The Blue Lagoon (1980)

I hadn't watched TBL before but was aware of its overinflated reputation.
Stranded on a tropical island from a young age, the two protagonists lack any kind of knowledge about what it means to be an adult. It’s interesting to speculate how their spiritual and emotional growth would develop when removed from society, but unless you approach it from a sociological and anthropological point of view it’s not a very satisfying story. It just kind of drifts along like a dead fish for a long time, shaken up by the occasional eddy. The ending is forgettable.

2½ old B+W photographs out of 5

THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN [2008]

Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura makes his American debut by bringing Clive Barker's Books Of Blood short story The Midnight Meat Train to the screen. 

A gruesomely bizarre tale about a photographer who becomes obsessed with hunting down a serial killer who fancies meat hooks on the New York subway.   It's stylish, moody and heavy on the atmosphere but sadly very light on character development, story pacing and riddled with terrible CGI blood.  

2 Barker paintings out of 5