“Army Of Darkness” is the third outing in the “Evil Dead” series and although some may not appreciate the fact it’s no longer a horror movie, I myself would consider this one a sword and sorcery comedy, it is still very funny and has enough monsters in it to satisfy those seeking another fun film.

Bruce Campbell (“Evil Dead”, “Maniac Cop”) returns as Ash Williams, who is now stuck in 1300 A.D., to continue his battles against the dead that won’t stay dead. In a film where lots of crazy things happen it’s hard to explain but Ash is tasked with retrieving a mystical book (the magic words to get it will make sci-fi fans chuckle) but due to his incompetence he finds himself leading a group of knights against an army of monsters.

Ash Williams is fully developed this time around. He’s really funny and great because he does all the hard stuff but messes up on the simple things. With more lines that have become popular movie quotes Bruce Campbell/Ash Williams is a real treat to watch. The monsters look fantastic in this one and I love the effects for the skeleton that at times look very much like the ones made by Ray Harryhausen in “Jason and the Argonauts”.

Sure there are moments, especially the “Gulliver’s Travels” rip-off, that aren’t very funny but the majority of the film is so over the top that you just can’t help but smile at. This is a movie where a man armed with a chainsaw and a shotgun leads an army of knights against the living dead and if that kind of premise doesn’t amuse then you won’t enjoy this film but if it does then “Army Of Darkness” is worth checking out. Like “Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn”, the film isn’t for everyone but that doesn’t stop it being great for others (P.S. the American cut has a much better ending).

Maybe “Armour Of God” is an “Indiana Jones” rip-off but I never saw Indiana Jones doing any martial arts so I guess that gives you a reason to see this movie. Jackie Chan (“Wheels On Meals”) directs and stars in the movie that almost killed him. Although certainly not Chan’s finest work, “Armour Of God” packs enough action, excitement and humour to make it a good movie.

Chan stars as the ex-singer turned treasure hunter Asian Hawk as we first see him escape from an African tribe in an Indiana Jones fashion. Then Hawk’s old friend Alan (Alan Tam) arrives with news that his girlfriend has been kidnapped by a bad group of monks seeking to destroy the ‘Armour of God’. Hawk and Alan then embark on a daring quest across Europe to rescue Alan’s girlfriend and stop the bad guys from taking over the world.

Acting is not this movie’s strong point. Jackie Chan is so and so but as usual his martial arts skills are amazing. The rest of the characters aren’t too great but they’re tolerable. The interaction is mediocre. The action is definitely what you’ll be watching the movie for and we get to see lots from of wonderful stunts.

Like I mentioned this was the movie where Jackie Chan came close to death. He jumped into a tree, the branch snapped, he fell and hit his head on a rock because of this the movie had to cut out some action so Chan could recover and the movie does suffer for that but it’s still good. The car chases, the ridiculous stunts and the hand-to-hand combat are really good though and along with the decent plot it makes this a Chan movie that won’t just appeal to a small demographic like some of his other pictures. Again, while he has done better stuff this is one Chan film you’ll be glad you saw.

Due to the kind of praise it received I correctly predicted “Argo” would win the “Best Picture Oscar” and now I’ve finally got a chance to see the movie and although perhaps isn’t quite as perfect as I’ve heard it is still a phenomenal movie that should see without any hesitation. Director and star Ben Affleck (“Dogma”, “Pearl Harbour”) can be proud of this.

Based on a true story, in 1979 Iran, the U.S. embassy is taken over and over 50 hostages are being held captive by people who want to see their former leader, who is living in the U.S., brought to justice. 6 workers escaped and are hiding in the Canadian embassy but the American government can’t get them out. C.I.A. man Tony Menendez (Affleck) comes up with a plan to disguise these individuals as a Canadian film crew making a sci-fi named “Argo” (a “Star Wars” rip-off).

Ben Affleck is entertaining as Tony Menendez. The best characters though are two filmmakers, who help the project seem more real, played by John Goodman (“King Ralph”, “The Artist”) and Alan Arkin (“Rocketeer”, “Get Smart”) as they provide a good few laughs. The 6 destined for extraction by Menendez aren’t too exciting, I get they’re meant to be just normal people but they could have made them a little more flesh out and therefore interesting.

“Argo” has its amusing points but for the most part is an exceptionally thrilling movie and it does it all with ‘possibilities of what may go wrong’. The fact it is based on a true story makes it more heroic and more engaging; I adored how they used tv clips from the time that cover the crisis. Sure the movie isn’t very light-hearted but it’s never distressing and is uplifting overall. It’s a movie that isn’t flawless but captures you in so many ways that you just can’t resist it.

DC might have hit some serious problems with films such as “Suicide Squad” and “Batman v Superman” but “Aquaman” is further proof that the company has learned its lessons. I was surprised by just how much I did enjoy this movie, it’s about as good as “Wonder Woman”.

