“Jackie Chan: My Story” is a documentary all about the life and career of action movie legend Jackie Chan (“Operation Condor”, “Rush Hour 2”). For his fans, this is a really fun insight into the career of a movie star that has made countless hours of great entertainment.

We to get to learn quite a fair amount about Jackie, starting with his childhood training in Chinese opera. We then move into his entry into the world of martial arts cinema to his huge success in the film industry. We also cover his attempts to break into the American movie market, something he finally achieved with “Rumble In The Bronx”.

We get to see Jackie speak a lot about his life and most of it is relatively interesting. Interviewees include other action stars such as Sylvester Stallone (“First Blood”), Michelle Yeoh (“Tomorrow Never Dies”) and Sammo Hung (“Enter The Fat Dragon”). Unfortunately, this documentary was made while Chan was working on “Burn Hollywood Burn”, an awful film that he barely even appears in. This means that we also have pointless interviews with Whoopi Goldberg (“Sister Act”) and Arthur Hiller (“See No Evil, Hear No Evil”). Most of the interviews are not that great but the stuff with Jackie is good.

“Jackie Chan: My Story” will delight fans of the superstar. I’m glad the filmmakers kept the focus on Jackie’s movies and didn’t get into his personal life all that much. I really don’t care about the personal lives of celebrities so I think it was a really good decision. We also get to see plenty of clips from his fantastic films so it may help you know the Chan film library a little better. Also, we get to see some rare clips of fight scenes not available in all versions of some of his films. It’s particularly interesting to see the comparison of the American and Hong Kong versions of a fight from “The Protector”. This is a worthwhile documentary for Chan fans.

“Jackie Chan: My Stunts” is a brilliant documentary that shows you exactly how action star Jackie Chan (“Project A”, “Rumble In The Bronx”) pulls off his impressive stunts. This is a brilliant movie where we get to see a true master of his craft at work.

“My Stunts” shows you how Jackie Chan and his stuntmen team are able to create some of the most thrilling sequences ever seen on film. It covers everything from the fight choreography to the spectacular jumps and falls to the vehicular stunts. It also shows you the sets of “Rush Hour” and “Who Am I?”.

Jackie Chan is such a likeable action star and here, we get to see him talk about what he does best. I think the decision to focus on the action is what makes this such a successful documentary. I’ve seen him talk about his career and life in other documentaries and countless interviews. This gives him an opportunity to get into the fine details of how he makes the best stunts. The filmmakers also know to keep the focus on Jackie and not get side-tracked with showing you all his co-stars and other celebrities that he’s friends with. Jackie and the stuntmen really get to show why they are the best at what they do.

If you have any interest in martial arts movies or action movies in general then you absolutely have to see “Jackie Chan: My Stunts”. We know Jackie suffers for his art as we see the painful outtakes during the credits of many of his movies but this shows you all the preparation that goes into making a Jackie Chan stunt. This movie could have been longer and shown us even more of his stunts but what is on offer is fantastic. I highly recommend this. It’s also a lot better than the “Jackie Chan: My Story” documentary.

I’ve endured “A Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Friday The 13th”, “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Child’s Play” but now here comes “Leprechaun”. It’s a horror movie that is even worse than your average slasher flick, one so bad it joins other abysmal horror pictures such as “Troll 2”.

In “Leprechaun”, a nasty little Leprechaun (Warwick Davis “Willow”, “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”) is out to get his gold coins back and he’ll kill anybody that stands in his way. If you’ve seen any of the horror movies I mentioned earlier, you’ll know what to expect in principle but the execution in “Leprechaun” in somehow even worse.

The Leprechaun himself is very much a visual mixture of Chucky from “Child’s Play” and Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare On Elm Street”, he even does that thing where he comes through the phone that Krueger did (if you’ve seen the picture with Krueger, you’ll know what I’m referring to). He’s arguably the worst slasher villain I’ve ever seen; his personality is so annoying that you’ll be missing the silence of Jason Voorhees from “Friday The 13th”. Jennifer Aniston (“Picture Perfect”) stars as the female lead and she’s horrendous. The rest of the characters are even dumber than the ones in your average slasher film.

“Leprechaun” isn’t remotely scary, funny, enjoyable or anything like that, it is more of an endurance test for those that have successfully sat through films such as “Friday The 13th”. If a movie such as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is a low-grade horror film then “Leprechaun” sits firmly at the bottom of the grading system. Is it as bad as “Troll 2”? I don’t know, I don’t really care… I think have better things to do. If you do some research, you’ll quickly discover there are actually a ton of “Leprechaun” films (though most did not make it into theatres) and right there, you see the biggest problem with the entire film industry.

“Leonard Part 6” is a disastrous comedy film starring Billy Cosby from tv’s “The Cosby Show”. This spy parody is one of the laziest movies I have ever seen and every single scene feels like it was written only minutes before the cameras started rolling.

Leonard Parker (Cosby) a former-secret agent that is called out of retirement when the evil Medusa Johnson (Gloria Foster “The Matrix Reloaded”) plans to use a special device to make all the animals in San Francisco attacks humans. The terrible plot is sadly just one of the many problems plaguing the horrendous “Leonard Part 6”.

