The Mark of Zorro

 Year:  1940

Director:  Rouben Mamoulian

Screenplay:  John Taintor Foote, story by Garrett Fort and Bess Meredyth, based on the novel The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley

Starring:  Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone

Running Time:  94 minutes

Genre:  Action, adventure

19th Century California:  Don Diego Vega (Power) is summoned home from Madrid by his father.  In California, Diego is horrified by how the local people are oppressed by the cruel and corrupt governor.  Outwardly coming across as a wealthy, cowardly fop, Diego adopts the secret identity of masked outlaw El Zorro ("The Fox") to fight for justice.

The swashbuckling hero Zorro had previously rode onto cinema screens in the 1920 silent film The Mark of Zorro, which starred Douglas Fairbanks in the lead role.  This is a spirited old fashioned adventure film, with some enjoyable action, and some exciting sword fights.  The film's title comes from Zorro's habit of marking things and sometimes people with three quick sword slashes to form the letter "Z".  Also it doesn't take itself too seriously and there is a welcome vein of humour throughout.  Tyrone Power is good in the lead role, obnoxiously foppish as Diego, but athletically physical and romantic as Zorro.  Basil Rathbone is good as the evil master swordsman who Zorro must defeat.  Linda Darnell doesn't really have anything much to do other than be courted by Diego, as she falls in love with his Zorro persona.  This is the kind of Saturday matinee film that really doesn't get made much anymore, and while it hasn't aged well in places, it is still a very entertaining film.   The Mark of Zorro has gone on to become part of the Batman mythos.  In both comic books and movies, it's depicted as the film that the young Bruce Wayne watched with his parent's the night that they were killed.  Although it differs among various versions whether it was the 1920 or 1940 film that they watched.  

Tyrone Power in The Mark of Zorro

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Year:  1988

Director:  Terry Gilliam

Screenplay:  Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown

Starring:  John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, Jonathan Pryce, Robin Williams, Valentina Cortese

Running Time:  126 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy, adventure, comedy

 

The 18th Century, "The Age of Reason":  A European city is under siege.  As battle rages, the flamboyant, eccentric Baron Munchausen (Neville) offers to rescue the city, but first has to reunite his disparate group of superpowered assistants.  The Baron sets off, along with young stowaway Sally (Polley), on a surreal adventure.

Inspired by a real-life figure from the 18th century, who became something of a celebrity for spinning outlandish tall tales about his various exploits, Baron Munchausen has appeared in books, plays, radio and television shows as well as several other films.  It's easy to imagine that director Terry Gilliam probably saw more than a little of himself in the figure of the outlandish Baron, who refuses to accept reality for what it is.  Best known for his part of the Monty Python comedy troupe, Gilliam had already made a name for himself with bizarre, outlandish fantasy films, and for his refusal to compromise his vision.  Gilliam's epic struggle with Universal over the final cut of Brazil (1985) had already become the stuff of Hollywood legend.  With it's intricate puzzle box structure, tales within tales within tales, and audacious visuals and freewheeling plot, as well as the constant feeling of barely suppressed anarchy, this is a kind of Hollywood filmmaking that we are unlikely to see again, a big budget epic in service to one person's vision and imagination.  Terry Gilliam was a director who really put everything at the service of his film, regardless of the cost and it is unlikely that in modern Hollywood he would be given this much freedom again.  This may not entirely be a bad thing.  Sarah Polley, who was nine years old at the time of filming, has written that she was terrified and exhausted the whole time she worked on the film.  Although she did give her blessing for people to still watch and enjoy the film, and commented that it was still "a great film".  Even Gilliam's fellow Python Eric Idle commented that, in regard to Terry Gilliam films, "you don't want to be in them".  The film itself is a fantastic epic.  It doesn't always work, there are slow passages, and it doesn't always hang together, but there are also indelible images and delightfully bizarre moments, as well as plenty of offbeat cameos, including Robin Williams as the King of the Moon, with a detachable flying head; Oliver Reed at his most satanic as the Roman god Vulcan, depicted here as an arms manufacturer dwelling in a volcano and building a prototype of nuclear bomb; and Uma Thurman making her film debut as Venus. Right from the start where the Baron bursts in upon a theatrical depiction of his story where the cardboard sets become a lavish Sultan's palace, the film is unexpected, and sometimes disturbingly eccentric.   Gilliam saw the film as the third part of a loose "Trilogy of Imagination" beginning with Time Bandits (1981) and continuing with Brazil (1985).  

John Neville and Sarah Polley in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

      

The Living Daylights

Year of Release:  1987

Director:  John Glen

Screenplay:  Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson, based on the short story "The Living Daylights" by Ian Fleming

Starring:  Timothy Dalton, Maryam d'Abo, Joe Don Baker, Art Malik, John Rhys-Davis, Jeroen Krabbé

Running Time:  130 minutes

Genre:  Action, adventure, spy

British secret agent James Bond (Dalton) successfully engineers the escape of a Soviet defector (Krabbé) to the West.  However shortly afterwards, the defector is apparently kidnapped by the KGB from a secret safe house in Britain.  Bond is assigned to find him and bring him back, however the defection and the kidnapping turn out to be more complex than at first appears, and Bond finds himself trapped in a complex web of treachery involving arms deals, diamonds and drugs, in a chase that leads from London, to Bratislava, to Vienna, to Tangiers and to the deserts of Afghanistan.

