Movies Watched In 2018 - To Infinity & Beyond!

This is a quite fantastic British comedy about a young couple who get married and buy a small cottage out in the countryside. Unfortunately the bride's father interferes with the renovating in the cottage which leads to all kinds of complications! Using every slapstick and farce joke they can lay their hands on, scriptwriters Jack Davies and Henry Blyth keep the pace rushing along at such a gallop you get carried away with their enthusiasm. James Robertson Justice is superb as the pompous overbearing father Sir Beverly Grant with excellent backup by Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, Sally Smith and Ronnie Barker as a builder. There are many funny moments in this movie but one thing is for certain - you're bound to be laughing a lot throughout. British comedy lovers should definitely check this out.

Scotland Yard's Inspector Lawrence discovers the Crown of St Edward has been stolen from the Tower of London in a daring daylight robbery. The culprit is super villain Jenebel dubbed The Queen Of The World. It's up to suave, debonair playboy Sir Reginald Hoover's alter-ego Argoman with his telekinetic powers to stop her!

This is a truly dreadful Euro super hero parody movie which has it's tongue well and truly in cheek. It's like the Batman TV series except it's far worse than it. The superhero's attire is a pathetic yellow spandex costume with a mask and when he uses his powers his eyes light up green! Just one drawback to those powers though - if he shags somebody he loses those powers for 6 hours!! The plot is nonsensical and the only good thing I can say about this movie is the eye-candy on display in the villain Jenebel and Sir Reginald Hoover's girlfriend who wear quite revealing clothes. If want a good chuckle after a drinking session you could no worse than watch it otherwise steer clear of it.

Three aliens travel to Earth on a mission in preparation for a mass invasion. Having taken possession of human bodies, the visitors rob their hosts of the very essence of their being, leaving psychological and spiritual devastation in their wake.

This movie by Kiyoshi Kurosawa started out quite well with a husband acting rather odd in a hospital and a schoolgirl who murders 2 old people in their home but then the story slows right down and doesn't really pick up again until about 25 mins before the end. Kurosawa's usual deadpan sense of surrealist humour is at full effect at all times. There's a few good action scenes usually with the alien schoolgirl blowing people away with pistols or machine guns. As the movie drags for over 2 hours, there are pacing issues with the story which doesn't help with the flow - a good 30 mins should have been cut. I can't say this is one of Kurosawa's best work and I don't think I'd watch it again.

An English journalist accepts a wager from Edgar Allen Poe and his friend Lord Blackwood that he cannot spend a night in the haunted Blackwood castle. Once there, the writer wanders around the dusty rooms and corridors, until music and a glimpse of a waltzing couple lead him into an empty room. He is surprised to be tapped on the shoulder by the stunningly beautiful Elizabeth Blackwood. She informs him with an ambiguous charming/eerie manner that she has prepared his room upstairs and that someone is always expected on this night...the Night of the Dead. Thus begins a startling series of supernatural events that bewilder the journalist all the rest of the night.

This is a well executed old and very dark house Italian gothic horror. The story is interesting with many twists and turns - so many that you are wondering just who is and who isn't among the undead by the end of the movie. It gets very high marks for creating a creepy atmosphere. The house, black & white cinematography and music work together to make for a scary looking movie. Scream Queen Barbara Steele is her usual beautiful/creepy self. The movie delivers in terms of macabre visuals and shivers with many memorable moments. This is one Italian Gothic horror that is genuinely deserving of its praise. Go watch!

Based on the popular BBC radio series that was running at the time, this comedy is about an inept crew of a mine-sweeping unit off the fictional island of Boonsey in the English Channel. None of the cast from the radio series apart from Leslie Phillips appear in the movie which is s shame as I'm sure Jon Pertwee and Ronnie Barker would have fitted in nicely in this movie. The plot of the movie is about the Admiralty trying to close down the mine-sweeping unit with the crew getting up to all sorts of mischief to make sure that doesn't happen. You could say this movie is sort of like one of the Carry Ons with it's humour and there is plenty of laughs to be had. Cecil Parker has the leading role as the man in charge of the mine-sweeping operation. Ronnie Shiner tries his best to be like Sid James even attempting to copy his dirty laugh at times. It might not be a classic comedy movie but it's a good one to put your feet up, disengage your brain and just enjoy the shenanigans that takes place.

Burt Lancaster is Ned Merrill, a guy who one day decides to swim his way home, via all his neighbours pools. He stops for chats, drinks and even a frolic in some woods with a buxom blonde teenager. It appears at first he is doing this for fun, then snippets of things that some neighbours say unveil a darker story. This is a weirder movie than it sounds, they way things happen and the interactions with the neighbours is occasionally surreal. It was a box office failure when it was released but has now become a cult classic. The movie draws you in from the first moment and gives you a fantastic performance from Burt Lancaster. His character at first oozes confidence and somebody in the picture of health but in the last scene he's a wreck of a man. Lancaster for a man in his early 50's at the time of filming looked in amazing shape. In the end, this is a great movie of somebody who lost the American Dream. Definitely well worth checking out.

