Marathon Man (1976)

Director: John Schlesinger
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider
Certificate: 18
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Awards: None












Marathon man focuses on Thomas Levy (Hoffman), a college student, who's brother- Doc (Scheider) - is mixed up with an ex-Nazi with diamonds (This is what I gathered from the very confusing plot) named Szell (Olivier).  Thomas soon becomes targeted by Szell and his marathon running skills have to come into action.

There's a lot to like about Marathon Man,- like the torture scene that has become almost as famous as the one in Reservoir Dogs.- but it's so long. You don't even know what the plot is until about an hour in. It just drags on and on. Altogether, this was a bit disappointing.

***Okay

Marathon Man Trailer

The Warriors Way (2010)

Director: Sngmoo Lee
Starring: Dong- Gun Jang, Kate Bosworth, Danny Huston, Geoffrey Rush
Certificate: 15
Genre: Western, Fantasy, Action, Samurai
Awards: None















The Warriors Way is a blend of asian ninja sword fighting films and the American westerns. The greatest swordsman in the world - Yang (Jang) -  has been assigned the task of eliminating his enemy clan. But when he refuses to kill the last child, he is hunted by his own clan. He travels to America where he meets a circus town. There, he finds a knife thrower named Lynne (Bosworth) who wants revenge on the outlaw Colonel (Huston). Colonel is ruthless and evil to the core, and now Yang must protect the town from his wrath.

 Geoffrey Rush plays the town drunk who doesn't really do anything until the second half of the film. I think that his character could have played more of a part (especially as he is billed first on the trailers). The film is just an awesome bloodbath of action that could entertain anyone. The baby adds a bit of comedy to the film and Danny Huston is great. The only thing that really irritated me in the film is the jumpy slow motion in the fight with colonel. It doesn't really work and just makes it look stupid. Altogether, the film is an enjoyable action packed story.

****Good

LITERAL Warrior's Way Trailer

The Warrior's Way Trailer

Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn (2011)

Director: Steven Spielburg
Staring: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
Certificate: PG
Genre: Adventure, Animation
Awards: None
















Tintin (Bell) is a young Belgian Journalist who owns a dog named snowy. When Tintin buys a model of the ship named The Unicorn, he becomes hunted by the devious Sakharine (Craig) who has taken control of the ship Karabujan. With help of alcoholic captain Haddock (Serkis) and two bumbling British policemen named  Thompson (Pegg and Frost), Tintin will try to figure out the mystery of why the model is so important.


The animation in Tintin is very good, and the humour is well used. It seems a bit like an Indiana Jones film. But the story seemed flawed as they tried to put three Tintin stories into one. The Thompson characters don't seem to be introduced either. They just suddenly appear as if we've seen them before which will confuse new audiences. I give this film four stars, but it's a low four. It could have been better.


****Good 

The Adventures of Tintin : The Secret of the Unicorn Trailer

Hero (2002)

Director: Yimou Zhang
Starring: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Daoming Chen, Donnie Yen
Certificate: 12
Genre:  Kung Fu, action
Awards: None














An nameless warrior (Li) is invited to have dinner with the king of Qin (Chen) after he has killed three assassins. Broken Sword (Chiu Wai), Flying snow (Cheung), and Sky (Yen) have fallen to his sword, but as he tells his story, something is amiss...


I liked the story of Hero, but it was very stylised. There was a lot of flying around and stuff that just makes it look a bit stupid and unrealistic. This film took itself much too seriously and lacks the sort of humour Ip Man has.

***Okay

Hero Trailer

Gran Torino (2008)

Director: Clint Eastwood
Starrring: Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Christopher Carley
Certificate: 15
Genre: Drama
Awards: None

This film proves again that Clint Eastwood is the ultimate badass. He plays Walt Kowalski, an old man who fought in the Korean war. After his wife dies, he lives alone. After he saves a Hmong boy named Thao (Vang) from a gang, He starts to reluctantly make friends with the Hmong family who live next door. The preacher, father Janovich (Carley), tries to stop Kowalski from going after the gang when things get messy.

Gran Torino has everything in it. Sadness, Humour, guns, family problems. It was thoroughly enjoyable and gripping. Eastwood has made an almost perfect movie with this. I enjoyed Unforgiven but Gran Torino wipes it off the scale.

*****Brilliant

Gran Torino Trailer

Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Director: Edgar Wright

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Dylan Moran, Lucy Davis, Bill Nighy

Certificate: 15

Genre: Comedy, Horror, Zombie

Awards: None

Shaun (Pegg) is having a problem with his love life, He hasn't spoken to hi mother in ages and to top it off, the place has become swarmed with zombies. Now he and his friend Ed (Frost) must save the ones they love while not getting turned into Zombie themselves.

Shaun Of The Dead is a funny and sickening film (like it's follow up Hot Fuzz) . It has gross special effects and good characters who get picked off one by one. I think Hot Fuzz is a bit funnier and more imaginative but it is still an epic film.

****Good

Shaun Of The Dead Trailer

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston
Certificate: 12
Genre: Superhero
Awards: None















X-Men Origins: Wolverine is of course the story of how Wolverine (Jackman) came to be. He is born a mutant and fights alongside his brother Viktor (Schreiber) -AKA Sabretooth- in about four different wars. They then join a mutant team led by William Stryker (Huston), but Wolverine quits when things get too violent for his liking.

6 years later, John Logan's wife is killed by Viktor and he becomes Wolverine to have his revenge, although things do not go as planned...

A lot of X-Men fans don't like Origins and I don't know why. It is much better than The Last Stand and has loads of cool mutants in it. Jackman is as awesome as ever and Schreiber is a scary villain

****Good

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Director: Brett Ratner
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Ian Mckellen, Patrick Stuart, Famke Janssen
Certificate: 12
Genre: Superhero
Awards: None














The X-Men are back in action when a cure for mutation is found and Magneto's (Mckellen) dark brotherhood decide to take the fight against humanity. Wolverine (Jackman) is also back as he finds that Jane (Janssen) is still alive. He takes her back to Xavier (Stewart) who warns him that Jane may now be evil (What?).

The plot of the film is really stupid, as dead people come back and characters we want to see or killed off straight away or are otherwise not in it at all (where was the blue German guy?).  This is by far the weakest of the X-Men series so far as all the others are really good.

**Pretty Bad

X-Men: The Last Stand Trailer