Sook-hee (Kim Ok-bin, Thirst) is a trained assassin who takes revenge on the men who murdered her father in a breathtaking opening sequence. After losing consciousness she awakes at the National Intelligence Service who recruit her as an agent to undertake confidential missions. Initially refusing, Sook-hee soon realizes it is her only method of escape, until she is given a new assignment that suddenly changes everything.

This revenge action thriller sounds like it could equal a recipe for a good watch, but under all the action set pieces there is little substance. I found this film quite boring throughout most of the run time, with the main bulk of the story hard to follow at times. Kim Ok-Bin doesn't give an action star vibe, she is like a kid playing dress up, not a hard hitting assassin with revenge on her mind. The action admittedly is good but that only if you can get past the migraine inducing camera shots. The camera is all over the shop! it takes away from the action, and the swapping between first and third person shots is painful to watch.

A waste of time, wait for Netflix. 

The original TV caper crusader is back as the late Adam West returns as Batman in the role that made him a household name in the 60's. In the follow up to the highly entertaining 2016 animated adventure, Return of the Caper Crusader, Batman and his sidekick Robin (Burt Ward) must take on one of their most formidable foes as Two Face goes on a two based crime spree, collecting a bunch of things based around the number two, but is this Two Face Harvey Dent? or someone more sinister? A rouge gallery of the best 60's villains also return in the feature length adventure as we see he return of The Joker, Penguin, The Riddler and......King Tut? but more importantly we get the return of Catwoman, played yet again by Julie Newmar.

Batman Vs Two Face is, as a whole, a pretty fun watch. It brings all the catchphrases and biffs and boffs we know and love from the hit 60's show while at the same time giving a decently story plot that, if you were to take away the over the top campness, would work well as any Batman story (minus King Tut). It is sad to think this is the last time Adam West will be playing the role of Batman, this role was made for him and there isn't anyone else who could pull off this version of the dark knight. There is a level of camp acting needed to pull off something like this, I mean you will never see an evil extractor in a DCEU movie, and West is the perfect choice. Also I love the addition of Star Trek legend William Shatner to the fold as Dent, it brings that extra bit of added 60's cheese the the proceedings.

My only real criticism here is sometimes the campness over takes the story, and having odd characters like King Tut makes it feel a little too over the top but this is made for the fans of the show and this is what they would expect to see.

A good watch. Worth paying out to see.

‘The Ghoul’ begins with Chris (Tom Meeten), a detective, investigating a double homicide which leads to him going undercover to a psychotherapist’s practice, to discover more about a potential suspect. Faking mental illness takes its toll, however, as he becomes convinced that his life as an investigator isn’t real and is just a fantasy. It’s unsettling to watch (in a good way), as it’s impossible to tell which of Chris’s lives is real. This is an interesting mix of psychological thriller, occult and realism – the latter two of which probably shouldn’t go together but somehow do in this film. This combination of different genres doesn’t make the tone seem confused, which can be very difficult to achieve, so writer/director Gareth Tunley clearly knows what he’s doing. There’s also a sense of a noir influence from its gritty locations and it even reminded me of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Following’ at one point.

Viewers’ opinions might be divided over this film because the concept does become unusual and isn’t completely explained. However, I think this works overall as it puts the viewer in a similarly confused state to Chris’s character. Meeten does a good job in this and is easy to sympathise with and relate to as he unravels. One of his best moments is when he is speaking to his therapist, Morland (Geoffrey McGivern) – he names his depression ‘the ghoul’ and talks about his mental illness in a way I don’t think I’ve seen in a film before. In addition, McGivern also gives a good performance as Chris’s eccentric and enthusiastic therapist, all the while giving the sense that something isn’t quite right.

The only thing I’d say bothered me in particular in some scenes is the lighting; a lot of scenes were meant to be dark but the outlines of characters were barely visible so that could have been improved. Some shots were also a bit too out of focus, although this was probably intentional as it does reflect Chris’s state of mind. Overall, I would really recommend this because it’s unique and despite some of these visual problems, it doesn’t take away from the story as the writing is the strongest part of the film. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what Tunley does in the future, because this proves him to be a talented filmmaker beyond his career as an actor.

When a young runaway Ren follows a hooded beast down a dark Shibuya alleyway he never thought he would end up in the world of the beasts. Renamed Kyuta he is taken in by the gruff and quick to anger warrior beast Kumatetsu who is looking to make Kyuta his new apprentice.  The two end up being very much alike, with Kyuta and Kumatetsu teaching each other the things they both lack. As the boy grows he and his master become like a father and son, but when Kyuta returns to the earth realm, everything he thought he knew changes, and a battle with inner darkness begins.