An interesting version of the Robin Hood story by Hammer Studios. Robin de Courtenay is a Norman nobleman falsely accused by his cousin Roger of murdering his other cousin Henry. Forced to turn outlaw, Robin flees the castle, joins a band of Saxon outcasts, and is dubbed Robin Hood. The fight for justice begins.

This version of the Robin Hood story features a number of twists, not the least of which is that Robin is a Norman and his close friends, Little John and Will Scarlet, are Norman retainers. Maid Marian has a rather limited role when compared to most other adaptations. Most, but not all, of the characters generally associated with Robin Hood are present in this version. Barrie Ingham is fine as Robin though he lacks the charisma of other actors that took the role before him. This well-made movie is well worth a look, particularly for those who enjoy the Robin Hood genre or classic adventures.

Vee Delmonico takes part in an underground internet game called Nerve. Participants are divided between players and watchers. Players do dares for money and watchers pay to watch the players on their 24 hour adventures. Her first dare is to kiss a stranger and she picks on a guy called Ian. They are then dared to partner up on an exciting journey into the city.

The premise, the style, and the actors make a fun, thrilling action adventure in the city. There are little problems that can be overlooked for the most part. The little twist at the end just came out of nowhere and didn't really make any sense? It was silly how the computer geeks managed to stop the server and end the game. The acting by Emma Roberts and Dave Franco was good, they really brought the characters to life and presented their torture from the game well. It was an enjoyable little movie and a fun watch in the end.

An all-boys school is turned upside down when a new French teacher turns out to be a sexy woman by the name of Madeleine Lafarge. The boys get all excited about her and the Headmasters son falls in love with her. The headmaster also has the headache of thinking he may be the girl's father since he had met her mother on a mountain-climbing trip 25 years prior.

The movie is basically a series of hi-jinks from the boys as they try to get extra French lessons from their new teacher or even watch her swim in a bikini. The script isn't the best and it gets rather stupid when one of the boys hear that Madeleine has to leave the school and every pupil goes out on strike and threaten to burn the school gym down. Those expecting big laughs from this movie are going to be disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it's still amusing but it's not the riotous romp you might think it is. There's a strong cast which includes Cecil Parker, Ian Bannen and James Robertson Justice. Apparently Michael Crawford who was 18 years old at the time of filming is in this movie as one of the pupils but I couldn't really spot him anywhere. It's just an OK comedy and not at all special.

This Italian-French production has a story is about the leader of a prehistoric hunting tribe who is murdered by one of his own people, an evil young tyrant. When the tribe banishes the killer, he wanders into an area of volcanic activity and witnesses the natural formation of an iron bar. Using this weapon and the knowledge of the means to create it, he becomes mad with power and sets forth on a bloody mission to conquer all mankind...one tribe at a time. It is up to his lifelong rival to thwart these sinister plans.

This is a poor movie from Italian director Umberto Lenzi. It's just 90 minutes of random loincloths and bludgeoning, with a boneheaded excuse for a plot attached. The dialogue and acting is as bad as I expected, but didn't give me any laughs. For some reason Lenzi gives us plenty of shots of a herd of buffalo on a grassy plain! I'm not sure if real animals were killed in this movie but given Lenzi's past record it wouldn't surprise me. Not worth bothering about this movie to be honest. Skip it!

After a gap of 54 years, everybody's favourite magical nanny is back but is this movie any good? This sequel is as much as homage to the original and doesn't necessarily add anything new. The plot's simple - Michael and Jane are now grown-up and Michael has three kids of his own, but the bank's trying to repossess his house, so they need to find a certificate of shares to save the house. Since everything's chaotic, Mary Poppins shows up to help look after the kids - John, Annabelle & Georgie.

There's some good animated (traditional cartoons, not CGI, which is nice) scenes, but overall nothing truly exciting or original seems to happen. None of the songs seem that memorable and definitely not as catchy as the original. Emily Blunt did a superior job in the acting department but it's clear she's no Julie Andrews. Her take on Mary Poppins seems a little too cold at times. It also seemed a little bit of coincidence that the young lad playing Georgie is similar in looks to the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge's son Prince George. There's a couple of nice cameos from Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. So even if this movie fails to capture the charm of the original, it's still a fun movie to go and see.

