“High Plains Drifter” is another violent, brutal yet thoroughly captivating Western from Clint Eastwood (“Unforgiven”, “Dirty Harry”). If you’ve seen “Hang ‘Em High”, “A Fistful Of Dollars”, “Pale Rider” or any of his other cowboy movies then you’ll know what to expect.

“High Plains Drifter” could very easily be the next film in the “Dollars” series as we see yet another unknown gunslinger, played by Eastwood, ride into town. He gets recruited by the town to help them battle three outlaws, who have just been released and out for revenge on the town that put them away. His plan involves painting the whole place red and calling it ‘Hell’, it’s poetic and it’s thrilling.

Clint Eastwood casual chucks a stick of dynamite at an angry mob in this film, if that doesn’t show you how much class he has then nothing will. He delivers his usual tough guy performance and you never feel more at home then with him in charge both on and off the screen. The villains are okay but nothing special; you may recognise Geoffrey Lewis as one of the outlaws as he’s been in many of Eastwood’s other films (“Bronco Billy”, “Every Which Way But Loose” etc…). The townsfolk are not incredible but they don’t really need to be.

“High Plains Drifter” features a disturbing scene with one man being repeatedly whipped by the three outlaws but I imagine that’s how the Wild West was. Other stars like to glamorise the times of cowboys but Eastwood doesn’t pretty anything up. Now if you haven’t like Eastwood’s other Westerns that don’t be surprised if this one isn’t your cup of tea either but if you’re like most and enjoy his gritty takes on the genre then this is another fine movie you simply have to see. Now where’s the stranger riding off to next?

Cited as their favourite film by Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton, “High Noon” is a powerful Western movie. It stars Gary Cooper (“Mr. Deeds Goes To Town”, “Meet John Doe”) in his most famous role and makes for a fine viewing experience.

On the day that he hands in his tin star and gets married, Marshal Will Kane (Cooper) learns that a deadly outlaw has been released and is heading back into town. His wife (Grace Kelly “Rear Window”) and the townsfolk urge him to leave but Kane feels a duty to stay. He tries to muster up some support but with or without help, he will face the villain and his gang.

Gary Cooper does a terrific job as a good man that might be the only one brave enough to try and protect his town from tyranny. Grace Kelly is great as Amy. You see very little of the villain and that makes the movie all the more suspenseful because you hear so much about him before he finally arrives. There are some other big names in here such as Lon Chaney Jr. (“The Wolf Man”), Lloyd Bridges (“Airplane!”) and Lee Van Cleef (“For A Few Dollars More”).

“High Noon” is rather brilliant in the way that it keeps building up tension as the minutes until noon just seem to slip away and Cooper’s character still has not recruited any of the townsfolk to join the fight. Some audiences may view the film as rather slow and dull but I think it manages to do a substantial amount with very little actually happening until near the end. Fans of the Western genre need to see “High Noon” because it is really good. Even if you do not care much for films about cowboys, you still might want to check out “High Noon”.

“High Anxiety” is a parody of the works of Alfred Hitchcock (“Rear Window”, “Psycho”) by director/actor Mel Brooks (“Life Stinks”, “Spaceballs”). It’s funny but it doesn’t seem to be aware of the fact that Hitchcock’s films seem to have a sense of humour.

In “High Anxiety”, a great psychiatrist named Richard Throndyke (Brooks) is off to become the new head doctor at a mental hospital for the ‘very, very nervous’. Unfortunately for him, something sinister is going on and there’s a plot to get him out as his enemies intend to use his fear of heights against him. You’ll notice references to “The Birds”, “Psycho”, “Vertigo” and several others.

Mel Brooks is funny here and the guy knows how to use himself. My favourite character is annoyingly fast-talking driver named Brophy played by Ron Carey, who has collaborated with Brooks on numerous occasions. I also like the guy with half a moustache (Lee Delano “Splash”). The thing is the characters in Hitchcock’s films tend to also be funny in a bizarre way so it’s surprisingly hard material to mock. Another great asset is the agitated bellboy, who helps recreate the famous shower scene in an amusing but somehow forced gag.

Mel Brooks has done funny movies before (“Spaceballs” is a good example) but none of them have really wowed me; “High Anxiety” doesn’t wow me either but it’s still worth watching. What I would have liked to have seen is more Hitchcock-like techniques being incorporated such as music, lighting and camera angles but what Brooks has done works. I like the joke involving the killer radio a lot and there’s a ton of others that made me smile so it’s a good comedy, it just isn’t the ideal Hitchcock spoof. “High Anxiety” earns its rating but it also doesn’t deserve anything higher.

“Hereafter” disappoints on so many levels; it’s boring, it’s obnoxious and it’s not enjoyable. It’s another one of those films where people are linked together via some disaster or tragedy and I normally can’t stand that kind of movie as they tend to forget how important the script, the dialog and the character development is and try and develop everything as one big thing.

