Reviews

My partner signed up to Netflix and having heard talk at the office about this film I thought I'd have a watch. As they say, 90 minutes of my life I won't get back!

The plot was a load of pseudo-scientific sounding gobbledegook, zero character engagement and the standard very quick edits and scene changes and speed look here look there bang whizz to cover up the fact that there is no substance at all.

When it reached the end I didn't care one way or the other. How people here can give this 10/10 I cannot ever hope to understand - they must have never watched any other films.

A few days later, I watched a 1961 English B-movie called Strongroom. It lasted 1 hour and 14 minutes - it had 10 times more tension, plot, engagement, character development, emotion and drama than Justice League. It apparently cost £17,000 to make in 1961 - allegedly that's equivalent to about £320,000 today. So what was the point of the extra £299,500,000 for Justice League?

I've seen all the Star Wars films, but by no means am I a huge fan. I really disliked Episodes I & II but in my view III was the best of that trilogy by a long way, but still had a lot of issues. The Force Awakens was a much needed improvement and I felt like we were back with the "originals" again.

I didn't see Rogue 1 as a proper Star Wars film before seeing it, but to me in some ways it's right up there with the best. I thought "Star Wars for grown ups". Everything looked real - I didn't find myself thinking that everything was blue screen and CGI. I felt like I was watching real spaceships in real battles. The lack of those nasty "cute" characters like Ewoks, JJB and other inexplicable creations that were far too prevalent in Star Wars for my liking were blissfully absent! Joy.

I found the film gripping, dramatic, well paced and with many, many lovely nods to so many scenes and events from the "original 3" films.

I'm still thinking about it three days later. I really hope that there are going to be more with this level of quality.

I absolutely loved Hot Fuzz. When I saw the cinema trailer I laughed myself silly and when I saw it a week later it had the same effect and when watching the film I almost had to be wiped off the floor at the end - everything about it was just right; drama, mystery, action, gags, horror, wit, humour, camera-work and suspense. I bought the DVD and have watched it at least 5 or 6 times and love it every single time.

The World's End has but a few good moments and even now, one day after seeing it, I can't remember what most of them are. There are some good action moments, but the film just doesn't hang together. In Hot Fuzz there's the main protagonists' brilliant relationship along with their own character development that deepens and enriches the film along with the parade of fleshed-out and quirky characters living in the town, without ever detracting from the main story. Here the relationship between the annoying and idiotic 'King' and his friends never feels real enough to have sustained the essential premise of the entire film.

The main story just doesn't go anywhere and like many others on here, by the end I was fairly indifferent to whatever fate befell any of them. The same (non)reaction seemed to envelop most of the audience too. The World's End will never become a treasured DVD for me.

I was looking forward to this ever since I heard it was being made and now that I've seen it I'd be very reluctant to see a fourth if they should ever make one ("Never say never"). They should have left it at the blazing comedy star that is Hot Fuzz.

An earlier reviewer says "ignore all the negative reviews" - well I say don't!

I paid £12 to see this. I've only got 15 DVDs at home and Alien is one. I went to see this because this is Ridley Scott - the creator of Alien, Blade Runner & Thelma and Louise.

It was such a disappointment for all the reasons most (honest) reviewers have already said on here. Illogical and incomprehensible with no worthwhile script to speak of. No character motivation or common sense. People do the craziest things for no apparent reason and yet these incidents frequently take the story nowhere.

I liked the way that, overall, the film dovetails into Alien but the details of Prometheus just don't add up to a coherent narrative. It is not believable given the environment that the ship's team find themselves in. How is it that a team member who is an archaeologist suddenly, later in the film, manages to re-program a very rare medical device? Where did this remarkable skill suddenly come from? This is only one of a barrage of questions that this film throws up that really have no answers but seem to be done only to create an 'event' in the film.

Avoid. Such a shame and an opportunity seriously missed.

Most of this film is dark, curious, mysterious, scary and gritty and pulled me into its chilly and desolate landscape almost from the start. It feels very much like its own film until about 20 minutes from the end when it's as though the original writers and directors left and Hollywood jumped in and took over. Suddenlty we had the usual types of crazy things happening, special effects, cheesy hero type behaviour and machinery appearing which doesn't seem credible within the context of the rest of the film. I don't mind a film being fantastical as long as it's consistent within its own story. The end of this film was really unsatisfying for me.

A real shame.

A superb and gripping film which begins in a scarily detached, unemotional way and finished with tears running down my face at the final frame. This film is a journey from alienation to connection and much of its power comes from exposing us to the vicious banality of the Stasi's operations.

The environment in which the film is set is minimal, dirty and monochromatic, but the performances are anything but, believably conveying the suspicion and insidiousness of the ruling regime and the constraints of the human soul. We are shown the limits of freedom and what happens to those who want to express it but we are presented with a moving and powerful portrayal of awakening human spirit despite the powers that would crush them into conformity.

Others have expressed the details more elegantly than I, but I have to say that when I thought it ended superbly, it continued to build its message until the wonderful, touching and incredibly moving final seconds. I sobbed into the credits, but it's not for that mawkish heart-string pulling stuff, this is a perfect ending with a deep emotional resonance that perfectly rounds off a wonderful film.

