Recently in Movie Reviews Category

It's 1969, and man has landed on the moon. Unbeknownst to the public, this is part of a secret mission by the American government for astronauts to inspect a crashed alien spacecraft located on the 'dark side' of the moon.

Cut to the present day, and the human-friendly, Optimus Prime-led Autobots - an alien race that can 'transform' into any form of technology - are on the hunt for any evil Decepticons hiding out on Earth. But when legendary Autobot Sentinel Prime comes to Earth, it kick-starts a destructive war between the Autobots and Decepticons that throws longtime Autobot compatriot Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and his girlfriend Carly's (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) lives into chaos. Them and everyone else on the planet.

Embarking on a journey to find the fabled fountain of youth, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) - along with old rival Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), infamous pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his daughter Angelica (Penelope Cruz) - happens upon something unexpected: a good old-fashioned, franchise-reviving pirate movie. Though it's difficult to imagine the magic and charm of 'The Curse of the Black Pearl' ever being recaptured, Rob Marshall, taking directing reigns from Gore Verbinski on the fourth picture in the series, makes a good go of it.

16 year-old Hanna Heller (Saoirse Ronan) spends her days with her father, Erik (Eric Bana), eking out an existence in an unknown frozen tundra. It's here where Erik has kept Hanna all her life, teaching her how to hunt and training her how to fight in daily, rigorous regimes. When Hanna decides that that isolated life isn't enough anymore, she allows herself to be captured by the CIA operative (Cate Blanchett) her father has warned her of her entire life. Escaping captivity and breaking free into the big wide world, Hanna must travel a great distance in order to rejoin her father while evading the tireless gallery of thugs following her trail.

Roughly a fortnight ago, the world's movie critics began to release their run-downs of what they considered to be the best feature films of 2010. I was not one of these people.

In the Summer of 1987, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) graduates from College with his sights set on a road trip across Europe and a place at New York's prestigious Columbia University. However, difficulties arise when James' parents run into money troubles - in place of a once-in-a-lifetime European journey, James must spend his Summer working at Adventureland, a theme park in his home town of Pittsburgh. While there, he befriends his oft-eccentric fellow workers, including the pipe-smoking Joel (Martin Starr), aspiring rock star and maintenance guy Connell (Ryan Reynolds) and the troublesome Em (Kristen Stewart).

Whereas Shane Meadows' largely auto-biographical 2007 movie This Is England was an account of Shaun Fields' (Meadows' alter-ego) young life as part of a gang of skinheads, This Is England '86 sees Shaun three years down the line, leaving school only to find himself reintroduced to the band of loveable rogues he once thought he'd seen the back of. Reduced to a smaller role within an ensemble comprised of This Is England's original cast, taking centre stage instead of Thomas Turgoose's Fields is Vicky McClure's fiery Lol.

Toronto band Sex Bob-omb bassist Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is in a funk: while dating highschooler Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), Pilgrim falls for the mysterious Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the girl of his dreams. To make matters worse, he must first defeat Ramona's seven evil exes - including movie star Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), rival bass guitarist Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) and a pair of Japanese twins - before he can make her his girlfriend.

With a 17 year-old Andy heading off to College, his long-forgotten toys, including Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger), are in danger of being left behind. Finding themselves instead sent to toy haven Sunnyside Daycare centre, Woody and co. are taken in by the loveable Lotso Huggin' Bear (Ned Beatty), head toy of Sunnyside. However, Lotso may not be all as he seems - he and his plethora of toy minions may have an ulterior motive for welcoming the unassuming newcomers into their home.

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief excelling in the art of dream extraction, stealing secrets from people's minds for shady organisations. For his last job, Cobb is given a proposition by businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe): plant an idea in the mind of the heir to a global energy corporation (Cillian Murphy) and Cobb will be allowed back into his American homeland and see his estranged children again. Cobb must first assemble a crack team for the ultimate anti-heist - Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the point man; Eames (Tom Hardy), the forger; Yusuf (Dileep Rao), the chemist; and Ariadne (Ellen Page), the architect.

Of all the great American director's work, Munich deserves a re-appraisal as the best Spielberg film ever made. It's an unconventional choice, perhaps, but probably only because it's one of his least-seen pictures. Plus, could a director responsible for so many happy childhood memories and famous for family fare like Jurassic Park, E.T., Close Encounters and Indiana Jones, really be any good at making a bleak, graphically violent, paranoid revenge drama centred on a character faced with an - by the credits - unresolved crisis of faith and identity?