Finally a decent movie for Transformers fans. Ditching Michael Bay was the best thing that could have happened. The franchise has gone back to it's roots with the robots actually looking how they were in the 80's cartoons. The amazing opening sequence on Cybertron probably had fanboys drooling with favourites such as Shockwave and Starscream showing onscreen. It got myself excited anyway! It was good to see Bumblebee back as the VW Beetle we know and love. Kudos for director Travis Knight for understanding Transformers and giving what the true fans wanted. I enjoyed the relationship between Bumblebee and his human owner played by the lovely Hailee Steinfeld. The movie had tender character moments and comedic moment that weren't cheap but was actually rather funny, successfully fleshing out the warmth of Bumblebee's character and making us sympathize with the lovable Autobot. Bumblebee is a fresh entrance in the Transformers franchise and can hopefully mark an exciting new direction for the franchise.

Billed as a cross between Heathers and American Psycho, this is an unsettling albeit subtly humorous tale of two childhood friends, upper class Lily and sharp witted social outcast Amanda, who debate try to solve each others problems, no matter the cost. Their friendship is tested by a cold-blooded plan of murdering Lily's minted stepfather Mark whom she despises.

This movie is incredibly entertaining and intriguing from beginning to end. The story unfolds in a very interesting way and the ending left me satisifed. It manages to be both comedic and dark and balances the tone quite well. Anya Taylor Joy and Olivia Cooke have excellent chemistry together as Lily and Amanda. Although different personality wise, the subtle humour derives from the contrast between the two, such as Cooke's dry hilarity and emotionless stature, and Taylor-Joy's conflicting role as a young woman trying to cope with her terrible step-father. Director Cory Finley creates tension throughout some scenes with just dialogue and pacing without having to show any violence or gore on screen. He uses very descriptive disturbing dialogue, careful framing and pacing to make your skin crawl. Overall, this is an engaging and effective movie packed with impressive performances and a vision from a debutant director that gives a breath of fresh air to treaded ground. Do check it out.

A bus transporting prisoners is hijacked when a gang takes their leader back. The rest of the prisoners and the bus is locked up inside a barn which is doused with paraffin and will be set alight if anybody tries to escape.

This is a cracking low budgeter. Part of the story follows a police investigation as they attempt to track down the missing prisoners while another follows the melodrama taking place inside the barn as certain prisoners recall the tale of how they got to be arrested by the police in the first instance. There's a good cast which includes Peter Sallis as an unhinged lunatic who thinks everybody should be afraid of him. It's him that sets up the fiery and exciting finale. I enjoyed this little b-movie.

A realistic tale of puppy love between two 12 year olds who decide that they want to be together for the rest of their lives and marry straight away.

For anybody that has fallen in love for the first time at school, you'll find a lot of nostalgia in this great movie. The story revolves around the pair's growing up years at home, at school and outdoors. In the end, Daniel's friend Ornshaw helps the eager boy-girl couple to get married by playing the pastor performing their marriage ceremony with their school friends as the congregation. There are so many great moments in the movie that take you right through your childhood age although the anarchic final 20 mins is a bit far-fetched. The movie is directed by Waris Hussein who is best known for his work on the early episodes of Dr Who. The gentle soundtrack from the Bee Gees complemented the movie and helped to evoke the 70's era beautifully. An innocent and charming movie which will turn some viewers into hopeless romantics after watching it.

The Duchess is based on the true life story of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire who married William Cavendish, the 5th Duke of Devonshire in England in 1774. The facts of Georgiana's life form the basis of the movie's plot such as her initial failure to produce an heir to the Duke to her affair with the future Prime Minister Charles Grey.

This is a very beautiful looking movie. The costumes are grand and wonderful to look at. The art direction was also of a high end and there was a lot of detail put into this movie. They wanted to get the feel for the period. The director Saul Dibb seemed to be influenced by Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon with the amount of candle light shots and wonderful historical settings in Bath and the countryside. Dibb did a good job trying to keep a good pace and there solid attempt to make an interesting movie. Keira Knightley gives a powerful and sympathetic performance as The Duchess. Hayley Atwell has an interesting character as both Georgiana's best friend and the Duke of Devonshire's lover in what is a very complex relationship. All in all, The Duchess is a great costume drama full of compellingly deep characters. One to watch for sure.

Young Paul Grahame is the elder child in a family living well above their means. His mother Hester is a spendthrift badly hung up on money as some sort of status symbol, while his father, Richard is a gambler, and not a good one at that. The family are heading for bankruptcy unless some income comes in. Befriending the new handyman Bassett, Paul is delighted to find that Bassett is an ex-jockey and regales him with tales of horse racing, he even learns from Bassett how to ride his rocking horse like a real jockey. Then something magical happens, Paul seems to be able to predict the winners of real horse races, and the money starts to roll in…

D. H. Lawrence's story gets a faithful adaptation and transfers quite excellently to the screen. It's a haunting fantasy at heart, but one tinged with utter sadness. As the story progresses, it soon becomes evident that Paul has to ride his rocking horse to a frenzied climax, if he doesn't get there then he will not see the name of the next race winner. The irony of this movie is that Paul ends up virtually saving his family from financial ruin without them knowing it. The stress and strain of 'saving the family' soon becomes too great for Paul to bare. This is truly a bizarre story about how the burdens of a dysfunctional family are often placed on an innocent child who wants to fill a void that the adults aren't able, or willing, to do on their own. The whole cast is brilliant but especially John Howard Davies as young Paul. This story after almost 70 years still holds up well as one of the most sinister movies I've ever seen. Recommended.

