The River , Mel Gibson & Sissy Spacek 8/10

Frankenstein's Army - I don't mind this kind of hokum normally (Dead Snow for example, was tremendous fun) but I couldn't get past the first half hour of this tripe; I don't know if it's my age or some kind of ocular issue, but handheld, found footage type films, along with 3D, make me feel nauseous.

N/A - didn't watch enough to score it!

Dead Snow was a superb movie

Dawn of the planet of the apes , I enjoyed tbh 7/10

Flight - Denzel is dishevelled and grimy as an alcoholic, degenerate airline pilot, who's plane goes down after some mechanical issues; he saves the majority of the people on board through an audacious upside down flying manoeuvre, carried out whilst drunk and high on cocaine. His life unravels further in the aftermath of the crash and the film culminates in what I'm sure was intended to be a powerful, redemptive court appearance.

In actuality, I found this film dull, saggy and rather lazy; there were some interesting ideas, but they weren't properly developed, and the denouement was trite in the extreme.

4/10

The Burbs 11/10, a true masterpiece

A few I've caught recently:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: God help me but I enjoyed this. Didn't even want to. Good, entertaining fun, very well done. 7/10

Hercules: (the one with The Rock) Not bad, not the strongest plot, a little predictable, but does what it says on the tin and just about avoided being to cheesy. 6/10

Automata: Meh, could have been so much better but stumbled around too much and never really developed enough to get too caught up in the plot. 5/10

The Great Raid: Well shot and well written. Could have been a classic war film but just lacks that edge, still I'll give it 7/10.

Maleficent: If you like Stardust you'll like this. Angelina Jolie is excellent. 7/10

A Walk Among The Tombstones: Another gritty Neeson tale, but can't knock it. 7/10

Coherence: I get what it tried to do but it just didn't have the gripping edge of, say, The Man from Earth. Not bad, though not highly recommended. 5/10

The Giver: Typical teen sci-fi thriller with an underlying chilling edge to the plot. Decent enough. 7/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Slow start but redeems itself, stronger and entertaining final third. 7/10

American Mary - financially strapped medical student enters the world of underground body modification (as they do) to pay her way; is raped by her teacher and becomes a psychotic master torturer and an underground celebrity.

Like most modern horror films, it offers nothing new other than more convincing special effects; some satisfactorily horrible moments and gratuitous nudity aside, it was mostly crap.

4/10

4/10 is harsh IMO. It's not a great film, but Denzel's performance is arguably the best of his career.

I expect that from him though - he's a great actor. But despite his best efforts, I thought it was a poor movie; I anticipated the courtroom scene as a tense and powerful finale and it seemed that the whole film had been building towards that, mythologizing the prosecutor as a fearsome opponent and emphasising Denzel's growing indignation that the plane was defective and nobody else could have landed it. I wanted A Few Good Men, but all I got was 30 seconds of argument followed by a total capitulation!

Harsh maybe, but the good thing about this thread is that it's the one place on RL Fans where nobody can argue facts; in my opinion, it was a film that had all the gear, and no idea. I'll stick with the 4/10, but acknowledge that Denzel gets a pass due to his previous good character - whether that continues after The Equalizer however, is another argument...