I’m not really very familiar with Bill Cosby as I have never seen “The Cosby Show” nor any of his stand-up routines. If “Leonard Part 6” is a reasonable reflection of Cosby’s comedic talents then I have no real interest in being subjected to any of his other work. If this is a spy parody why doesn’t Leonard do any spy stuff? All we see him do is ridiculous stuff such as ballet dancing and threatening a lobster with melted butter. The other characters are equally awful and nobody did or said anything that made me come remotely close to laughing.

“Leonard Part 6” got a thrashing from critics upon release for its weak gags and its Coca Cola product placement (the whole movie was a big tie-in with Coca Cola). The film was also a box-office bomb and even Cosby himself was so ashamed of it that he openly criticised and purchased the tv rights so that it could never be aired on television. Every joke in this film just stinks of desperation and it feels like the makers will just throw anything at you in the hopes of getting a chuckle. I doubt many people are going to want to hunt down this movie, particularly in light of the more recent revelations about Cosby’s crimes offscreen.

“Lemon Popsicle” is often considered to be the world’s first teen sex comedy, making it a precursor to films such as “Porky’s” and “American Pie”. It’s also considered to be one of Israel’s most successful films and they even made a whopping eight sequels to it. It’s reminded me a lot of “American Graffiti” but with added nudity.

“Lemon Popsicle” follows Benzi (Yftach Katzur), Momo and Yudale, three friends living in 1950s Tel Aviv. They have their sights set on getting the girls but when two of them fall for the same girl, trouble follows. It seems predictable by today’s standards but I guess it was more revolutionary back in the day.

The main characters in this film are fairly likeable. You certainly feel for Benzi, who tries his best to win the girl of his dreams. A lot of the time the characters are stood around or dancing to the music on the jukebox. It’s almost like the real star of the movie is the music and there are lot of quintessential 50s songs in here so do not be surprised if the characters are not especially captivating. We see a fair amount of nudity in this film, particularly in the scene that feature a promiscuous housewife and also in the scene involving a prostitute so expect to see quite a bit of the cast members.

Although I get that this film provided the sex comedy formula, I still cannot believe how many sequels they made. It’s a mildly entertaining film but I do not think that I could really recommend it. If you want the late-50s and early-60s style, I think “American Graffiti” did it better and if you want a better risqué comedy then I think “Animal House” and “Caddyshack” are funnier. If you are desperate to see foreign films then here is supposedly one of Israel’s best offerings.

Jean-Claude Van Damme (“Double Impact”, “Universal Soldier”) stars in this surprisingly somewhat competent war film about the French Foreign Legion. Most of Van Damme’s film are about high-flying kicks to the face but “Legionnaire” is a war film not a martial arts movie.

In “Legionnaire”, Van Damme plays a boxer by the name of Alain Lefevre, who is supposed to throw a match but ends up winning with plans to leave France for America with his girlfriend. After being chased by gangsters in Marseille, he finds himself joining the French Foreign Legion. He’s sent to Morocco where he learns loyalty and friendship as he battles Arabs at a remote outpost.

Van Damme isn’t a great actor and here he doesn’t even get to display his signature fighting moves. With that in mind, I was actually somewhat impressed with how tolerable he is here. Steven Berkoff (“Beverly Hills Cop”) is entertaining as Sergeant Steinkampf do a lesser Sergeant Hartman from “Full Metal Jacket”. The other soldiers aren’t too interesting. Jim Carter (“The Golden Compass”) is okay as the head gangster. The Arabs don’t get much screen time beyond charging across the screen on horses being shot at but they at least do the charging around on horses well.

“Legionnaire” is rather bland during its opening scenes but once Van Damme is shipped off to Africa, parts of the film are rather entertaining. The action sequences are rather enjoyable at times but the characters aren’t very interesting. I didn’t really enjoy myself during this film but I certainly found myself a lot more impressed with what was onscreen than I expected. If you’re a big Van Damme fan you might dislike this film due to the lack of martial arts but at the same time, those that don’t care for Van Damme’s work might want to check this one out if they like war movies.

Ridley Scott, the man behind the sci-fi films “Alien” and “Blade Runner” directs this fantasy adventure that features some wonderful angles and set design but lacks sense in several areas as well as good characters and good acting.

A young Tom Cruise (“Top Gun”, “Mission: Impossible”) stars as our hero Jack. One of the two unicorns are killed and Darkness (Tim Curry “Home Alone 2: Lost In New York”) gets ready to ensure that there is never another dawn. Jack must defeat Darkness, bring the unicorn back to life with its horn and rescue his girlfriend Lili (Mia Sara “Timecop”) in an adventure full of strange creatures, magic and danger.