This is the fifteenth film in the James Bond series and the first of two films to star Timothy Dalton as 007.  A fan of the original Ian Fleming books, Dalton had intended to make his Bond closer to the literary source, as a sometimes ruthless, serious, damaged and more realistic character, which came as a surprise after the more lighthearted, comedic approach of his predecessor in the role, Roger Moore.  This may be why Dalton has always been poorly regarded by fans of the Bond films.  It's true that his approach was a shock after the Moore period, and he lacked the charisma of Sean Connery.  However, Dalton really wasn't bad in the role.  The problem was the films themselves.  The Living Daylights starts as a straightforward spy thriller, before becoming more and more ridiculous as it goes along, and the plot becomes ever more confusing.  The main villain, an American arms dealer played by Joe Don Baker, comes across as a petulant childish character who plays with toy soldiers and whose lair is a tricked-out army museum, although the henchman, a muscular assassin called Necros (Andreas Wisniewski), who has a talent for impersonating voices and prefers to strangle people to death with his Walkman does make an impression.  Maryam d'Abo plays Kara, a cellist who is swept up by Bond's adventure and later swept up by Bond.  She starts off as an interesting, ambivalent character whose loyalties are uncertain, but who is always sympathetic, but by the end she has become the typical "Bond girl" who doesn't really have much to do except tag along with Bond.  There are some good set pieces, with the standout being a chase with Bond and Kara in a gadget-packed Aston Martin, which ends up with them using a cello case for a sledge.  The theme song, by Norwegian pop group A-ha, isn't bad.  This is far from being the best Bond film, but it is nowhere near the worst either.  It's entertaining, and does have some really good parts.  The problem is that it doesn't hang together and feels like several different stories shoved into one.  It's too humourless to be funny, but too ridiculous to be really serious.

"Oh, James!" Timothy Dalton and Maryam d'Abo in The Living Daylights
 

Live and Let Die

Year of Release:  1973

Director:  Guy Hamilton

Screenplay:  Tom Mankiewicz, based on the novel Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming

Starring:  Roger Moore, Jane Seymour, Yaphet Kotto

Running Time:  121 minutes

Genre:  Action, adventure, spy

British secret agent James Bond (Moore) is assigned to investigate the deaths of three agents, and finds himself embroiled in a world of gangsters and voodoo curses as he attempts to stop a powerful drug dealer's plot to flood America with free heroin.

This is the eighth film in the evergreen James Bond series, and the first of seven films to feature Roger Moore as Bond.  Unlike his beloved predecessor in the role Sean Connery, and even George Lazenby, Roger Moore never really came across as a bruiser, but he did have charm, and a nice line in laconic humour, and it was in the Moore period where the James Bond films became increasingly bizarre, and seemed to be played more and more for laughs.  Live and Let Die is one of those films which I enjoyed watching as a child on Saturday evenings or during the Christmas holidays, when for years it seemed a Bond film was as much part of the festive TV schedules as Carols from Kings or The Snowman.  However, watching it as an adult, it is hard to ignore it's flaws.  For one thing, it doesn't really feel much like a Bond movie, at times feeling like an odd parody of a "blaxploitation" film, particularly in the scenes set in Harlem.  Yaphet Kotto was a good actor but, as drug lord Katanga aka Mr. Big, he comes across more as an irritated businessman, and his sidekick Tee Hee (Julius W. Harris) with a pincer-topped artificial arm, just isn't as impressive as some of the previous outlandish villains.  However, Geoffrey Holder is striking as voodoo priest Baron Samedi, and is one of the most memorable aspects of the film, although he has too little screen time.  Jane Seymour is very good as the psychic Solitaire, who reads the tarot cards for Katanga, and whose psychic powers seem to depend on her remaining a virgin.  Needless to say, they don't last very long once Bond appears.  Moore himself is suave enough, but never really seems to be bothered by anything that happens to him or anyone around him.  His treatment of Solitaire, effectively tricking her into bed, is pretty cruel, even by Bond's standards.  There are also strange apparently supernatural elements, Solitaire seems to be largely accepted as being genuinely psychic and Baron Samedi seems to come back from the dead.  Looked at now, the film feels really dated, and probably wouldn't [ass muster with modern viewers.  Also, lest we forget, the film's low point comes with the annoying comic relief Louisiana sheriff (Clifton James).  The film does have it's moments though, the opening theme song by Paul McCartney and Wings is pretty good, and there are some great action scenes, particularly the speedboat chase which is still pretty exciting.  

James Bond (Roger Moore) and Solitaire (Jane Seymour) in Live and Let Die

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

 Year of Release:  1969

Director:  Peter R. Hunt

Screenplay:  Richard Maibaum, with additional dialogue by Simon Raven, based on the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming

Starring:  George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Bernard Lee, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ilse Steppat

Running Time:  141 minutes

Genre:  Action, adventure, spy

British secret agent James Bond (Lazenby) puts his career on the line as he pursues criminal mastermind Blofeld (Savalas) who is preparing his latest diabolical plan to hold the world to ransom from his remote lair in the Swiss Alps.  Meanwhile, Bond unexpectedly falls in love with the alluring but troubled Tracy (Rigg).