In “Hereafter”, three people, a psychic American man named George (Matt Damon “Green Zone”), a French journalist named Marie (Cécile De France “Switchblade Romance”) and an English schoolboy named Marcus are linked because of death. George sees people’s losses when he touches them, Marie had a near death experience and Marcus has just lost his brother.

The characters are bland as it feels none of them are especially well developed as the film flickers from one to the next every now and then and none of them seem particularly interesting anyway. Matt Damon is a great actor in my opinion but why does he constantly play the bland roles? Marcus is boring and feels very wet. Marie is okay and is probably the most interesting out of the three. Everyone else is pretty disappointing.

“Hereafter” could have been great but it just leaves important parts of movies behind such as dialog and character development. The first scene, which features a tsunami, doesn’t feature even the dullest aspects of suspense and it just ploughs through obnoxiously and forgets what an audience is looking for. At times the movie is depressing but that’s because the actors don’t convey their character’s emotions well and it makes it very boring when it should be an emotional experience. While I have seen far worse “Hereafter” is a massive misfire by director Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby”) and it results in an incredibly bland film that I recommend you miss.

Comedic actor Kevin James (“Paul Blart: Mall Cop”, “Grown Ups”) stars in this sports/comedy vehicle with the odd title “Here Comes The Boom”. It reminded me a lot of “Nacho Libre” (which I liked) but unlike that films didn’t seize enough opportunities to make it funny enough to recommend.

Biology teacher Scott Voss (James) finds out that due to cuts the music teacher Marty Streb (Henry Winkler “The Waterboy”) will lose his job. To ensure that doesn’t happen, Scott decides to help raise the money needed. In a bid to get the money Scott enters the dangerously violent world of cage fighting. Can he get the money before the deadline?

I don’t find Kevin James funny. Sure he tries but the scripts are always written around the fact he’s fat as the central joke and while it’s funny at first after several minutes it becomes tedious. Henry Winkler gives a decent performance as he tries really hard but it’s a shame he’s acting in a lacklustre comedy and not something more sensible. Some of the other characters provide a few mild laughs but sadly there aren’t enough good jokes generated by the array of strange personalities that blunder onto the screen.

The fight scenes aren’t funny at all; they don’t even try to be. It’s almost like you’re watching a real cage fight. I saw countless ways they could have these scenes enjoyable (including a moment that could have parodied “Rocky”). If you want to see a fat guy wander around doing mildly funny stuff and then being beaten brutally in a cage then “Here Comes The Boom” might suit your needs but most people are going to see this is a shabby comedy that could have been quite amusing, however it allows its script to centre on the fact the protagonist is a little chubby and the majority of the jokes just aren’t that funny.

What has happened to Disney when they give us an animated feature like “Hercules”? This is a movie where the fun of a Disney film is gone as although “Hercules” looks great, it certainly fails to capture the beauty of a Disney film. Sure, Disney may have gone beyond its glory days with such titles as “Pinocchio” and the animated version of “Alice In Wonderland” but this doesn’t even come close to “Mulan” or “The Little Mermaid”.

In “Hercules”, we meet the demi-god Hercules (Tate Donovan “Shooter”) as we discover his quest to be accepted into the world of the gods. Hades (James Woods “Casino”) has other ideas though and sets out to stop Hercules from reaching his goal. Hercules must triumph over various monsters from mythology and find the true meaning of a hero.

The acting in the film really kills this picture along with the sloppy dialog. Hercules is an uninteresting hero and is given a bland performance throughout. Hades is probably the most interesting character in the film but his dialog is awful. Danny DeVito (“Twins”) doesn’t salvage anything in this picture either and his efforts only hinder the film further. Nobody else impressed me either and the best part of any of the characters has to be the animation.

“Hercules” is a bad Disney movie and a generally weak movie. I think the reason why this movie is bad is because the dialog and the acting are so very weak. The animation is splendid and very young children may enjoy it but I’m sure they’d enjoy “Toy Story” or old treasures like “Sleeping Beauty” a heck of a lot more and for the reasons I have mentioned I feel obliged to deem “Hercules” a bad movie. I believe Disney owes to their audience to offer something much better than this one.

“Hellraiser” is a movie directed by Clive Barker, who wrote the book that this is based on. It is sadly another gory horror film but this one utilises special effects to at least do something creative with its violence and monsters. This makes it a few steps above the likes of “A Nightmare On Elm Street” and the dozen or so “Halloween” sequels.

In “Hellraiser”, a man travels to Hell via a mysterious puzzle box where he is brutally tortured but somehow his body escapes. His brother (Andrew Robinson “Dirty Harry”) moves into the house where this happened with his wife Julia (Clare Higgins). The original man, named Frank, had an affair with Julia. After blood touches Frank, he is partially resurrected and now needs Julia to kill some people so his flesh can return.

