FILTH                                                Ds Bruce Robertson a manically depressed ,bigoted policeman drinks,snorts,and generally debases his way through the festive season in a bid to secure promotion and win back his estranged wife and child,this was entertaining ,nauseating ,touching, and blackly funny James McAvoy give a career best as the contemptuous Bruce,with a fine mostly Scottish supporting cast John Session stands out as his beleaguered boss and fellow masonic brother everyone sparkles and deliver there lines with gusto,i have to say i was fairly skeptical going in as i had read the book and while enjoyed it never thought it would make a great film,but the director John S Baird does a great job of the screenplay,but ultimately McAvoy brings humility and humanity to a character who is quite frankly not worthy of empathy in other words its filthy and its gorgeous.   

ONLY GOD FORGIVES

Nicholas winding refn latest offering is a more ponderous affair than drive or bronson , a very violent but very beautiful film more art house than grind house ,i mean i really like gosling but hes definitely cornering the market in stoical silent tough guys,the directors love of neon and light is to the fore i really love the photography a joy to behold, and the sonic sound track scintillating as usual if your looking for a complex crime thriller look else where ,this is a simple story of justice,injustices and punishment gosling is pretty perfect in his role but it was the thai police chief who caught my imagination like a cross between an asian devil and or god,but its kristin scott thomas  whom i dearly love that gives a standout performance as the brassy blonde matriarch. 

STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS 

And so it begins kirk and bones on an alien world being chased by wild alien tribesman,while Spock trys to plant a cold fusion device in a nearby volcano to avert there planets ,and there destruction,kirk and bones make it back to the ship however Spock is left in peril and is ready to sacrifice himself ,but is saved by kirk by a violation of the sacred starfleet prime directive,back on earth kirk is demoted and Spock reassigned,but theses events take a back seat when a terrorist attack and a mysterious starfleet agent poses a huge threat to the federation,well i didn't really know what to expect here ,however i was rewarded with the usual jj  Abraham  kinetic pacing ,stunning visuals,and a story that really got my star trek blood pumping plus a couple of good reveals and twists that keep you guessing,good performances all round from principle cast , Benedict cumberpatch was maybe not fleshed out enough ,but still superb also enjoyed peter Weller a personal favourite of mine,this is in every respect what i wanted from this movie and maybe a little bit more!

SKYFALL

Bond begins in Istanbul trying to recover a hard disk with the names and  covert identity's of MI6 agents across the world .the mission goes awry and bond is injured presumed dead,bond take advantage of this and lives the life of a beach bum for a while,but is startled to discover MI6 headquarter has been coprimised in a terrorist attack ,bond reports back to m and is told he ll have to be tested before he can go back into the field,he struggles to pass once back on active service bond follows the lead to an assassin that then lead to silva a highly intelligent ex  employee of m from her days in charge on MI6 in hong kong .and so much cat and mousery begins between silva and bond ,this i felt was possibly the most serious of the bonds there r still touches of over the top stunt work a la Istanbul opening scene involving a train and an earth mover,the action feels a little more restrained but it makes it a better movie more about the characters and dialogue ,also being a bond fanatic i loved the nods to the old ,q branch etc all in a very satisfying entry it actually feels as if Sam mendes has givin the franchise his own reboot ,shaken not stirred,perfect.     

some where in the future...2044 to be precise Joe is a looper a hired assassin who waits for his victim to materialise from the future then blasts them with a crude scatter gun, Joe is living the high life hes rich and hes a drug addict until one day his future self appears in front of him,this is called closing the loop.needless to say things don't go smoothly from this point what follows is a paradoxical nightmare for Joe ,ironic you know how some people say if i could go back in time i would tell myself all the pitfall and mistakes etc ,well older Joe does just so and has it thrown back in his face ,which is actually the way it would happen! anyway both versions of Joe are driven towards a situation of emotionally fraught scenario's both with there separate agendas literally fighting his self's, this makes for great entertainment all of the actors are superb its a rare beast a sc-fi action movie with heart and brain it pulls off the wizard of oz hat trick,courage,heart,and intelligence.

DREDD

                                                                                               

set in the future in a dystopian America the capitol selects a boy and a girl from each of the 12 districts to fight to the death until only one stands on live television,OK went to this with an open mind as it is the new "young adult "franchise Ala twilight etc,clocking at roughly 2 and half hours it goes swiftly always a good sign not to much time spent on premise and the training montage ,all the performances r pretty good ,the 2 young leads hold there own,i liked woody harrelsons lush mentor,Stanley tucci puts in a good turn as the games mc a huge prancing tit and Elizabeth banks as an air headed socialite,the movie looks great we start of in district 12 a coal mining community wear the female protagonist lost her father and now takes care of her young sister and estranged mother,and then on to the capitol a vast rolling city of monuments and decadent society where the inhabitants look like some sort of cross between Victorians and Willie wonka ,although there is technology the whole game arena is controlled in a sort of virtual reality command centre,mag Lev train that does 200mph and yet everything looks old fashioned very art deco this movie says a lot about our society ,the ever widening poverty gap,the love of the celebrity ,reality television,decadent consumerism etc ,all in an engaging an entertaining movie ,however i felt that when the games segment of the film started you never really felt the danger or threat enough and a couple of gory deaths would've help you realise that more,but that's not the demographic its aimed at which is unfortunate because if this movie had that edge it would've risen from a good movie to a great one.