Reptile Vigilantes

It cannot be easy making a convincing storyline about four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their mutant rat chief, living in the sewers of New York, being overly fond of pizza, and going out of their way to save New York from a copybook gang. To its credit, the movie pulls it off, thanks to in part the disconcertingly attractive journalist April (Megan Fox), the excellent special effects - notably an avalanche and some capers atop the Empire State Building, and an easy-as-pizza-to-digest storyline (call it a bare shell of a plot?) where all key players are inexplicably intertwined. In the balance, an excellent treat for kids, and for adults like yours truly, not a bad deal either

14/20

The History of November

Peter Devereaux (Pierce Brosnan) is a secret agent who has trained protégé David Mason (Luke Bracey), but has not quite been convinced about the latter’s capabilities. Enter intrigue in the Balkans – an escaped witness to war crimes in Chechenya – Alice Fourier (Olga Kurylenko), who is being hunted down by the Russians, Russian presidential hopeful Arkady Fedorov (Lazar Ristovski) with his own bag of secrets, and people within the CIA itself that cannot be trusted. The November Man shifts the centre of the copybook Hollywood spy thriller to Bosnia-Herzegovina, with the ubiquitous shootout and car chase now permeating beautiful Belgrade

13.5/20

Somewhat Expendable

The Expendables 3, while adding to the star cast of the traditional expendables (Antonio Banderas, Mel Gibson) also brings forth a new kind of “expendable” – Kellan Lutz of Hercules fame, or Ronda Rousey of MMA fame, in particular. The storyline remains superficial, and actions continue to speak louder – much louder – than words. Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) puts together an all-new crew to take out friend-turned-foe Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). With much killing in myriad forms, as expected, The Expendables 3 does nothing to detract from the possibility of a fourth edition

12.5/20

Reflected Horrors

Kaylie (Karen Gillan) and brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites) set out to undo a wrong – a father accused of killing a mother – theirs – and seek to prove, through a carefully controlled experiment, that the actual culprit was an antique mirror in the house. Armed with extensive research into the series of deaths surrounding the mirror, Kaylie aims to set all wrong right with a “kill switch” what will destroy the mirror, eventually. In a (reasonably) riveting drama of two determined siblings vs. the supernatural, Oculus executes well, and trails off with a rather poignant climax

 13.5/20

Twisted Encounters

Into the Storm follows the predictable path of the eponymous Twister, into great storms of unimaginable fury, threating to wreak havoc on US Midwestern towns and familial relationships. The intensity is immense, in fits and starts, and some light touches of humor and romance help nudge the light storyline along. The power and might of 21^st century special effects are, of course, brought to bear. Mid-week Midwest entertainment for me and the family

13/20

Demi-god by Design

Hercules finds a circumspect puffed up lead (Dwayne Johnson), who, along with his band of mercenaries, sides with the Thracians to defeat the warlord Rheseus (Tobias Santelmann). Things are not quite what they seem, however, and the warrior soon finds himself requiring to draw upon his remarkable strength as well as the many legends surrounding him, to rally armies in favor and bring to pass what is righteous and just. Nothing like the disaster earlier this year (The Legend of Hercules), Hercules is a treat to watch, with a reasonable balance of special effects and the human element, and a few no-holds barred treats in raw physicality to boot

13/20

Galactic Hotch-potch

Guardians of the Galaxy – well, I refuse to review this one. As I write this, I am looking at mindboggling ratings on the *leading movie review sites* for what is really a smorgsbard of an intergalactic thriller (that I am sure Marvel aficionados are well aware of) that does not have a speck of originality save the tepid bursts of mild humour. I quite liked Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) but, for the most part, he careens through a chaos of a plot, that, surprise surprise, is succeeding wildly at a commercial level. All the best to this Galaxy

9.5/20