Robert Merivel is an up and coming star of the medical profession in 17th century England. When the King calls him in to minister to his sick pet spaniel Merivel is somewhat lost as to what to do - fortunately the animal gets better on its own and the King proclaims Merivel his new Doctor. Now welcome at the palace, Merival overindulges in the various pleasures on offer, little realizing that the King and others there regard him as little more than an amusing fool. When the King decides that he needs some excuse to keep his mistress at the palace too, he orders Merivel to marry the woman. Things take a turn for the awkward when Merivel begins to fall for her himself.
A period piece which shows the twists and turns that one man's life goes through as he experiences both the highs and lows of a fascinating period in history.
Swamp Shark
A corrupt Sheriff deals in exotic animals which big game hunters kill for sport. His latest acquisition is a mysterious and ancient shark, apparently from the bottom of the ocean. Alas, the powerful beast escapes from the truck transporting it and winds up in the Florida everglades. A group of locals decide to hunt and destroy the deadly creature, but what chance do they have to kill the Swamp Shark when few people will even believe it exists?
Like most sci-fi original movies, this one has value only in the "so bad that it's funny" category... and frankly not a lot on that basis, either.
I Am Number Four
John Smith is a fifteen year old boy coping with all the little problems that most fifteen year old boys face - as well as having to deal with the fact that he is a magical warrior from an alien race on the run from an evil enemy. Sick of being constantly hounded as the few remaining survivors of his race of hunted down and murdered, John decides to finally take a stand and fight back.
A strictly by-the-numbers piece that tries to be the sci-fi reinvention of the Twilight series but never rises above being a collection of cliches.
Drive Angry
John Milton's daughter is caught up in a cult that plans to sacrifice her life as an offering to Satan. He's understandably peeved at this and determined to stop them. Unfortunately there's one small problem... John Milton has been dead for quite some time. Still, why let a little thing like that stop you when all you have to do is break out of hell and return to Earth? Milton chases down the cult, slaying anybody who gets in his way with the help of waitress Piper. Things are complicated by the fact that Satan has sent "the Accountant" to capture him and bring him back to hell where he belongs.
A whacky little film that doesn't take itself the slightest bit seriously - this film is summed up by the scene where Milton takes on and kills a bunch of ten or so cult members in a battle... whilst all the time still having sex with the woman he's with! This attitude and William Fichtner's performance as The Accountant save Drive Angry from awfulness and raise it to mediocrity.
The Adjustment Bureau
There is a plan for each and every one of us - but the world is not perfect, and sometimes chance makes things go a little awry. When that happens it's the job of The Adjustment Bureau to set things back onto plan. Usually their actions are minor, unnoticed... but when an agent makes a slip up and misses a correction on David Norris's life, he falls in love with a woman the plan says he should never have encountered. This minor change could spin the whole world in a different direction - for the plan says that Norris is to become President one day, and now that won't happen. When Norris discovers the existence of the Bureau itself and begins to fight back against their attempts to set him back onto the path laid out for him in the plan, events begin to spin out of control.
A fascinating movie that explores ideas of free will versus fate. it's helped by sparkling chemistry between Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.
Inception
In a world where the technology exists to implant people into the dreams of others, Dom Cobb is an expert in the field. When billionaire businessman Mr. Saito comes to him with an offer, he can't resist the idea of the ultimate dream project - to implant an idea into the dreams of Robert Fischer, one of Saito's rivals, in such a way that Fischer will both retain it when he awakes, and become completely convinced that it was his own idea. The idea itself? Simply that Fischer will want to break up his own company so that it's no threat to Saito's business interests. This sort of thing is widely regarded as impossible, but Cobb thinks he can manage it by creating a complex structure of dreams within dreams within dreams inside Fischer's mind. Unfortunately his plan is threatened both by Fischer's mental defences and Cobb's own baggage trying to sabotage him.
In some ways this is a complex, difficult to follow movie. But if you pay attention and expect to have to think about things it's not actually all that hard - and how refreshing is it to have a big budget movie that demands intelligence from the audience rather than playing to the dumbest element? And ultimately, stripped of the trappings this is really just a pretty good heist movie in which the idea is to break in to a guy's mind rather than a bank vault. Recommended.
Repo Men
In the near future, there are no more organ transplants - instead, artificial organs of all sorts are freely available. Unfortunately they are so expensive that only the rich can afford to buy one outright - for most, they're paid for on an installment plan. Remy works in repossessions, hunting down those who default on their payments and repossessing the organ - by literally cutting it out of the customer, regardless of the consequences. His wife can't face life with a man who kills people for a living, so Remy considers moving over to sales - but when a last job goes wrong he ends up with an artificial heart himself. As his life disintegrates around him he finds that he can't face repossessing organs from others any more, yet without that income he can't keep up on his own payment plan...
