Film Reviews by AB

As said, Tom Cruise seems to do the sci-fi stuff more and more these days and this was better than most films that he is in (cf the rubbish that is Mission Impossible in all its guises)

The storyline was not bad and had me guessing a bit for a long time.

I basically liked the story and the soundtrack for the end-credits and main theme is fantastic

Knowing the sport from many years of following it, it comes as no surprise that brain injuries are prevalent in NFL players - very much along the lines of what is being discussed in rugby at the moment (2017). Low-key film with solid performances but I would have liked a little bit more science to have been part of the film, to help explain what was actually being talked about.

Typical big-business response about it all, especially the facts and the revelations as part of the end credits.

I love HP franchise and this was a different angle from everything else - the storyline was a bit contrived, a bit OTT, with no real back story and the magic was a bit over-played at times. Two things I noted about the film - one was the array of magical creatures, which could have been developed a bit more (by having less of them?) and secondly, Eddie R's speech and elocution left a lot to be desired - I couldn't hear what he was saying many times as he had the tendency to mumble. I like ER as an actor but he could do with some basic lessons again on speech, even in character. Overall I would recommend the film

A confusing film - it doesn't know whether to be a comedy, romantic, role-player, fantasy, teen-based, adult-based or what - and thereby fails in all fronts.

Simple storyline about a girl with magical abilities (or does she? or is she taught?) trying to find her mentor (who has disappeared - or has he?) in a strange world where cars exist (but they are also pulled by horses so confusing here as well), where television exists (but people live like serfs), where tank-like weapons exist but swords are the main magical weapon, in a kingdom ruled by some sort of half-wit.

This looked and felt like a poor 1970's children's Sunday afternoon BBC TV serial.

Two stars in my review is probably pushing it a bit

I found this a great film - good acting, suspense-ful, even though you know mid-way through the film who the baddie is.

Use of a real zebra (zebras plural in fact in the filming) plus animatronics makes this a better film than I thought it would be. If a bit predictable, it still is good fun.

Not funny, not even amusing. Poor acting, awful dubbed track, dreadful storyline (and obvious), worthy of nothing excepting to be consigned to the list of worst ever films made in any country.

Handsome, US teen with alien superpowers rescues the world and his friends - so formulaic, and uninteresting.

At least the dog survived - kills an evening but no suspense, no thrills, nothing beyond the ordinary.

A good story theory but in practice this film is quite boring - too many bits and pieces to make it a whole - Helen Mirren tries her hardest to be amusing and light-hearted to bring a counter to the dark side but there is nothing really going for the film. With a wealth of literature available, more could have been made of characters but in reality, nothing came of anything here, with even the denouement being too twee to be believable. Probably aimed at 8 year olds and even then being a limited type of audience

Never been a Stallone fan - he basically cannot act - but this was better than I thought it would be. Not quite worth 3 stars (more like 2.5) but not as bad as I thought it would be but not great either. As usual with goodie v baddie films, implausible and unbelievable in parts but will keep you entertained for its duration

An interesting concept but the storyline of each character has no time to develop in the film, the acting is poor and wooden, no character is worth a second glance and the overall film is extremely disappointing. Too much is made of the mathematics of the problem (and even then it is a leap of faith to understand what is going on). This is probably based on a Star Trek TNG episode when Picard finds himself in a similar situation with unknown characters but he had the brains to figure it all out.

If you rent it, put it on fast forward to save yourself a lot of time

Based on the true life of Frank T Hopkins and his exploits as a long-distance horse racer, this places him and his horse Hidalgo in a race in the Middle East. The result? predictable, preposterous, unbelievable, and the film is overly-long. Also, the film was spoiled by long chunks of dialogue between some of the Arabic characters delivered without translation or subtitles so you had no idea what was going on that even the body language couldn't give away.

From series 1, episode 1 this had everything and it was well-acted, funny, sad, tense, spooky, sexy, and a whole thesaurus full of credits.

Series 4 was very dark, series 5 fun and sad but the whole cast of characters seemed to fully enjoy themselves over the whole 5 series, which came out in their characters.

Full marks to whoever thought this up, whoever wrote it, filmed it, produced it, directed it. A very big "Thank You"

One of the best TV series in the history of the genre.

A film that starts quite boringly, develops into "what if ..." then becomes tense and a bit scary with some heart-stopping moments

First, the negatives.

A tad too long in my view and a bit rambling towards the end when Anthony Hopkins is speaking to the Supreme Court, when it becomes a poor speech in my view, with no real hard-hitting points to be made.

However, the positives

If you want to know how slaves were treated, what they went through, and how they managed to win out in the end, then watch this film. It also helps give a history lesson on how the Civil War was inevitable and what part Europe played in it.

Be warned there are quite upsetting scenes in the film, all of which are based on true events, and then you try and work out why the Americans had slaves when they had the Treaty of Independence stating "that all men are created equal ... with inalienable rights" etc.

Hypocrisy at work