This is the sixth film in the popular James Bond series, and the first without Sean Connery in the lead role, although Connery would return for the next instalment, Diamonds Are Forever (1971).  The producers seemed nervous about recasting the lead role and went to great lengths to persuade the audience that, yes, they were watching a Bond film:  At the end of the film's prologue, Lazenby looks straight at camera and quips "This never happened to the other fellow", the opening titles feature clips from previous Bond films, and in one scene Bond goes through some of his old gadgets.   However this does ring some changes with the traditional Bond formula, for one thing although there is the regular elaborate opening title sequence there is no theme song, although the Louis Armstrong song "We Have All the Time in the World" features prominently throughout the film; also, unlike most Bond films, it sticks very closely to the Ian Fleming novel, which means it has less humour and none of the usual gadgets. I think that fans disliked the recasting of James Bond, as well as the downbeat tone of the film, which culminates in a genuinely shocking ending.  However, I also think that a lot if the things that fans had disliked, have helped the film grow in stature in more recent years, with the downbeat and slightly more realistic (for a Bond film) tone helping it age better than many of the others, particularly in the more gritty Danial Craig era.

This was the one and only time that Australian model turned actor George Lazenby would play the role of James Bond, and he lacks the lethal charisma of Connery, but has a kind of boyish charm, and Lazenby's Bond has a kind of diffident and unsure quality, I don't know how much of that was Lazenby himself - after all it's his first acting role and he is taking over one of the biggest roles in film - but it gives Bond a vulnerability that makes for a more interesting character.  However, his performance is as uneven at times as his English accent, and he does sometimes come across as bland, but when he is at his best he gives a good performance, and his acting in the climax is genuinely affecting.  it's a pity that Lazenby didn't do more Bonds because, on this evidence, as his acting ability and confidence grew he could have really done some interesting things with the character.  Diana Rigg was previously best know for her iconic role as Emma Peel in the spy series The Avengers (1961-1969), which by the way has nothing to do with the Marvel Comics characters, and she makes her first appearance attempting suicide by walking into the ocean, only to be saved by Bond.  Tracy has a darkness and a strong personality that isn't often seen in the "Bond girls".  Bond initially courts her in order to use her father's wealth and resources to track down Blofeld, but he does eventually fall in love with her for real.  Diana Rigg gives a very good performance, dominating every scene that she is in.  As Blofeld, Telly Savalas is okay but he doesn't have the silkily menacing quality that Donald Pleasance had in You Only Live Twice (1967).  Joanna Lumley and future children's TV presenter Jenny Hanley are among the army of brainwashed women in Blofeld's lair.

There are some really enjoyable action set-pieces, particularly the climatic ski chase through the Alps, which also makes for a glamorous location.  While it is not without it's flaws, it is an impressive entry in the series.

Diana Rigg and George Lazenby in On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Jungle Cruise

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Jaume Collet-Serra

Screenplay:  Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa from a story by John Norville, Josh Goldstein, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, based on Walt Disney's The Jungle Cruise ride

Starring:  Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti

Genre:  Fantasy adventure

Running Time:  127 minutes

1916: While the First World War rages in Europe, Dr Lily Houghton (Blunt) and her brother MacGrgeor (Whitehall) arrive in Brazil intending to head down the Amazon in search of the legendary "Tears of the Moon", which has the ability to cure illness, heal wounds and lift curses.  They hire steamboat captain Frank Wolff (Johnson), who conducts cut-rate jungle cruises for tourists, to ferry them down the Amazon.  Along the way they encounter various natural and supernatural threats, as they are pursued by the ruthless Prince Joachim (Plemons) who is determined to claim the Tears of the Moon for the German war effort.

Inspired by the popular Disneyland theme park ride, Jungle Cruise hearkens back to old school adventure films.  Mixing elements from Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, The African Queen (1951) and the Uncharted video game series, it is a mixed bag.  The story is pretty disposable and unoriginal, there is an over reliance on CGI effects, but it works due to the chemistry between Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, both of whom are hugely charismatic and engaging performers.   Édgar Ramírez is buried under layers of CGI as an undead conquistador, but Jack Whitehall is funny as Lily's foppish posh brother.  It's a funny, charming film and there are some exciting sequences.  However it is overlong, and there is a lack of a strong villain.  It's the kind of film that in years to come will probably be a staple of bank holiday weekend TV.  It's certainly worth watching and enjoyable, but really nothing special.

  

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson in Jungle Cruise   

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

 Year of Release: 2016

Director:  Taika Waititi

Screenplay:  Taika Waititi, based on the novel Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump

Starring:  Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House

Running Time:  101 minutes

Genre:  Adventure, comedy, drama

Troubled teenager Ricky Baker (Dennison) is constantly in and out of foster homes.  As a last ditch attempt, child services assign him to a couple who own a remote farm.  After a difficult start, Ricky eventually bonds with his new foster mother Bella (Wiata) but not so much with her cantankerous frontiersman husband Hec (Neill).  When Bella drops dead of natural causes, a grieving Ricky plunges into the bush to avoid being taken by child services.  Hec follows him, and the two embark on a life in the wilderness, as the target of a nationwide manhunt.    

As with the best of writer-director Taika Waititi's work this blends darkness and tragedy with warmth, hope and compassion along with laugh out loud comedy.  This film has added wilderness adventure.  It does take it's time to get going, but the constant quirky comedy of Waititi's world means that it never gets dull.  Julian Dennison is great as the streetwise but naive teen at the heart of the film, and there is real chemistry between him and Sam Neill's grizzled outdoorsman, who hides real heart and compassion deep down beneath a prickly, abrasive exterior.  Rachel House is hilarious as the child welfare officer who obsessively pursues Ricky, and compares herself to The Terminator.  Taika Waititi has a small role as the minister who conducts Bella's funeral service.  By turns funny, exciting and heartbreaking this film also has a point about those who don't fit into the world.  Ricky and Hec don't really have a place in the modern world, they just want to live on their own terms, but while Ricky can find a place for himself, it is harder for Hec, given his age and circumstances.  The two save each other in their own ways.  

