Sometimes all you need in a film is a story. No Words, now voice over just a beautiful soundtrack, stunning illustrations and a simple premise, the love between a man and a woman.

The Red Turtle is the latest film to come out of Studio Ghibli, and while it is a different style than they are use to and created in France instead of Japan, the beauty is still there. The story follows the life of a ship wrecked man who, while trying to escape the island on a self-made raft, is forced back to the island when a red turtle smashes up the raft. Angry at the turtle he finds it on the beach where the man smashes the poor thing over the head and flips it on its back. The turtle lays broken and dead, sending the man into the feeling of guilt. One day the man notices that over night the red turtle had turned into a beautiful red headed woman in a coma of sorts, who he shields from the elements. When the woman comes to the man expresses the guilt he feels and is forgiven by her. The film follows their love through the ages on the island that leads to a very emotional conclusion.

The Red Turtle shows emotion it it's most purest forms. From guilt, to love, to sadness and to joy, all with not a single word uttered. This film is truly beautiful. Michael Dudok de Wit has done a great job bringing these characters alive, something you can see in the special feature on the DVD release of the film where we are treated to a look at the first stages of the animation process. The love and care that has gone into this film is evident from the very start of the film, I love the Herge style of animation aswell, giving this a very different feel to other films in the Studio Ghibi film library, and this is a great thing.

If you can choose one film to watch coming up then you NEED to buy this film. Hauntingly gorgeous, quiet yet tells so much. The Red Turtle is a masterpiece in animation

Oliver Queen returns again to the streets of Star City to take on those who have failed his city. This time our green hooded hero find himself minus a full team, so enter a fresh new team arrow who lack the chemistry of the original team!!!

Enter the new blood, first up is Rene Ramirez a.k.a Wild Dog, a vigilante inspired by what the Green Arrow did in Season 4. Curtis Holt also get a bigger role in Team Arrow this season as he assumes the role of Mister Terrific. The next one up is Ragman Rory Regan, the sole survivor of the bomb blast from last season that Felicity was unfortunately responsible for, and finally (but not for long SPOILERS obvious) Evelyn Sharp, a street wise kid who picks the wrong side. We are later introduced to another character who joins the team named Dinah Drake who becomes the new Black Canary...again SPOILERS people. This team are later in the first half of the series join again by John and Detective Lance who are more side character this time around.

Season 5 has Queen take on another role to protect the people of his city as he take on the mantle of city Mayor, a role he soon finds to be a fine line between this and his role as the Green Arrow, all the while taking on a new more violent enemy Prometheus, yet another hooded archer hell bent on destroying our hero and all he holds dear.

The problem with this season is the same problem I found with The Flash Season 3 that is gets a bit slow midway. It gets a little repetitive and if i'm honest I am looking forward to there be much less flashback parts in Season 6 because this whole Bratva story is boring as hell. However once you get through the half way point the show begins to pick up speed again. While I prefer the team in The Flash, Team Arrow isn't great and the team as a whole seems a little lackluster but there are a characters like Rory who I would have liked to see more of, and Dinah Drake adds a little more pep into the show.

Arrow Season 5 is pretty much the same as the seasons that came before, aside from the epic crossover Invasion story line and the references to The Flash, like Flashpoint where Barry reveals that John had a son before and now has a daughter. This season was OKAY this isn't the weakest of the five but I hope season six brings something new to the table before it gets stale like Supernatural.

‘Voice from the Stone’ is a gothic drama starring Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke as a nurse who is hired to look after a young boy who stops speaking after his mother dies. As she spends more time there she becomes more like his mother, eventually wearing her clothes and taking on her role. While the film is visually beautiful and does a great job creating a gothic atmosphere through the setting and costumes, that is as far as it goes. The narrative completely lacks tension, and the characters aren’t particularly likeable which gets in the way of being able to sympathise with them.

Clarke is good in her role but the character is annoyingly smug, so it’s difficult to connect with her or root for her. She doesn’t do anything particularly amazing for the child, Jakob, either – his father even comments that she’s just like the other nurses that came before her and it’s difficult to see how she could be any more special. Furthermore, it’s hard to tell whether her taking Jackob’s mother’s role is meant to be shown in a positive or negative way; I interpreted it as being shown as positive in the end, which was very off-putting. Maybe this was how it was intended to make the audience feel and I’m completely missing the point, but it’s difficult to tell what the film is going for.

In addition, the film feels very repetitive until the final act. Not much happens other than Verena looking for Jakob, Verena finding Jakob, Jakob running off, then rinse and repeat. There’s nothing to take an interest in, no emotional investment in the characters except possibly Jakob at a stretch, but the narrative doesn’t go deep enough to be able to really care. Therefore, the film drags on despite its short run time, and I came out of it feeling completely indifferent to it.

​Overall, the film is visually pleasing but lacks substance. The story needed better pacing, more tension and a clearer message as well as more likeable characters. Although I was excited about watching the film and wanted to enjoy it, it was difficult to feel anything other than indifferent afterwards.  

Oh look ANOTHER documentary that revolves around the Attitude era! yes WWE loves the era of Non-PG TV so much it feels like there is a new DVD or network special every few months. This time Renne Young is joined by HBK, Kane, Mick Foley, Ron Simmons and The Godfather in a round table style discussion on the year that changed it all 1997.

While it is interesting to get the opinions of the men who made the year their own, it does feel like it is yet another 'we know all of this already' collection of stories and matches. The matches on the 3 disk set are okay, they are a mix of classics and lesser seen matches from PPV and shows like Shogun Saturday Night wrestling.

