Screen Noir

When one particular uneventful morning in Hobbiton, or more importantly within the green hills of the Shire and at the oval door of a quite unlikely hobbit, a rather unexpected Journey began. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys his second breakfast as much as the next hobbit and likes nothing more than his own company and a book beside the fire place in Bag End, so when Gandalf the Grey an infamous and mischievous wizard appears on his porch offering an adventure of a life time Bilbo flat out refuses and offers the wizard the best and a good morning. Though as tea time comes around, Mr Baggins finds himself welcoming a host of quite uninvited and bizarre group of Dwarves, 13 to be precise all arriving on the whim of Gandalf, believing that our dear Mr Baggins is actually a burglar and again urging him into the ensuing dangerous journey. While he persists that a Baggins of Bag End has no want for adventure when the final calling comes Bilbo finds himself signing a contract and runnin...

Beat cops, Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala are considered the heroes of the LAPD with their ongoing actions and the amount of heroics they can occasionally bring to the department, while at the same time both prove that they have more to offer than the red and blue calling in life, love and family. Though as Superior Hauser is always reminding the thrill seeking partners that hubris can be a dangerous thing after rescuing infants from a burning house, coming face to face with the big man of crime and surviving minor shoot outs Taylor and Zavala appear to think they're invincible. It's when the two hot headed heroes find a small weapons cache after a little digging, the pair have little heed for the danger that lies ahead. When the gangs start to realize the potential threat they pose, the days of dishing out parking tickets and neighborly disputes seem like a godsend as what seems like the whole of Los Angeles seedy underbelly is out for their blood. Undoubt...

An emotionally eye opening film as well as visually, Life of Pi embraces both a strong narrative and superb style of filming to make it one of the stand out points in a year full of already memorable films. The film follows the book by Yann Martel closely in which a young man by the name of Piscine Molitor Patel, named after a swimming pool in France though he later comes to abbreviate it to 'Pi', growing up peacefully in India, Pi finds himself searching for the meaning of life by taking up not one but three different religions. In all he finds a piece of tangible meaning and helps further his view of the deepening of the meaning of life, continuing a relatively normal life for a young boy named Piscine whose family owns a Zoo, Pi deals with issues of love, religion and family. It's when his family are forced into a financial corner and find themselves having to move the entire Zoo full of animals that Pi ends up on a journey of both spiritual and physical challenge whe...

Ben Affleck proves again he's as good a scribe off camera as he is in front of it, from his success with The Town Affleck decides to take on story loosely based on real life events. When a U.S Embassy in Tehran is ambushed and taken over, a small group of would be captives escape and hide out with a Canadian ambassador still within Iran. Meanwhile back in America, the CIA struggle with several vauge and crazed ideas (one including sending in bicycles) to try and get the six escapee Americans out of Iran in one piece. In steps CIA specialist Toby Mendez brought in to help consult the ideas on show, while he points out all routes so far explored are too far flawed he admits he himself sees no effective substitute. Answering all his prayers Mendez catches Battle of the Planet of the Apes on television late one night and instantly hatches a miraculous yet outrageous plan. Rallying a team of a Hollywood make up artist and a producer to put together a p...

 This year marks the 50 th anniversary of the Bond franchise and to celebrate hitting our screens as James Bond is Daniel Craig In Skyfall. Splitting off from the arc which crossed Casino Royale to Quantum of Solace, Skyfall sees Bond far from his best and coming to terms with a changing world where enemies aren't nations at war but shadows in the dark. Bond's relationship with M is put to the test and as a new threat makes a personal attack on MI6, both look inward with M looking back on her past in Military Intelligence and past decisions. Both Bond and M are on the edge of being pushed aside, though neither are prepared to sizzle out and fade away, Bond aims to earn back his licence to kill and M's respect by searching in the shadows for the sinister Silva, a journey which takes him from Istanbul to shanghai and even deep into the London Underground. Daniel Craig takes on a third mission as Bond after taking the helm from Pierce Brosnan in 2006, his brutal yet p...

So Liam Neeson is back and doing what he apparently does best searching and destroying. Bryan Mills is off on a bodyguard detail in Istanbul for a stint while his ex family sits safe and sound in the USA. Of course, going through some difficult times with the new husband, ex Mrs Mills, Lenore and daughter Kim decide to surprise Bryan before he heads home.  Though with Bryan Mills a quick brush of sun can't happen without a gun being pointed at him or his daughter, this time round a lavish dinner turns into kidnapping with both himself and Lenore the targets. Realizing his nemesis this time round is grieving father of his previous punching bags, he's in for a tricky one in getting out of the deep end. Speaking of deep ends, daughter Kim's rejuvenation by the pool is cut short when the father must make a disciple of his child if he is to escape and save his wife's life. Together Bryan and Kim must set about to crashing across Istanbul before time runs out wit...

As far as video game movies go, Resident Evil has never really been at the top of that list. We start off where Afterlife ended, with Alice and co under attack from a newly replenished force of Umbrella Corporation goons and what tries to be a stylish use of filming techniques coupled with a tedious ten minute flashback of the previous films. Captured by umbrella, Alice awakens in yet another science lab full of nasties but this time she finds replicas of time square, the Kremlin and segments of suburbia which have been used to test the virus on live subjects welcoming her on her escape. Led by the mysterious Ada Wong and a now friendly Wesker, Alice has to make her way through the submerged Umbrella base, fight fields of zombies, horrific Lickers and even face of against her brainwashed bestie in order to make it out alive. Elsewhere in the facility another group also led by Wesker attempts to find and rescue Alice, will any of them survive another dance with the evil, newly resurrect...