And interesting idea, this, but it goes rather over the top towards the end and ultimately becomes so far fetched that you really lose any sense of even tenuous realism and are left to do little more than watch the elaborate fight scenes.
Battle Los Angeles
A sci fi movie that shows an alien invasion from the point of view of a single US Marine platoon on the front lines. The film aims for the sort of gritty realism of Black Hawk Down, and for the most part succeeds. The aliens are pretty interesting in that for once they don't have ray guns and impenetrable shields - an M-16 will drop an alien soldier quite nicely once you know where to shoot it. However, the sense of realism is somewhat undercut by the cliches the film does indulge in. For one, the characters are absolute walking two dimensional stereotypes (the spunky woman, the guy about to get married, the inexperienced officer who doesn't really know what he's doing, the expert older warrior who carries bad memories from his past, etc, etc). In the end, Hollywood just can't resist going completely over the top and this one platoon not only manage to turn the tide of the entire battle for Los Angeles, they also discover the one vital weakness in the aliens so that the rest of the world can fight back, too. The shaky camera work, which directors love to use because they think it makes the film realistic, as usual serves only to pull you straight out of the action - we never get a single good look at the aliens, even when one is literally lying captive on the floor right in front of them. It's a real shame, as this film could have been much better and more interesting than it actually ends up being.
Black Sheep
A New Zealand movie concerning the fortunes of two brothers who grow up on a sheep farm. Elder brother Angus is jealous of his younger sibling Henry's natural sheep herding skill, so he butchers Henry's pet sheep in a horrific manner. Moments after that is sprung on Henry, he finds that his father has died in an accident. The double tragedy leaves him with a permanent phobia about sheep.
Fifteen years later he returns to the farm to conclude a deal to sell out his share to Angus. He finds strange goings on at the farm; Angus has been engaging in obscene scientific experiments to produce the perfect genetically engineered sheep. When a pair of environmentalists raid the farm they unwittingly release the ultimate horror - a half sheep, half man Weresheep! Can Henry overcome his fear and prevent the Weresheep from spreading across New Zealand?
The Ruins
A group of Americans holidaying in South America hook up with a German who is going to meet some friends who are exploring some off the map Mayan ruins. On arrival they find that ruins deserted - and a violent local tribe arrives, murdering anybody who attempts to leave the site. The group try and hold out until help might arrive... but there is something strange in the Ruins, something implacably hostile and all but impossible to defeat...
Lifeforce
80s B movie. A space shuttle investigating Halley's Comet makes an astounding discovery - a 150 mile long spacecraft drifting in the comet's tail. They board and investigate, and find three perfectly preserved Human bodies in glass cases - a young girl and two men. The shuttle loses contact with Earth as it returns and is found derelict in orbit with the bodies still intact aboard. They are returned to Earth - and the girl awakes, showing herself to be a psychic vampire capable of draining the life essence from a person, turning them into a zombie-like walking dead. With the commander of the shuttle found alive in an escape pod a race begins - to capture the girl before she can spread her terrible infection through the world. This was meant to be a big budget, high concept movie that would recreate the vampire legend for the modern era. It really, really didn't work out that way!
Due Date
Peter Highman is rushing home to his pregnant wife, who is due to have their child shortly. Things go wrong when he bumps into Ethan Tremblay, a pot head waster and world's most annoying man candidate who gets them thrown off the plane by talking about terrorism. With no money or ID, Peter is forced to accept a lift with Ethan in his rental car. Peter's short temper is stretched to the absolute limit by Ethan's devil may care attitude to life, an attitude which often causes unfortunate consequences to rebound onto Peter rather than himself. Can the two men avoid killing one another long enough for Peter to meet his Due Date?
Unstoppable
When a half mile long train loaded with dangerous chemicals becomes a runaway, two men must try a desperate plan to stop it by hooking their own engine on the back and slamming it into reverse. If they fail the train will come off a steep bend and plough straight into an oil refinery located in the heart of a densely populated city, causing hundreds of thousands of fatalities. Pretty fair drama based on a true story.
Paranormal Activity 2
Spooky prequel in which we find that the Demon which terrorized Katie and Micah first had a go at Katie's sister and her family. This film suffers a little from the lack of originality compared to the first one, and you can tell that they have tried to "amp it up to 11" - where before we had one camera, now we have half a dozen. Where before we had two characters, no we have eight or nine. Everything that's in the original is done here, but in a bigger, more flamboyant way. Often it does work well, but overall it never quite gels the way the first movie did.
Mega Python VS Gatoroid
Another of those movies whose only real entertainment value lies in just how awful it is - and frankly even on that level this doesn't come close to the comic awfulness of Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus. Debbie Gibson seems to be carving out a new career as the queen of these, and here she's joined by ex pop star Tiffany. Gibson is a scientist who releases a bunch of pythons into the everglades; Tiffany is the cop who reacts to their munching on the alligator population by feeding super growth chemicals to the 'gators so they can fight back. Absurd chaos ensues.
