Buffalo Soldiers (2001)

Having no actual 'Buffalo Soldiers' present, nor any direct connection to the Bob Marley song from which it probably took the title, the 'satirical' film stars Joaquin Phoenix as US army Supply Specialist Ray Elwood, who's stationed in West Germany during 1989. When not cooking smack for drug-addicted recruits, Elwood spends his time scheming how to best make a profit on the military black market. He provides an occasional v/o, like Ferris Bueller's less charismatic cousin. And much like Bueller, despite having witnessed first-hand the dire consequences of his actions, his character learns nothing of value in the end. Likewise, I gained nothing of value from watching the work.

1½ non-regulation high dives out of 5

THE GOOD DINOSAUR [2015]

2015 saw one of Pixar Animation's greatest achievements with Inside Out and, now with director Peter Sohn's feature length debut The Good Dinosaur, it's seen one of it's biggest fumbles as well.
The touching story of a dinosaur & his cave-boy, who bond as they journey through the savage wilderness in hopes to find their ways back home doesn't quite make it's mark.  
It features all the usual Pixar ingredients to make for a good time, including humor, a wide variety of colorful characters, beautifully rendered animation and a unique look at the world.  However it's missing the inventive storytelling full of depth and sophistication we've all come to expect from the studio, making it far from memorable compared to it's more mature predecessors.
It might not live up to the studios usual standards but it never feels like you're wasting your time because you could probably being doing a lot worse when it comes to the family-friendly films.

3 oddly placed drug trips out of 5

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Brett Ratner turned this chapter in Jean Grey's evolution into a mostly soulless summer action movie. The first hour is good, but it shits the bed in the second half. If you accept that prior to viewing, then it's possible to enjoy parts of it, but if you're expecting the semi-sophisticated aesthetic of the two previous films then you're going to be butt-hurt. On the plus side, Magneto's Brotherhood begins to feel more like an organisation and less like a gathering of friends over tea and cake. It's a good thing that the main series ended here.

2½ characters with little to do out of 5

X-Men 2 (2003)

Bryan Singer's last sitting in the X-Men director's chair follows on from, and expands upon, what he started in the first film. It's more action packed this time, has more characters to accommodate and requires a longer running time to do so. There's some unexpected pairing up of characters, some internal conflicts and some subtle motivations that may go unnoticed with your first viewing. The more I watch it the more I get from it. It's focussed on Wolverine a lot, but Patrick Stewart once more steals the show. Did Mystique just flip...!

3½ Bamfs and Snickts out of 5

X-Men (2000)

A group of mutants band together to fight injustice. It sounds cheesy as hell on paper, but it works on-screen, mostly because half the cast are superb. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen together (Thank Jebus Russell Crowe was too greedy to take the Wolverine role.)
X-Men was one of the first (if not the first) comic book films that pleased fanboys and fangirls and also managed to find a target audience of non-comic book fans. It set the bar high and every Superhero film that followed owes a debt to what it achieved critically. Director Singer makes it one giant allegorical blip on the Gaydar, but it doesn't interfere with the storytelling.

3½ preferences for leather out of 5

TRICK 'R TREAT [2007]

Inspired by his animated short, Seasons Greetings, screenwriter Michael Dougherty makes his feature length debut with the sick and twisted anthology Trick R' Treat.
It's not necessarily scary but it's one helluva a good ride. Like a Halloween party in film form, it goes by quicker than you want it to and leaves no bitter aftertaste. Merciless killing, all sorts of twists and spooky masks make for one of the most tastiest bloody rides you'll go on in a while.
It's nice and short so it could easily become an annual tradition to have a few drinks with it before heading out to the party. Sadly the film never saw theatrical release but has managed to hold it's own with an instant cult following.
Trick R' Treat captures the essence of the Halloween spirit perfectly and deserves to be seen.

3½ candy covered razorblades out of 5

SCRE4M [2011]

After getting over the initial disappointment of not living up to the first Scream, like the cast & crew interviews kept on promising it would, I found the fourth installment of the popular Wes Craven slasher flick franchise to be an entertaining ride upon a second viewing.
While not meeting it's full potential, it is light years better than the third one and just trailing in behind the first two films. It never makes full use of the killer using the updated technology to his advantage, like he would have in the original films or really acknowledging the huge change in horror cinema since the last one came out over 10 years ago. There are a few moments of using blogs, webcams, phone apps and poking fun at remakes, reboots and torture porn but not as much as it could have been and that was a little disappointing. The new cast was a hoot to watch, although some were painfully underused or killed off too early. With the hugest body count so far in the series, slasher flick fans and gorehounds won't be disappointed.
It's still fun and I hope the next two patch up the mistakes this one made.

3 Robert Rodriguez "cameos" out of 5