Bad Grandpa - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 23rd October 2013
Directed by: Jeff Tremaine
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Jackson Nicoll, Greg Harris

Synopsis: 86-year-old Irving Zisman takes a trip from Nebraska to North Carolina to take his 8 year-old grandson, Billy, back to his real father.

Typical Jackass humour. Provides laughs.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 25th October 2013
Directed by: Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn
Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Will Forte

Synopsis: Flint Lockwood now works at The Live Corp Company for his idol Chester V. But he's forced to leave his post when he learns that his most infamous machine is still operational and is churning out menacing food-animal hybrids.

Fun, amusing sequel. Excellent animation.

Escape Plan - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 18th October 2013
Directed by: Mikael Håfström
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 50 Cent

Synopsis: When a structural-security authority finds himself set up and incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, he has to use his skills to escape with help from the inside.

Terrifically entertaining, 90's action throwback.

The Fifth Estate - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 11th October 2013
Directed by: Bill Condon
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Carice van Houten

Synopsis: A dramatic thriller based on real events that reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century's most fiercely debated organisation.

Occasionally gripping. Lacked substance. Overlong.

Captain Phillips - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 18th October 2013
Directed by: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman

Synopsis: The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

Superbly shot, excellent performances. Gripping

Turbo - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 17th October 2013
Directed by: David Soren
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Maya Rudolph

Synopsis: A freak accident might just help an everyday garden snail achieve his biggest dream: winning the Indy 500.

Amusing, heartwarming and great fun.

Blue Jasmine - Review

How I Live Now - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 4th October 2013
Directed by: Kevin Macdonald
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, George MacKay, Tom Holland

Synopsis: An American girl on holiday in the English countryside with her family finds herself in hiding and fighting for her survival as the third world war breaks out.

Lacking any substantial direction. Contradictory. 

Rewind Film Review #3 - Rear Window (1954)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring:  James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey

Synopsis: A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

A character driven, compulsive masterpiece. 

Runner Runner - 5 Word Film Review

UK Release Date: 27th September 2013
Directed by: Brad Furman
Starring: Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake, Gemma Arterton

Synopsis: When a poor college student who cracks an online poker game goes bust, he arranges a face-to-face with the man he thinks cheated him, a sly offshore entrepreneur.

Wasted talent. Generic, predictable screenplay.