Dr Strangelove: Or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (1964) - review coming soon

One of these months I'll actually finish a month with all the films reviewed. I will get these done asap.

The Cabin In The Woods (2012) - review coming soon

One of these months I'll actually finish a month with all the films reviewed. I will get these done asap.

Headhunters (2011) - review coming soon

One of these months I'll actually finish a month with all the films reviewed. I will get these done asap.

Inside Deep Throat (2005)

Okay, so we're all familiar with Deep Throat right? No? Okay, well Deep Throat is probably the most successful Porn film of all time, both in terms of profit and exposure. It was released just at a time when Porn was becoming a hot political issue... again... and when America was going through cultural change.

This documentary looks at Deep Throat and examines the cultural and political events that surrounded the production and the aftermath of the release, being banned state to state, with phenomenal demand still there for the film. It looks at the ways that the film affected the people who starred in it, made it, and those who were affected in other ways too.

I think I was drawn to this film because a film like this could go two ways, it could either be gratuitous for gratuity's sake, or it could serve a purpose. I firmly believe that it is the latter, and I think the agenda it is trying to serve is to point out that as a nation too much importance is put on the immorality of pornography. In the film they discuss a scientific paper that was commissioned by the Nixon administration into the effect that pornography had on a person. This scientific study found that pornography had no detrimental effect on those who viewed it. This not being what they wanted to hear the report was basically ignored and Nixon went after the adult film industry in a big way. Cut to the eighties and Reagan and once again porn is an issue. Reagan is smart so he issues an unscientific study which relied on personal testimony rather than trials, and through selecting who you interview it was found that porn was dangerous, so a moral crusade was launched.

The point of all this is that the government in America, at the time at least, seemed far too concerned with the worries of a right wing Christian fringe group that was pushing this agenda than say, improving American healthcare. It was populist rather than a serious issue. But this film isn't a glowing appraisal of the porn industry. For those of you who've seen Boogie Nights (if not then why not?) there is a strong case to be made that the lead actor from Deep Throat was one of the inspirations for Dirk Diggler. Also interviewed are Linda Lovelace's sister, a harsh critic of the film and the industry; and these people are not shown up or victimised, they are respected and listened to.

I enjoyed this film, it was a strong documentary and I feel like I know more having seen it, it's a fairly tough topic to get people to open up about, but they do a fine job here and create a really interesting piece of film.

Avengers Assemble (2012)

So this is the film that they've been building up to for what seems like forever. Many complains were thrown at the preceding films stating that they felt more like very long trailers for the Avengers rather than a film about the character at hand, and sometimes those claims were probably partly justified (Captain America I'm looking at you), but sometimes I think the films fif particularly well on their own; I have a weak spot for Thor, which I thought was good fun entertainment. The worst thing this film could do though was be Iron Man 2 - Long and boring. It is long, but I don't think it's boring, thankfully.

The film begins doing exactly what the title suggests, it sets up a situation that Nick Fury & Co. Can't quite handle alone, and he begins getting together the world's most powerful people. These include Captain America (the kind of leader of the gang), Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Crucially to the success of the film, Hulk. Now Hulk has gone through a troubled series of films. It's never been clear that people really knew what to do with the character. The Ang Lee 'Hulk' was notable for the inventive use of comic book panels in the film, but was ultimately quite a flat and forgettable film. I never saw the Ed Norton Incredible Hulk, and have heard mixed reviews, but it didn't perform as hoped at the box office and HUlk has kind of been shelved ever since; until now.

Once all the characters have aired their grievances with one another and begun fighting amongst themselves, an event happens to unify them. I won't give too much away, but it is orchestrated by Loki (Thor's adopted brother and chief bad man in this film). The build up to this moment I found to be a little slow and it was the middle portion of the film that I felt was the weakest and failed to grab you in the same way that the rest of the film did. However, my friend sitting next to me expressed the opposite opinion, that it was here that he felt genuine threat and where the story really worked; so I could very well be wrong on this one.

Then we get the final battle between good and evil. This is a lot of fun, but it could be argued that it follows fairly conventional Hollywood lines of getting all the action out in one big bang at the end, with big explosions and crazy stuff going on everywhere. However, whilst this is a little bit of a normal occurrence in blockbusters, it isn't always done well. I thought it worked well here, with some very well choreographed action sequences mixed with wonderful one liners and lots of smashing from the aforementioned Hulk.

The humour is a large factor in the success of the film in my opinion, and it is here that Joss Whedon really makes his mark. One of the reasons why I hate Iron Man 2 so much is because it lost a lot of the humour and fun of the first film and ended up being about a self obsessed man with no sense of humour. Similarly, Thor worked really well, because let's face it, Thor is a ludicrous character, because it could laugh at itself and say, yes, this is stupid, but what the hell. Joss Whedon has made a living with great one liners littered throughout otherwise quite serious topics, probably best shown in Firefly. This is no exception, each character getting some wonderful and memorable lines to spout out to break some of the tension. The other area Whedon shines is through the strong women he writes so well, turning Scarlett Johansson's character from unlikeable into one of the essential characters in the film.