This is a beautifully made Anime. Visually stunning with a great story and well fitting English speaking voice acting to boot. I loved this film! I enjoy the relationship between Kyuta and Kumatetsu and the bickering brings the comic relief but you can also tell ho much Kumatetsu loves the boy. He feels like he is his father, he raises him as his own, and as we see in the later pat of the film, once Kyuta finds his real dad as an adult, Kyuta sees that in him too. The whole film is a touching tale about adoption in a way with the added drama of the battle to be the next ruler of the land of beasts. The supporting cast gives a lot to the feel of the film too, and this comes more into the spot light during the human world scenes later int he film when Kyuta meets young bookworm Kaede, the only real reason he is torn about where he wants to be.

Overall the only real issue with the film is that it did unfortunately feel very long at points, and could have done with losing a few scenes just to knock the time down a smidgen, but as a whole The Boy and The Beast is yet another beautifully, touching animated masterpiece from the mind of Wolf Children director and writer Mamoru Hosoda. A must watch!

And the award for biggest disappointment in film in 2017 goes to.....Lego Ninjago. Man I was shocked how much I disliked this film and I am a huge fan of the Lego Movies and Games.

Based on the hugely successful Ninjago toys, The film follows Lloyd, the son of the evil  Garmadon, who is also a member of a elite group of teenage ninjas (think Power Rangers style) with powerful robots (again this has Power Rangers all over it) who swear to defeat Garmadon and his odd array of Sealife Minions. In an effort to defeat his father Lloyd attempts to use the Ultimate Weapon Meowthra (a real life cat) on him only for it to back fire. Lloyd and his friends must now travel to find the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon before Meowthra destroys Ninjago.

After the amazing Lego Batman film earlier in the year, Ninjago always had a big job on its hands, something it fails to live up to. What we get is a badly paced, sloppy film with a boring script and a few laughs, most of which appear in the trailer. The film turns more into a coming of age, family drama between Lloyd and  Garmadon with a little bit of action added in to fill in the gaps. It focuses more on the life lessons than what we are all there to see, and that is Ninja action. You could have gone down so many other routes with the story, delving into the other members of the team other than Lloyds daddy issues.  The film felt long, with the story feeling bogged down throughout the majority of it.

There are a handful of redeeming moments. I loved the Meowthra addition, it trough in sme belly laughs in a Sharknado kind of a way ad there were some funny moments from the Garmadon character, but as mentioned before alot of the funny moments are wasted in the trailer leaving the moments they come a little less amusing.

The kids will no doubt like this but they will not like this in the way the probably liked The Lego Batman Movie or the original Lego Movie. For me? I struggled throughout to find this entertaining enough to keep my attention, and that was a shame. 

This Year the WWE celebrate 30 years of one of the staple PPV events in their yearly calender, Survivor Series. To mark this momentous event what do we get? yet another lack luster DVD set with a handful of the worst matches from the event and  a countdown which you could find on the WWE Network.

Now while it was nice to see some of the best moments in the countdown, like the return of Sting and the amazing Deadly Games tournament final between The Rock and Mankind, the selection of matches within the next two disks are not as exciting, including matches like Roman Reigns vs Dean Ambrose, Laycool vs Natalya and Beth Pheonix vs Eve Torres.

This is a pointless buy and for the price you might as well head on over to the WWE Network and watch the content over there.

​A stone cold disappointment 

Based of the real life Keddie Murders Cabin 28 (the inspiration behind The Strangers), one of america's more infamous unsolved crimes, Cabin 28 is a low budget horror film with questionable acting but an interesting plot.

British Actress Terri Dwyer (From 1997 Hollyoaks) stars as Sue Sharp who along with her Daughter Sheila (Brendee Green - Rookie Blue) and her sons are terrorized in their cabin by a gang of masked strangers. a night of horrific events ends in the family dead and one of the children missing but this film vows to fill in the events of the night in question.

Now  I really liked The Strangers, I really like Them but Cabin 28 suffers from the low budget and the awful acting. Terri Dwyer's accent jumps between Texan and British so much it is frustrating, Brendee's sweet southern belle act feels fake and the first masked guy at the front door sounds like he is auditioning to be the next foghorn leghorn. This is a shame, as this story deserves a better budget and more care taking with it.

The saving grace is that the masked assailants are extremely creepy and make the film a little more watchable, especially when more and more people begin to enter the fray, but this isn't enough to save this film.

