 'the Joker'. U.S. intelligence officer determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will pull off the mission to save the world from apocalypse. However, they realise that they weren't picked to get the job done, they were gathered for their obvious liability. So will they succeed or die trying! Not great but not bad either, watch if nothing better showing.  7/10