Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Too long? Too many characters? A bit with the American flag? Sound familiar? On the plus side unlike Spider-Man 3 at least there isn't a bit where Peter Parker goes all Saturday Night Fever.

After the enjoyable first outing of this rebooted series, it's such a shame that sequel doesn't live up too expectations. Whilst Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone together on screen are once again the best part of the film, trying to cram in three separate villains for Spidey to battle results in the film lurching from one CGI battle to another just for the sake of it (Especially the bits with Paul Giamatti in it that seem especially pointless). Add on top of that the added backstory of Peter Parker's parents and you can see what a bloated mess the film is.

Review: Captain America 2 - The Winter Soldier

Seeing as he gets a name check in the title, you'd expect the Winter Soldier to have a bigger part in the second Captain America film - but in fact he ends someone playing second fiddle to the main villain and looks like he's spent too long listening to 30 Seconds To Mars and My Chemical Romance to be any real threat.

That's not the only problem with this sequel either, with the biggest problem facing this this film (and the Marvel Universe as a whole) is that since Agent Coulson's reappearance in Agents of Shield, it's tough to believe for a second that anyone is in any real danger at any point in the plot. That said the Marvel films have their formula down to a tee, with impressive action sequences interspersed with snappy one-liners to lighten the mood, meaning the Captain America 2 is always entertaining, but future films need to up their game to hit the heights of previous successes.

Review: American Hustle

Like Argo, American Hustle has a story that sounds too good to be true, but unlike Ben Affleck's Oscar winner American Hustle plays it more for laughs and is worse off for it to be honest.

It's still good fun, but Bale and Cooper play things so far over the top this crime-caper can never become anything more substantial - the star of the show is Amy Adams who as well as looking amazing, manages to add some layers to her character whilst not wearing that many herself.

Review: Sound City

Take out the final half hour, which is pretty much just and advert for the album they brought out at the same time and Dave Grohl's directorial début is an entertaining look behind the music made at the legendary Sound City studios.

Films like these sink or swim with the quality of the contributors and the film covers an eclectic mix of music, thankfully not just focusing too much on the heavy-hitters like Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty (as after watching the 4 hour film about him I've had my fix of how Damn The Torpedoes was made). The doc also touches on the analogue versus digital debate, but doesn't really go into that much depth with only Trent Reznor playing a slight devil's advocate, instead where the film shines is how the talking heads manage to convey how it was something more than bricks and mortar that managed to magic of the music recorded in the Los Angeles studio.

Review: Pacific Rim

If I told you this film features 2 hours of giant robots and sea monsters hitting each other with a dodgy actor in the lead role, you'd probably think it was the SyFy Channel's follow up to Sharknado - but instead this is a blockbuster from Guillermo del Toro.

The Del Toro touch means Pacific Rim is stunning too look at and the Kaiju battles are impressive at first, but at over 2 hours long they do start to drag after at bit. Things might be helped if the wooden Charlie Hunnan wasn't the centre of the story so much, as much like After Earth (A film so bad it put me off blogging for 6 months), I found myself wishing it was the lead character that was killed early on, not poor Mike from Homeland.

Review: After Earth

Even going in with the lowest of expectations its hard not to be disappointed by After Earth. Of the its many problems, the biggest hurdle the film faces has is that Jaden Smith is just a really bad actor, ruining each scene he's in - when you realise he's in virtually all of them, that gives you a scope of what you're up against.

Those hoping Will Smith's presence and charisma on screen can save After Earth are out of luck - playing a character who survives by being to hide his fear and emotions, Will plays this like he's been sedated with a distant look on his face like he's doing an eye test just off screen.

M. Night Shyamalan directs, though you'd be hard pressed to notice - everything looks nice enough in a sub-Avatar kind of way, but whatever you think of his diminishing results, one of his trademark twists would've livened up a dull script that just ambles along with even the actors looking bored.

Review: World War Z

Plagued with production problems, even going as far as having a completely new final act filmed - World War Z is better than you'd think but still ends up as less than the sum of its parts.

The main problem is that the new ending, written by Lost's Damon Lindelof feels like a completely different film to what has gone before, as somehow Brad Pitt ends up in an office in Cardiff with Peter Capaldi after an hour of massive disaster movie set pieces. As well as the massive stylistic change, matters aren't helped by it looking much, much cheaper too, like Charlie Brooker has somehow managed to cast Pitt in Black Mirror or Dead Set.

The first hour is far from a flop, though after a stunning set-piece in Philadelphia to kick things off the reasons for Brad Pitt's Gerry to fly all-over the world trying to halt the zombie apocalypse do become a little contrived and just excuse for some more impressive CGI stunts in front of another landmark - but as the stunts are well done, evoking memories recent stuff like Contagion and Cloverfield for a similar sense of chaos, you can't complain too much.

Matthew Fox turns up for a couple of seconds, and you wonder if he had a bigger role in the original ending, which re-iterates the film's main problem - you never feel like you've watched a whole film, just the start of one and the finish of another.

Review: Fast & Furious 6

If you were a fan of the previous installment in the Fast & Furious films, then you'll love part six of the series - as it takes all of the chaos of the previous Rio heist and adds more of pretty much everything.

