Director: Len Wiseman

Main Stars: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Kevin Smith

Rating: ****

John McClane (Willis) is back. This time a routine request to pick up a low level hacker (Long) for questioning turns into a life and death struggle with the wealth of the nation at stake. Can he keep themselves alive long enough to find out who is responsible for the chaos being inflicted upon the entire Eastern seaboard? I generally hate sequels and I abhor film franchises. They all follow a predictable pattern. The first one is great and makes a bunch of money so they trot out sequel after sequel with each new one a little worse than the last. Occasionally however one film will manage to stand out and approach the greatness of the original. This is the case here. The fourth entry in the Die Hard series is easily the best since the first one. The dynamic between Long and Willis is enjoyable without degenerating into the cliché cop buddy situation. Despite getting a bit long in the tooth, Willis still manages to kick ass. And while I tend to roll my eyes at hacker based movies I found myself able to accept the high tech wizardry in this case. Even more so as the situations are somewhat based on past and present events. Finally, we get to see Kevin Smith in a film where he's not doing his Silent Bob shtick. Great mindless fun.

Director: Martin Scorsese

Main Stars: Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Christopher Lee, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield

Rating: *****

Set in 1931, 12 year old Hugo (Butterfield) spends his days in the Paris train station maintaining the time of the various clocks, stealing to survive, and dodging the resident policeman (Cohen) and his dog. He spends most of his time tirelessly working to repair the last reminder of an more joyful time - an advanced automaton which he believes contains a message from his deceased father (Law). Standing in his way is a crotchety toy story owner with a secret past. This is an amazing film, one of the best I've seen in a long, long time. The story is equal parts charming, moving, and funny. It's one of those movies that takes awhile to develop but is well worth the effort...a terrific journey culminating in a celebration of cinema itself. In addition to terrific performances (the boy who plays Hugo is mesmerizing), the 3D is the best I've ever seen. For once it feels like an essential part of the story rather than just a gimmick. While this might be marketed as Scorcese's first children's film I think it is very grown up feature and ranks up there with his best. I can't recommend this enough.

Director: Phillip Noyce

Main Stars: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl

Rating: ***

CIA Agent Evelyn Salt (Jolie) having been recently freed from a North Korean prison now finds herself in the safety and monotony of the bureau headquarters. That monotony is soon shattered when during an interrogation with a Russian defector (Olbrychski) it is claimed that she herself is a Russian spy. One who is tasked with killing the visiting Russian president and igniting a world war. As suspicions arise it seems only her partner (Schreiber) is willing to back her up. I love Angelina Jolie and find her to be a whole bag of yum. In fact, that is the only reason I chose to watch this. Had this movie come out with any other actress starring I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought. So how does she fare as a secret agent? Pretty good actually. In fact for the first half of the film I was glued to the screen and during the opening chase scene was actually on the edge of my seat. I had already made up my mind that this was going to be a great film because it seemed fairly realistic - more Bourne, less Bond. But then things went to hell in the second half and got unbelievably hokey. I get that these films are supposed to entertain, but the end just didn't vibe with the plausibility so carefully crafted during the beginning - which is a shame. An inconsistent effort with some great eye candy.

Director: Christian Alvart

Main Stars: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue, Cung Le, Eddie Rouse

Rating: ***

Corporal Bower (Foster) is awoken from hypersleep on the starship Elysium. A ship whose purpose is the colonization of a newly discovered world. Suffering the effects of such a prolonged sleep he has no recollection of who he is, how long he's been out, and what his mission is. His commander (Quaid) soon awakens, also suffering from memory loss, and together they find themselves alone in the universe. Or are they? As the ship is explored its sinister cargo is slowly revealed...A somewhat paint by numbers monsters in space flick. Still, I didn't think it was as bad as what most critics say. Yes it's a bit spastic, it's derivative, Dennis Quaid is in it, there's some gaps in plot and so on, but the acting is good and it had enough neat scenes to keep me interested until the end. And the ending is actually probably my favorite part of the movie. I thought it was pretty cool and unexpected. It may be a mishmash of other sci-fi classics but at least it takes the best parts from each one. Pandorum is no Alien, but it's no Jason X either. Good Halloween viewing!