A classic Christmas movie which is sadly neglected these days. This is the story of a Christmas in which the emotionally wounded family of a Church of England clergyman come home and attempt to have a happy holiday. It's a reasonably realistic look at a family of emotional cripples as they all try to put their lives back on track. Various members of the family have gone through painful experiences of one kind or another but have been afraid of telling their father as they thought he wouldn't understand as a vicar. Forget about the usual cheery Christmas movies in which everybody is happy and smiling. This is a real Christmas about real people. The movie has a tremendous cast in Ralph Richardson, Celia Johnson, Margaret Leighton, Denholm Elliot, and Hugh Williams! This is a movie that deserves wide attention and should be a Christmas staple.

An American comes over to Britain trying to find some information out about his younger brother who was killed in a commando raid during WWII but the shot that killed him did not come from a German soldier.

This is a great whodunit detective movie. It's not an easy task to discover details about a death during a commando raid, obviously a chaotic and deliberately secret event by nature. Although the American's motivations remain a bit fuzzy to everyone, he is doggedly determined. The result is an ending resolution that I found to be rewarding and finely done. Ray Milland is the perfect choice as the American. Director Jack Tourneur has made this movie like an Agatha Christie puzzle in which clues are slowly drip fed to the viewer. There are some fine shots of the Scottish Highlands as Milland pursues the truth north of the border, where the whistling of a folk tune called 'White Heather' takes on significance in terms of identifying the killer. Overall, this is a fantastic movie for those who love mystery stories.

Based on a stage play, Warren Mitchell is Fred Midway who is plotting his way up in the world by using devious methods such as posting anonymous letters to get rid of his competitors to rise up the ladder where he works. It seems the rest of the family also share his ideals of bettering themselves - by fair means or foul!

The story outline above sets the tone for the movie as Fred and his wife try to marry off their daughters to people in positions of power to further their standing in high society. Although Mitchell gets to play somebody other than Alf Garnett, at times in the movie the viewer does see some of Garnett showing through. There are a variety of beautiful ladies on display such as Adrienne Posta and Vanessa Howard to provide eye candy for the men. It's not a laugh out loud comedy in any shape or form but I found it amusing enough. The final scene of Fred Midway laughing victoriously as he blackmails the boss of his company is quite chilling. A good British low-budget comedy which is hardly seen these days.

Forlorn Frenchwoman Jane is a pregnant twenty-seven year old, unwed and alone who takes a room in a boarding house in London bustling with funny, mercurial people. Next door to her is a black jazz musician, downstairs is a handsome writer (who hasn't sold anything in months); down from him is a lesbian shut-in, the man-hungry landlady, and two prostitutes.

This is an excellent kitchen sink drama and character study, and features a career best performance from Leslie Caron who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance here. Though they all want her character Jane to get an abortion for various reasons, she refuses, and this forces them all to emerge from their shells and become a framework of friendship and love. There is not a single weak link in the cast, with Tom Bell, Avis Bunnage, Brock Peters and Pat Phoenix among others providing so many memorable moments. The exquisite Brahms score, Piano Concerto #1 which is so sad and beautiful only adds to the mood of the movie. If you ever get a chance to see this movie don't pass it up.

Young Prince George of the British Royal Family comes to Japan but gets bored quickly of protocol and duties. He disappears from where he is staying and decides to take a night bus tour of Tokyo where he meets and falls in love with Sumi, one of the bus guides.

This is an old-fashioned romantic drama which is very genteel and leisurely-paced, with an emphasis on the romantic dilemma at its core. A little bit of comedy is also added in. A sub-plot about Japanese nationalists who try to murder the Prince should have been serious but the bungling by them only makes you laugh at their antics. The notion of a Royal craving a simpler life and having a wild fling including sex outside of marriage with a Japanese civilian, no less was presumably a controversial theme when the movie was released in 1976. Michael York is fairly wooden as the Prince, though Hidemi Aoki is sweetly vulnerable as his love interest. The movie is OK for what it is, a light and harmless romantic melodrama.

