Rest Stop (2006)

Successful TV writer John Shiban directs this grimy low-budget thriller about Nicole (Jaimie Alexander), a hopeless runaway who enters the wrong bathroom on her way to Hollywood with her boyfriend. While a basic slasher at heart, the supernatural element is what makes the plot truly intriguing and downright confusing. This particular rest stop is a veritable Bermuda Triangle, haunted by a killer simply known by the license plate on his pickup truck: KZL-303. An obvious amount of effort runs through the entire film, but no more than from Alexander in a breakout leading role. The strange time slips through the murderous history of our killer are thought-provoking but never really add up to much.

2 personal demons out of 5

THOR: THE DARK WORLD [2013]

After Kenneth Brannagh shat the bed with the first film, I figured Game Of Thrones director Alan Taylor could only do better on Thor: The Dark World.
I was pleased to find my assumptions were slightly correct.  The first act is a dull bucket of boredom, however it's the second act where the story and conflict picks up into some enticing adventure and then it falls into an overdone grand finale of CGI effects and noise.  The only thing the first film had going for it, besides Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston was it's duck out of water humour which is sadly gone here.  It seems to take itself a bit too seriously, apart from a hilarious scene stealing Kat Dennings who fortunately gets a bit more screentime on this ride.
It's an improvement from the first film but doesn't stand up against it's Marvel counterparts.

2½ dreamy Cappy Americas out of 5

THE LAST STAND [2013]

Director Kim Ji-Wong makes his American debut with the ridiculously violent Arnold Schwarzenegger film, The Last Stand.
It plays like a formulaic American action film with cool cars, loud shootouts, gorgeous girls, groanworthy sight gags and bone-crunching fist fights.  However it also includes some creative camerawork, unusually well-timed action sequences and shots of subtle humour to please fans of the director's previous work.  More like a modern day Western, this is an Arnie film done right, now matter how aged ol' Leatherface has become.

3 Atlantean broad swords out of 5

THOR [2011]

Kenneth Branagh's Thor is is a colossal disappointment.
The conflict it about as exciting as wiping bird shit off my windows. To top it off, it seems several of the actors, apart from Chris Hemsworth's title character, are severely miscast and wander around like they have no idea who they're playing.
Some spectacular set pieces by Tim Burton regular Bo Welch, a few great FX shots and some funny moments don't save Thor from belonging in the shitpile with the rest of Marvel's crap films before this one.

1 bad Stan Lee cameo out of 5