If you are a fan of the low budget horror we seem to be getting thrown at us on a weekly basis then you will like this offering, but in my opinion there are more interesting and better acted home invasion films out there, and as the story behind these terrible real life events have never been explained  this film place fast and loose with the events.

Worth a shot when you are up late and it is on the horror channel but don't bother with buying it. 

As someone who didn’t like the first ‘Blade Runner’ film at all (unpopular opinion, I know), I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this sequel. Part of me was annoyed about seeing it advertised everywhere I went and didn’t want to give in and see it, but at the same time, it was a different director and would hopefully be a good film in its own right. Luckily, it is. ‘Arrival’ director Denis Villeneuve takes on the difficult job of living up to the expectations of dedicated fans of the first film, and clearly didn’t let the pressure affect him at all. Without spoiling anything, the basic story is that blade runner K (Ryan Gosling) discovers a secret that would change everything for humans and replicants, and has to stop it from getting out.

Firstly, the film is visually stunning. The special effects are breath-taking and there is so much detail involved, despite there being so much development in CGI technology it’s still hard to believe just how immersive and real it is in this film. However, looks aren’t the only thing that count here. One of the most important things that made the first film become so well-loved was the philosophical questions it posed, and ‘Blade Runner 2049’ does just the same. It approaches themes of identity and slavery in a way that isn’t meant to be comforting. There’s so many scenes in this that are so incredibly sad, and they’re done in such a well-crafted way that it doesn’t feel overdone. This can be put own to both the amazing writing and performances; everyone gets their time to shine, even Jared Leto’s character Niander Wallace despite not being in the film much. He might not get as much screen time as everyone else, but in what time he does have will still manage to make your skin crawl.
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This film is unusual as it can be considered a blockbuster in the sense that it had a huge budget along with an A-List cast, but it gives the impression that the creative forces behind it had a lot more artistic freedom than you would expect from any other blockbuster; it’s drawn out and isn’t all about the spectacle of the action, but the depth of the characters and ideas and themes conveyed in the film. Furthermore, the length of the film doesn’t hold it back – not once did I think that I wanted it to end or that it was going on too long. The pacing was perfect and the characters, unique settings and the mystery in the story were enough to keep it interesting. ‘Blade Runner 2049’ is good on every level I can think of, and is actually really difficult to criticise (not that I’m complaining). Denis Villeneuve has once again proven that he is an incredible director, and in 50 years’ time I’m certain he’ll be one of the greats that will be talked about in film schools. ​

‘The Snowman’ is a thriller based on a book by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø about a serial killer who takes their victims in the winter and always leaves a snowman behind at the murder scene. Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) along with a new recruit, Katrine (Rebecca Ferguson), must find out who the killer is as the murders become more frequent. The film has a brilliant cast of many talented people – such as Fassbender, Ferguson, J.K. Simmons, James D’Arcy and Toby Jones to name a few – but there’s so much going on that they don’t all get the screen time they deserve despite it being 2 hours long overall.

This is the main problem with the film; although it sounds simple enough, it still manages to present itself as quite complex and ends up being confusing at times. I thought that perhaps I wasn’t intelligent enough to understand everything that was happening but I did spot quite a few other confused-looking people on the way out of the screening. Unfortunately, the one aspect of the plot that did interest me which involved Simmons’ character, wasn’t properly resolved or explained. It could have been improved a lot if it had been a bit simpler and cut out some elements of the film that weren’t necessary. However, I did appreciate the themes of parenthood, specifically that of fatherhood which came up through Fassbender and D’Arcy’s characters.

Although as I mentioned not many characters gets a significant amount of screen time, Fassbender is very good in his role. Not much is revealed about his past as his current state is what’s shown to the audience; he’s a drunk who passes out in the streets most nights and doesn’t take on any responsibilities that don’t interest him, but he’s still quite likeable. It’s good to note that he’s not portrayed as the trope of the glorified drunk who can get away with being a terrible person because of his charm – he’s just strangely sympathetic in how he accepts that the people he cares about deserve better. He’s the most enjoyable thing about the film, as is the development of his relationship with Katrine.
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Overall, the film feels unnecessarily long and isn’t something I would be too quick to watch again. It would have benefitted significantly from being cut down into something simpler, so it could have taken full advantage of its range of talented actors. It didn’t have many moments of real intensity as a thriller should, but that could be put down to the fact that snowmen generally aren’t that ominous even in this context. However, it’s worth watching at least once for Fassbender’s character, who is always a safe bet for a good performance. ​