This is a good set to have in your collection if you are huge on the attitude era, but in my opinion I think it is about time we get some documentaries on the Ruthless Aggression Era    

‘Ghost Witch’ is a supernatural horror about Mattie, who had a paranormal experience as a child in an old house her dad bought. She asks her friend, Zeke, to gather his ghost buster buddies and go back with her to see what they can find. This is a very low budget film and unfortunately the writing doesn’t make up much for the technical problems with it. The story feels slow even at barely over an hour and a half long; there’s a lot of people talking about the legend of the ghost but the ghost doesn’t really do anything or present a threat until a while into the film.

Despite there being a couple of decent performances, particularly from the leads (Chase Anderson and Mandi Kerr), there is some bad acting in this. It’s that awkward kind of bad acting, where it falls incredibly flat, and Kerr is definitely the most natural on screen. The biggest problem with the film is that there are several aspects to it that feel awkward and unnatural just like the acting; for example, a lot of the sound effects used for simple things like footsteps, creaking etc. sounded incredibly over-the-top and it gets more and more annoying as it goes on.
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The film should at least be appreciated for its ambition despite its problems. For something that was on such a low budget, it at least had a good set going for it with the haunted house, which looked grimy and creaky as hell. If it had just been more creative with the writing and didn’t rely so much on clichés, it would have been easier to look past the other more technical issues with the film such as the sound design and lighting.  

We’re all used to seeing Tom Cruise running around, getting involved in a whole load of action escapades or leading a group of trained agents into a death defying mission. He’s comfortable in this kind of atmosphere but it’s refreshing to witness him in a different environment at a much slower pace. I can safely say that that is exactly how he is in Doug Liman’s second (the first being Edge of Tomorrow) collaboration with him. Much more of a slow-burn action comedy about the real life exploits of Barry Seal – CIA Agent/Pilot/drug smuggler.

The film picks up in the late 1970’s when Pilot Seal (Tom Crusie) is suddenly recruited by mysterious Monty Schafer (another solid turn from Domhnall Gleeson) to be an undercover agent for the CIA. Seal thinks he’s struck lucky but things become rather complicated when he then lands work from a group of drug criminals called the ‘Medelin Cartel’ – led by none other than the infamous Pablo Escobar himself – and is asked to smuggle substances from the likes of Panama and Columbia back into the USA on his return flight. Before long the money comes flooding in (to the point where they run out of room and Seal as to dig holes in the garden!) and the jobs become more regular ad much more complex.

The story moves very quickly and does feel erratic at times but despite this I found myself getting sucked into the action and found it all quite educating and interesting. Liman has deliberately used a grainy camera print here which really projects you into the 1970’s/1980’s atmosphere and makes it feel all that more gritty and realistic. The quirky use of animated maps storyboards and fast-paced editing pays off and again, really adds to the creation of chaos at this time in Barry Seal’s life. The soundtrack is catchy and – as expected – incorporates the best of the 1970’s and 80’s. As highlighted above, Cruise is out of his comfort zone here and it has worked wonders. He gives a much more understated, withdrawn performance as Barry Seal and proves that he is multi-layered as an actor and can turn his hand to pretty much anything.

Domhnall Gleeson - who seems to be everywhere at the moment, playing roles in both Mother! And the upcoming Goodbye Christopher Robin – is charismatic and quite comical as Schafer. Essentially Seal’s boss, he gets to show off his strong, authoritarian side, barking orders at Seal from the initial undercover CIA reporting to eventually selling guns to the Contras. Gleeson – like his father – is just as effective in a supporting role as he is as the protagonist and as this film shows, he is capable of stealing the scene in either of those instances. Liman’s account of this segment of Seal’s life is thrilling, engaging and entertaining. It depicts an entertaining story of a man who certainly led an exciting lifestyle when he was recruited by the CIA, the drug cartels and eventually the American government. Just like the film, it was anything but boring! ​

After two really good seasons The Flash is back but what started strong with Flashpoint and ended just as strong with the gripping final few episodes, this season suffers from the midway dip which at points turns Barry in to the dullest man alive. WARNING this will contain plot spoilers.

In an attempt to stop the events of his mother's murder at the hand of evil Wells, Barry runs to the past to stop the events from taking place. This change in events changes everything. Barry is living with his now alive parents, but with no powers. He is with Iris but Joe a hates him. Warned of the consequences from Wells, Barry resets the timeline, but he has made some drastic mistakes that effect the whole team, and on a side note effects Team Arrow. What this created was Savitar, an armored speedster who calls himself the God of Speed, and the biggest challenge Team Flash may ever face. With Iris' live on the line Barry and the team must race against the clock to prevent a brutal future from becoming a reality.

While this isn't the worst thing on TV (I found this season much more entertaining than Agents of Sheilds last season) the mid season dip was a struggle to get over. I found myself watching the same episode 6 times at one point to try and finish the set for this review, and while I'm glad I did, this was a damn shame for a show the had a great start.

We are treated to some cool crossovers in this season, One which sees Barry and Supergirl trapped in a west end musical and the epic four show event which combined Team Flash, Team Arrow, the Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl to take on an alien threat. I enjoyed to progression of Cisco's character, he is becoming a hero in his own right and I think Jesse works well as Jesse Quick. My own down side to this season's team is Caitlin's Killer Frost and Wally. Kid Flash's character got annoying VERY quickly and I find Caitlin dull at the best of times.

This season did however end on a high point, the final few episodes were emotional to say the least and the cliff hanger ending makes me want to catch the show when it returns to Sky1 in the UK this October.

In closing you should watch this season, if not for the first and last half then for your love of the Flash character. I like the edition of Flashpoint and as a TV universe DC is outdoing Marvel TV by miles. I look forward to Season 4 and on a side note I am looking forward to Black Lightning. I just really hope there will be a Batman/Batgirl/Nightwing series to add to this universe and more importantly a real justice League show to rival The Defenders.