“It! The Terror from Beyond Space” is debatably the inspiration for the 1979 classic “Alien” and I can safely say “Alien” is a lot better. Even if you take into account it inspired one of the most popular sci-fi movies of all-time you still can’t excuse the fact it doesn’t hold a candle to other 50s classics such as “Destination Moon”, “The Thing From Another World” and “Forbidden Planet”.

Just like in “Alien”, a seemingly helpless crew are being picked off one by one by an alien life form; this one looks like a distant cousin of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The characters try desperately to rid their ship of this monstrosity with several things including guns, grenades and electricity… I think “Alien” learned from this.

The crew aren’t very exciting as they’re your standard 1950s sci-fi/horror archetypes. The monster in this one is really where the film is let-down. It lacks the subtlety of the creature from “Alien” as we see this one move around like Frankenstein’s Monster and we see far too much of the creature early on, which takes away some of the magic as right away it is clear it’s a man in a suit.

“It! The Terror from Beyond Space” has some great moments but overall the film just feels like a cheap mixture of several films that came before it. Once again, I dislike the fact we see a lot of the creature early on. Seen as how the movie isn’t much longer than an hour and if you can find it cheaply avid sci-fi fans may want to check it out for the history lesson. This movie only makes “Alien” better as it knows where “It! The Terror from Beyond Space” went wrong and addresses those issues to make a superior film.

“Island Of Fire” (also known as “Island On Fire” and “The Prisoner”) is a rather violent prison movie. The marketing of the movie would have you believe that the star is Jackie Chan (“Operation Condor”). He most certainly has a role but he’s not the film’s main focus.

In “Island Of Fire”, an undercover cop (Tony Ka Fai Leung “Men Suddenly In Black”, “The Lover”) infiltrates a prison. There he must survive murderous gangsters and corrupt guards as he tries to expose a criminal network. Meanwhile, Fatty (Sammo Hung “Ip Man 2”) hopes to escape the prison to be reunited with his son. Also, Lung (Jackie Chan) becomes the target of a vicious mobster (Andy Lau “Infernal Affairs”) hoping to avenge a relative.

There are a lot of characters in this movie. The main focus is on the undercover cop and so the storylines involving the other characters can sometimes mean that the movie loses focus. Sammo Hung is quite good as Fatty, who only wants to see his son again. Jackie Chan was apparently not very satisfied with this movie and only did it as a favour. The movie is noticeably more violent than most of his other films and there is almost no comedy in here. It means that Chan feels somewhat miscast here.

As far as prison movies go, “Island On Fire” is not bad. There are plenty of grisly scenes that show the brutality of prison life. There are some emotional scenes in here, especially with Sammo Hung. While the film is bloodthirsty throughout, the ending is especially violent and I suspect those hoping for a fun martial arts picture with Jackie Chan are going to be left unhappy with what they get by the end. This is definitely a film that suffered from poor marketing. As it is, this is an okay prison flick but I cannot really recommend it.

People often mention “Ishtar” when discussing the worst films ever made. It’s apparently so bad that director Elaine May (“A New Leaf”) has never helmed a movie since. Yes, the box-office bomb has made quite a notorious reputation for itself but I do not think that it warrants it. It is definitely a bad movie but I have seen far worse.

“Ishtar” follows the misadventures of Chuck Clarke (Dustin Hoffman “The Graduate”, “Hook”) and Lyle Rogers (Warren Beatty “Bugsy”). They are two terrible songwriters that get a booking at a hotel in Morocco but get caught up in the game of espionage in the mythical nation of Ishtar as the Americans and Soviets jostle for control.

Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty gives awful performances as Chuck and Lyle. Beatty in particular seems completely lost like he has no idea what is going on. Throughout the picture, we hear them sing bland songs without any real sense of tune and that is supposed to make us laugh. They also buy a blind camel and both mistake a female guerrilla fighter for a man. Their antics are not remotely funny. The only character that I wanted to see more of was Emir Yousef (Aharon Ipalé “The Mummy”).

“Ishtar” is certainly a lousy movie but it’s never aggressively bad. The film has such a thin plot that it was probably doomed to fail. It cost tens of millions of dollars but besides the helicopter scene, I do not see what could have cost the filmmakers so money. It’s an awkward comedy with big stars but there are worse awkward comedies with big stars, just look at the abysmal gangster comedy “City Heat” with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. Why is that movie not talked about so harshly? If you go in to “Ishtar” with expectations as low as I did, you are unlikely to be disappointed.

“Irresistible” is a movie I’d never heard of and it has a relatively weak rating on most websites but I thought it was great. This is a small movie where all the money has been spent on the cast, and crucial cast members (not some famous face in a minor role).

In “Irresistible”, Susan Sarandon (“Thelma And Louise”) plays Sophie, who after her husband Craig (Sam Neill “Jurassic Park”, “The Hunt For Red October”) loses his keys, begins to fear that someone is breaking into her house. She then starts to suspect her husband’s new work assistant Mara (Emily Blunt “Looper”, “The Adjustment Bureau”) is the one behind it all.