Usually, when I see a 'comedy' film trailer at the cinema it's for some hideous, unfunny film. So when I saw the trailer for Hot Fuzz and laughed all the way through, and had the same reaction when I saw the trailer again I knew it had to be seen.

Hot Fuzz didn't disappoint in any way - it's an adrenaline thumping ride, it has a wry and beautifully observed script, a dark, creepy and unsettling element to most of the village scenes (that feeling that 'something's going on here'), the superb quick-fire repartee between Sgt Angel and PC Butterman just left me with a constant grin. I adore films that combine fast paced humour with wit and cleverness and this one does it with style. Some of the lines are delivered in such a 'matter of fact' way and still manage to be hilarious - Angel correcting other members of the police station for using the phrase 'Police Force' because it creates a wrong image, they should be using 'Police Service' instead is not in itself funny, but with Simon Pegg's determined delivery and the hapless giggling of the other police staff it takes on a whole new angle.

There's a superb array of supporting characters in both the police station and the village itself that really create a wonderful stage for the proceedings - lost swans, village fêtes and of course, murder. Or is it an accident? Sublime.

I've never seen Shaun of the Dead, but after this I can see that I'll have to sort that out.

Well, I'm glad I didn't pay £12 to see it at the London IMAX ...

There's good and bad.

The good is that it does look amazing - the gritty and almost monochromatic visuals really add something special to the film. This approach really creates a superb historical evocation with desaturated colour and some spectacular sweeping visual panoramas. The acting is appropriate to the aims of the film, but the action is so much of the whole film that the characters definitely take second place.

The bad, for me, is everything else. The film is, as at least one other has noted, a 20 to 30 minute intro followed by a battle. The End. And yes, it's an adaption of a graphic novel from a few years back now, but there's far more testosterone spraying across the screen than blood over those 116 minutes. Basically, there's one (strong) woman in this film and everyone else is a man (or boy) trying to outdo every other man in how hard, heroic, fight- ready etc. etc. he is. No weakness. No love - save the love of battle. OK, maybe a little at a few other select moments. For me this makes the film so one-dimensional that I couldn't engage with it at all. I just can't relate to that much death-dealing, lack of compassion and male love of violence (and I am a man).

Now it was perhaps foolish of me to see a film when I knew it's subject and general gist. But I had the feeling that 300 would somehow transcended its subject. It didn't - for me. I suppose I look around this beautiful world of ours and see it trashed, subjugated and destroyed by men and their generally violent outlook to life and sitting through this seemed to simply provide even more of it. Ah well, I'm a little wiser about myself and what I want to watch I suppose.

I thought this was a really good film - although I was born after the war from what I've seen in footage of war since it captures well the horror, violence and senseless death that war entails.

We use a sense of good/bad (crudely speaking) to frame what goes on around us and this show what happens to that moral compass in times when daily life simply pulls the rug of normality right out from under our feet. People don't know who to trust - enemies seems like friends, friends become enemies, one death becomes less important than another, one life not as valuable, love can seem cruel. All these conflicting situations are superbly portrayed here, in the pressure cooker of the Resistance hideaway where everything is on permanent tenterhooks and certainties become a grey fog at times.

The acting is very believable, and Carice van Houten is superb in the lead role being vulnerable, single-minded, alluring and strong. Someone else felt that she seemed unconcerned by the death around her, but I feel that the pace of the film doesn't allow time to show that, although she shows clearly at one point the release of the horror and disgust she's been keeping the lid on. In a time of war, it must be hard to find a balance between being compassionate and yet not letting your emotions rule all your judgements so that you become ineffective.

Although it looks like a true 50s film in its depiction of the period, it's bang up to date in the way it's filmed - the bombs dropping are frightening, the gunshots sickening and the randomness of death in wartime brought horribly to life. This is a modern 21st century production and it shows, which makes it all the more gripping. I was amazed to find when I left the cinema that it had been such a long film as I'd been grabbed by it from the start.

Well worth seeing.

Wow! I must be a bit behind the times in my cinema going as I never thought I'd see on- screen ejaculation whilst sitting in a comfy seat in a mainstream cinema! The censors are obviously moving on faster than I had imagined...

The explicit sex, whilst an integral part of 'Shortbus' is not the core, but more a vehicle for character development in this wonderfully queer film. And it has the heart of real sex about it, not that plastic close-up, posing stuff we're used to in so many films - instead it's real, hot and sweaty, hilarious and ultimately transcendent for most of the participants.

The model of New York is used to great effect to allow us to swoop down to individual locations and reminded me a little of Moulin Rouge, only not so detailed (or camp!). And the way we slid into the individual rooms mirrored how I felt - drawn into these people's lives and their searching for something missing. I winced, enjoyed, laughed and cried with them throughout the film which manages to combine hard reality with delightful fantasy and both feel totally right together.

I found the end a real emotional roller coaster and cried as I watched the situation unfolding for all these people I'd been following throughout the film. And when the credits rolled I felt as if I'd seen something really special, that spoke to me of the joy of being human, and real, and the magic that can happen when we shake off our own restrictions and risk honesty.

