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

Elysium (2013)

Director: Neil Blomkamp
Starring: Matt Damon, Sharlto Copley, Jodie Foster, Alice Braga, William Fichtner
Certificate: 15
Genre: Sci Fi
Awards: None

Elysium is Blockamp's follow up to the critical success District 9 and it goes down the same route. Elysium is a man-made atmosphere in space where the rich people live. They have machines that can heal anything and champagne garden parties. Earth has become derelict and very sandy. This is where the poor people live. They have machines that break their arms and frequent trips to the hospital. Some people think this a little unfair.

Matt Damon plays Max, a crook who wants to make it Elysium. When he finds out he has three days to live he decides its time to get there and get himself cured. However, Delacourt (Foster) has other ideas and after Max steals a bunch of Elysium's secrets she is out to get him and hires...

Sharlto Copley does a brilliant job at playing the horribly sadistic mercenary, Kruger. He is a completely different character Wikus (from District 9) and you can tell that he enjoyed playing him.

As story goes, Elysium is more of a re-run of District 9. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't do anything better than its predecessor. The story ends in the same way and the characters are identical except for the people playing them. Therefore I can only give it the same rating I would give Blockamp's debut.

****Good

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)

Director: Declan Lowney
Starring: Steve Coogan, Colm Meaney, Sean Pertwee, Felicity Montagu, Simon Greenall, Nigel Lindsey, Tim Key
Certificate: 15
Genre: Comedy
Awards: None

If you are not familiar with Alan Partridge, this film will most likely look completely rubbish to you. For those of you who have not come across Steve Coogan's most loved character, Alan Partridge is supposed to be rubbish. He's a radio DJ who used to work for the BBC before his programs were cancelled for being too boring.

But Alpha Papa isn't just a replay of Partridge's greatest hits. Some recurring characters are seen (such as Michael the Geordie and Lynn the PA but they're not focused on that much while his catchphrase doesn't appear at all. The film is more interested in new character Pat Farrell (Meaney), the fired North Nofolk DJ who takes the radio station hostage in anger. He won't speak to the police unless it's through Alan.

Alpha Papa is as funny as it's sitcom predecessors with many of the jokes told awkwardly by Partridge. There are a few toilet humour jokes in there but they turn out differently than expected so you can't really take off points for that. Some jokes may seem a bit harsh, but it adds to Partridge's lack of social skills.

If you're not familiar with Partridge, Alpha Papa may seem quite strange. However it's still funny and definitely worth a look. It's my film of the year so far.

*****Brilliant

Jack Reacher (2012)

Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Werner Herzog, David Oyelowo, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins
Certificate: 12
Genre: Action
Awards: None

There was a bit of a ruckus from Jack Reacher fans when Tom Cruise was announced to play 6 foot 6 Jack Reacher. However for the people who have actually seen it, that argument has died away. This could be a very good franchise for Cruise (but maybe not a successful one if box office numbers continue at this rate).

After five civilians are shot dead in a peaceful city, the evidence all points to an ex-army man with a history of past shootings. Instead of confessing, the man asks for Jack Reacher before being sent into a coma for the rest of the film. When Reacher arrives, he and the man's lawyer Helen (Pike) discover that the evidence pointing a bit too desperately to be believed.

Jack Reacher always seems to be on top of things. He never seems to be troubled or anywhere he can't handle himself and this works both with and against the film. On one hand it seems pretty awesome to see an invincible man with all the answers almost seem to stride through every obstacle while on the other it makes Reacher seem arrogant. He's a know-it-all and unlike John McLane in Die Hard, we don't see him find out these things. We just see him explain it to other characters and so we warm to him less. It also makes the villains not seem like a threat at all.

The action is great with Reacher just smashing and outwitting everybody at every turn while Werner Herzog plays the villain and if he had somehow defeated Reacher in any way he would probably have been seen as really good, but because of Reacher's unstoppable force he becomes more of a Scooby Doo villain.

Overall I like Jack Reacher because it's different. The character reminds me of Riddick in the way he deals with things - especially his last conversation with the villain. I really hope Reacher has a second shot at cinema.

****Good