Susan Sarandon is very good as Sophie, she seems just a normal person and she conveys her level of terror at a very believable level. Emily Blunt is very good as Mara as she plays it straight throughout and that pays off a lot as the twists and turns unfold. Sam Neill is also very good as Craig (he’s usually very good) but the role doesn’t require as much of him as the roles of Sophie or Mara. Aside from this there is virtually nobody else in the movie (I know there are some but they play such insignificant parts).

“Irresistible” is scary because nobody likes the idea of having someone else in your house and it is real threat that people have a reasonable chance of facing. Some of the twists and turns are interesting and while arguably I had a better one in my head I guess there isn’t anything wrong with the option this film decides to go with. This movie has not received the recognition it deserves and that’s a real shame because although it is no masterpiece it certainly is good. The two things I really disliked was the overuse of owls and the dream sequences… one is a clone of a shot from “The Shining”.

“Iron Sky” is a hilarious sci-fi/comedy with great references to other films and some really funny political commentary too. It has a delightfully absurd premise and makes the most of it. It reminded me a lot of both “Team America” and “Canadian Bacon”.

In “Iron Sky”, it turns out that the Nazis have been hiding on a secret base on the dark side of the Moon since 1945. After an American astronaut (Christopher Kirby “The Matrix Reloaded”) accidentally stumbles upon them, the Nazis decide that now is the time to launch an attack on the Earth. The American President (Stephanie Paul) desperately wants to be re-elected and thinks this is a great opportunity to win over voters.

Parodying Nazis is nothing new and “Iron Sky” knows it. The Nazis in this film have even re-edited Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” into a pro-Nazi propaganda piece. The poor American astronaut gets dyed white so that he can be an Aryan. The American President in this movie is hilarious as she views a potential large-scale conflict as a way too boost her approval ratings. Udo Kier (“Blade”, “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”) has a role as one of the Nazi leaders and he’s great so I wish he had more screen time. My favourite character in the movie is Renate Richter (Julia Dietze), a devout fascist that slowly learns that she has been misguided.

“Iron Sky” makes references to “Downfall” and “Dr. Strangelove”. The sequence involving the U.N. with the North Korean diplomat is probably the funniest gag in the whole movie. The commentary on American interventionism is very amusing. Some of the special effects look a little cheap but it really doesn’t matter in a film like this. I had a real good time with this outrageous film. We need more films with ridiculous concepts and great writing.

The first “Iron Sky” movie was a genuinely amusing sci-fi/comedy with a witty script about Nazis on the Moon. However, “Iron Sky: The Coming Race” is just a mess. Parts of it are even more ludicrous than its predecessor while other parts almost feel like they were intended for a legitimate sci-fi movie. The whole thing is mashed together and it’s a real disappointment.

Set a few decades after the events of the first movie, “The Coming Race” shows that the world has been decimated by a nuclear war and the remnants of humanity have sought refuge on what’s left of the Nazi Moon base. Apparently, many of history’s most influential figures are actually alien reptiles that now reside on the inside of hollow Earth. They are guarding an energy that might just save what’s left of mankind.

The characters in this instalment are just not as entertaining as the ones in the first “Iron Sky”. I really did not care for Lara Rossi (“Robin Hood”) Obianaju Washington. Udo Kier (“Blade”) and Julia Dietze return from the first movie. Inside hollow Earth, we see a range of famous faces including Hitler, Idi Amin, the Pope, Osama bin Laden, Mark Zuckerberg and Margaret Thatcher.

“Iron Sky: The Coming Race” is all over the place. This is a film where a woman kung-fu kicks a dinosaur with Hitler on top of it but it’s also a film that feels like it’s trying to be the next big legitimate sci-fi blockbuster too. The absurdity this time round is just a little too much and the writing gets really sloppy at times. It’s not a particularly bad movie or anything like that but it is a significant step in the wrong direction. The original “Iron Sky” is arguably the definitive space Nazi comedy while “The Coming Race” just feels totally unneeded.

“Identity” is a thriller with some interesting ideas but some of the writing is just awful. The movie stars John Cusack (“Con Air”, “The Raven”), who is easily the best thing about the whole production. This is a frustrating film to write about it because it’s hard to compare it to anything else without giving too much of it away.

In “Identity”, a group of strangers find themselves stuck as a Nevada motel during a storm that has flooded the road in both directions. One by one, they are murdered and the group members try to find out which one of them is responsible.

Cusack is good but the material is lousy. He is not given all that much to do but he is clearly trying his best as a limousine driver and former-police officer. Ray Liotta (“Goodfellas”, “Cop Land”) is okay here. Jake Busey (“Enemy of the State”) is disappointing. The other characters are far less interesting and I found the one played by John C. McGinley (“Office Space”) to be really annoying. Lots of the interactions between the group at the motel are rather underwhelming. Alfred Molina (“Spider-Man 2”) has a small role but leaves little to no impact.

