LOVERS ON THE LAM

 They Live By Night

 A Bout De Soufle

You Only Live Once

Gun Crazy

Pulp Fiction

Badlands

True Romance

Natural Born Killers

Bonnie And Clyde

The Sugarland Express

 The Getaway

Wild at Heart

MID YEAR MOVIE REPORT

It's time for a mid year review of what I've seen at the cinema so far in 2016. I have been able to attend once a week which has meant some good some bad and some indifferent.

The Revenant- A journey for the protagonists and the viewer, impressive stuff
Spotlight-The Year's best film?: can't say I agree but this investigative journalist movie is well crafted
Green Room- Slick and efficient. A concept well delivered
The Lobster-Lynchian to say the least, this is one movie that I would recommend to anyone who likes leaving the Cinema with more questions than answers
Room- Great performances from the small cast, Room is a movie that revels in the quiet moments
Louder Than Bombs-Enjoyable family drama that gets under the skin of family politics
Creed- does exactly what it says on the tin

Captain America : Civil War-Lean and efficient with a healthy dose of action and just plain entertainment.
X-Men : Apocalypse-Flabby and full of exposition: far too long
Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice-Affleck's Batman is good (and unfairly criticised) as is Gadot's Wonder Woman, however Cavill has as much screen presence as an Ikea sofa.
Deadpool- Fourth wall fun

Triple 9-Almost could have been a contender, but this heist movie has it's moments
Midnight Special-I expected more but this slow burn movie has plenty of good things about it
Money Monster- Chanelling Dog Day Afternoon, Jodie Foster directs with some nice twists but you sense there was a more complex movie somewhere
Eye In The Sky- War as video game but with moral decisions to be made
High Rise- Ben Wheatley has established himself as a great film maker but this time around there are too many missteps
The Nice Guys- Old School Buddy movie high jinx reminiscent of The Last Boy Scout

Hail, Caesar!- Didn't work for me. The Coen's failed to nail the screwball homage this time
Grimsby- Awful: a Holiday On The Buses for 2016.

LOVING THE A L I E N

Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien Resurrection: four films four talented directors and one particular species of Xenomorph.
Those eggs laid on LV-426 have got a lot to answer for. But there's one character holding it together Ellen Ripley superbly portrayed by Sigourney Weaver despite the variances in quality. 

Alien is the superb father of the franchise and had instant classic status the moment after I first saw it at the Odeon Marble Arch in 1979. It's intricacies and suspense cross genres and the shock that the movie instilled in audiences was and is unforgettable.

Aliens was the offspring that approached the subject for a different angle and manages to be a triumphant war movie to sit alongside it's claustrophobic parent.

When watching Alien3 it seems clear that there was a great degree of muddled thinking and interference. Fincher's vision by all accounts  seemed clear but comes across muddled. Hiding in this movie is a far superior product: a case of what might have been



Alien Resurrection has its moments but the final reveal of the hybrid alien ruins any of the previous good work: a flawed but valiant attempt at injecting something new.

So we await Neill Blomkamp's addition to the cannon and, based on his films to date, I have high expectations: that and the fact that he is purportedly picking things up from the end of Aliens. We shall say, and hopefully I will still be loving the Alien after seeing it.