“Shattered Glass” is a remarkable movie that shows you that with the right combination of confidence, personality and luck, you can get away with the most outrageous things. It’s a film that covers a lot of the same themes as “Catch Me If You Can” but I enjoyed this one a lot more.

Based on a true story, we follow the downfall of Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones”). He was a journalist for the prestigious The New Republic magazine that wrote many influential pieces that turned out to be fabricated. Here we see how he was able to fool so many for so long.

Hayden Christensen was of course bad in the “Star Wars” prequels. However, he works perfectly here. It’s so strange to see an actor that has been so bad at times be so thoroughly entertaining. It just shows you that he how miscast he has been in other roles. Peter Sarsgaard (“Garden State”) and Hank Azaria (“Godzilla”) both play editors at The New Republic. Glass admires Azaria’s Michael Kelly but loathes Sarsgaard’s Chuck Lane. Rosario Dawson (“Clerks II”) and Steve Zahn (“Rescue Dawn”) have small roles but don’t really add all that much to the movie.

“Shattered Glass” is a brilliant film that shows you just how flawed and problematic the journalism industry can be. While the standard of journalism seems to be decreasing with companies caring more about viewership numbers and online clicks, this takes you back to the late 90s when journalism was far more respected across the board. “Shattered Glass” is not just easily Hayden Christensen’s best work, it’s one of the best con artist films out there. It’s a film that deserves a lot more love and attention because it is so skilfully made. It does make you wonder how many other frauds there must have been in the industry.

“Shark Night 3D” is an abominable film. Just when you thought “Jaws: The Revenge” was the worst shark movie ever, we get this horrendous creation. This movie was not remotely fun and the only thing it really reminded me of was the dreadful 2009 remake of “Friday The 13th”.

A group of teens visit a lake house for a weekend of fun. Things take a turn for the worst when they get attacked by a shark. It is going to be a deadly ordeal as the group must survive several encounters with different sharks. Who will survive and what will be left of them?

The characters in this movie are so incredibly dull. They are just like the teens from a slasher movie. I didn’t give a damn about any of them. It turns out that there are some bad guys that have an evil scheme to make money. It’s a somewhat interesting idea but the whole movie is so bad that I had completely lost interest at that point. The sharks here don’t look too bad but we barely see them. Even many of the cheesy, low-budget shark films know that it is the sharks that we want to see.

“Shark Night 3D” is a complete disaster. The premise is generic, the characters are beyond boring, the acting is horrible, the writing is lousy, the kill scenes are severely underwhelming and we hardly get to see the killer sharks. Honestly, go and watch “Jaws”, “Deep Blue Sea” or even some low-budget movie such as “Sharktopus” and you will have a lot more fun than watching “Shark Night 3D”. If you were a big fan of the 2009 “Friday The 13th” then maybe you’ll like this because it’s pretty much the same film, just with sharks instead of Jason in his hockey mask.

After the success of “Gremlins”, we got a ton of film where tiny little monsters go on the attack such as “Critters” and “Ghoulies”. There was also the popularity of the “Child’s Play” franchise with a killer doll. We then got a combination of the little monsters and killer dolls with “Puppet Master” and of course, “Demonic Toys”. It’s not really surprising that something so unoriginal feels so unfulfilling.

In this film, a pregnant policewoman (Tracy Scoggins) is pursuing a suspect when she gets trapped in a toy warehouse. The place turns out to be haunted with a demonic force possessing the toys. Now, she and the other folks trapped inside must fight to survive against the killer toys. As the night continues, she will make a terrifying discovery about the demon’s true intentions.

The characters in this film are really bland. This is your typical low-budget horror flick with the typical low-budget horror characters. Nobody makes a sensible decision. While the effects for the movement of the toys are not terrible by any means, they are not as good as the effects for Chucky in the “Child’s Play” films, the first of which came out several years earlier. The toys themselves do not really have much personality and all seem really generic.

“Demonic Toys” knows that it is unoriginal. It even shows “Puppet Master” on a television in the background of one scene. It never aspires to be anything other than just another horror flick designed to make its money by being a rip-off of many films that came out before it. It’s far from being the worst film out there but it’s about as lazy as you can get. If you really like films such as “Critters” and “Puppet Master” then maybe you’ll like this but if not, there is no need to see this.

The 2010 remake of “I Spit On Your Grave” is a surprisingly effective horror/thriller. I’m not familiar with the original 1970s picture but I’m aware of the controversy surrounding it. This remake was undoubtedly less controversial, coming so many years later and after so many objectionable horror flicks. This 2010 film works because while it seems shocking and outrageous, it keeps itself in the realm of reality and it so much more unsettling because of it.

Jennifer (Sarah Butler) is a young female writer, who decides to rent a cabin in the countryside. Hoping it will be the perfect place to write her novel, she finds that things take a sadistic turn. A group of local men rape and torture her in a truly terrifying attack. However, she escapes and is now plotting her violent revenge.