Aquaman (Jason Momoa “Conan The Barbarian”) is forced to travel to Atlantis when his half-brother, King Orm (Patrick Wilson “The Conjuring”), intends to launch an attack on the humans. Aquaman teams up with Mera (Amber Heard “Machete Kills”) as he battles to save the planet from a devastating conflict while Orm hurries to crush any opposition to his military plans.

Jason Momoa is great as Aquaman as he brings the right levels of toughness and humour to the role. Amber Heard does a good job as Mera. The chemistry between the two is quite good. The most significant problem I had with the movie was with the villains. We have Orm and we have Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and neither get enough screen time for us to really enjoy them. Nicole Kidman (“The Golden Compass”) and Temuera Morrison (“Once Were Warriors”) play Aquaman’s parents and they do a really good job. Willem Dafoe (“Platoon”) and Dolph Lundgren (“Rocky IV”) also have small roles in here.

The action scenes are entertaining and the environments shown in “Aquaman” are quite simply terrific. Atlantis looks like a mixture of Gungan City and Coruscant from the “Star Wars” prequels but with a lot more personality. It successfully blends a lot of different elements as we have parts that look like something out of disaster film, “Indiana Jones” style adventure moments and we get to see colossal underwater battles that rival the ones in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. “Aquaman” does have its problems but overall, I was very impressed with it and it shows that Marvel should see DC as a consistent competitor.

“Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres” feels somewhat like a combination of “South Park” and “Heavy Metal”. This picture is based on the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” cartoon series, a show that I was vaguely aware of but knew virtually nothing about but might check it out after this.

“Aqua Teen Hunger Force” centres around the misadventures of a milkshake called Master Shake (Dana Snyder), a pack of fries by the name of Frylock (Carey Means) and a wad of meat appropriately named Meatwad. The gang find themselves involved in battle over an exercise machine with the potential destroy the entire world. Great plot, isn’t it?

I love the idea that the main characters are fast-food items. The funniest and therefore my favourite has to be Master Shake with his rather selfish tendencies and no I never thought I’d be writing about my adoration of a milkshake’s selfishness. Frylock is also pretty funny and I like the way he shoots lasers out of his eyes. Meatwad is the blandest but that’s not to say that he’s a bad character; it’s just that he isn’t as fun as Master Shake or Frylock. Most of the other characters are somewhat funny.

This is a film in which a milkshake uses a flamethrower on a chicken, a pack of fries repeatedly punches a man in the face and a watermelon serves as a spaceship. The film is totally insane but you can’t help but just go along with the madness and enjoy what is on offer. This film won’t be to everybody’s taste and I can imagine a lot of people becoming frustrated with its style but I found myself able to laugh at a fair amount of what was on the screen. You have to give it some credit, it’s wittier than “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America” and it makes more sense than “Heavy Metal”.

Few mainstream Hollywood films contain as much flesh and as much blood as “Apocalypto”. I criticised Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” for its intense violent imagery because I thought it was overdone but the disgusting nature of “Apocalypto” seems appropriate given its subject matter. Be warned, this is not a film for those with a weak stomach.

“Apocalypto” is set during the waning of the Mayan civilisation. We see a village decimated by an invading force and many of the villagers are captured and taken on a perilous journey. Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) will need all his strength and all his courage if he is to escape his captors, return to his family and build a new existence.

As he did with “The Passion of the Christ”, Gibson has opted to cast largely unknown actors and actresses and he has them speak a dead language. I think it helps give the film greater legitimacy and no expense seems to have been spared when it comes to the costumes because they are fantastic. We want to see Jaguar Paw escape torture and death and the film is intense throughout. The other characters are good as well and as I say, it really helps that everybody looks and sounds like a Mayan.

Some have pointed out that the ritual sacrifice scene is more reminiscent of the Aztecs than the Mayans and one scene shows the arrival of the European settlers despite the Mayans having been wiped out long before any colonists came to the Americas. However, this film does seem to present a plausible view of life as part of an indigenous American civilisation. The film is very intense, there are lots of gory sequences and lots of nudity given the fact that the Mayans were not known to dress modestly. “Apocalypto” justifies its imagery because of its setting, something I feel “The Passion of the Christ” could not.

“Any Which Way You Can” is the lousy follow-up to the mediocre original film “Every Which Way But Loose”. Although the film itself isn’t really that much worse than the original, it sadly requires you see have seen the original so that knocks it down even further because you have to watch the first to even try to understand this movie.

In “Any Which Way You Can”, Clint Eastwood (“Hang ‘Em High”, “Kelly’s Heroes”) returns as trucker Philo Beddoe with his orangutan Clyde. Philo gets offered a lot of money to fight but turns it down but finds himself forced into a corner. He then has to fight in what turns into mixture between an excessively tedious piece of action and a poor copy of “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World”.

Clint Eastwood isn’t really any better or any worse than he was in the first film. Very few laughs come from Clyde this time as I felt they’d done a lot of the jokes in the first film and an orangutan doing silly stuff can get dull after a while. Nobody else brings anything worthwhile to the table so you can pretty much give up on the cast.