Tom Cruise is laughably bad as Jack. He goes prancing around and then our hero starts doing ridiculous stunts as he pointlessly flips around. Tim Curry sadly isn’t very good as Darkness. I really do like a lot of his work and I would say this seems like the perfect role for him but not only was disappointed in him anyway but the material he had seemed not very good in my eyes. The rest of the cast disappointed me to. The costumes for the various creatures were relatively good for a fantasy film from the 80s.

There are some truly divine shots in this film but it is sad to say that they feature in a movie full of plot holes, annoying characters, laughable acting and ridiculous action scenes. “Legend” has developed a cult following and that’s not because it is now regarded as a great movie that was forgotten at the time but it is because it is a truly hilarious picture and I’m sure ladies who fancy Tom Cruise will adore seeing him run around in shorts and shining body armour fighting against evil monsters. However, if you do not fit into that category you most likely will not need to bother with “Legend” as there are some much greater fantasy films out there.

“Legend of the Red Dragon” is another comedic martial arts film. It may be low on plot and hit or miss with the laughs but the action sequences it delivers are full of energy and some physics-defying elements that make it incredibly creative and very fun to watch.

Jet Li (“The One”, “Hero”) headlines this movie as Hung Hei Kwun and he’s joined by Mo Tse as his son and together they combat the forces of evil. We see him team-up with shaolin monks and thieves in order to fight true evil and as the numbers in fighters rise, the stunts get more and more ridiculous yet more and more fascinating.

Jet Li is famed for playing straighter guys than the more comedic Jackie Chan (“Police Story”) but I have to say he works well here. Due to the use of wires for many of the stunts, Li isn’t as interesting as a fighter here as he is in something such as “Fist Of Legend” but he’s still pretty impressive. The young boy has a hilarious scene in which he is doing ‘handstand bounces’ with one finger; it’s moments like this where it really shines. I also liked Chingmy Yau (“City Hunter”) as the main girl, who does some pretty impressive kung-fu needlework.

“Legend of the Red Dragon” has some moments that are definitely meant to be funny but fall flat and nobody is going to be talking about the plot after seeing this but it’s a pretty enjoyable father/son premise and the action sequences are genius at times. If you enjoy martial arts films like me then it’s worth checking this one out, if you’re not as fussed then maybe you won’t enjoy this as much but then again they make other films (sometimes they are even better films).

This is one of the most obscure movies that I’ve seen and there is a reason for that. This is a cheap and nasty version of the “Mummy” and it is far worse than “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”.

In this version, some guy named Trelawny is found severely injured and unconscious. Then the movie pretty much turns into a detective show for a bit before this whole idea of the Mummy did it comes about. Then some really stupid stuff happens and I honestly lost all interest as all I remember from the third act was that the Mummy had several fingers.

The cast in this movie was unbelievably horrible to say the absolute and utter least. The Mummy though is where my big gripe is. I didn’t expect much from the people in a low budget horror film in the 90s but the monster should look alright. Never have I seen such a stupid looking Mummy. Even the Mummy in the Lon Chaney Jr. movies looks a hundred times better. Also we don’t really get to see enough of the Mummy; he should really be in quite a lot of it and I understand that maybe they were trying to wait a while before showing it like they do with the shark in “Jaws” but for such a disappointing outcome it makes the suspense worthless.

I wasn’t necessarily expecting a good movie but I was expecting a movie where the Mummy went around killing people like he does in some of the earlier movies such as “The Mummy’s Hand”. Instead we get a mixture of a ghost movie and a murder mystery movie with the Mummy character just chucked in without much thought. I can imagine this being direct-to-DVD or even a television special but I can’t believe this actually got a theatrical release.

“Left Behind” is the fourth adaptation of the “Left Behind” book series after an earlier trilogy of films starring Kirk Cameron. This film is a 2014 reboot and ignores the previous movies. Like many recent Christian films (“God’s Not Dead”, “Noah” etc…), it has been torn to shreds by militant atheists and biblical purists alike. Do not expect a visual representation of scripture and do not expect a blockbuster, this is a relatively low-budget flick that provokes some interesting questions.

The ‘rapture’ leads to millions of people (including the world’s children) suddenly disappearing off the face of the Earth. As the world plunges into chaos, we focus mainly on a plane where some passengers and crew members are among those missing.

Nicolas Cage (“National Treasure”, “Knowing”) reportedly got paid millions of dollars for 10 days work here. He plays a pilot that is flirting with the practice of adultery. He does a really good job and helps make this movie worth watching. Other character condemned to remain on Earth include a gambling a dwarf, a drug addict and perhaps most controversially, a practicing Muslim. I like that the movie was not afraid to show that people other faiths would not necessarily vanish as part of the rapture. However, it does leave open questions as I wonder whether all children in countries such as Pakistan and Iran were accepted.

“Left Behind” is by no means a great film but I thought it did a fairly good job of maintaining the tension. The special effects are nothing to write home about but they are tolerable given that this is not a big studio’s movie. Maybe it was the fact that I went in with very low expectations but I found myself enjoying this film. I’m giving this film a very faint recommendation but that is still a recommendation. I would like to note that the scene in “The Simpsons” parodying the “Left Behind” franchise is definitely worth checking out.