Director: George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand

Main Stars: Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Alec Guiness, Peter Mayhew, Billy Dee Williams

Rating: *****

I was super excited to get this when news broke that the Star Wars trilogy was finally going to be released on Blu-Ray. As soon as it was possible I pre-ordered it from Amazon. But as the release date grew nearer and as people who had seen sneak peeks of the films started complaining I started to rethink things. I knew beforehand that Lucas in his stubbornness had refused to release the original films without all his 'improvements' that were in the DVD releases. So that wasn't the issue. It was the fact that he had changed things even more! Eventually I cancelled my order. Then a few days later I found it on sale for only $35 so in the end I caved and bought it. Everyone knows the stories so I won't rehash them here. I also won't go on about how Lucas has raped my childhood memories with his constant tinkering. Nor will I go on how I could care less about the prequel films. How Mark Hamill's bad acting is endearing while Hayden Christensen's is abysmal. How C3PO's comic relief is entertaining while Jar Jar's is cringe inducing. And so on. I also won't talk about the new changes as they're analyzed in detail elsewhere.  I will however talk about the video quality. Unfortunately these are not reference material. Empire looks the best, then Return, then Star Wars. There's a complicated reason why but it doesn't matter. This is still the best that these movies will ever look. And by virtue of the higher resolution I was able to occasionally spot things I hadn't noticed before. What is reference material however is the sound. All films are presented in DTS-HD 6.1 surround and sound amazing. Previous flaws with the back channels being reversed have been fixed. Sadly if you want the slew of behind the scenes, deleted scenes and so on you're forced to buy the complete set with all six movies. Yet another annoyance. But when all is said and done, once you pop a disc in and the intro credits roll and the iconic score kicks in you soon overlook the flaws as you are taken to a galaxy, far, far away.

Director: Lee Tamahori

Main Stars: Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri

Rating: **

Maxwell Hooper (Nolte) is a cop in LA during the 50's. He leads a team of detectives who are responsible for cleaning up the city without concern of how they achieve that goal. One day a woman (Connelly) ends up dead in the desert. A woman whom he once had an affair with and who's indiscretions lead the investigation to the highest levels of the US government. Can he solve the mystery of her murder while keeping his infidelity from his loving wife? Not to be confused with the head trip Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, this film started with lots of promise. It has a great cast - in addition to those listed above it also stars Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, and Bruce Dern with William Petersen and Rob Lowe having cameos as well. The director has gone for a film noir style which for the most part works well. The time period is captured nicely and after the discovery of the body the tension slowly builds. The acting is solid but not overly memorable. Ultimately things spin out of control near the end as the plot becomes implausible and forced. Lots of people have compared this movie with Chinatown in terms of atmosphere and the setting. Not having seen it I can't really comment, but my guess is its likely a better choice.

Director: Julian Schnabel

Main Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze, Anne Consigny

Rating: *****

Jean-Dominque (Amalric) is a successful magazine editor in Paris. One day while driving with his son through the countryside he is struck down by a stroke which leaves him paralyzed and unable to talk. His only way of communicating is spelling out words by blinking his eyes when someone says the correct letter. In doing so, his first sentence is 'I want to die'. Abandoned by his lover, his only human contact consists of his speech therapist, his ex-wife, and the occasional visit from his children. He spends his time clinging to sanity initially by retreating into a world of memories. Eventually though, through his glacial form of dictation he ends up writing a book chronicling what he is going through. This was an extremely hard movie to watch. But I knew that going in. For most of the movie we literally experience what the main character experiences through his eyes. The blurred vision and the claustrophobia of being paralyzed. Winner of multiple awards and based on a true story, this French film is subtitled in English. Unlike most Hollywood movies there's no forced sentimentality here. It's heart wrenching yes, but it's authentic and not contrived. A beautiful and moving film, that despite being depressing as hell is amazing nonetheless.

