Four Lions (2010)

Director: Chris Morris
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Nigel Lindsey, Kayvan Novak, Mohammad Aqil, Adeel Akhtar, Craig Parkinson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Eldon
Certificate: 15
Genre: Comedy
Awards: None

Four Lions is a british comedy about incompetent Islamic terrorists. Now that's not something you see everyday. It's no surprises that it comes from the mind of Chris Morris - a controversial figure in british television who is most famous for the fake documentary series Brass Eye that tricked celebrities into backing fake campaigns such as an elephant with its trunk stuck up its anus.

The film follows Omar (Ahmed), a radical muslim who wants to blow up something in the name of Islam. Unfortunately his crew are as useful as a box of wet matches. There's the gullible Waj (Novak), the half crazed Faisal (Akhtar) and the extremist of extremists Barry (Lindsey) who all mess up Omar's plans to blow up the London Marathon.

Four Lions is a side-splittingly funny film that may seem slightly harsh due to its subject matter, but you're never really rooting for the characters as you know there is no way they could pull it off.  You know it's going to end badly and you keep watching until it does.

****Good

Badlands (1973)

Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Warren Oates
Certificate: 15
Genre: Drama, Crime
Awards: None

After seeing The Tree Of Life, I was a bit apprehensive in dipping my toe back into the dreamy pool of imagery that is Terrence Malick. Luckily, Badlands is nowhere near as pretentious. The voiceovers are still there and the beautiful imagery, but this time they go hand in had with the plot.

Based on a real story, Badlands sees 25 year old Kit (Sheen) and 15 year old Holly (Spacek) fall for each other against the latter's father's wishes. After then shooting the father (Oates), the two lovers try to escape from the authorities, killing anyone in their path.

This isn't a film where you will find grim dirty realism. Both the main characters seem to spend most of the time with their head in the clouds making everything seem quite surreal. Adding to this Spacek's un-emotive voiceover that explains love and murder in the same tones.

If you want to get into Malick, it would be re
commendable to start with Badlands as there is enough plot to keep you satisfied along with the directors extraordinary talent in making a film as beautiful as can be.

****Good

Shock Corridor (1963)

Director: Samuel Fuller

Starring: Peter Breck, Constance Towers, James Best, Harri Rhodes, Paul Dubov, Larry Tucker

Certificate: 15

Genre : Drama

Awards: None

Shock Corridor is a a film by Samuel Fuller starring Peter Breck as Johnny, a journalist who wants to solve a murder that took place in a mental asylum. In order to do so, he has to go undercover as a patient and try to question the witnesses. However, due to the inmates being insane, it's hard to get a proper answer out of them. The state of Johnny's mentality also slowly begins to deteriorate.

The actual murder case is really not the main theme here as we never get the full details or the killers motive. Instead, the film focuses on Johnny and his fellow inmates including a chilling performance by Harri Rhodes as a black man who believes he is a KKK member and starts race riots in the hallway.

Johnny's mentality is also a fascinating as his voice over always delivers a calm and thoughtful voice while his outward voice and actions start doing stranger and stranger things.

Shock Corridor is a really good film that may not leave much mystery to how it ends, but it's enthralling to watch the madness unfurl.

*****Brilliant

The Wolverine (2013)

Director: James Mangold
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukishami, Svetlana Kodchenkova, Brian Tee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Famke Janssen
Certificate: 12
Genre: Superhero
Awards: None

The Wolverine is not a sequel to the 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine - as you may expect - but a follow up to X-Men: The Last Stand, making this film the most recent X-Men film in chronological order.

After killing Jean (Janssen) in the last film, Logan (Jackman) is a bit of a mess and just really feels sorry for himself. However, when he is contacted by a man - Yashida (Yamanouchi) he saved from an atom bomb in Japan, he is given a chance to give up his immortality and have a normal life (well he'll still have claws but it's more normal than the life he has now). Logan refuses and then Mariko (Okamoto), Yashida's granddaughter is kidnapped by people who work for a mysterious mutant called the Viper (Kodchenkova).

The real stand out point of this film is that it doesn't feel like an X-Men film. With only a handful of mutants, this feels completely different and focuses more on Wolverine and his problems rather than big fights between lots of people with different powers. That doesn't mean their isn't any fighting in it. Wolverine slices away like he's playing Fruit Ninja and some of the deaths are quite gruesome and shocking.

The Wolverine is very enjoyable film and I think the second best of the franchise after First Class, but it doesn't add anything to the X-Men story. This is basically the film about when the Wolverine went on holiday.

****Good