THE GIVER [2014]

Director Phillip Noyce comes in at the beginning of an over-abundance of films based on YA social science-fiction novels with Lois Lowry's The Giver.
In a nutshell (see what I did there?) the film is about a young boy, who resides in a seemingly perfect community, that learns all about the world that existed before this false utopia.  This is Jeff Bridges' passion project, seeing as he optioned the rights to the book over twenty years ago and has been attempting to get it made since and for the most part, the dedication shows.  However it's impossible to fit in all the themes, depth and subtleties of the novel without leaving out a great deal of it's purpose.  There's some really powerful moments, interesting techniques and ideas brought to the table in a cinematic sense but they don't all work to form a seamlessly coherent narrative.   It's aiming in the right direction and perhaps with a better director it might have hit it's mark

3 lies for personal amusement out of 5

Blind Fury (1989)

An American remake of Japanese director Kenji Misumi’s Zatoichi Challenged (1967) that somehow isn't as bad as I’d feared it would be.
Rutger Hauer was a good choice to play the blind swordsman; his cheesy factor is balanced out by his strength of character and his ability to be wryly comical. The plot is part escort mission/part revenge drama that descends into something resembling an episode of The A-Team that, for me, worked in its favour because I love The A-Team. (I really do. It's reviewed HERE.)
I'm surprised there was no Blind Fury 2; there are many more Zatoichi films they could've plundered a similar kind of story from.

2½ useless henchmen out of 5

Salt (2010)

Jolie was Russian or maybe she wasn't. I didn't care to find out. It took about two minutes to realise Salt was a piece of shit. If you like shallow Bond movies you might like it; they’re as bad as each other.

0 sleepers out of 5