Made a year before the Disney version came out, this movie is much closer to the fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Although there is no definitive version of the story, it is far better better than the Disney movie that there is no doubt. This new French version is different from many other versions because it concentrates much more on the family's back story and how awful Belle's siblings are. The movie is also visually breathtaking. The style takes from classic watercolour paintings and it gives the movie such a vibrant gorgeous storybook feel. The Beast also sports some pretty decent practical makeup that does a good job conveying what a humanised lion may be like. Vincent Cassel is great underneath all the makeup as The Beast with the beautiful Lea Seydoux complimenting alongside him as Belle. Director Christophe Gans did a wonderful job on this movie. It's a fairly impressive movie and I enjoyed it.

This is a rather weak spin-off movie from the Jimmy Edwards comedy series Whack-O! which has him as the headmaster of a private boys school trying to rein in the unruly pupils. The TV series was written by good comedy writers in Frank Muir and Dennis Norden but this movie has only a scant contribution from both and it shows. This movie just isn't that funny. Many viewers are also likely to be offended by Melvyn Hayes blacking up as a young Arabian Prince. Jimmy Edwards is assisted by a young Richard Briers and Donald Hewlett. It might be interesting for some to look back at a time when children were routinely beaten with a cane for minor transgressions. Compared to the more wittier St Trinian's series at the time, this looks poor beside them.

Chris Farraday is a retired smuggler turned family man who now owns his own business selling alarm systems. Farraday is forced back into the contraband game when his brother-in-law Andy, owes his boss Tom Briggs a large sum of money due to the drug deal he failed to deliver. Everything does not go according to plan when Farraday goes to Panama with his team of smugglers to repay Andy's debt.

This was a pretty good heist thriller. I thought the story was unique and the location too. I haven't seen many movies aboard freighters in the Panama Canal before. The action scenes were exciting, the cast more than decent and it had a pretty great ending. Mark Wahlberg carries the movie with more cool than edge, and even when the story gets mazy and convoluted, he's a genuine enough protagonist to make everything seem precisely clear: exactly when it needs to be. I was more than entertained with the movie and it is certainly a watch or two.

Hard pressed scientist Albert Dooley has little money to spend as his work with animals isn't proving as profitable as he hoped it would be. However one day his worthless duck is exposed to high levels of radiation. Taking the duck home with him he finds that it can be stimulated to lay eggs – eggs made of solid gold.

This is a typical example of the great family movies that Disney produced during this period. The plot is goofy and sets the tone for the sense of humour but it isn't used very well. Instead of laughs it really only produces energy and wackiness. There are a few laughs mostly during the car chase near the end. This is a fine movie for children and even adults should find it enjoyable.

After serving in the navy during WWII, a trio of ex-seamen buy their old patrol torpedo boat and decide to start smuggling some stuff between Britain and France. They make a lot of cash but one of them wants more so they team up with another smuggler and up their game in the business but this greed comes with a price to pay.

This morality tale may be a little heavy-handed at times, but it's engaging for all of that. An interesting cat-and-mouse scenario develops between the three smugglers - Richard Attenborough, George Baker & Bill Owen - and the customs officer, played by the excellent Bernard Lee. Things descend from high spirits to sordid crime and ultimately murder. And their spiral of disgrace is reflected in the declining reliability of their vessel and its final loss. There's plenty of open-air photography with some excellent shots at sea. It might not have a happy ending but it's a movie that is worth checking out.

One of the least successful of Ealing comedies. A dockers trade union supporter is sent by the Labour government to govern a small British colony in the Mediterranean. However, his blunt ways upsets everybody but when the natives grow restless and begin a riot, his skills are required to quell the uprising.

I can see why this movie wasn't that successful. It's billed as comedy but there's no laughs to be had. It's a painfully dull and unfunny movie. The story is basically about the culture clash between the snobs that have come over to rule and look down on the commoners and the ordinary people that live on the island. The cast which includes Eric Portman as the Governor do what they can with the poor script. It's not a movie I can really recommend.

A young gang of bored motorbike friends who are usually up to mischief around the shops of Bristol notices the door to a church open on their way home. Being curious about what's taking place inside,the gang enter the church and are met by the churchwarden Mr.Smith. Thinking that they can mess him around, one of the gang mention that they would like to perform some rock music in the venue, which to everyone's surprise, Mr.Smith agrees to. As their music ability starts to progress, tensions begin to build in the gang over fears that they are conforming.

Made just before the start of when the 'proper' swinging sixties took place, this is an interesting timepiece of what the restless youth of Britain was doing before The Beatles swept away the old and ushered in a new era for this country. There's a clash of culture at times in the story with the youth wanting excitement and respect and all the adults can offer them is a boring Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. The usual conflict between the youths of women coming in between male friends also comes up. It has a fine cast with Ray Brooks and Kenneth More as the main leads. A nice cameo also from Harry H Corbett. A great movie about the alienation of young people with the adults not willing to try and understand them.

A group of 5 friends start a yearly game of Tag when they are just young boys in school. The game starts and ends during the month of May. Whoever is IT at the end of May has to wait for the game to resume the next year in May again. Fast forward 30 years later to the present day and the boys are now grown up adults who are still playing the game once a year for the full month of May. It's also the one time of the year that brings the original guys back together so they don't lose touch with one another.