  Julian Dennison and Sam Neill in Hunt for the Wilderpeople

The Most Dangerous Game

Year of Release:  1932
Directors:  Irving Pichel and Ernest B. Schoedsack
Screenplay:  James Ashmore Creelman, based on the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
Starring:  Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks, Robert Armstrong
Running Time:  63 minutes
Genre:  Adventure, horror

Big game hunter and celebrated author Bob Rainsford (McCrea) is shipwrecked on a small island.  The island turns out to be owned by sinister aristocrat and fanatical hunter Count Zaroff (Banks), who is entertaining two other shipwreck survivors, Eve Trowbridge (Wray) and her brother Martin (Armstrong).  It soon turns out that Zaroff has grown bored of conventional hunting and has set up on this island in order to hunt "the most dangerous game":  human beings.  Zaroff deliberately engineers the shipwrecks so he can hunt the survivors to the death, keeping the heads of his victims in his underground trophy room. 

Based on the famous 1924 short story by Richard Connell, this is an interesting old horror-adventure tale, based on the disturbing and popular horror trope of human hunting.  This was shot at night using the jungle sets from King Kong (1932), with several of the same behind the scenes personnel, as well as actress Fay Wray, who appeared in both.  Despite only being an hour long, the film does seem to drag in places, with a lot of stilted dialogue, although it does kick into life during the hunting sequences.  Joel McCrea provides the square-jawed heroics, Leslie Banks is satisfactorily oily and sinister as the villain of the piece, Robert Armstrong provides the comedy relief as Fay Wray's drunk brother, and Fay Wray starts off with quite a strong  character, who seems to be wise to Zaroff's evil intentions right off, but by the end she doesn't really have much to do except run around screaming and being carried off by burly henchmen.  It is definitely dated in some of it's attitudes, also the fact that the hero is a big game hunter.  Some of the special effects have, inevitably aged poorly, such as the shipwreck sequence at the beginning sometimes looking as if it was filmed with a toy boat in a tank, which is probably was.  Some of the action is quite well staged though, and if you can get past the problematic elements, as well as the awkward pacing, it is quite enjoyable.  A word of warning though: There are scenes where dogs die, so animal lovers beware.

Fay Wray and Joel McCrea are The Most Dangerous Game

 

Bone Tomahawk

Year of Release:  2015
Director:  S. Craig Zahler
Screenplay:  S. Craig Zahler
Starring:  Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, David Arquette
Running Time:  132 minutes
Genre:  Western, horror, action, adventure,

In the 1890s, grizzled Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Russell), his loyal, elderly deputy Chicory (Jenkins), ruthless, bigoted gunslinger Brooder (Fox) and cowboy Arthur O'Dwyer (Wilson), who has a broken leg, set off on a dangerous quest to rescue three people, including O'Dwyer's wife, Samantha (Simmons), who have been kidnapped by a hidden clan of cave-dwelling cannibals.

For a variety of reasons, the Western genre has declined greatly in popularity in recent years, but good ones are still made occasionally, and this is a good one.  It is a gripping, if bleak, blend of horror and Western, that plays like a mix of The Searchers (1956) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977).  The film is beautifully shot with stunning landscapes, contrasted with (literally) gut-wrenching violence.  Mostly it moves at a sedate pace, but keeps the tension high and there is a strong vein of dark humour throughout, which helps alleviate the film's often grim tone.  It's very well-performed by a great cast and always visually interesting.  The film really kicks into another gear with the action-packed climax, which feels as if it's been dropped in from another movie entirely.  The film's violence is pretty graphic, and the amount of gore may put off some viewers, while the film's largely slow pace may put off some of the horror fans, but it's worth giving it a go. 

Richard Jenkins, Kurt Russell and Matthew Fox saddle up for Bone Tomahawk
  

Thor: Ragnarok

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Taika Waititi
Screenplay:  Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, based on the comic-book character Thor created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum. Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins
Running Time:  130 minutes
Genre:  Fantasy, science-fiction, action, adventure, superhero, comedy

Two years after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), the Asgardian Thunder God Thor (Hemsworth) is hunting, unsuccessfully, for the powerful Infinity Stones, but is tormented by dreams of Ragnarok, the end of Asgard.  Returning home to Asgard, he finds his trickster half-brother Loki (Hiddleston) in charge and his father, Odin (Hopkins), missing.  With Loki's aid, Thor manages to track Odin down to Earth, where he reveals that he is dying and that his death will allow his first-born child, the Death Goddess Hela (Blanchett), to escape her imprisonment and seize control of Asgard. 

This is the third Thor movie, and the seventeenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the shared universe centered on movies based on Marvel Comics characters.  This film is very light in tone, and often very funny, playing more as a comedy than a straightforward action adventure superhero film.  The cast all seem to be enjoying themselves, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston are both very good comic actors and they bounce off each other very well, Cate Blanchett goes full on panto villain as the evil Hela, and Jeff Goldblum is hilarious as the intergalactic warlord, who rules a planet where Thor and Loki find themselves trapped on.  To add to the fun, Mark Ruffalo reprises his rule as the Hulk , and Benedict Cumberbatch has a brief appearance as Doctor Strange.  The film manages to balance the humour with enough drama to give scenes some emotional heft if needed, and sometimes comedy makes drama all the more affecting. The film is definitely too long,and the humour doesn't always land, but this is still a fun and funny comedy adventure.