The performances and spark between the players is excellent. So many times, the expressions on people's faces, particularly near the end, genuinely moved me - either shocked, greedy, lustful, distressed, loving or whatever. My hat off to everyone for bringing their hearts to their performances.

I gave it 10 because I think it's a really brave film to make. It takes a bold vision (and bold actors!) to bring this kind of sexual honesty to the big screen and there's so much conformist, nuclear-family thinking in 99% of films that the real revelling in diversity shown here is a like a gale of fresh, healthy air.

This was my first time back to actually see Bond at the cinema for many years; to see if the 'Batman Begins' of Bond could deliver. The short answer - "Definitely yes!"

Gone are the cringe-making puns, silliness and Star Trek style villains and in comes a heavy dose of the real world. Or at least, the real world as it may be for a globe trotting secret agent.

The action sequences are gripping, the plot twists and turns like a Swiss mountain pass, the violence painful and hard-hitting and, for me, quite shocking at times. The locations are suitably glamorous - swanky hotels, yachts, islands, luxury cars and clothes as we've come to expect over the years. And of course, there's Bond himself. Daniel Craig was a complete unknown to me before this film, but wow! He's made his mark in my book - tough, believable, ruthless, intelligent, sophisticated and sexually magnetic - for the first time in a Bond movie I was just knocked out by Bond's physical presence and I would certainly find him difficult to resist. Sadly, the reverse would not be true perhaps ...

Some reviews have said that the film lagged a little in places but I didn't find that to be the case, they were simply lulls in the action which allowed other aspects of plot and/or character to develop. Even in every scene where things are 'going slowly' there's a feeling that something's about to happen at any moment. There really is a palpable sense of tension for the whole film which is just how I want a Bond film to be. And though there are a few little jokes and remarks throughout the film, they're actually amusing or funny! Now there's something new. One of those I liked that I can actually remember was where Vesper and Bond are about to get into the lift and she says "Get the next one. There's not room for me and your ego in here".

The other characters are as well fleshed out as they require and of course Dame Judi is marvellous - revealing a more rounded 'M' than we've seen before, both cold and detached and yet also protective and understanding. This is symbolic of the film generally - it actually has depth, solidly and a sense of the real for the first time in decades. It feels like we're on planet earth instead of a sci-fi experience set 40 years from now.

I've not read the original book so I don't know how closely the film follows it - though the reliance on mobile phones is obviously missing from the novel! - it may well bode well for a comb through Fleming's back catalogue if they haven't all been raided by now. I'm sure they can invent some if needed.

Finally, I liked the title sequence and the music, whilst not up with any instant Bond classics it sounded good on a first hearing. David Arnold's score was excellent as befits someone with an obvious love of the Bond musical genre.

So, get off down to the cinema and enjoy yourself.

I've not posted before but don't believe that a review of a film whose purpose is telling you about climate change could contain spoilers...

This is a compelling and important film, putting what I believe to be one of the most urgent issues of our time before a wider audience. The accumulation of information really makes the point that something serious is happening and that action needs to be taken and taken now!

However, I did feel that it's a bit too much of an "Al Gore Show" and crucially, he doesn't really use the ultimate four-letter word - less. Al Gore is one of the majority who really seem to believe that we can carry on living our lives pretty much as we do now and yet still make drastic cuts in our carbon emissions.

I suppose that for the majority(?) who know little or nothing about global warming it will be a real and essential eye-opener, and as I don't fall into that camp perhaps I'm being overly critical here.

He suggests that we can all make changes - change our light bulbs for low-energy versions, turn down our thermostats, drive less and so on. All these are essential steps in reducing our consumption, but ultimately they are limited. This is where I feel the film is lacking in any political analysis - surprising from a politician! Al Gore says tellingly at one point "This is not so much a political issue as a moral one." and I believe that that is why we're in such a mess. How did we manage to separate the two? Politics in more than ever before about the power and influence of moneyed corporations dictating the agenda. If morals have left the scene then what are we going to get? It also allows Gore to avoid looking at the political obstacles being put in the way of measures which could reduce our emissions and how we redress them. So much of this film is about what's not addressed by it.

The US government has extraordinary links with the fossil fuel industry so I don't understand how people posting comments here can say that this is not a political issue - it's the biggest political issue we've ever faced! Politics is about applying a philosophy of life and we currently have a philosophy that says whatever big business wants it gets - and the planet can go hang.

How will we you get binding international frameworks on carbon reduction by turning down your thermostat? And technology will not save this one. We have more efficient appliances than every previous year but in which direction does our overall energy consumption go? Yep, upwards. We must buy and use less. This is a drastic global problem and it needs drastic global solutions but it's much easier to pretend that changing your light bulb will do the trick - "I've changed all my light bulbs, now where did I put my air ticket for the week's holiday in the Seychelles?". The suggestions at the end of the film are essential for each of us to make, but we need deeper personal changes and we need serious political changes too. Now. But I certainly believe that this film is an important part of the former.