This is actually based on a true life story of a bunch of men that are still playing Tag and go great distances in order to try and tag the other players. I was rather curious, as the movie's concept is different to anything we have seen previous seen in a comedy. While the idea is good, the movie's end result can be rather average, and at times the joke can feel repetitive. Sometimes it feels like the same scene is repeated, with our main characters setting up a situation in order to try and catch Jeremy Renner's character. There's a great cast involved with Isla Fisher fantastic as the crazy wife of one of the players. I wouldn't say it's one of the best comedy movies of the year but I liked the unique concept of the story.

This is an intelligent action thriller. It features the story revolving around a potential threat of World War three. The movie begins with attacks on American and Russian submarines. The Russian president's life is in danger, and American navy officers team up with their Russian counterparts in order to save the Russian president and eliminate any possibility of World War three.

This movie has a decent story and screenplay, good direction, and intense performances. The action scenes are also nice, although some CGI experts may claim that the sequences could have been more refined and polished. I loved it anyway. The submarine battle scenes are great. The performances by all actors were great but Gerard Butler and Gary Oldman really stood out and shined greatly. Definitely worth taking a look at.

A teenage girl with a mentally ill mother finds some solace in the music of The Smiths.

This is a great movie which tackles a difficult subject with grace, compassion and insight. To do all of this whilst being so watchable and entertaining is pure genius. The writing by comedian Jo Brand and the directing by Keith English is nothing short of brilliant and a wonderful rollercoaster ride of comedy, sadness, and romance with touches of intrigue and excitement for good measure. The acting by the cast is fantastic with Sheridan Smith and Ella Hunt the stand out performers. All in all, this is a warm, kind and gentle movie which stirs up some genuine emotions.

This movie about two best friends who are thrown into the deep end of international spying was entertaining, funny, had a good cast but it was way too long. This movie, though, was predictable. I still enjoyed it despite its flaws. Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon had great chemistry and, for me, they carried the whole thing. Fans of action blockbusters might pass up what seems a light-hearted comedy but the action scenes are actually very good. They are funnier and also bloodier than you'll be expecting. In general the movie doesn't always hit the mark, but it entertains in both the action and comedy departments.

The movie starts with a train crash and then spends its bulk describing 4 separate situations that leads to various characters being on board the doomed train. We then return to the crash and see its aftermath. Sounds better than it is. The movie starts impressively with the force and speed of the train filmed very dramatically. This is by far the best part of the movie and provides a very powerful opening. As we meet the characters, the movie gets boring. Peter Finch's murderer has the most interesting story, but not much happens to him. And as for Jack Warner, he gets a Huggetts style family drama as a storyline. A very disappointing compendium movie from Ealing.

Martin Freeman plays Paul Maddens a failed actor now an underachieving primary school teacher. His former girlfriend left him some years ago and made it big in Hollywood. Now Paul has been put in charge to direct the Nativity play and vies to outdo a rival school whose head teacher he knew at University and rather envies. Paul lies that Hollywood casting agent will come to see the Nativity play which escalates out of control

I genuinely wanted to like this British Christmas comedy movie but couldn't because of one character - the annoying man-child teaching assistant Mr Poppy. Marc Wooton's overacting as Mr Poppy had me wishing that a berserk driver would enter the movie and run him over. The movie would have been better off without him but I suppose kids enjoy characters like him. The movie is lacking in laughs or memorable dialogue and is filled with scenes that just stretch credibility. I was glad when the movie ended so I could be put out of my misery. Families will no doubt have fun with this movie but I'm afraid I couldn't stand it.

A comedy heist movie based around the famous January 1950 robbery from the Boston branch of the Brinks warehouse depository. The strong cast is headed by a thoroughly engaging Peter Falk, taking a break from playing Columbo at the time and ably supported by the likes of Peter Boyle and Warren Oates. This is very much a character-based comedy with the occasional bit of slapstick and pratfall to see it through. If you're looking for a fast pace movie and lots of hijinks then you'll be disappointed. It does tend to drag at times. However, it's likable enough and I'm sure you'll get something out of it.

This comedy drama movie charts the rise of what would become a British institution for the next 30 to 40 years - the holiday camp. It also has the first appearance of the Huggett family who would get their own trilogy of movies in the future. The story follows many characters and what takes place to them over the space of a week at the camp. This may be a comedy movie but there's quite a shocking ending to the story in which an old spinster who dresses up like a young woman in order to attract men is killed (though the murder takes place off-screen). I wasn't expecting that at all and leaves a bitter taste afterwards in what was supposed to be a light-hearted movie. Overall, a good movie to find out where the people of post-war Britain used to go on holiday before heading abroad to the continent became popular.