Director: John Frankenheimer

Main Stars: Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Sean Bean, Katarina Witt

Rating: ***

Sam (De Niro) is an out of work ex-CIA operative. While in Paris he gains employment as part of a team tasked with the retrieval of a mysterious case. With the team consisting of ex-KGB spies, SAS experts, and Irish terrorists can everyone be trusted? More importantly can they pull it off? What an amazing cast! I couldn't believe how many great actors were in this. But the teaming of De Niro and Jean Reno (The Professional) was perfect. If only the story was as good. Some things I liked. When one of the members unceremoniously gets kicked out of the team you know he'll be back for payback. Except that doesn't occur. I mean, how often in movies does that happen? It's so predictable and tired. In that respect the story pretty much follows it's own path and isn't clichéd. I didn't even mind that you never find out what's in the case. A similar plot device was used with the briefcase in Pulp Fiction - I like when movies do that. My issue was that the case switched hands at least a dozen times to the point where things just became implausible. Frankenheimer is pretty much the father of the car chase ever since he directed The French Connection. And he doesn't disappoint here. And unlike today no tricks or CGI was used - the cars actually travelled at a high rate of speed culminating in a white knuckle race against traffic through a Parisian tunnel. This was one of the very few car chases that literally had me on the edge of my seat. Add in the film being filmed on location throughout France and you have a pretty decent action flick.

Director: Tim Burton

Main Stars: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Bill Murray

Rating: *****

Ed Wood (Depp) is a struggling director. He has the vision but can't get anyone to back his films. One day he bumps into screen legend Bela Lugosi (Landau) and by attaching his name to a script finally gets the green light. However a masterpiece it's not and his girlfriend (Parker) soon realizes he's not the visionary genius she thought - oh, and she's not sure how she feels about his hobby of wearing women's clothes. Arguably one of Tim Burton's least recognized films is also one of his best. While there's the occasional touch of visual weirdness we've all come to associate with Burton, for the most part this is a regular stand up movie. Longtime collaborator Depp is great as always in his portrayal of the man who was so bad he was good and who ended up ushering in the concept of a cult film. But the breakthrough role goes to Landau. His resulting Oscar was well deserved. While Depp is the star this really is his film. I also enjoyed watching this in black and white. It's a perfect way of sucking you into that time period and frankly I wish more films were filmed that way. Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space is generally regarded as the worst film ever made, but I now want to see it more than ever.

Director: Zach Snyder

Main Stars: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Scott Glenn

Rating: **

Baby Doll (Browning) is set to inherit her mother's fortune. The night her mother dies she confronts her evil stepfather who's in the process of trying to rape her sister. During the struggle her sister is killed and she is blamed for it and sentenced to an insane asylum where in five days she'll be lobotomized to keep her silent. In order to survive she retreats into a fantasy world in which she controls her destiny. When I saw the trailer for this I was instantly interested. But when the bad reviews rolled in I held off seeing it until it came out on Blu-Ray - the promise being the extended cut with all the footage director Synder was forced to cut to satisfy the studio's requirement for a PG-13 rating would make for a better film. Sadly it didn't. Normally the thought of hot girls wearing short skirts and stockings while firing big ass guns would be something out of an erotic vision. But without a compelling story it doesn't go far enough. You can argue that the director's debut, 300, wasn't exactly Shakespeare. But at least the story was coherent. I just didn't buy the transition from reality to fantasy. I get what the director was trying to achieve, it was just sloppy in its execution. This could have been a great movie had someone else penned the script. Snyder is a great visionary, just not a great story teller. Excellent visuals and a strong soundtrack just can't make up for the weak narrative.

Director: Mark Christopher

Main Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, Mike Myers, Sela Ward

Rating: ***

Shane (Phillippe) is a typical teen living in Jersey during the late 70's. Working at a crap job and dealing with a broken family he looks across the river and dreams of life in the big city. One day he gets his wish as he is allowed into the legendary Studio 54 and enters into a new realm of sex, drugs, and fame. He's on top of the world - until the party comes to a crashing halt. This is an alright film - it captures the era well but the story doesn't really offer any huge insights into that time period. Think of it as Boogie Nights Lite. When this came out and I saw that Mike Myers was in it I rolled my eyes (way to ruin a serious movie). But I have to say he was terrific. I was surprised to find that he can actually act in a role that's not part of his usual shtick. Salma (yum) makes for great eye candy and the disco soundtrack is fun to listen to. However, I wish that Neve's role was more substantial. They easily could have made the relatively short runtime a bit longer to focus more on her. Overall a fairly interesting trip into the era and one of its most notorious clubs.

