Apocalypto - nothing more than a chase flick with high production values and an interesting setting, and it never really tries to be anything more, but its very well made. Yes it's violent, and because it's not a mob movie or a "horror" movie or a Tarantino movie, that's apparently unacceptable and wrong. Seriously speaking, it's gratuitous every now and then, but given that it was set in a society that was built around sacrifice and survival, it is not out of place.

Anyway, enough with the ranting. Its suspenseful, exciting, has characters that you can connect with and transports you to the ancient Mayan world, and later on into the jungle, pretty commendably. I also quite liked the music and sound design.

Having said all of that, there are a couple of eye rolling moments and for what it is, its also slightly overlong. And the ending is interesting.

7.5/10


Shooter - its movies like this that make the Bourne films, good as they are, look like masterpieces. Completely banal, predictable as clockwork, may as well have been acted by correspondence and poorly shot. And to top it all off it seems to think its an intelligent film because it makes a few statements about the current state of the world, right before Mark Wahlberg says another corny line and continues on his vigilante spree.

3/10


Scandal (1950) - minor early Kurosawa that doesn�t quite work, you can see he is still trying to find his feet, but its still quite an interesting watch because moments of genius still shine through and its theme of celebrity obsession and media attention are inescapable today.

Toshiro Mifune puts in another great turn as a famous painter who is inadvertently snapped by paparazzi in the company of a famous female singer but is unwilling to be exploited by the media without a fight. The opening is brilliant, Kurosawa setting up proceedings very efficiently, but things start to get a bit overly melodramatic when Takeshi Shimura's morally dubious attorney turns up to defend Mifune's character.

I am not quite sure the scenes with Shimura's character work and in this case it probably would have been better if Kurosawa stuck with making a film that focused solely on the main plot.

6/10