A very good movie version of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel with Michael Caine plus his dodgy Scottish accent as rebel Allan Breck - a man who is a true patriot yet he must face the realisation that the clans have now been effectively destroyed by the English after the battle of Culloden - the Scotland he loved and fought for no longer exists. The movie also benefits a lot from plenty of nice on-location photography from around Scotland. It gives the whole production more of an authentic feel. The storyline is compelling and the direction is well-paced. There is plenty of adventure and action to keep everybody more than happy. Despite Caine's awful accent, he performs very well in the movie with Donald Pleasance also appearing as David Balfour's evil uncle. I found this historical adventure movie to be captivating and really enjoyed it.

In order to pull off a robbery, a family of crooks break out the safe cracker of the team from jail and try to hide him and 2 of his fellow prisoners at a small hospital but the police are on their tail.

Made by Butchers Film Service who made a ton of low budget movies at the time, this isn't too bad of an effort. As the movie is short and snappy at just over an hour, the plot moves quite swift. There isn't much in the way of suspense or dramatic tension and the plain and uninspired way the actual jailbreak is shown betrays the picture's shoestring budget. The only notable member of cast is a young Robert Fyfe (Howard from Last of the Summer Wine fame). It's a good time filler of a movie but don't expect anything much out of it.

Ealing Studios' last comedy movie is a rather limp effort compared to what they had achieved in the past. It has Goons star Harry Secombe as Davy, the star performer in a family act called The Mad Morgans who are touring some music halls across the country. When an opportunity arises for Davy to escape the mundane act and audition to star in an opera he jumps at the chance but the rest of the family are worried their act will collapse without Davy. The main problem with this comedy drama is there aren't any laughs to be had and you can't really sympathise with any character. Secombe does clown around but it's not funny although he gets to showcase his powerful baritone singing voice. Two of the Carry On gang in Kenneth Connor and Joan Sims have small cameos. Not a movie I'd really recommend to anybody really.

During the late 80's in the UK, Bros were the biggest pop idols around but just as suddenly they were gone and the media who helped them to the top absolutely loved to kick them in the teeth on their way down. They may have been lacking in great music but their fans stayed loyal to twins Matt & Luke Goss. Both brothers forged their own separate successful career after the band broke up. In 2016 it was announced that they reform and would play a series of gigs in the UK. This documentary charts the lead up to their first concert at the O2 Dome. It highlights the issues the brothers have had with each other over the years and the tension between them during rehearsals is evident. It's even hinted that the opening gig might have been cancelled such was the animosity between them after a heated argument. It was brave of the Goss brothers to open themselves up, warts and all to the cameras to give an insight into their relationship. You don't have to be a fan of Bros to enjoy this documentary and believe me, I was never a fan of their music whilst growing up!! It's a brutally honest take on the history, highs, lows and sibling love of two 80's heartthrobs. Give it a shot.

This is basically a rerun of Rocky IV. It has 2 sons of former boxing fighters namely Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago slugging it out in the boxing ring. Adonis fighting the son of the man who killed his father Apollo is the obvious revenge side, and Viktor fighting to redeem his disgraced father Ivan, who lost to Rocky Balboa 30 some years ago. The script co-written by Sylvester Stallone obviously loses the cold war aspect of Russia vs America that was highlighted in Rocky IV and instead concentrates on the family side of both young fighters. Yes, there is the mandatory crazy training montage and the 2nd fight between the boxers that takes place in Moscow mirrors what Rocky had to do as well. It was great to see Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago back in the ring together - even if only for a moment. Michael B. Jordan is excellent as Adonis Creed and the viewer will root for him to beat the crap out of Viktor Drago. This is definitely a worthy sequel that I really enjoyed.

Based on the DC Comics character of the same name, Arthur Curry, the heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, must step forward to lead his people against his half-brother Orm, who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms against the surface world.

Directed by James Wan, best known for helming the spooky Conjuring Series, this movie is visually spectacular but suffers partially on the account of an overstuffed screenplay, that is patchy and overlong. I like Aquaman as a superhero and Jason Momoa delivers a fun turn as him. Momoa not only looks the part, but brings a fabulous heroism to the part, which was essential here. However, despite magnificent visuals and Momoa nailing the titular role, the script brings much action and a fast-moving narrative, but has no soul. The movie keeps moving forward, not giving enough time to its characters to make them connect with the viewers and I felt like the writers ran out of ideas and kept writing action set-pieces until they found another aspect to continue upon. It also felt too long and definitely could have cut a good 25-30 mins to make it flow better. All in all, Aquaman is certainly a fun movie to watch but it's a shame the script at times failed to make it a better experience for me.