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Main Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Rating: ***

Nina (Portman) is a professional dancer about to achieve her dream of landing the star role in the New York production of Swan Lake. However first she must contend with the advances of the artistic director (Cassel), her smothering mother, and jealousy from the other dancers. Days before the premiere a dancer named Lily (Kunis) befriends her and takes her on a wild ride of sex and drugs. Once the pills wear off it soon becomes apparent that Lily has an ulterior motive and is in fact scheming to take over her role. When this came out I wanted to see it as I like Portman (she won an Oscar for her role) and well, all the talk about the lesbian scene peaked my interest. But while watching it I couldn't help comparing it to Showgirls....with a bit of Psycho thrown in. This is one of those films where a standout performance by the main star is wasted on a mediocre storyline. I just didn't buy her descent into madness and found the related visuals to be over the top and unnecessary. While I liked the insight into the world of Ballet and enjoyed the musical score, I'm pretty sure an actual production of Swan Lake would be immensely more entertaining.

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Main Stars: Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan, Don Johnson

Rating: ****

"You just f**ked with the wrong Mexican." This is either the worst movie ever made or the best. It depends on your affinity for pulpy, gratuitous sex and violence. Personally I loved it. Machete was first seen as a fake movie trailer in the Rodriquez/Tarantino Grindhouse movie. Audiences loved it so much they turned it into a real movie. Machete (Trejo) is a Federale who having been previously double crossed by an evil drug lord (Steagal) is now forced to work in the US as an illegal day laborer. One day a wealthy business man offers him $150,000 to assassinate a local politician who's tough on immigration platform has him leading the polls. While there's an overall theme regarding the issue of illegal immigrants this movie is really all about the action. Early on the title character disembowels a bad guy and jumps out a hospital window while using the guy's intestines as a rope. Violent yes, but also very funny. It never takes itself to seriously. When we first see Lindsay Lohan she's wacked out of her mind on drugs and by the end of the story becomes a nun. This is seriously good stuff. Over the top violence, lots of nudity and even the occasional one liner - "Machete don't text" - equals one hell of a fun film providing you can turn your brain off at the door.

Director: Michael Apted

Main Stars: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes, Will Poulter, Tilda Swinton

Rating: ***

First a disclaimer: I absolutely love the Narnia set of books. As a little kid they were literally magical to me. In fact at one point my imaginary friend was Aslan - sad but true. Voyage is the third film in the series (although not the third book) and it almost didn't get made. Disney backed out of financing the project at the last minute and it was delayed for over a year before Fox stepped in. It's a good thing they did because I rather enjoyed it. Lucy (Henley) and Edmund (Keynes) along with their annoying cousin Eustace (Poulter) are drawn back into Narnia through an old painting of a ship on the high seas. They are rescued at sea by none other than Prince Caspian (Barnes) and together they sail into the unknown in a quest to find out what happened to seven exiled Lords. Overall this had mixed reviews. But most of the bad reviews all dwelled upon the story. Apparently they didn't realize these movies are based on the books and for the most part follow the story faithfully. I think they did a great job and I found myself enjoying remembering parts I had previously forgotten. The other knock is that to save money this was filmed on digital instead of film. Personally, outside of one scene in a town that had a painfully obvious CGI backdrop, I thought it looked stunning. The Silver Chair has already been green lighted and I can't wait to revisit this wonderful world again.

Director: McG

Main Stars: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Ironside

Rating: **

In a post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor (Bale) leads the humans against the evil robots of Skynet. Along the way he crosses paths with Marcus (Worthington) who may or may not be the enemy and who may or may not be human. Marcus claims he is there to protect Kyle Reese who while just a kid, will go on to be Connor's father in the past (or is that in the future?) - if Reese dies then Connor will never be born and then mankind is doomed - and hopefully we'd have an end to these moronic sequels. It was during filming that Bale had his famous meltdown. He was probably just pissed off that he agreed to be in this crap. And nothing screams 'B-movie' like having Michael Ironside in it. That the director only has one name should have also been a warning...in fact, the only thing preventing me from giving this the lowest possible rating was that I liked Sam Worthington and that there was a grand total of two scenes which I thought looked pretty cool visually. Hey Hollywood, here's a suggestion for the title of the next sequel: 'Terminator You Just Wasted Your Hard Earned Money'.