The main characters are really boring and the survivors at the end of the film just accept all the horribleness that has just occurred with their blank faces. The only interesting ones are the monsters known as the ‘Cenobites’, who are a bunch of masochist demons. They include a man with pins sticking out of his head (Doug Bradley) and my favourite: a guy with no eyes but massive teeth. The effects for them are really good as are the effects for the partially revived Frank. I also like a strange scorpion-like creature that pops up.

“Hellraiser” is like I said, a massive leap over many bloody horror outings but it’s still not good. The first hour works the best as an actual film with Frank’s body being restored but I like the last half an hour more, which is a great showcase of the effects and intriguing violence. At the end of the day “Hellraiser” is just another gross horror film and despite the fact the monsters look interesting, I doubt they’ll be sticking in my mind for too long.

The first two “Hellraiser” films were not good by any means but they were at least visually creative. “Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth” is a severe bore. The novelty of the style of the “Hellraiser” franchise has completely worn off as “Hell On Earth” is another dull, very violent and meaningless horror movie.

A young investigative journalist (Terry Farrell “Back To School”) must find a way to stop the evil Pinhead (Doug Bradley “Hellraiser”) from reigning terror on the citizens of New York. If the plot sounds a little thin then that’s because just like the other “Hellraiser” movies, there really is no story whatsoever, it’s just an excuse to have ridiculous scenes where people get skinned alive.

Pinhead gets little screen time during the first half of the picture but a decent amount in the second half. It’s a good amount considering what little he actually does. He stands around talking about how evil he is and then is so incompetent that he can’t even kill one woman. The other demonic creatures include a guy with a camera for an eye and one that uses CDs to kill people. The other characters are incredibly bad and you will have no interest in them at all.

Aside from the terrific score, “Hell On Earth” is an awful movie. This third instalment in the “Hellraiser” series is substantially worse than the first two pictures and I imagine even the most die-hard fans of the franchise will notice a serious dip in quality. The film picks the setting of New York meaning there was potential for great creative imagery but there seems to have been no desire to try and up the stakes from the earlier films as it instead opts for repeating the gore and the nudity. I imagine most will hate it but fans of gory horror films might want to give it a chance.

I didn’t watch this because I wanted to see another entry in the “Hellraiser” series; I watched this because it’s a film by Alan Smithee and he’s of course a mere pseudonym used by directors wishing to disown their work. It’s become something of a legend in film geek land so I guess I have to see at least one of the films to have the name attached to it.

If the first “Hellraiser” film was bizarre, “Bloodline” is absolutely insane with a set-up that just amplifies its strangeness as we delve into multiple time periods and never gets a feel for any of them. The demon Pinhead (Doug Bradley) pops up every now and then but exactly what he intends to do is something I can’t even guess at.

Pinhead is voiced well and looks good but the films never explain what his purpose is. The human characters are just simply here to die or become horribly mutated by Pinhead and his fellow demons. Sometimes it looks interesting but ultimately you’re just watching blood being sprayed across the screen. If there was more focus with the characters, the film would have been a lot better than this because at the moment it seems almost abstract with its structure.

“Hellraiser: Bloodline” is not the worst film I’ve seen as I can think of plenty of others more deserving of being disowned and given the Alan Smithee name. It’s another dull horror outing and it’s a shame to because the original “Hellraiser” at least did something intriguing. Maybe fans of the series will want to see this one but it certainly didn’t go down well with the mainstream audience as this was the last film of the franchise to be shown in theatres. When even Freddy Krueger can stay on the big screen and you can’t, you know there’s something seriously wrong with your film.

“Hellboy” is your standard comic book movie and that’s its problem. It’s just standard and on that basis, I refuse to recommend it as people shouldn’t settle for this average entertainment.

Near the end of World War II, the Nazis resort to black magic. Hellboy (Ron Perlman “Drive”) comes out of a portal as an infant. He is brought up by Trevor Bruttenholm (John Hurt “Alien”). Hellboy works for the government fighting against the dark forces. The evil Grigori Rasputin (Karl Roden “Orphan”) attempts to use the same black magic the Nazis do to bring the dark forces to Earth. Now Hellboy must fight to save the planet.

Ron Perlman is reasonably good as Hellboy but he’s nothing special. John Hurt is good in this film (as he always is in his movies), he sort of plays Hellboy’s adopted father you could say. John Myers (Rupert Evans) is a government agent and he’s a rubbish character in my opinion. Sadly he gets a lot of screen-time. Liz Sherman (Selma Blair “Legally Blonde”) is sort of Hellboy’s girlfriend and she’s not memorable. Abe Sapien (Doug Jones “Pan’s Labyrinth”) is another strange creature like Hellboy and the two work together. The bad guy is average.

The action in “Hellboy” is reasonable, the characters are quite dull, the acting isn’t too special, the special effects are passable and the dialog is weak. “Hellboy” is okay but I don’t like to settle for films that are just okay. I demand more from movies and despite the fact “Hellboy” has good parts in it, I just don’t feel it has that extra kick in it. There are lots of things out there that are far worse than this and I’m not sure but I imagine fans of the Dark Horse comics will enjoy this one.