The End of the Affair (1999)

Based on a Graham Greene novel (that I've not read), Neil Jordan's TEotA is a powerful study of love, albeit one measured by unconventional methods.
Maurice Bendrix (Fiennes) and Sarah Miles (Moore) are the couple having the affair, while Sarah's husband Henry (Rea) worries about her from afar.
Structured as a kind of literary confessional from the obsessed Bendrix, there's more than one truth in play; each one unfolds in a dramatic but organic manner, revealing the motivations and fears of the lovers at key moments. The full story is a lot more interesting than it appears to be at first.

4 fictional values out of 5

HARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS [2002]

Summer's over and it's back for a second year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft & Wizardy in director Chris Columbus' second film in the colossally popular Harry Potter series, The Chamber of Secrets.
The series gets slightly more darker as Harry gets older and this is just the beginning as the boy wizard & friends are prey to a series of bizarre attacks that leaves it victims petrified.  Once again the set design, music and faith to it's source material are all top-notch,  However, as a whole, the film seems to just be a continuation of the an introduction to the world and hardly does anything to develop the tale of where the series eventually goes.  It's entertaining enough and if you loved the first one then this one will suffice.

3 unbearably annoying Jar-Jar/Gollum hybrids out of 5

FURY [2014]

Writer/director David Ayer steps away from his usual crooked cop tales with Fury, the fictional World War II story of a five-man tank crew travelling behind enemy lines during final days of the war.
All in all, the film is beautifully shot as grim as it may look, superbly acted, well written war film that is grisly and thoroughly unpleasant.  The film aims to pack a punch but for some reason it never quite hits you where it should, while it also has problems bringing anything new to the table in it's genre.  With that being said, it might not point out anything new to the viewer but certainly does a fantastic job at putting you right in the seat of that tank.  There's no real heroism or glory here, it's just plain violent, senseless and quite frightening.

3½ horse butts out of 5

A SINGLE SHOT [2013]

Director David M. Rosenthal really lays down the dreary atmosphere in the slow-burn backwoods suspense film A Single Shot.
Sam Rockwell is exceptionally excellent as a poverty-stricken hunter that stumbles upon a small fortune of cash after he accidentally kills a girl mistaking her for a deer.  It's beautifully shot with it's muted colors and haunting landscapes, which is all complimented with composer Atli Örvarsson's chilling Penderecki-esque score.   Quite a bit of the dialogue is difficult to understand, due to the character's mumbling and many will find it too slow to fully appreciate but it rewards with Rockwell's performance.

3½ dead girls wrapped in plastic out of 5

GREEN ZONE [2010]

Bourne director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon reunite for the Irag War thriller Green Zone, based on journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran's novel.

It's tremendously low on character development so you're left feeling empty and unattached when the danger rears it's ugly head.  As exciting as the cinematography and editing is, the lack of emotional attachment hurts the entire film and leaves you yawning & waiting for an interesting development that never comes.  By the end of the film you're left wondering what was the point?

2 nap times out of 5