“Any Which Way You Can” is basically the second act as the first film had one of the most miserable endings I’ve ever seen so it’s a real rip-off as you buy both just to see one story really. “Any Which Way You Can” just like the first is too mature for children and is hardly a great ‘guy’ film so I highly recommend you skip it because it is less funny than the first film, which wasn’t funny either and has one of the most drawn-out fight scenes I’ve ever witnessed so I say avoid this picture any which way you can.

“Ant-Man” is a really entertaining Marvel superhero flick. With a great combination of action and comedy, “Ant-Man” is definitely worth watching for fans that have been following the Marvel movie universe.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd “This Is 40”, “Role Models”) is an ex-cat burglar that must become ‘Ant-Man’ as he dons a super suit that allows him to change size, if he is to help stop the super suit’s technology from being sold to the villains of the world. He’ll need help from the suit’s creator, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas “Basic Instinct”), along with hordes of ants if he is to save the day.

Paul Rudd is surprisingly entertaining as Ant-Man. Most people know Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Hulk but Ant-Man is somewhat obscure and that’s a shame because this film shows the character can be really good. Michael Douglas is good as Hank Pym and Evangeline Lilly (“The Hurt Locker”) is really good as his daughter, Hope. The villain, Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll “The Bourne Legacy”), is reasonable but much like a lot of the Marvel villains, he doesn’t leave a huge impact. Many of the other characters are amusing and watch out once again for Stan Lee’s cameo.

“Ant-Man” features fantastic special effects and they help us to fully enjoy hilarious and thrilling sequences such as the climactic final battle that takes place on a toy train set. If you’ve enjoyed many of the Marvel universe movies and thought this was one you could overlook, you need to think again because “Ant-Man” is a creative and exciting film. If you enjoyed the “Iron Man” films and the “Thor” pictures, I can’t think of any reason why one wouldn’t also have a lot of fun with “Ant-Man”. For those that haven’t been following the Marvel universe franchise, this one certainly stands on its own much more than a lot of them so it could easily still be worth checking out.

“Annihilation” is a mind-bending sci-fi flick starring Natalie Portman (“No Strings Attached”, “Jackie”) and it’s one of the most shocking sci-fi films of recent years. It starts off a little slow but once it gets going, it really engages you. This is an intellectual picture that makes you think.

In “Annihilation”, a team of scientists embark on a mission inside a zone known as the ‘Shimmer’ where the laws of nature do not apply. The phenomenon appeared after a meteor crash and is expanding with the potential to threat the world as we know it. Once inside this strange place, the scientists will be test both physically and mentally.

Natalie Portman plays biologist Lena. She joins the mission after her soldier husband (Oscar Isaac “The Nativity Story”) is the only one to survive a trip inside the Shimmer. I think Natalie Portman does a really good job and I think character is very interesting. The other members of the team were not as good as I really did not care for Oscar Isaac’s performance. I’m not really sure why but he seems to be in so many films lately. I will not go into much detail but the things the team encounters inside the Shimmer are incredibly creative.

“Annihilation” is a stunning film; it creates a terrific visual experience. However, it’s not just the special effects that make it so good, it’s the intensity of the science-fiction. There are a few very realistic depictions of violence and I think I would have toned down the violence had I been making it. I really enjoyed the film once they enter the Shimmer and I loved it up until the last two minutes or so. If you enjoyed sci-fi movies including “Sunshine”, “Event Horizon”, “The Abyss” and “Red Planet” then I think you should definitely watch “Annihilation”.

“Annie Hall” is a movie written by, directed by and starring Woody Allen (“Bananas”, “Sleeper”) so it is very much his film and what an excellent job he has done with it. The film is often considered a comedy but really it is anything but because Allen gives a very bleak overlook on life here.

In “Annie Hall”, Jewish comedian Alvy Singer (Allen) meets a ditsy girl named Annie Hall (Diane Keaton “The Godfather”). The movie actually starts after the two have separated and is Alvy’s look back on the relationship as he tries to figure out what went wrong between the two. It’s very witty and completely the opposite of optimistic.

Allen is fantastic here, he is an actor who has created an onscreen and off-screen persona that we are so used to seeing and has become so incredibly well established. I like the sections where Allen addresses the audience. Diane Keaton is also good. The two have awkward conversations together (e.g. the one where Alvy tells her you need to be happy if you live a miserable life) but it works so unbelievably well in its context. Watch out for appearances by Jeff Goldblum (“Jurassic Park”), Christopher Walken (“Pulp Fiction”), John Glover (“Batman and Robin”) and Shelley Duvall (“The Shining”).

“Annie Hall” isn’t quite perfect but what it offers is a film that is so unbelievably impressive with its intelligent perspective on existence. Allen has produced a film that isn’t laugh-out-loud funny but in some ways it is something more: it makes you think deep, deep thoughts. It’s a fabulous movie that perhaps could be improved with more scenes or at least longer scenes but maybe that would hinder the film, I don’t know; I’d be interested in seeing a version of the film that is longer (I doubt one exists).