“The Debt Collector” is a genuinely amusing buddy action flick starring Scott Adkins (“Accident Man”, “Undisputed III: Redemption”) and Louis Mandylor (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”). It reminded me a lot of Jason Statham films such as “The Transporter”.

French (Adkins) is a British martial artist with his own dojo in California. However, he’s facing financial trouble so is willing to do any work he can so he can afford to keep his business. A friend finds him a job that isn’t pretty but it sure pays the bills. French becomes a debt collector for a local mobster. Teaming up with Sue (Mandylor), the two are chasing undesirables for money and facing a lot of resistance from the meanest folks in town.

Adkins reminds me a lot of Jason Statham but he always brings more martial arts action to the table than Statham. Some of the action scenes here are both very exciting and very amusing. Louis Mandylor is okay as Sue. The two do have some onscreen chemistry so we get some good banter. The other characters are not very memorable but there are plenty of big guys for Adkins to beat up. Tony Todd (“Candyman”, “The Rock”) has a small role as one of the gang bosses.

This movie looks great for a low-budget action picture. The fight sequences are satisfying and often quite funny. Towards the end, the movie loses some of its humour and its momentum but overall, I was very impressed with this movie and I think it’s a shame that it’s not got more attention. Scott Adkins continues to be criminally overlooked as a martial arts action star. If you like movies such as “Beverly Hills Cop”, “Lethal Weapon” and “Rush Hour” then check out “The Debt Collector” because I think you’ll really enjoy it.

“Spiral” is yet another attempt to revive the “Saw” franchise. Allegedly, it tries to take things in a new direction. However, I struggled to see any difference between this and any of the other films in the series. Aside from the fact that it stars Chris Rock (“Madagascar”, “Dogma”), this is the same tired formula.

Zeke Banks (Rock) is a cop that isn’t liked much by others on the force after he helped bring down a corrupt colleague. Now, he’s investigating some grisly murders that are reminiscent of the crimes of Jigsaw. Can he catch the new copycat and bring his reign of terror to an end?

If you think having Chris Rock in your movie is going to save it then you’re crazy. Rock is just awful and irritating as always. It’s so weird seeing a comedian star in a horror movie. Apparently, Rock pitched the idea for this movie. Maybe we’ll soon get a “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” with Mike Myers (“Wayne’s World”) and “Halloween” with Will Ferrell (“Elf”). Samuel L. Jackson (“Snakes On A Plane”) is here but adds nothing. Everybody else is deathly boring. Don’t expect to see Tobin Bell from the other “Saw” movies (not even another lousy flashback).

This film starts with a man being told that the only way to avoid an oncoming train is for him to rip his own tongue out to escape a trap device. A far more frightening prospect would have been having to endure sitting through a Chris Rock comedy show. This movie does absolutely nothing to get me interested in this franchise again. It’s just more the same boring stuff that we witnessed in all the other “Saw” movies. I don’t get why the studio is pretending that this is some new direction for the series because it’s just more of the same.

“Safe” is an interesting action movie with some spectacular sequences. Unfortunately, it’s a little bloated with a few too many plot points that just didn’t need to be there. It’s still entertaining but some of the excess could have been trimmed just to keep things a little tighter.

In “Safe”, Jason Statham (“Transporter 2”, “Blitz”) plays ex-cop and ex-cage fighter Luke Wright, who is now living as a homeless man after angering members of the Russia mafia. Wright gets involved in battle involving the Russian mafia, the Triads and corrupt police over Mei (Catherine Chan), a young girl being used by criminal gangs for her incredible mathematical skills. With danger at every turn, Wright must find a way to protect the girl and neutralise the various threats.

Jason Statham is entertaining here but I do have some serious questions about his character. Why have him be an ex-cop and an ex-cage fighter? The whole cage fighting element could have been dropped as the gang could have been after him for something he did as a cop rather than because he accidentally won a fight he was meant to lose. The Mei character is quite interesting and you could have had a whole movie about a child using her mental skills to run a criminal gang’s finances. There are a lot of bad guys in this movie and some of them are reasonably enjoyable.

“Safe” is not a long movie but is just packed with different things going on. I liked the movie and thought a lot of the action sequences were terrific. I think the performance from Catherine Chan is also quite impressive. I recommend this movie for fans of Jason Statham but don’t go into expecting to see his finest work. Some of his simpler films such as “Crank” and “The Transporter” work much better.

After “King Kong vs. Godzilla”, “Freddy vs. Jason” and two “Alien vs. Predator” films, we now get “Sadako vs. Kayako”. This movie pits the ghostly creature from the “Ringu” franchise against the evil spirit from the “Ju-On” series. It’s not a terrible film but it feels very repetitive if you have ever seen any of the films from either franchise and as a versus movie it disappoints.

Two girls watch a cursed videotape and are destined to die by the hand of Sadako. Meanwhile, another girl moves next to a haunted house and soon discovers that she has been marked for death by Kayako. The only chance the girls have of survival is to have Sadako and Kayako battle one another until the bitter end.

