Unstoppable (2010)

Director: Tony Scott
Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson
Certificate: 12
Genre: Thriller
Awards: None

A train in West Virginia has gone off without a driver and it's heading with speed into a populated city with toxic chemicals that could wipe it out completely. Two railway employees, experienced train driver Frank (Washington) and a first time conductor Will (Pine), have to try and stop it before it reaches there.

Like Speed, this film gives a thrilling sense of time running out as the inevitable approaches. Scott ups the frantic feel with news reports on the situation as it's happening which gives it a much more realistic feel.

The film is focused on it's two main characters and how their relationship turns out. There is nothing wrong with that, but it does seem that all the other characters are quite two-dimensional. They could have been more rounded. For instance, we hear about Will's family and see his wife later on. But she is nothing more than just a prop. The same with Frank's daughters. It would have been interesting to explore more about the people waiting to find out whether or not the person they loved has survived.

Overall Unstoppable does exactly what it sets out to do. It thrills and excites the audience with a problem with a time limit.

****Good.

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

Director: Charles Crichton
Starring: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sid James, Alfie Bass
Certificate: U
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Awards: Best Screenplay

The Lavender Hill Mob consists of four men. Holland (Guinness), a bank transfer agent; Pendlebury (Holloway),  a man who makes Eiffel Tower souvenirs, and thieves Shorty (Bass) and Lackery (James). Their target is the gold Holland delivers.

TLHM is another Ealing Comedy with wit and a smidgen of slapstick. All four characters feel different and seem to make a good crime team. There is a lucrative scene in the second half involving a spiral staircase which has got to be the eeriest scene out of all the ealing comedies.

****Good

127 Hours (2010)

Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco
Certificate: 15
Genre: Drama
Awards: None

Aron Ralstone likes to explore the canyon in Utah. However, this time he is in deep peril when he gets his arm stuck under and boulder and is trapped miles away from any other human being. Hallucinations begin as the water runs out and sanity becomes scarce...

127 Hours is a horrifying film. It is scarier than most horror films as you can actually see yourself in that situation. Ralstone's ordeal is fascinating although the squeamish will not get off lightly. James Franco lets you really feel sorry for the character and you'll be biting your fingers the whole time.

*****Brilliant

G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra (2009)

Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans, Sienna Miller, Adewale Akinnuoye - Agbai, Ray Park, Christopher Eccleston, Byung-hun Lee, Rachel Nichols, Dennis Quaid, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Certificate: 12
Genre: Action, Sci Fi
Awards: None

G.I. Joe's are a top secret military organisation who stop the nabbing of nukes from the enemies of justice and freedom. They all have silly names and this time nukes are being stolen by an angry scottish weapons manufacturer (Eccleston) so that he can sell them to somebody else. We follow Duke (Tatum), a soldier who wants to join the Joe's after he sees that his ordinary ex-girlfriend (Miller) has turned into a super villain.

G.I. Joe is stupid. Nobody seems to even question how a perfectly ordinary person suddenly starts stealing nukes and beating up the best of America's military might. Duke actually seems to be more concerned with the fact that she has died her hair. The other Joes are mostly generic and boring. Snake eyes (Park) is the only interesting character who is tied with the "baddie's" mate Storm Shadow (Lee).

G.I. Joe feels like a cartoon one would watch on saturday mornings. We have cackling villains and stupid plots that feel like they were written by a five year old. It may be based on cartoons and action figures but other franchises have had better adaptations to film. However, if you're a fan of explosions you might like this.

**Pretty Bad

Fight Club (1999)

Director: David Fincher
Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf
Certificate: 18
Genre: Drama
Awards: None

Edward Norton plays an insomniac who wants more from life than just a day job. Then he meets Tyler Durden (Pitt), a free living soul who brings our protagonist on a journey of masculinity and freedom he could never have imagined. It starts with fight club, but I'm not allowed to talk about that.

Fight Club is just cool. There is no other word for it.  The visual style mixed with a music which makes everything just seem awesome. You're carried away with the fantasy due to Norton's awe filled voice over and Pitt's care free attitude. It has a story to match Fincher's Se7en in thrills with acting just as good.

*****Brilliant

The Host (2013)

Director: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, William Hurt, Chandler Canterbury, Diane Kruger
Certificate: 12
Genre: Romance, Sci Fi
Awards: None

The Host is about an alien race who live inside of humans and control them, therefore making the world a peaceful, lovely place to live in. However, there are a group of Humans left who do not like living with aliens and want to keep their free will. Melanie (Ronan) is one of these people. She is captured and forced to occupy her body with Wanderer, one of the aliens. The two come to an agreement after a while that the aliens aren't really that nice and decide to run away to Melanie's remaining family. Unfortunately most of the family don't like her anymore as she is seen only as one of the alien creatures. Wanderer then has to gain their trust in order to........ I don't think they really had a plan after that.

The Host is unintentionally funny with dialogue that feels stupid and completely unrealistic. It's a comic style premise that tries to take itself seriously. Some parts are incredibly rushed such as a part where Melanie disappears from Wanderer's thoughts. It's supposed to be going on for three days but I hadn't really noticed she was gone due to the fact that it was resolved so quickly in the film.

The film still has an interesting premise and it's by no means terrible. It does have a problem of showing who the audience should root for. The humans all seem to like hitting each other a lot while the only violent alien is acting as such because of the human consciousness inside her. The end also feels like a massive cop out with a solution pulled completely out of the blue.

***Okay