“Robot & Frank” is a simple film but that’s what I like about it. It features good performances, an amusing idea and a genuine sense of realism. It perhaps doesn’t amount to anything special but while you’re watching it, you’ll enjoy it.

“Robot & Frank” is set in the near future where an ex-jewel thief with memory problems, named Frank (Frank Langella “Frost/Nixon”, “The Ninth Gate”), is given a robot helper (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard “Flightplan”, “Green Lantern”). Frank is sceptical and resistant at first but when he realises the robot can be easily manipulated, he decides to get back into his old business of stealing.

Frank Langella is really quite good as Frank. The full extent of the character’s problems is shown in a very powerful way not too far away from the end with a great twist that I didn’t see coming. I like the unnamed robot as well as he really does seem like something that’ll be on the market in the near future. The credits even show clips of real robots to prove this. I like the relationship between the two and that’s the aspect of the movie that I enjoyed the most. The other characters are a downgrade. However, I feel Frank’s son, Hunter, is played quite well by James Marsden (“X-Men”).

Langella’s performance is quite good, I believe all the technology shown is what we’ll be seeing on the market soon and it’s a quietly funny experience that leaves you with a pleasant feeling. The robberies themselves are where the movie truly falls short but the rest of it is such an effortless joy to watch that I really cannot give this movie a bad review. Maybe one day they’ll be a more elaborate sequel but that may just take away some of the charm of this film.

Made in the same spirit as “Tokyo Gore Police” and “The Machine Girl”, “RoboGeisha” is another crazy picture from Japan with lots of gore and freakish imagery. Doing some research, it seems there are tons of these films (“Dead Sushi”, “Mutant Girls Squad” and “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl” to name just a few) and they are practically part of their own genre.

In “RoboGeisha”, the youthful Yoshie Kasuga (Aya Kiguchi “Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge”) has natural strength and fighting ability so she is recruited by a shadowy organisation to be part of an army of geisha assassins. She discovers the company’s secret plans that threaten all of Japan and decides to rebel.

Where do I even begin with the characters in a film about a robot geisha assassin? Well, the characters here have slightly more personality than in “Tokyo Gore Police” but that’s not saying much at all. Unsurprisingly, many of the characters are murdered in the most disgusting ways imaginable. People are shot, stabbed, blown up and even have seafood stuffed into the eyes. The robot special effects on the geishas are not remotely convincing but they don’t really need to be in a film this cartoonish. You must particularly chuckle near the end when Yoshie transforms into a half-tank.

“RoboGeisha” did force me to chuckle a few times. However, this film is still a total mess. There’s no real story and it’s just an excuse for insane images. We see a girl get stabbed in the bottom yet we also see other girls have swordfights with swords sticking out of their bottoms and we see them shoot ninja stars from that area too. “RoboGeisha” and the other films in the same ‘genre’ are just completely mad and have to be seen to be believed. They’re not good films at all but they are certainly unique.

After bursting onto the comedy scene with sketch show “In Living Colour”, Shawn and Marlon Wayans (“White Chicks”, “Scary Movie”) went on to star in “The Wayans Bros.” sitcom series. While not as creative or as wildly amusing as the best of “In Living Colour”, “The Wayans Bros.” is a surprisingly good sitcom series.

Shawn and Marlon Wayans star as Shawn and Marlon Williams (they could have easily just used the Wayans surname), two goofy brothers that share an apartment. The pair of them are always getting themselves into trouble. They also spend a lot of time with their whacky father (John Witherspoon “Friday”), who owns his own restaurant.

Marlon Wayans brings his manic energy to every scene he’s in. Shawn plays the straight man and he’s never as funny as Marlon. Out of the wider family (including Keenen and Damon), I think Shawn is the least funny of all the brothers. However, Shawn and Marlon together do have undeniable chemistry. I guess being real-life brothers helps a lot. If you are a big “In Living Colour” fan then you may be disappointed that there is no Keenen or Damon Wayans and no Jim Carrey (“The Cable Guy”). John Witherspoon is funny as the guys’ aggressive and strict father.

“The Wayans Bros.” works as a fun sitcom because Marlon Wayans brings his enthusiasm and his energy to every situation. I’m reminded a lot of his performance in the movie “Senseless” where he was able to find a good way to channel his talents. Unfortunately, a lot of projects from the various members of the Wayans family have not been particularly entertaining but this is worth watching if you liked “In Living Colour”. I’m not really a fan of the sitcom format so I found this to be a pleasant surprise.

“Black Mask” starring Jet Li (“Fearless”, “Once Upon A Time In China”) combines the martial arts genre with the superhero genre. It’s got a fairly flimsy plot but I like the stylish look and the action sequences.

Jet Li stars as Tsui Chik, a man that was part of a secret project to create super soldiers. After they proved to be difficult to control, the order was given to terminate them. Tsui Chik fled to Hong Kong where he lives as a quiet librarian. However, when he sees that other super soldiers are causing problems in the city, he becomes a masked hero in order to stop them.