Sadako and Kayako are perhaps just too similar for this type of movie to work. They are both Japanese females with long dark hair in white dresses with pale skin. People that are not very familiar with the two franchises could be forgiven for getting the two mixed up. The fight between the creatures is very underwhelming, although I am not exactly sure what I expected. The other characters in the movie are rather bland but they are not awful.

There are lots of scenes that just feel like repeats of “Ringu” and “Ju-On: The Grudge”. There is no real tension because we know what is going to happen, we know Kayako is going to crawl down the stairs and we know Sadako is going to crawl out of the television. The final fight is very anti-climactic so those looking for an exciting duel between Japan’s two most famous horror movie monsters are going to be let down. Devout fans of the “Ringu” and “Ju-On” franchises will possibly like it but I imagine that most people will want to skip it.

“Rushmore” is a truly unconventional film with a genuinely fresh take on the coming of age formula. It does not sit comfortably in any one genre but that characteristic seems to be a calling card of director Wes Anderson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”, “Bottle Rocket”). This is a very interesting film that is incredibly hard to explain.

Meet Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), he’s the extracurricular king of Rushmore preparatory school and facing expulsion for his low grades. He loves his life at the school but with the arrival of a new teacher (Olivia Williams “The Sixth Sense”), his life starts to change.

Max Fischer is one of the most complex characters I have ever seen in a movie. He’s complex because he is not quite a nerd, not conventionally awkward, by no means shy and there are just so many aspects to this character that I was just astounded at how developed he is. Bill Murray (“Groundhog Day”) plays Herman, a man that befriends Max and the two end up developing a rivalry and he is entertaining to watch. Olivia Williams is good as Miss Cross. Brian Cox (“Super Troopers”) is also really good. The other characters in the movie are enjoyable too.

“Rushmore” is pretty short film but it somehow manages to fit a lot into it. With all the subplots, you could have easily made this film twice as long but it manages to get a lot of content in there without becoming overwhelming. The finale of the film involves a staging of a play and I do not want to spoil it by giving too much information but I will say that is a completely spectacular sequence. There are moments that will make you laugh, moments that will make you think and moments that will make you feel. “Rushmore” is a sophisticated movie.

The first “Rush Hour” was really fun as it blended some nice action scenes with Jackie Chan (“Project A”) along with some interesting and quite amusing racial humour that didn’t feel offensive. “Rush Hour 2” just seems to be too many jokes (and not good ones) and not enough action.

Police officers Lee (Chan) and Carter (Chris Tucker “Money Talks”) are on holiday in Lee’s home of Hong Kong. Unfortunately for the duo, their holiday is cut short when they get involved with the Triads. They’re on a new mission to stop counterfeit money being produced. Now, Lee and Carter must cross the continents to find a way to stop the bad guys from making lots of money.

Jackie Chan gives his usual likeable performance is Lee. Chris Tucker becomes really annoying this time around as Carter as he’s overused unlike in the first one. The chemistry between the two just seems to be a rehash of the same dialog, only it is coming out of the other one’s mouth. The villain Hu Li (Zhang Ziyi “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) isn’t too memorable and it is sad when she gets beaten in a hand-to-hand battle against the moronic Detective Carter.

“Rush Hour 2” has many racial jokes that aren’t as funny as the ones featured in the first one and are a little offensive in my opinion. The action is too silly and lacks the great choreography Chan usually provides but here, I feel he was influenced too heavily by the Westerners around him. It’s sad to see the buddy cop series has already fallen off the hill because the first “Rush Hour” really showed potential for a sequel but instead of getting the funny and action-packed film we wanted, we get what we deserve by seeing a sequel… a rehash.

“Rumble In The Bronx” is arguably the best film starring Jackie Chan (“Rush Hour”, “Supercop”). That’s not only because the stunts are some of his most outrageous but because the film doesn’t leave you with a ton of boring dialog or irritating side characters so it’s this combination of excellent stunt work and writing that perfectly serves the action sequences and never needlessly interrupts them.

In “Rumble In The Bronx”, Chan plays Keung, who comes to America to help his uncle’s market shop in the Bronx. He ends up fighting local gangs as he also helps tries to help the wheelchair-bound boy next door and the lead gangster’s girlfriend (Francoise Yip). It’s nothing original or amazing but the film has reasonably funny writing, helps showcase Chan’s nice guy persona and the plot never distracts from the other aspects of the film.

Chan leaps from the roof of a multi-storey carpark to the fire escape of another building across an alley and he jet skis without skis with no special effects; this is all real. However, that’s not why we love him so much; we like him because he’s kind and never dishes out unnecessary pain. We sincerely believe his niceness as we see him help just about everybody (even some of the bad guys). Francoise Yip is pretty good as the gangster’s girlfriend and the kid is funny too. The bad guys are there to get beaten and it’s fun to watch Chan teach them a lesson.