“Identity” is a film that throws some twists at you. Some of the twists are fairly inventive but the final moment is truly terrible and reminded me of countless bad horror films. A truly good twist can redeem an otherwise bad movie but what is on offer here only makes things worse. There are some good things in here such as Cusack’s performance and the atmosphere created by the storm is quite impressive. It’s such a shame that the script is so amateurish at times. If you want some thrillers with good twists then watch “Fight Club”, “The Usual Suspects”, “Blood Work” or “Psycho” instead.

“8MM” is a thriller that has clearly been made by talented individuals. However, its content and the subject matter in general make this an unpleasant watch. I respect that craftsmanship but essentially, we’re looking at a really ugly and vile picture. It’s basically “Se7en” meets “Videodrome”.

A wealthy widow discovers a violent and disturbing film in her late husband’s safe. She decides to hire private investigator Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage “Con Air”, “Adaptation”) to verify whether or not the film is real. Welles is tasked with exploring the murky underworld of pornography in his hunt for a snuff film ring that might not even exist.

Cage does a good job as Welles. During the early parts of the film, he sees this as just a job but he eventually sees this as a form of crusade as he desperately tries to find the girl in the film (or at least find out what happened to her). Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”, “Her”), James Gandolfini (“The Drop”, “In The Loop”) and Peter Stormare (“Fargo”, “The Big Lebowski”) all appear as people involved in some way in the pornography industry. Many of the characters Welles encounters are perverts at best and downright evil at worst. I disliked Welles’ family in this as their scenes feel unnecessary.

“8MM” is a disturbing movie with lots of nudity, realistic violence and mature themes throughout. It was surprisingly directed by Joel Schumacher, who directed the laughably bad “Batman & Robin” just a few years earlier. If you really like “Se7en”, “Silence of the Lambs”, “The Bone Collector” and other similar movies then you will probably enjoy “8MM”. However, I just find a lot of these films to just be really unpleasant to sit through. Some of the imagery in here is sickening and while I admire aspects of the movie, I cannot come remotely close to recommending it.

“Colour Out Of Space” is an interesting sci-fi/horror film that is a bit slow at the start but it does become rather engaging. It reminded me of “The Shining” as well as more recent films such as “The Witch” and “Annihilation”. Directed by Richard Stanley (“Hardware”) and starring Nicolas Cage (“Vampire’s Kiss”, “Raising Arizona”), the film seems to perfectly combine their extreme styles.

In “Colour Out Of Space”, a family that live on a farm surrounded by woodland find their existence completely altered when a strange meteorite lands near their home. Their perception of reality and their very existence becomes threatened by something that human minds cannot fully comprehend.

Richard Stanley supposedly holds up “Vampire’s Kiss” as his favourite Cage film and instructed Cage to copy his performance in that movie as much as possible. It definitely shows as “Colour Out Of Space” gives us one of the craziest Cage performances of all-time. Cage does a really good job. Joely Richardson (“Event Horizon”, “The Patriot”) is good as the wife. The kids and the other characters are not as interesting as they could have been. The daughter (Madeleine Arthur “Big Eyes”) is into black magic and you question at times whether or not her rituals are responsible for the strange events that unfold. The effects on the strange creatures you see are actually really impressive.

“Colour Out Of Space” has a few dull moments near the beginning but it becomes a surprisingly disturbing piece with some very creative special effects. You really do get the sense that whatever the family is dealing with really is not from this world. I think the performance from Cage is also very entertaining. I also think that this infinitely better than Stanley’s film “Hardware”. If you want a sci-fi/horror flick with shocking visuals then “Colour Out Of Space” is definitely worth checking out.

Marvel Studios (“Spider-Man 2”) bring us yet another exciting adventure in the form of a metallic suit wearing billionaire’s adventure in “Iron Man”.

In “Iron Man”, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. “Sherlock Holmes”) is the ultimate billionaire playboy and the chairman of a weapons building corporation. When in Afghanistan as part of a visit to the U.S army, who he has supplied with wondrous weapons, he finds himself being kidnapped and is forced to build a weapon for the bad guys but instead Stark designs a metallic suit to help him combat these evil forces and escape his captors. Back home he begins to perfect the design thus becoming Iron Man. He then discovers that his associate (Jeff Bridges “Tron”) is giving weapons to the bad guys so Tony must don his suit to combat everything he’s ever done as his new enemy uses all of the company’s weapons for evil.

Tony Stark is played well by Robert Downey Jr. as he captures both the playboy antics and the suffering Stark goes through. Jeff Bridges is an interesting choice for a villain. Terrence Howard (“Crash”) is relatively good as Tony’s old friend Rhodey. Gwyneth Paltrow (“Se7en”) is unmemorable as Tony Stark’s assistant Pepper.

“Iron Man” is a smart superhero movie. The action scenes are really well done and are both explosive and amusing. The cast for the most part was good. “Iron Man” is filled with humorous and just generally over the top moments but my personal favourite is when he outflies U.S aircrafts after he’s been taking down terrorists. If you enjoyed “Spider-Man 2” or “X2” then you won’t want to miss one minute of the exciting and funny “Iron Man” as you’ll laugh… hard and be immersed in its silly but enjoyable surroundings so I say this is definitely one to pick up.