Li seems perfectly suited for the role as he’s small and slender build mean that we can believe that he would be able to successfully hide as a librarian. He’s not got muscles bursting out of his clothes like Schwarzenegger (“Commando”). Li also gets plenty of opportunities to demonstrate his incredible fighting skills. The Black Mask costume is based on Bruce Lee’s Kato from “The Green Hornet” tv series. The other characters are very forgettable and that sadly includes the bad guys. After I finished watching it, I couldn’t really tell you anything about any of them.

“Black Mask” starts off with a bang and it has some enjoyable shootouts and fistfights throughout. The movie looks really good with a blue tint to a lot of it. If you’re a fan of Jet Li then this is worth checking out. As a superhero movie from this era, it’s not as good or memorable as “The Rocketeer”, “The Shadow” or “The Crow”. If you’re not very familiar with Li’s work, you may want to check out some of his other movies first. This is definitely not his best but I think it’s still good.

The first “RoboCop”, which was directed by Paul Verhoeven (“Basic Instinct”), is written more like a satire than a real action picture by delivering countless laughs. However, it does actually provide some reasonable action scenes as well.

Set in a brutal, futuristic Detroit where the police force is run by a corporation named the OCP, officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is violently gunned down by criminals. He is then turned into a law-enforcing cyborg, named RoboCop. He is cleaning up the streets but then he becomes haunted by images of his old life and sets out on a mission of vengeance against the gangsters who shot him and a rogue OCP employee.

The RoboCop character talks like he’s a classic swashbuckling hero defending a lady’s honour but the fact he’s a robot with no real personality makes him very amusing to watch; he’s a memorable film hero with his quotable dialog. The bad guys are pretty much standard for an action movie, I like the main bad guy played by Ronny Cox (“Total Recall”) the most. The special effects for the faulty, law-enforcing droid ED-209 are really impressive to say the least. Despite having a scene where he guns down an innocent man because of a sensory problem, this robot is played for laughs.

The best gag in “RoboCop” involves a tv ad for a ‘family’ board game named “Nuke ‘Em” where you destroy other countries so this is evidence that “RoboCop” is aware it is a funny movie. “RoboCop” isn’t a perfect movie by any means but it is a perfectly silly movie but it’s slightly more subtle than your average spoof and that’s where the movie works best. I like the action scenes, the self-aware humour and the RoboCop character so I think it’s worth checking out (the sequels and tv shows you can definitely do without though).

“RoboCop 3” is an appalling action flick that doesn’t know when it is onto something. It takes RoboCop and makes him absolutely useless in every sense of the word. It completely squanders all its assets and is an embarrassment.

This time Robert John Burke stars as the futuristic law enforcer RoboCop. OCP (the company that made RoboCop) is evicting people from their homes for construction as they promise to build the new Delta City. However, that’s not really their plan for the citizens of old Detroit. RoboCop must disobey his order and ‘prime directives’ if he is to save the people of his city and stop a group of corporate individuals from making money via kicking people onto the streets.

RoboCop is horrible this time around. Robert John Burke severely lacks the charisma Peter Weller had in the previous ones. In this one, RoboCop takes damage when it could easily be avoided, he walks at the pace of snail and spends an awful lot of time laid on the floor. For what is supposed to be a technical achievement, RoboCop acts more like the malfunctioning ED-209 (he makes a cameo here). The other characters are rubbish, especially the villain and the little kid.

“RoboCop 3” has bits that could be funny but it doesn’t take any effort to make them funny and there are loads of action scenes they skim over. The scene where RoboCop fights back against OCP on the streets is over in a minute and RoboCop only gets a few bad guys when there seemed to be loads to start with. Also, he gets into the OCP building with too much ease. Why not have him forced to go through the building fighting really high-tech security robots or something? The acting is bad, RoboCop is a waste of space in this one, the action scenes are more than underwhelming, it’s not funny and the special effects are quite frankly awful.

While Ed Gein’s name may not be as familiar to you as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer, he’s arguably had the most impact on cinema of any deranged American killer. Often cited as a serial killer, Gein was only convicted of two murders (serial killers kill three or more). However, the weird nature of his crimes has led to him being the inspiration for many of cinema’s most iconic killers.

Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful classic “Psycho” borrowed elements from Gein’s life. Like Gein, Norman Bates was obsessed with his mother and liked to dress like her. In the biography film “Hitchcock”, which stars Anthony Hopkins (“Thor”) as Hitchcock during the production of “Psycho”, we see somebody playing Ed Gein.

Gein also had an evil habit of wearing masks made out of people’s skin, making him the inspiration for Leatherface in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. He was also trying to make a suit out of women’s skin like Buffalo Bill in “The Silence of the Lambs”.

There are a handful of other movies that are more directly based on Ed Gein but the ones I’ve mentioned are easily some of the most famous horror movies out there.

The original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” shocked audiences back in the 70s. Since then, the series has struggled to have the same impact. Here’s my personal ranking of the films.