The gang of men in this film are truly despicable. They mock Jennifer, they hit her and they rape her. There seems to be no limit to the sadistic nature. This works because we want to see Jennifer get her revenge in the style of any good revenge flick. Jennifer is played well by Sarah Butler. The way she goes from being innocent and normal to truly disturbed by the end is very convincing. She is treated like she’s nothing and will now make them all pay.

“I Spit On Your Grave” may contain some truly shocking violence and mature themes but what separates this from horror flicks I’ve disliked such as “Hostel”, “Saw”, “The Human Centipede”, “The Hills Have Eyes”, “Wrong Turn” and “The Collector”? This feels more grounded in reality like the original “Halloween” or even a film such as “Vacancy”. That realism helps bring you into the disturbing world it creates because you can relate to these very realistic fears. Films such as “Hostel” are too elaborate for it to seem real. This is a really disturbing and brutal film but it works as a horror/thriller and I’m interested in checking out the original at some point.

The original “Starship Troopers” was a fun sci-fi/action flick that also had some rather clever satire of fascism. “Starship Troopers 2” fails on just about every level to capture any of the elements that made its predecessor enjoyable. It’s a shame because it starts off somewhat promisingly but with mere minutes, it becomes clear that this is going to be a disappointment. This is low-budget, direct-to-video at its worst.

In “Hero of the Federation”, humanity is continuing its war against the bugs. It appears the bugs have adapted as they now have a new way to wage warfare. The bugs infect humans and now it’s hard to tell who your friend is and who your foe is.

The characters in this film are just horrible and so are the performances. There is just nobody here that is remotely engaging and nobody looks like they want to be there. I miss Casper Van Dien from the original. We see very little of the bugs compared to the previous film. They look okay but considering how cheap the rest of the film looks, I wouldn’t be surprised if the filmmakers did not just lift animations from the first film. The new bugs don’t look so great.

“Starship Troopers 2” is an awful sequel that fails to capture the satirical tone of the first film. It also fails as a sci-fi/action flick because the action sequences are so weak and the set design is some of the worst I’ve seen. The creative violence has also been severely toned down, most likely due to budgeting reasons. It also just has very little to do with the first film. Given some of the plot elements, it almost feels more like a sequel to “Screamers” with Peter Weller than part of the “Starship Troopers” franchise. This is terrible picture with so very few even vaguely decent moments.

“Killjoy” seems like a very appropriate name for a film this bad. I felt any sense of joy being violently murdered by this completely underwhelming picture. Sadly, this is apparently the first instalment in a franchise. Most sequels tend to be worse than the original but the first “Killjoy” couldn’t set the bar much lower.

Michael is a nerdy young man, who struggles to make friends. He is attracted to Jada (Vera Yell). He wants to make her his girlfriend. However, she rejects him due to being in a relationship with a local gangster. The gangster murders Michael anyway but not before Michael is able to summon an evil force with black magic. Now, the demonic Killjoy (Ángel Vargas) is unleashing his terror on those that wronged Michael.

The characters in this film are absolutely dreadful and the performances are some of the worst I have ever seen. This is clearly a low-budget film so I imagine that the cast members were not paid very well and so they look like they would rather be anywhere else. The dialog is frequently awkward. Also, the human characters make dumb decisions. The killer clown looks rather pathetic with very amateurish make-up and costume design. Killjoy feels like a mixture of Freddy Krueger, Pennywise, Wishmaster and Candyman so don’t expect to see anything original with this character.

“Killjoy” looks like the sort of film that you could make with your friends over a weekend. Some of the special effects are laughably bad. None of the human characters are remotely interesting and the demonic clown is nothing special. “Killjoy” is a total waste of time and I can’t believe that there is a whole franchise. The only thing close to a positive that I can think of is that it isn’t quite as bad as “Leprechaun”, another terrible slasher flick that somehow launched a franchise.

“Jackass” is the show that is essentially the precursor to all the dumb stunt and prank videos you can find on the internet. It’s vile and juvenile in equal measure but there are moments where it’s hard to contain the laughter because some of it is still funny. While it may have been more significant upon its initial release, it now feels a lot less relevant considering the content available from countless people online.

Join Johnny Knoxville and his gang of misfits as they carry out an array of gross and dangerous stunts and pranks. See everything from crashing while riding a shopping cart to faking kidnappings to being electrocuted. There seems to be nothing that the gang won’t do for a laugh, no matter how painful or disgusting.

Knoxville is definitely the one with the most in terms of personality. I always think that the other guys are pretty forgettable. I don’t really have any sympathy for the ‘Jackasses’ as they carry out some truly stupid acts. For their sake, let’s hope they made enough money doing this before they got brain damage. Some of the stuff they do is pretty disgusting and involves all sorts of bodily fluids.

