Planet of the Apes

The original Charlton Heston classic.

A team of human space explorers land an a planet, the planet seems desolate but habitable, they explore their environment and find other humans, they seem like cavemen compared to them, then a hunt occurs after a hunt the humans and Taylor (the astronaut) are captured by what appears to be intelligent apes, humans on this world are mute and primitive and as he has been injured during the hunt he is unable to communicate to the speaking apes that he is intelligent as they are.

When they get back to the ape city, the ape scientists take an interest in Taylor, he tries to communicate with the scientist Zira who is convinced he is intelligent as he mimic's her actions, this pleases her and decides to put him in a partner a female called Nova.

Later Taylor steals some pen and paper from Zira and this convinces her of his intelligence, Zira enlists her partner Cornelius to help and with written communication he tells Zira and Cornelius where he came from, then Cornelius's boss a Dr. Zaius as learns of Taylor's intelligence but thinks this as some sort of sideshow mimicked intelligence and orders him to be castrated, Taylor tries to escape and during the escape speaks uttering the films probably most famous lines.

The Apes then have cause to take Taylor seriously but refuse to believe his stories of space travel and threaten to labotomize him, he tells them of others that came with him but he later finds one was killed and the other has been labotomized.

Taylor with help from Zira and Cornellious and other apes that believe in fair treatment for humans manages to escape taking Nova with him and also kidnap Dr. Zaius building up for a dramatic ending.

The film is a stone cold classic, and is filled with many memorable scene's but tends to drag in places and for me has too much plot build up in places.

Warrior

A Tom Hardy film about MMA, go on then.

The film is essentially about 2 brothers and an alcoholic father, who's alcoholism and the death of his wife tore apart the family.

One is a Iraq war veteran the other is a teacher, when the war veteran (Tom Hardy) returns home he causes a sensation when he goes into a gym and whilst sparring with the No.1 contender he dominates and destroy's  him, this goes onto YouTube and goes viral appearing on MMA shows, the other brother is struggling to make ends meet and starts training again in order to appear on local house shows to make some money.

Its also revealed that the brothers love of MMA comes from a father who was a trainer, The elder brother (the teacher) Brendan, finds out that he needs more money as his daughter needs open heart surgery and is struggling to make his mortgage payments and decides to go full pro again, we also get a rockyesque Adrienne type whinge from his wife about him promising not too fight again, so cue a montage of him get better and winning a few fights.

It is announced that a Middleweight tournament is coming and that the best fighters from around the world are fighting in it, Tommy (Tom Hardy) gets contacted and he agrees to participate getting his fathers help as a trainer on the provision he is a trainer and not a father, Brendan also gets in by default as the best fighter in his gym is taken injured, we also get introduced to the unstoppable Russian fighter Koba played by Kurt Angle.

So now you know the basics you can pretty much guess whats coming up, brotherly healing, father realizing he was a prick etc...... and cue a cheesey ending, it's an OK film but there was so much more than could have been done with it and I think that they could have got a proper MMA fighter to play Koba, not an Ex amateur wrestler and current pro one,as they did have some proper MMA fighters during some of fight scenes.

By the way the other half does recommend this as Tom Hardy has beefed up and spends must of his time with next to nothing on.

Summer School

A very under-looked 80's teen type film.

The film revolves around slacker gym teacher Freddy Schoop and his gang of miscreant summer school kids, he has to teach summer school in order to retain his job.

The film does fall into nearly every 80's feel good stereotype feel good teen movie, you have the 2 slacker waster friends, the hot student (who the boys all lust after), the air-head with the unrequited crush, the one with a chip on her shoulder who softens and the nerd, but they do the roles very well.

So Mr.Schoop has to get them to pass remedial English or he loses his job, he agree's to grant them one wish in order to get their attention and then cue a lot of inspirational music and montages and funny moments as they have their wishes fulfilled and start to educate themsleves.

It may seem like I am having a downer on the film but I am really not, It is very amusing and the roles are very well played, I am also guessing you don't need me to tell you it also has a happy ending.

Escape from Alcatraz

Based on a true story but obviously a lot of Hollywood poetic license was used.

Frank Morris is sent to Alcatraz a man with a genius IQ, he is introduced to the governor who informs him that no has ever escaped from Alcatraz, he is stripped and sent to his cell.

He immediately makes friends of Doc a inmate who likes to paint and Litmus a man who can lay his hands to almost any contraband in the prison, he also makes an enemy of prisoner called Wolf who essentially wants Frank to be his "bitch", Frank defends himself and beats Wolf where they both get sent to isolation, he also makes a friend of a man called "English" a black man sentenced to 2 life sentences for the self defense killings  of 2 white men.