Chris Hemsworth in Thor: Ragnarok   

Wonder Woman

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Patty Jenkins
Screenplay:  Allan Heinberg, from a story by Zack Snyder, Allan Heinberg and Jason Fuchs, based on Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston
Starring:  Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya
Running Time:  141 minutes
Genre:  Superhero, fantasy, action-adventure, war

The hidden island of Themyscira is the home of the Amazons, warrior women who, according to legend, have been charged by Zeus to guard against the return of the war god Ares.  However the idyllic island life is shattered when American pilot Steve Trevor (Pine) crashes off the coast.  Trevor is rescued by Diana (Gadot), the daughter of the island's ruler, Queen Hippolyta (Wright).  In the world outside, World War I is raging, and Trevor reveals that he is a spy, who is trying to return to London with information about an experimental weapon that brutal General Erich Ludendorff (Huston) and scientist Doctor Maru (Anaya) have developed.  Convinced that Ares is behind the "War to End All Wars", Diana resolves to return with Trevor to find and defeat him, believing that this will end the war and restore world peace.  However she soon learns that things are not that simple.

This film is notable to be the first major superhero film to centre on a female character and the first to be directed by a woman.  Gadot debuted as Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and this movie is part of a linked series of films based on DC Comics characters, however aside for a brief framing sequence set in the present day, this isn't really connected to any of the previous films, and so can be enjoyed by people who haven't sat through the other DC movies.  The film mixes fantasy, period war film and some culture clash comedy, and works very well.  Gal Gadot is perfect as Wonder Woman, not only handling the action sequences but also a strong emotional arch, and Chris Pine also does well as the square-jawed Steve Trevor.  The film has an emotional core that is often lacking in superhero films, and, while there is a lot of darkness in the film, it leavens the often Bergmanesque levels of despair in the DC movies with a welcome level of hope and optimism.  Certainly this is one of the best of the recent glut of superhero films.

Gal Gadot is Wonder Woman

Rogue One

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Gareth Edwards
Screenplay:  Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, from a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta, based on characters created by George Lucas
Starring:  Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker,
Running Time:  134 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, action, adventure

Jyn Erso (Jones) is a young convict, who is rescued by the Rebel Alliance.  Jyn's father, Galen (Mikkelsen), is a scientist who has been recruited by the evil Galactic Empire to work on a devastating new weapon known as the Death Star, which has the power to destroy an entire planet.  Jyn is partnered with Cassian Andor (Luna) on a mission to find and rescue her father, so that the Alliance can learn more about the Death Star.  However, unbeknownst to her, Andor's orders are to kill Galen.

If you remember the opening text to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) about the Rebel spies stealing the plans for the Death Star, well this is their story, expanding a scant few words into a two hour plus film.  The Star Wars series made a triumphant return to screens in 2015 with The Force Awakens, and the current thinking is that there will be a new Star Wars film every year for the foreseeable future with a new entry in the ongoing storyline every two years, and in the interim a standalone film set in the Star Wars universe but not part of the ongoing saga.  Rogue One is the first of these standalone films, although it is intrinsically linked to the Star Wars storyline.  This does not open with the Star Wars title, or have the traditional opening text crawl.  It's also darker and grittier, more of a war movie in space.  Set just before the first Star Wars film, it manages the difficult task of combining cutting edge digital special effects, with technology that would not look out of place in that first film back in 1977, for example the Death Star plans are contained in what looks like an old Betamax cassette, which gives it a nice, chunky physical appeal.  It's a film full of adventure, excitement, and entertainment for Star Wars fans old and new, combined with some stunning visuals and real emotional heft at times.   Cutting edge digital effects allow for moving cameos from some favorite characters.  With appealing characters, well-played by the cast, the conclusion of the film has some real weight to it.

Felicity Jones in Rogue One

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Year of Release:  1972
Director:  Werner Herzog
Screenplay:  Werner Herzog
Starring:  Klaus Kinski, Helena Rojo, Ruy Guerra, Del Negro
Running Time:  94 minutes
Genre:  Historical adventure

In the year 1560 a large number of Spanish conquistadors, lead by Gonzalo Pizarro (Alejandro Repulles), and their captives, descend from the Andes into the Amazon jungle in search of the fabled El Dorado, the City of Gold.  Finding their way blocked by a fast-flowing river, Pizarro sends a scouting party downstream to find supplies.  Struggling through the harsh jungle conditions, flooding, hostile natives and a lack of food and supplies, their morale and sanity break down, as the group's second-in-command Don Lope de Aguirre (Kinski) becomes increasingly paranoid and plots a violent rebellion.