Sure it’s no “Citizen Kane” but even many of Chan’s better movies have the odd moments of dull conversations or bizarre humour that doesn’t work. All that is gone here and what we’re left with is a thoroughly entertaining picture with some of the best stunts ever put to film and a protagonist we’re all happy to support.

“Roxanne” is the movie I’ve been waiting to see for a very long time because it’s finally a film that proves Steve Martin (“Pink Panther”, “The Jerk”) is comedic gold. It’s a funny yet heart-warming film that succeeds in every possible way, kind of like Eddie Murphy’s “Coming To America” or Jim Carrey’s “Truman Show”.

In “Roxanne”, chief firefighter C.D. Bales (Martin) lives a nice life in a quiet town. When a beautiful and intelligent girl, named Roxanne (Daryl Hannah “Blade Runner”) comes along, he’s determined to win her affection with his romantic wit and genuine kindness. However, he has a problem, he has a ridiculously large nose. Physically, Roxanne is interested in a young hotshot firefighter Chris (Rick Rossovich) but he struggles to talk to women so C.D. and Chris pool resources.

Steve Martin has been funny in movies before and he’s been funny in touching movies before. He was great in films such as “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”. He’s also made more than his fair share of bad films including “Cheaper By The Dozen” and “The Pink Panther” remake. This movie showcases him at his best because there are excellent jokes. We get physical, emotional, verbal and even stand-up jokes as the film incorporates several minutes’ worth of a routine without feeling forced. Daryl Hannah and Rick Rossovich also provide some laughs and work well in the film.

“Roxanne” is righteously funny and overwhelmingly charming. The gags include watching an obvious stunt double repeatedly climb buildings, watching the large-nosed C.D. inhale his wine and the funniest scene regarding a cat stuck in a tree that I think I’ve ever seen. I also love how the film is touching as many of the better comedy films out there are. “Roxanne” takes a concept that could very easily make for a boring film but nurtures it with such fine craftsmanship that it makes a masterpiece of the comedy genre. Despite his numerous bad flicks, I’ve defended Martin but now this movie gives me a little more fighting power.

“Rope” is another classic from the master of suspense that is Alfred Hitchcock (“North By Northwest”, “Psycho”). It is filmed in a way that only Hitchcock would have dared attempt at the time and it proves to be a very effective film.

Brandon (John Dall “Spartacus”) and Phillip (Farley Granger “Strangers On A Train”) kill a man just for the thrill of it and hide his body in their apartment. They invite people who knew the dead man round for a party as they aim to prove how perfect their crime was but Rupert Cadell (James Stewart “Harvey”, “Rear Window”) is on their tail. The whole film is one long scene and some believed it to just be filmed in one take but due to the limit of ten minutes’ worth of film at a time, it is edited in an incredibly clever way.

The characters in “Rope” are really interesting. Brandon is very obnoxious while Phillip is very worried. The way the two awkwardly interact with the guests is simply fascinating. James Stewart’s character reminded me of the one in “Rear Window” as in this film, Rupert has cynical views on murder during the majority of the film. This is very much like L.B. Jefferies as he does the unethical thing of spying on his neighbours.

“Rope” is an interesting film that is just the right length (like any good rope). It manages to be very exciting while just staying in a very small area (something which “Rear Window” also did). Although the characters aren’t quite perfect they are fun to watch. It shows how to commit the ‘perfect crime’ and it also shows how people’s egos can get the better of them. If you enjoyed lots of other Hitchcock films (especially “Rear Window”) then you simply have to see “Rope” because it’s truly unique. Not the master’s best but a great addition to his library.

“Room 237” is a documentary film that has what seems to be conspiracy theorists discussing “The Shining” by director Stanley Kubrick (“2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Eyes Wide Shut”). I feel this film is a serious missed opportunity as it doesn’t delve into the quirkiness and the eccentricity of Kubrick as a filmmaker but more of the quirkiness and eccentricity of the contributors to this documentary.

In “Room 237”, we get a bunch of whacky theories. We hear how various continuity errors were actually intentional. Then we hear how the film is really about the genocide of Native Americans due to their being a food product of with a Native American picture on it. There is also a bunch of stupid excuses for subliminal sex messages and the most amusing theory is about how Stanley Kubrick secretly worked on NASA’s space mission footage and this movie is his way of proving he was responsible for some of it.

The issue with this film is that the people discussing it are not doing it objectively and are reading things into the film that are only there because they want them to be. I know Kubrick is famed for putting little Easter eggs/secrets into his films but the people here are too busy trying to prove other things they are interested in, such as the WWII historian thinks it is about the Jewish Holocaust.

The film gets to a point where you expect a Kennedy assassination plot be the next point to be made. I think this film could have been really interesting as it exposes goofs and strange hidden details but this film doesn’t do that. It is nothing but a self-indulgent trip for the people who we never see but we hear their voices. “Room 237” has a scary revelation and that is the people involved in the making of this are probably serious about their views.