The film does have flaws, I've mentioned the slightly sagging mid section, and I would also add that it is too long. I understand that there are a lot of characters to reintroduce and I admire how well a job he did in getting it moving as well as he did, but it was noticeable. Also there were a few moments of cheese such as the closing line, which quite frankly is terrible. But I guess this is a superhero blockbuster, and maybe the cheese just comes with the territory.

This is a strong film, a film that is a lot better than it really has any right to be. It's not groundbreaking, It's not even close, but it is a lot of fun, and a very enjoyable film is really all I wanted from this film. I liked this film, and I think if you're after a blockbuster that isn't shit like transformers, then you couldn't go too wrong with Avengers Assemble.

Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979)

Okay, so I decide that it's time. For years I have not watched a single Star Trek film, with no good reason to back up the decision. So the first Star Trek film seemed like the natural place to start. WRONG. This film is a waste of 2 hours, and I've checked with my friends who are big Star Trek fans, and they say that this film could easily be avoided, make no dent in understanding any other part of the franchise, and make everyone a whole lot happier as part of the deal. Unfortunately I am a completist and felt a need to start at number one.

So what makes the film bad? The main reason this film is a pile of shit is that it is 2 hours and basically nothing happens. I could easily sum up the first hour of the film with the phrase - they travelled to a big blue planet. Along the way we get lots of self congratulatory comments about getting the gang back together, and far far far too many external shots of the Enterprise, one sequence lasts around 7 minutes, and that's it, just showing off a ship with no dialogue. Let's face it, we've seen the enterprise before, and it's a fairly smooth structure, not that much going on. Admittedly it's a lovely model, Douglas Trumble's involvement is a sure fired reason to praise the special effects, but there really is only so much you can take.

Shatner is another problem. Now I know there's not much you can do about the star of the show when it comes to adapting it for the big screen, but the man can't act. To me his acting style is very much similar to that of a young amateur Shakespearian actor who feels the need to put emphasis in places that the dialogue should add natural emphasis. In short it's laughable. On the plus side, Kirk is such a proud and pompous character that it kinda works. The rest of the cast I have few issues with, and all do their jobs with aplomb.

The story is about a large blue mass that is moving toward earth, looking to swallow it up like it had done other planets, seeking information on the universe before destroying it. The Enterprise must go investigate this mass and conclude what to do. They spend the majority of the film getting there, with no excitement along the way, and when they get there very little changes. There are questions about Spock's loyalty to the mission, and a few times when the ship doesn't work properly, but other than that it's fairly pedestrian. The planet turns out to be a computer of sorts, which of course means Spock communicates with it the most. There's a twist (kind of) and a message which wouldn't have been too far out of place in a Hippy commune, and then that's that.

This film suffers from being dull, something that they thankfully solved for the next film in the series. It was a failed attempt to capture the Star Wars Market, when instead they should have been  creating their own market. This film would have made a great opening 20 minutes of another film, but really they couldn't stretch it that far. Unfortunately, whilst I am ultimately glad to have seen it in order to get me on my way to watching more Star Trek films, It leaves me with no desire to ever watch it again, and if I didn't know better was to come, then I'd be very tempted to give up now.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

Sp; Nic Cage... I know he's a Coppola, and that probably explains it, but how on earth does this man get so much work. There can't surely be as many people as me who like to watch his films out of awe, a sick obsession where you are constantly wondering if he can get worse than he has previously (The answer is normally yes). I don't even think his films do that much money, and yet he's constantly being handed these high budget films which are supposed to appeal to God knows who and he's had a career that's lasted an unfair amount of time considering.

Now we have the Sorcerer's Apprentice, a film where Nic Cage plays a Sorcerer, who yes, takes on an apprentice, an apprentice who is supposedly going yo be the salvation for the planet, who will finally bring about an end to the bad Wizards in the world. This apprentice is a fairly geeky kid who doesn't really believe what's happening to him, let alone any of the nonsense about him being a chosen one. It's a fairly tired conceit if I'm honest, and feels very much like a lot of Disney crap that they're putting out from their live action arm at the moment.

I assume this film is aimed at pre-teen boys, and it really does feel like that a lot of the time, but whilst other 'kids films' don't patronise or bore the audience, this film does. You've got Nic Cage delivering every line like it's a deep and meaningful message, and action that really fizzles out rather than bangs.

The long and short of it is that this film sucks. Like it's really bad. I think young children may enjoy it for the ridiculous nature of it, but like so many films you enjoy as a child, if you watch it later in life (say when you have independent thought), then you'll wonder why you watched it in the first place. Avoid.