This is a mesmerizing film, full of memorable images from the opening shots of the procession in single file descending the mist-shrouded Andes, to the hallucinatory closing frames.  Shot entirely on location with a low budget, the production was beset by problems, not least of which were Herzogs frequent clashes with the famously mercurial Kinski, reports of which have entered cinema lore.  This is an intensely physical film, the muggy, humid atmosphere almost seems to radiate out of the screen.  This is a story of a mad dreamer with an all-consuming obsession (a favourite theme of Herzog's).  At times it takes on the qualities of a fable, even though it sometimes feels almost like a documentary.  Above it all there is the star turn of Klaus Kinski, who appears at the start of the film as a man already close to the edge, with his bulging icy blue eyes and twisted stance, seemingly forever buffeted by winds no-one else can sense, he owns the film, alternately ranting and raging at his men, or tender towards his daughter (Cecilia Rivera), who accompanies the party.  The film is very loosely based on a historical character, although most of the characters and plot details are fictional.            
Everything about the film has a hauntingly strange quality, which sometimes becomes almost surreal, partly due to the film's eerie, dreamlike score from the band Popol Vue.

 Klaus Kinski is Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Inferno

Year of Release:  2016
Director:  Ron Howard
Screenplay:  David Koepp, based on the novel Inferno by Dan Brown
Starring:  Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Irrfan Khan
Running Time:  121 minutes
Genre:  thriller, adventure
 
In present day Florence, Italy, Professor Robert Langdon (Hanks) wakes up in a hospital bed with concussion, bizarre apocalyptic visions and no memory of the past couple of days.  He immediately finds himself being hunted by hired killers and, along with a hospital doctor Sienna Brooks (Jones), goes on the run.  The two find themselves embroiled in a plot by a scientist who intends to "save" humanity from it's overpopulation crisis, by wiping out billions of people with his deadly "Inferno" virus.

The above is not a spoiler.  We learn about the Inferno virus before the opening credits have finished.  This will be familiar ground to fans of previous Dan Brown adaptations, such as The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels and Demons (2009).  It's structured like a scavenger hunt, with Langdon and Brook deciphering clues secreted in ancient works of art and Dante's The Divine Comedy which sends them to the next clue.  The outcome is never really in doubt, and the film drags in it's first hour, but it does pick up pace, and the ending is quite exciting.  The story is of course completely ludicrous as the plots and double-crosses mount up.  However the idea of Langdon being incapacitated and not able to make full use of his greatest asset, his mind, in initially interesting but it rapidly fades away.  The villains are also intriguing in that they genuinely believe they are doing the right thing, although I suppose that is true of most people.

The film is well-cast, with Tom Hanks as appealing and engaging as ever, and Felicity Jones and Sidse Babett Knudsen providing strong support.

 Tom Hanks and Felicity Jones search for clues in Inferno

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Year:  1981
Director:   Steven Spielberg
Screenplay:  Lawrence Kasdan, from a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
Starring:  Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott
Running Time:  115 minutes
Genre:  Adventure, action,

This film is one of the most successful and best-loved movies in modern cinema, and introduced one of it's most popular icons.  The film is set in 1936.  After a dangerous mission to Peru to retrieve a golden idol from a booby-trap laden tomb ends in failure at the hands of his arch-rival Rene Bellocq (Freeman), archeologist and adventurer Doctor Indiana Jones (Ford) returns to his day job of teaching archeology in an American college.  Jones is contacted by Army Intelligence who have received reports that the Nazis are conducting a large scale archological dig in Egypt, and that a noted American archeologist and one-time friend of Jones is involved.  Immediately Jones and his friend and mentor Marcus Brody (Elliott) realise that the Nazis are searching for the fabled lost Ark of the Covenant, the chest in which Moses stored the stone tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments.  The Ark is reputed to contain devestating supernatural power and an army which marches with it would be completely unstoppable.  Jones sets off on a  perilous, globe-trotting quest to find the Ark before the Nazis.  He is aided by his ex-girlfriend, Marion Ravenwood (Allen), who posesses an old medallion, which can be used to locate a clue which can reveal the Ark's whereabouts.  The Nazis are being aided by Bellocq, the only archeologist who is Jones' match.

The film was originally conceived by film-maker George Lucas as a tribute to the adventure serials of the 1930s and 1940s.  It rolls along with action, exotic locations, high adventure and wit to create a fantastically entertaining film, that still holds up brilliantly after 30 years.  It was the first film to feature the roguish, charismatic adventurer Indiana Jones.  Lucas was originally reluctant to cast Harrison Ford due to the fact that he had already appeared in a number of Lucas's films and he did not want Ford to become his "Bobby DeNiro" (a reference to Martin Scorsese who made a number of films with Robert DeNiro).  In the end Tom Selleck was cast as Indiana Jones but was unable to get out of his commitment to the TV series Magnum P.I. (1980 - 1988).  In the end the producers and Spielberg were impressed by Ford's performance in The Empire Strikes Back (1980)  and persuaded Lucas to cast him with three weeks left until the start of filming.  Ford gives a brilliant performance delivering humour and charisma as well as the action.  The film is full of memorable moments, from the giant boulder chasing Jones in the opening of the film, to the closing images which references Citizen Kane (1941).  Karen Allen also impresses as the sharp-tongued Marion and her verbal sparring with Jones provides many humourous moments.  The film is surprisingly violent and gruesome in many ways for a family film, it has quite a high body count and there are numorous rotting corpses and skeletons, as well as the memorable climax which provided nightmares for many an 80s kid.  This is an unashamed piece of escapist entertainment which carries it's viewers along on a rollercoaster ride of thrills, spills, shocks and laughs.

Harrison Ford returned to the chracter of Indiana Jones in three sequels to date:  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).  There was also a television prequel called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992 - 1996).

Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark


    

"A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin

Year of Publication:  1996
Number of Pages:  837 pages
Genre:  Epic fantasy

This book is the first in the successful fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice" (the others being A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005) and A Dance with Dragons (2011) with two more volumes planned).  The novel is set in a medieval world on the continent of Westeros where seasons can last for decades.  When Lord Eddard Stark, master of the northern stronghold of Winterfell, is offered the post of Hand of the King he is deeply suspicious but reluctantly accepts.  The King is Stark's oldest friend, but the queen is a member of the Lannister clan, Stark's oldest and bitterest enemies.  Arriving at court, Stark and his family discover that treachery is rife.  The previous Hand dies under very suspicious circumstances, and Stark is determined to find out what happened and to avoid a similar fate.  However with enemies and intrigues on all sides, he soon finds himself playing a deadly game.  Meanwhile, far across the sea, the son and daughter of the previous king, and rightful heirs to the throne, are raising a large and fierce army to reclaim their birthright.

The book is a really exciting fantasy novel.  Despite references to dragons and other monsters, magic and fantastic beasts are notable by their absence.  It also takes away much of the romance and glamour from the fantasy genre.  In this world, life is tough, violent and frequently short.  It is very violent and quite sexual, although there is very little of romantic chivalry here.  The book is well written and, despite it's prodigious length it always keeps the attention.  It follows a very large cast of characters and is written  in a series of short chapters (about 10 to 20 pages) each focussing on a particular character's storyline.  It is a fantastically complex and intricate novel mixing action, adventure and intrigue in an impressively well-developed imaginary world, peopled with some memorable characters.

The book has recently been adapted as a TV series for HBO. 

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Year:  2011
Director:  Guy Ritchie
Screenplay:  Kieran Mulroney and Michelle Mulroney, based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring:  Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, Stephen Fry, Kelly Reilly, Rachel McAdams
Running Time:  129 minutes
Genre:  Mystery, crime, adventure, period

This film is the sequel to the blockbuster 2009 film Sherlock Holmes.  The film is very loosely based on the legendary detective stories created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most particularly the 1893 story The Final Problem.  However the plot of the film is by and large original.  In 1891, consulting detective Sherlock Holmes (Downey, Jr.) becomes convinced that a series of bombings in France and Germany are the work of criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty (Harris).  However, the difficulty is that there is no evidence to connect the respected professor to any wrongdoing.  After enlisting the aid of his recently engaged best friend, Doctor John Watson (Law), Holmes soon realises that he has put Watson, and his bride to be (Reilly), at risk of lethal retaliation from Moriarty's men.  With the help of Holmes' well-connected brother, Mycroft (Fry), and a tough gypsy woman, Simza (Rapace), whose brother is working with Moriarty, Holmes and Watson set off on a journey across Europe, on the trail of one of the world's most powerful and dangerous criminals.

This is a hugely entertaining mix of globe-trotting adventure, explosive action and humour.  Robert Downey, Jr. is perfectly cast as Holmes and Jude Law makes for an engaging Doctor Watson, and there is great banter and chemistry between the two leads, with Watson refreshingly being portrayed as more than a match for Holmes in many places.  It will doubtless infuriate Conan Doyle purists, but for anyone else it is a fun period adventure.  The action scenes are well handled and the film provides more than enough spectacle.  As Moriarty, Jared Harris makes for a great, slippery villain, and he shares a number of great scenes with Robert Downey, Jr..  Stephen Fry is entertainingly arch as Mycroft Holmes (the scene where he turns up in the nude and happily chats away to Kelly Reilly, oblivious to her shock, is a comedy highlight).  Noomi Rapace is also impressive, lending gravitas to a fairly underwritten role.  The movie lacks any real surprises, the suspense in the film coming not so much from discovering who the villain is, because it is made clear right from the outset, but instead from how Holmes and Watson will unravel the criminal plot in time.  It also tends to meander at times, but mostly succeeds in being an entertaining, light-hearted, adventure romp, which will doubtless please fans of the original. 

Robert Downey, Jr., Noomi Rapace and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes:  A Game of Shadows                

"Anno Dracula" by Kim Newman

Year of Publication: 1992
Number of Pages: 546 pages
Genre: Horror, fantasy, adventure, crime, alternate history

Summary: London, 1888: Queen Victoria has remarried, and her new husband is the infamous Wallachian prince known as Count Dracula. Now with Dracula at the throne of Britain, the vampire race have come out of hiding and increasing numbers of "warm" (living) citizens have become vampires, and frequently not by choice. Under Dracula's rule, the living increasingly become an underclass, and any hint of insurrection is punishable by imprisonment in brutal prison camps or by summary execution by impalement on wooden stakes.
In the notorious Whitechapel area of London, a brutal killer known as "Silver Knife" has been savagely slaughtering young vampire women. Charles Beauregard, a secret agent for the mysterious Diogenes Club, is ordered to track down the killer. Aiding him is the beautiful 400 year old vampire Genevieve Dieudonne.
As tensions in the city threaten to explode, the body count increases as the press give the murderer a new name: Jack the Ripper.

