HORNS [2014]

Director Alexandre Aja adapts Joe Hill's bizarre dark fantasy novel, Horns, for the screen with great ambition.
Daniel Radcliffe plays a young man who begins sprouting devil horns after he's accused of murdering his girlfriend.  Sound pretty weird?  Your assumptions are correct.  Unfortunately the film is a tonal mess of horror, comedy and surrealism that never feels comfortable settling down enough to find a heart.  Radcliffe pulls off his best performance yet as he's surrounded by some beautifully shot scenery but it just isn't enough to make it a memorable film.  Granted it's weird enough to make you wonder just how it's going to play out but once all is said and done it leaves much to be desired.

2½ cherry pies from Annie out of 5

CONTACT [1997]

Contact is director Robert Zemeckis' fascinating study of the scientific and religious possibilities of life beyond our solar system.
By taken some intellectual and philosophical points of view, Zemeckis & co manage to paint a very realistic picture of the man's first contact with "aliens" which gives the narrative quite a bit to chew on.  Fortunately with the likes of Jodie Foster and others, the film is easily digestible and never overly preachy or one-sided to still be considered cinematic entertainment.  Things get a little lost in the FX-riddled climax, which is odd because Zemeckis is usually quite clever at combining FX with good story-telling but when all is said and done, Contact is still fully satisfying as a thoughtful film or a sci-fi ride, on par with Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.

4 wastes of space out of 5

PASSENGERS [2008]

If it weren't for click-and-instantly-watch-them services like Netflix and Video On Demand, I'd probably never see ho-hum films like Rodrigo Garcia's snoozy supernatural thriller Passengers.
A grief counsellor is assigned to work with a group of odd-ball plane-crash survivors that all seem to be part of something bigger.  Well. I'll tell you I had the whole thing figured out not even 10 minutes into the what was supposed to be a suspenseful story.
For what it lacks in originality and mystery it somewhat makes up for with a well-rounded cast that seem to be giving it more than what the material really deserves.  If you like any of the actors involved then it might be worth watching for that...if not, then skip it.

2 barking dogs out of 5

WORLD WAR Z [2013]

Director Marc Forster's "adaptation" of Max Brooks' zombie novel World War Z was plagued by multiple production problems & re-shoots, which normally results in an uneven mess of a film.
Surprisingly it doesn't happen here.  In fact if you weren't aware of the behind-the-scenes dilemmas you wouldn't even notice the slight bumps here and there.  It's basically Brooks' novel in name only, with a few brief nods to the book's text and instead it's an effective adrenaline fueled thrill-ride for the kids.  I quite enjoyed it but apart from a few well-crafted action sequences there's not much to think about after all is said and done.

3 protective magazines out of 5

THE GREEN MILE [1999]

Frank Darabont succeeds in bringing Stephen King's serial novel The Green Mile to the screen, moving the heart in a similar fashion as he did with The Shawshank Redemption. 

It's filled with wonderful performances by actors who fully understand the colorful and fascinating characters they're portraying.  The beautiful camerawork, music and art direction help make the 3 hour plus film never feel as long as it really is.  It's a dark, grim, yet strangely uplifting, reminder that there's magic in this world and how we'll find it in the most obscure of places.

4½ mice on the Mile out of 5

THE CROSSING GUARD [1995]

Sitting in the director's chair, Sean Penn fumbles around with his own script in the clumsily executed drama The Crossing Guard.

Penn can't decide if this is a straight-faced drama or an artsy independent film and in turn hurts the narrative flow quite a bit.  To add salt to the wounds, his dialogue and dramatic arcs are so excruciatingly terrible they belong in a TV movie of the week.  There were several points where I wasn't sure if it was just really, really bad humour or Penn actually wanted us to take it's aimlessly bizarre moments seriously.  Even the impressive cast seems to be lost while performing a favour for their actor turned "director" friend.

1 "hilarious" bus ride out of 5

THE HURT LOCKER [2008]

Point Break director, Kathryn Bigelow's intensely suspenseful Iraqi war film, The Hurt Locker is an adrenaline driven masterpiece that will leave you drained as the end credits begin rolling.
The beautifully detailed cinematography, hauntingly disturbing performances (particularly Jeremy Renner), well-timed action pieces and unsettling avant-garde score from Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders hypnotize you right up until the end.
It's angry, loud, desolate and so very, very foreign to the happy little lives we live behind our interwebs. Highly recommended.

5 easy choices made difficult and vise versas out of 5