I must admit that the theme music is still very catchy and I certainly understand that the show really was influential at the time. However, a lot of the gags don’t really work. Many of the stunts are actually fairly unimpressive. I mean, just watching a guy intentionally crash his bike into a wall isn’t that funny. If you want to just switch off your brain and watch idiots do the most stupid things then this is definitely the show for you. If you were hoping for anything even vaguely intelligent then watching “Jackass” is like going to the wrong universe.

“Malignant” manages to be one of the most disturbing yet hilarious horror films in recent years. It’s a film with massive inconsistencies in terms of the tone so it seems like it should be a total mess but it somehow still enjoyed it. I admire the creativity and the commitment from director James Wan (“Saw”, “Insidious”) in making something that feels rather different from anything else in the oversaturated horror genre.

Madison (Annabelle Wallis “The Mummy”, “Annabelle”) has lost her baby while pregnant again but now she’s also suffering from disturbing visions of grisly murders. Are these dreams or are these events real? Is she crazy? Who is doing this? Startling revelations will expose something more traumatic than Madison could have ever anticipated.

Annabelle Wallis gives a good performance as Madison. Maddie Hasson (“God Bless America”) also does a good job as Madison’s sister, Sydney. Sydney is really trying to help Madison by doing her best to uncover the mysteries. There are other characters I would love to talk about but unfortunately, I can’t say anything without spoiling what happens. All I’ll mention is that we have a rather original horror villain in this film and that’s so refreshing in a genre where we are used to seeing a mix of ghosts, knife-wielding guys in masks and zombies.

“Malignant” is a very visually interesting film with some rather hypnotic shots and the special effects are really great at times. Towards the end of the film, we unravel some of the mysteries and the revelations are genuinely unsettling but we also have some sequences that are just so darn funny that you want to roar with laughter. I can imagine some people being really disturbed by parts of this film so I must warn people that this is pretty intense compared to most horror films out there.

Has any franchise ever been rebooted as many times as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”? 2022 offers yet another instalment that is a direct sequel to the original and ignores all the previous films. This is such a tired and uninspired franchise so while this film is definitely not the worst (it actually has a few mildly enjoyable moments), it’s hard to watch without feeling that we have seen this all too many times.

A group of young people have purchased a supposedly abandoned town in Texas and hope to auction the properties off to start a new community. Unfortunately, the place is not actually abandoned so they soon find themselves being terrorised by the unstoppable Leatherface. Can they survive? Do we even care? Also, get ready for some heavy-handed commentary on the history of American racism as well as gun violence.

Leatherface is infamous for his wearing of other people’s faces. In this one, the mask he wears kind of reminded me of Sloth from “The Goonies”. Leatherface is given one moment in this film that might be his best moment in the entire franchise as he literally kills cancel culture. The other characters in this film are so dumb and it’s just completely unbelievable. One character is the survivor of a school shooting so we get some really predictable plot points.

2022’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” shows how little this franchise has changed since its inception. It’s always just more of the same and it’s just never engaging. The story never really moves on, it’s just an excuse for more blood and guts. It also is another horror film with one of the awful endings that you only get in horror films. If you are a fan of these films then you’ll probably enjoy this but think most people lost interest a long time ago.

“Bee Movie” is a fascinatingly odd film. On the one hand, it’s a competent flick with some decent animation and some good gags. However, it’s supposed to be a children’s film and yet it has some rather disturbing sexual undertones involving interspecies relationships as well as some other truly surreal plot points.

In “Bee Movie”, Jerry Seinfeld from tv’s “Seinfeld” stars as Barry B. Benson, a simple bee with serious questions about his future. He ends up leaving the hive where he begins to fall for Vanessa (Renée Zellweger “Bridget Jones’s Diary”), a human female. Barry also learns some shocking facts about what humans do with bees’ honey and so with Vanessa’s help, decides to sue humanity.

Jerry Seinfeld is a successful comedian and his show “Seinfeld” was huge for many years so it is an odd choice for his first really significant film role to be playing a bee with an attraction towards a human female. It seems like a weird transition to go from beloved sitcom star to starring in a supposed kids movie about an interspecies relationship. Despite the weirdness of the role, he does a good job. I also weirdly buy Zellweger as a woman who would somehow fall for a bee. There are some other good characters and I like the way the film pokes fun at many celebrities including Ray Liotta (“Goodfellas”). The animation is okay and I quite like the style.

“Bee Movie” is insane. At times, it seems like a normal family movie but just the idea of a bee falling desperately in love with a human is kind of unsettling and seems like something from a parody film aimed at more mature audiences. It’s definitely not a terrible film but I just don’t really feel I can recommend a movie where Jerry Seinfeld plays a bee in love with a woman.