Opinions: Have you ever finished a book or a film and wondered what would happen if things had turned out differently in the end, if the heroes lost and the villains won? The background of this book is what would happen if Dracula not only survived the events of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, but triumphed and fulfilled his evil scheme.
As with the later League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic and subsequent film, the book collects characters from the full range of Victorian horror and adventure stories, such as Henry Jekyll (from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Doctor Moreau (from H. G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau) and Professor Moriarty (from the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories) among many others, as well as real characters and events (such as Oscar Wilde, Joseph Merrick and the Jack the Ripper murders) and characters from numerous vampire books and films (including references to more modern authors such as Stephen King and Anne Rice).
The book is fast paced and hugely entertaining mixing action, gothic horror and political intrigue with dashes of romance. Newman manages to blend numerous characters, references and events into a coherent whole, while also exploring the kind of society which Dracula has created. Newman writes well and his prose is full of wit and vivid, detailed descriptions.
This book is perfect for enjoyable, gruesome entertainment and will provide plenty of fun for vampire fans. It has been followed by three sequels to date.
The novel has recently been republished in paperback with annotations, afterwords, an essay, selections from an unfilmed movie adaptation and a short story.

The African Queen

Year: 1951
Director: John Huston
Screenplay: James Agee and John Huston, based on the novel The African Queen by C. S. Forester
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Theodore Bikel
Running Time: 105 minutes
Genre: Action, adventure, drama, romance

Summary: German East Africa, September 1914: Rose Sayer (Hepburn) and her preacher brother, Samuel (Morley), are Methodist missionaries, living and working in a small village. Supplies, mail and news is regularly delivered by Captain Charles Allnut (Bogart) who sails a small run-down steam-boat called the African Queen. When the First World War breaks out, German soldiers raid the village, and Samuel is so traumatised by the experience that he dies shortly afterwards.
Realising that there is nothing left for her in the village, Rose decides to go away with Allnut in the African Queen. She discovers that the Germans have a large and powerful gunboat stationed in a large lake, which effectively blocks any British counter-attacks. Rose hits on the idea of using the supplies of explosives and canisters of oxygen to turn the African Queen into more or less a giant torpedo and use it to blow up the gunboat.
Allnut reluctantly agrees to go along with the plan. However, to get to the gunboat they have to travel down a long river which is so dangerous that it is considered to be completely unpassable, added to which they would have to pass right by a stronghold full of enemy soldiers.

Opinions: This movie is a fun mix of adventure, action and romance. It benefits enormously from the casting of Humphrey Bogart as the tough, gin swilling, rough-and-ready steamboat captain and Katherine Hepburn as the prim, proper and very strong-willed English missionary. The two have plenty of on-screen chemistry and the dialogue between them is witty and engaging. Both of them are almost constantly caked in dirt and sweat, looking very farm removed from glamorous Hollywood movie stars. The burgeoning relationship between the two characters is well-handled and the mix works well so that the romance element doesn't unbalance the action or vice versa.
The action sequences are well directed, and there are many vividly memorable sequences most notably a very unpleasant encounter with some leeches.
The film is strikingly photographed in Technicolor. A lot of the film was shot on location in Uganda and the Congo, which was very unusual for the time given the size of the cameras used for the Technicolor filming. Certainly it makes for a vivid and exotic backdrop for the action. The cast and crew had a tough time during the location filming, with most of the film-makers falling ill, except Bogart who later claimed that he didn't fall ill because he didn't drink any water on location, and instead used a large supply of whiskey that he had brought with him.
This film is basically a yarn. It doesn't try to be anything else than pure entertainment and it definitely succeeds at that.



Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart take a ride on board The African Queen

Season of the Witch

Year: 2010
Director: Dominic Sena
Screenplay: Bragi F. Schut
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Claire Foy, Robert Sheehan, Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham, Christopher Lee
Running Time: 98 minutes
Genre: Period, action, adventure, horror

Summary: In the 14th Century, two knights fighting in the Crusades, Behman (Cage) and Felson (Perlman), are sickened by the slaughter of innocent people, including women and children, and so decide to leave. Returning home to Europe as deserters, they find their homeland ravaged by the Black Death. Arriving in a town, they are soon arrested, but are offered a pardon if they agree to help transport a young woman (Foy) accused of witchcraft, and who the town's priests believe caused the Black Death by sorcery. The knights are to take her on a dangerous six day journey to a remote monastery where she is to be put on trial and where it is believed the monks will be able to undo her magic. They are accompanied by a third knight (Thomsen), a priest (Moore), an altar boy who wants to become a knight (Sheehan) and a convicted swindler (Graham) who is to serve as a guide. As they embark on their already perilous journey, they soon disover that, despite being bound in chains and held in a cage, their prisoner is not as defenceless as she appears.

Opinions: This movie blends road movie, buddy movie, supernatural horror and medieval action-adventure. However, it is less than successful. Nicolas Cage is not a bad actor at all, he can be very good, but he is annoyingly inconsistent, and it is fair to say that he has made more than his share of turkeys. Certainly he does not convince as a fourteenth century knight. Ron Perlman, however, is impressive as his fellow knight, who provides the film with much needed screen presence and intentional humour. Claire Foy, best known from the BBC television version of Little Dorrit (2008), is impressive as the accused woman, managing to appear both innocent and sinister. In fact, it is a real pity that she is not given more to do.
Visually, it ranges from beign quite good, to some truly horrendous special effects. The producton design is quite effective though and the senes shot on location look good.
The script is very silly in places, and it is not particularly scary. However, there is enough action, and both intentional and unintentional humour, to keep up the interest. The movie will probably become a cult film in the future and is probably best checked out when it is shown on late night TV.


Nicolas Cage in Season of the Witch