8. Leatherface

“Leatherface” is pure savagery from beginning to end. It’s not scary but just thoroughly unpleasant and despicable. The backstory it provides is pathetic. This is one of the worst horror films I’ve seen in a long time.

7. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

Definitely don’t expect this to be as good as “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. This is an abysmal horror movie from beginning to end. It stars Matthew McConaughey (“Interstellar”) and Renée Zellweger (“Jerry Maguire”) and they’re probably both praying that nobody else ever sees or discusses this film ever again.

6. Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III

The third outing in the series is pretty terrible. There’s virtually nothing new on offer here and it’s just a complete waste. It’s not as bad as some of the other ones but there’s certainly no reason to see it.

5. Texas Chainsaw 3D

Leatherface is back in 3D with “Texas Chainsaw 3D”, a direct sequel to the original that ignores all the films in-between. There’s nothing here that helps to distinguish it from dozens of other modern slasher films.

4. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The original film is cherished by many. However, I always found it a merely unpleasant watch. While I can see the effort that went into it, it’s just not my type of film at all. Parts of it are horrifying but unlike “Halloween” or “Psycho”, it’s not enjoyable to watch.

3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

A lot of people will probably complain that I’m putting this ahead of the original. To be honest, there is not much in it. While the old film had a homemade grainy look to it, this one is more polished. Well, as polished as you can make a film about a chainsaw-wielding lunatic. Also, this version has R. Lee Ermey (“Full Metal Jacket”) and he’s always great fun.

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning

“The Beginning” only gets such a high position because of the performance of R. Lee Ermey, who gets more to do here than in the previous film. The scenes with Ermey are actually fairly entertaining. It’s a shame that nothing like that can be said about the rest of the picture.

1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Maybe a controversial pick but the second instalment in the series at least offers a few chuckles as it opts for a more comedic style. It also has Dennis Hopper (“Speed”) have a chainsaw duel with Leatherface.

“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” have always aimed low but “Leatherface” aims straight for the underworld. This is a film that begins with a young boy being encouraged to mutilate a man with a chainsaw. Throughout the movie, people are savagely beaten, tortured and murdered. The ugliness is here but it fails to offer any thrills, scares or meaning.

Jedidiah Sawyer is taken away from his sadistic family after they carry out a string of brutal murders. He is placed in a special facility for mentally disturbed children. After a decade inside, he escapes with a few others with a kidnapped nurse (Vanessa Grasse). On this journey, the killer inside him will be awakened.

The characters in this movie are just awful. Big fans of these movies are going to be even more disappointed than me when it comes to what they have done with the Leatherface character. He’s absolutely nothing like you would expect after watching the other films in the franchise. This is one of the worst origins I’ve ever seen in a movie. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” was better at giving us the character’s backstory. Nobody in this slasher flick is even vaguely interesting. All the performances are terrible.

“Leatherface” is so bad that I actually think it’s worse than the abysmal “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation”. We see people covering themselves in the blood of dead animals, we see people stab innocent individuals and we see folks destroyed by a roaring chainsaw. It’s fine to be violent but what is not okay is to fail to put any effort into what you’re making. It’s all blood and guts and no brains. It’s not even that shocking because it’s still less gory and sadistic than “Cannibal Holocaust”, many of the “Saw” sequels and even some of the other “Texas Chainsaw” movies. This is just a failure on all fronts.

A positive review of “RoboCop 2”, now that’s a rare sight indeed. I like the first “RoboCop” because it features a combination of satisfying action scenes and plenty of self-aware humour. “RoboCop 2” is a bit less (well actually a lot less) subtle than its predecessor but it still retains the excitement and the laughs.

In this sequel, half-man, half-machine RoboCop (Peter Weller “RoboCop”, “Screamers”) is out to stop a new drug called ‘Nuke’ from circulating in the city of Detroit so he must of course get to the source and defeat a vicious killer and leader of a new cult, named Cain (Tom Noonan “Last Action Hero”). After RoboCop is badly damaged, his creators at OCP decide it’s time for a new law-enforcement machine and just guess who their human candidate is.

RoboCop is an entertaining character because he’s voiced excellently by Peter Weller and ‘talks like he’s a classic swashbuckling hero defending a lady’s honour’ (a quote from my review of the original “RoboCop”). The villains aren’t too memorable and while that’s a shame, it isn’t a huge loss. I do really miss ED-209 from the first movie and the new ‘RoboCop 2’ as he’s called, raises the stakes but not the laughs.

“RoboCop 2” tries to feature the same style of consumerism satire seen in the first film but it doesn’t manage to do quite as well but aside from that, you get pretty much more of the same. Many people dismiss this film and I don’t really understand why; maybe it’s too similar to the first. I think all people really need to know is that this film features decent action scenes, some good moments of humour, spectacular effects and a very impressive performance from Peter Weller as RoboCop and to me, that’s all I wanted from a sequel to “RoboCop”.