Director: Nimrod Antal

Main Stars: Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo

Rating: ***

Ya I know. I watched this despite my intense dislike of sequels, remakes, re-imagings etc. At least I managed to hold off for over half a year. This Robert Rodriguez produced update pretends that Predator 2 and the god-awful Alien vs. Predator movies never existed. That's probably a good thing. The film opens with the main character (Brody) awakening to find himself falling through the atmosphere towards the ground, desperately struggling to open the parachute he discovers attached to his back. He soon is joined by others who also found themselves falling from the sky. How did they get there? Where are they? And what's that big ass creature with wicked dreads and a laser cannon on it's shoulder? The reason sequels suck is because nothing is new. The shock is gone. We know the characters, we know what will happen. Predator in hindsight wasn't a great movie, but the audience was seeing the creature for the first time and that discovery process was enough to turn a mediocre film into a sci-fi classic. Thankfully, for the most part this one manages to be fairly enjoyable. Brody might not have the hulking presence of Arnie, but he still commands your attention. The effects are top notch and the action is fast and furious. A couple of things that rubbed me the wrong way was a surprise twist which felt contrived, and the appearance of Fishburne's character who having survived 10 years by using his wits suddenly got awfully stupid. Despite it's flaws, this one is a worthy successor to the original.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Main Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe

Rating: *****

Part Matrix, part Dark City, part Eternal Sunshine, Inception is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. I won't discuss the plot because that would ruin the first part of the movie which is confusing as hell. But stick with it as it's worth the effort. With unique and memorable films such as Memento and now Inception, director Nolan has proved himself to be one of the most innovative movie makers of our time. DiCaprio, whom I'm normally not a huge fan of finally comes across as a seasoned actor and Ellen Page as always is terrific to watch. The pacing is perfect and I was on the edge of my seat throughout. In addition to great visuals the sound was intense - the pictures on the walls were rattling during more than a few scenes. I honestly can't think of anything that I didn't like except perhaps that it had to end. Inception is simply an amazing and heady trip of a movie!

Director: Byron Haskin

Main Stars: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Lewis Martin

Rating: ****

One night the sky lights up over a sleepy town outside of Los Angeles as a object from outer space crashes off in the distance. Renowned scientist (Barry) Dr. Forrester is called in to investigate the strange object and while there is smitten with the Pastor's daughter (Robinson). Before long the object splits open to reveal a fantastical machine rising from the ashes. Deducing they are from Mars the townfolk decide to greet the Aliens - after all they're friendly right? I actually liked the remake even though I generally despise Tom Cruise. So when this mint Laserdisc version showed up I was eager to compare. Obviously being as this was made in the early 50's it somewhat reveals it's era - everyone smokes and is exceedingly friendly to each other. But what blew me away were the special effects. For a movie over 50 years old and before CGI was invented it holds up really well. The scenes of destruction in Los Angeles were especially impressive. There's even a shout-out to Canada which was surprising. One of the all time great science fiction movies that stands the test of time.

Director: Michel Gondry

Main Stars: Seth Rogan, Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz, Cameron Diaz, Edward James Olmos

Rating: ***

With the sudden death of his father - a man he despised - Britt Reid (Rogan) finds himself the owner of the local newspaper, the Daily Sentinel. Having spent his life growing up surrounded in luxury and concerned only with getting to the next party and bagging the next girl he now finds himself wanting to do more with his life. He teams up with his father's mechanic extraordinaire (Chou) and cruises the city in his wonder car, the Black Beauty, to fight crime. With his exploits gaining media attention he turns to his newly hired secretary (Diaz) to give him pointers on how to be a super hero. We got to see this as a private screening for cheap but normally I probably wouldn't have gone to see this. Seth Rogan as a super hero? Really? Despite my reservations he was actually rather enjoyable. With him in it you know this isn't going to be super serious - this is no Batman Begins - but the movie never descends into campiness and has a nice balance overall. The dynamic between him and Chou as his sidekick Kato works well and Cameron Diaz plays the prerequisite love interest. While not being overly familiar with the story I did notice the shout out to Bruce Lee which I thought was a nice touch. It may not be the best comic book adaptation, but it's better than most and overall is pretty entertaining.