During time in his cell he discovers the concrete around the grill in his cell has softened and starts planning his escape, he also meets a pair of brothers who are escape artists and uses them to help him in his plan and also enlists the help of new cellmate Charlie, they use litmus to get them supplies to aid with their escape which he asks for their desserts in payments, around this time the Governor does a usual inspection of the cells where he discovers Doc's painting of him and the various prison staff he revokes his painting privileges and the next day in wood-shop Doc cuts his fingers off feeling he as nothing left to live for.

The escape plan progresses and it gets very involved with the characters.

 A Well shot and a very enjoyable film.

A fistful of Dollars

A classic spaghetti western and one of Sergio Leone's best.

This is the film that cemented Clint Eastwood into being remembered as one of genre's most remembered, although the concept in its entirety was stolen from Kurasawa's Yojimbo.

Its about a stranger who arrives at a remote Mexican Village, he goes to the local saloon where the innkeeper tells him about the 2 families vying to control the town as it's a hotbed for illegal gun sales between the Mexican and American army, the stranger see's an opportunity to use the families hate for each other and  to makes some money by using his services as a gunslinger.

He takes advantage when a group of Mexican soldiers come through the village and are hijacked by one the village gangs and are killed, he uses this information to sell to the other gang, he then goes backwards and forwards between the gangs to use information against each other.

Along the way as he gets deeper involved he begins to see how innocent parties are affected by his involvement and the streets being a basic war zone and decides he needs to take a stand against both parties and do what is right.

A very good a film and a stone cold classic in the cowboy genre and if you haven't seen the film I am pretty sure most people know the classic ending.

Troll Hunter

A film made in "real time" I am very skeptical about these, as they are very hit and miss.

The film is about a bunch of college students trying to make a film about a suspected bear poacher named Hans, their pursuit is long and dogged as they approach him he tells them repeatably to go away, one night they follow him into the woods where they hear strange noises then Hans runs out of the woods and yells "TROLL", one of the students Thomas is attacked by a large animal,which is revealed to be a Troll, they all then escape in Hans's land rover.

Whilst with Hans although skeptical about the existence of Trolls he agree's to let them document him, he checks if any of the kids are religious which they say they aren't  and makes them put on troll stench also, they go back with with Hans into the woods where they once again hear noises and to their surprise encounter a Troll, Hans destroys the beast with a powerful UV ray, a representative turns up from the Troll Security Agency where it is explained that most strange weather phenomenons reported on TV such as hurricanes ripping down trees is more often then not Trolls and mysterious animal deaths are blamed on bears, it is also reported that the Trolls are behaving strangely.

So for the rest of the film we follow Hans and encounter other people such veterinarians and the government who are also in on the secret.

The film is shot in Norwegian but does have English subtitles, it was a regional film that achieved Major success worldwide and quite rightly so, it is very tongue in cheek enjoyable and shot and acted superbly not quite Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity standard but still good, so enjoy.

The Running Man

A Prime Schwarzenegger film one I have watched numerous times but not for a number of years, This is another film set in a big brother type future.

Ben Richards is imprisoned, framed for a crime by the state for the Bakersfield massacre a crime he didnt commit, whilst in prison he makes freinds with Weiss and Lochlan two members of the underground, the underground accounts for the majority of prisoners, the underground want to tell people the truth, they along with the other inmates bust out of prison and Richards leaves his friends to go into the city where he hopes his brother can ger him out of the country.

Whilst at the TV station they are looking for a new contestant  for the stations number one show the running man, a show where criminals are hunted for the viewing public by people know as stalkers, the host and a major player in the government Nathan Killian see's the break out of the prison and decides he wants Richards for the show.

He goes to his brother apartment and finds out he no longer lives there, and now a woman called Amber does, she informs him that he was taken by the state for re-education, he takes her hostage informing her that he was set up, she of course doesnt believe him, he then goes to the airport with Amber telling her as soon as he is safe he will let her go, whilst at the airport she manages to escape him and the authorities recapture him.

He wakes up in a cell to Killians face to be informed that he will the running man whether he likes it or not, around the same time it breaks to Amber in her apartment where she see's on the news that they captured Richards but he killed several people at the airport, she knows this not to be true.

Richards is being prepped for the show and long the way see's amber and a friend talking about what happened, she goes one way and Richards goes to the show, during the introduction Killain announces they have caught Weiss and Lochlan and they will be running with him, they are taken to the first game zone and one of the crowd chooses a stalker named Sub-Zero to take them on, during the battle Richards manage to overpower and kill Sub-Zero, this shocks the crowd.

Amber whilst at the station goes looking for footage of the Bakersfield Massacre and finds Richards was righ,t she then gets cornered by security and is also sent into the game-zone as they obviously dont want the truth revealed.

Ok sorry this big review but for a action film there is alot that needs explaining in the build up, and obviously I dont need to say much more because obviously you see what coming.

A very enjoyable film but dont expect any loyality to the stephen king book, only likenesses are it is set in the future and there is a show called the running man and that the state control things, seperate that make them two seperate entities and you are fine.