The great Alastair Sim plays Inspector Cockerill from Scotland Yard called to a hospital after 2 murders are committed. It appears that someone in the surgical ward of the hospital is killing people and the Inspector is called out to find who and why the murders are happening. Inspector Cockerill finds more than he bargained when he deals with the lives of the hospital personnel. Each person has some emotion they want hidden thus making the mystery more interesting.

This is a brilliant murder mystery will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. It has a story that keeps you guessing and performances that don't disappoint. World War II hangs heavily in the atmosphere with V1 rockets seen in the air. This movie belongs to Alastair Sim. He is simply fantastic as the detective and he makes you laugh as well. Green For Danger is highly recommended to those who enjoy the sort of British murder mysteries created by the likes of Agatha Christie. Recommended.

aka Live It Up. This movie dates from the pre-Hard Day's Night era when Britpop movies were less concerned with a cohesive plot than simply assaulting the senses with as many potentially chart-making musical numbers as possible. A young David Hemmings plays a lad who wants to make it big with his band The Smart Alecs but loses the demo tape he made with them whilst out doing his job as a postman. The plot is pretty forgettable but if you're of a certain era I'm sure you'll enjoy the music that's shown. The acts featured include Kenny Ball & The Jazzmen and Patsy Noble. Not my cup of tea their music to be honest. For fans of this specialised kind of pop this movie is a must.

Being a Carry On movie in all but name, this has more in common with the gentle humour of the start of the series rather than the bawdy innuendo of the later years. However this is not to say that it is funny and entertaining because it is. The plot is solid enough to suit the gentle comic tone, although it is hardly the sort of narrative that you will be coming to it for. The laughs are gentle, just don't expect to be rolling in the aisles with tears in your eyes because it isn't that sort of humour. A lot of the regular Carry On crew appear such as Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims. Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes have cameo roles as electricians. Overall, it isn't the greatest of comedies from the period but it's certainly entertaining enough.

Sammy Lee is a compere at a seedy strip-club in London's Soho. He has to raise 300 pounds to pay off a debt to a mysterious unseen man called Connor. Connor has henchmen, and they are quickly dispatched when Sammy admits he doesn't have the money that's coming due. The lead henchmen gives him 5 hours to get the money or else.

Anthony Newley is perfectly cast as Sammy. It's great fun to watch Sammy's machinations as he works towards getting his money. He calls contacts he has in his little book to help him out. The guy is smart but not quite clever enough to overcome the obstacles he encounters over and over although it's mostly his own fault for wasting his money on gambling in the first place. There is suspense, high drama and heartbreak in this story, all excellently played out. Among the cast are Wilfrid Brambell (of Steptoe & Son) and a small role for Derek Nimmo as an effeminate man. This is an enjoyable journey into the live of a very nervous and hasty man who doesn't seem to get anything right and instead is digging into trouble deeper and deeper.

In this cracking black and white police drama, Ealing comes up trumps yet again. Made in 1956, with good locations in and around London and also North Wales, the story concerns Jack Hawkins as Superintendent Halliday who has to track down a very clever thief who has been cracking safes and taking the money inside them.

This is a fine example of a police procedural detective mystery. The flow of the investigation is natural, not given over to wild implausibilities, and always the air of mystery is potent. On the outskirts of the investigation there's a running thread about how policemen's wives/girlfriends suffer in their own ways, their men are married to the force, and this is delicately handled by the makers. Jack Hawkins is superb as the lead character and the banter between himself and his sidekick helps inject some humour into the story. Definitely a must see if you like old fashioned police investigation dramas.

This is another solid entry in the dark, cerebral sci-fi genre for director Alex Garland. The movie's somber atmosphere and otherworldly visuals are its major strengths. There are some truly striking and memorable images in this movie that manage to be alien, haunting, and disarmingly beautiful, often all at the same time. The plot gets you invested, and it certainly wasn't uninteresting. Even the ambiguity of the movie isn't off-putting, but rather satisfying. The final act of the movie is certainly its centerpiece and is where its most powerful and piercing images reside. The cast is uniformly brilliant but Natalie Portman is simply fantastic bringing a great emotional heart beat to the story throughout. Overall, a wonderful movie. It is not an ordinary movie and is 100% not for everyone. You've got to like challenging movies to enjoy this.

A disappointing spin-off to the Conjuring movies full of the usual jump scares but this story is hardly frightening. It's a shame as the sets look great especially the huge nunnery which resemble Hogwarts Castle and the surrounding area. The atmosphere is also great so the groundwork was there for this to be a very creepy movie. At times the movie does work too, but that is mainly when it is being subtle. The script is way too sloppy and predictable that it's hard to believe that Conjuring 2 director James Wan co-wrote this movie though he did not direct it. The characters are underdeveloped, uninteresting, and lack emotion. This movie is purely for those who only care about jump scares and don't give a toss about a well scripted story. So in the end, this is yet another useless spin-off and a wasted opportunity.