Those who weren't a fan will find that whilst its an improvement on the the last one, some of the same flaws still remain. Whilst the story is slightly less flimsy this time (just) and unlike the last one actually tries to place events somewhere in the timeline, it still suffers problems from trying to cram too many characters in alongside token car races every now and then just to stay true to the franchise's origins.

Gina Carano stands out of the huge array of characters and even manages to outshine The Rock in their double act, which is no mean feat considering how he made the film his own the last time around. Luke Evans is the main villain is a bit of an afterthought as he tries to get a computer chip for nefarious reasons that are never really delved into that much, as a result of having such an undeveloped character the tension is never really there to keep your attention as to how and when the good guys will come out on top. Hopefully that isn't the case for Fast & Furious 7, as the post-credit sequence teases the appearance of a new character that will leave all action move fans on the edge of their seats.

Review: Man Of Steel

There's plenty to like about the opening half of Zakk Snyder's take on the man from Krypton's origin story - it's a shame that it descends into a long mess of a final fight scene that tries to outdo Avengers Assemble, but ends up a boring sequence of CGI spearing and punching through buildings that goes on forever.

You can feel the influence of Christopher Nolan, whose watchful eye Snyder was under in the films first half, giving the film a similar feel to Batman Begins (with added dragons). Whilst Russell Crowe hams it up (with aforementioned dragons) as Jor-El , Superman's birth father on Krypton - Kevin Costner steals the show as Jonathan Kent, his father figure on Earth full of world weary wisdom and advising the restraint of Clark's powers - whether he sneakily used them to knock up a baseball pitch in the corn fields though we'll never know.

I'm not sure whether the fact that General Zod looks like Paul Robinson from Neighbours actually improves this latest Superman reboot or not, but Michael Shannon manages to stay on the right side of scenery chewing throughout.

For the most past Man of Steel deserves credit for mixing the fantastical elements of the story with a modern day setting, but its a shame that the films finale is its weakest part, as its the films abiding memory leaving the cinema, not all the good stuff that came before it.

Reviewl Killing Them Softly

Killing Them Softly features Brad Pitt as a hitman who prefers to kill his targets softly, but also features a script that drives its point comparing Washington and Wall Street to the gangster underworld home a little too hard at times.

By the 4th or 5th time a excerpt from a Bush or Obama speech is played in the background the point starts to become a little laboured and the lack of subtlety shown is in contrast to the performances from the cast, with several stars like Ray Liotta and James Gandolfini playing against their charismatic calling cards shown in previous gangster classics to portray a cast of slimly, sleazy and crass characters.

Unlike The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward, Killing Them Softly comes in at just over 90 minutes, but still manages to go along at a slow pace - the world created is a compelling one, but the simple story feel like it would be better suited forming part of a longer story arc in something similar to The Sopranos, not quite working a single film.

Review: Gangster Squad

It's hard to call Gangster Squad anything more than a disappointment when after putting an impressive cast with an interesting choice of director (Zombieland's Ruben Fleischer), all you get is a poor man's version of The Untouchables.

Sean Penn is the film's highlight as the over the top villain, but the squad assembled by Josh Brolin's good cop suffer from next to no character development in favour of simply looking good in hats. Ryan Gosling in particular is wasted alongside Emma Stone, with Crazy Stupid Love proving a much better example of the chemistry the pair have.

It might've been okay for Gangster Squad to shun story for shoot-outs if the action itself was a little more memorable but that's far from the case, leaving a film that looks full of forties flash on the surface, but is instantly forgettable.

Review: Jack Reacher

The problem isn't that Tom Cruise is too small to play Jack Reacher, its that his performance as the drifter/detective is far too similar to his turn as Ethan Hunt to make the film stand out.

That said, being reminiscent of the Mission Impossible films means that what you do get from Jack Reacher is more than decent, but in place of huge action set pieces and aerial stunts you get lots of hand to hand combat and a few chase scenes thrown in, meaning this also has echoes of the Bourne series of films - and this is definitely a class above the recent Bourne Legacy reboot.

The film's trump card could've been Werner Herzog as the elusive über villain, but the problem is he's just too darn elusive - only popping up for 2 or 3 scenes. When he does appear, he oozes menace and you find it hard to believe you're watching a 12a with some of the grizzly stuff he gets up to.

The film slightly overstays its welcome with a running time over 2 hours and a story that finishes about 15 minutes before the film actually does, but Jack Reacher is worthy of another shot at starting a series, even if its managed to scale the heights of other similar films so far.

Review: Dredd

The similarities between Dredd and The Raid has been pointed out more than enough times already - Dredd deserves more credit for how its different to most recent Hollywood action films.

Where most films pander to the widest market possible, aiming for that 12A audience - Dredd is unashamedly an 18 certificate film, not afraid to skip to skimp on the guts and gore the goes with a high bodycount. Dredd also drops the viewer straight into the action, no origin story here for Karl Urban's rebooted British comic book hero. The title character is a man who lies to shoot first and talk later, so Olivia Thirlby's rookie Anderson (unrecognizable as Juno's BFF) does most of that and arguably steals the film doing so.

Marketed as a 3D film, it looks to make decent use of it, with a few scenes giving you a sense of missing something without glasses. The use of Slo-Mo is rationed well too, avoiding falling into Zakk Snyder territory. Though only limiting the film to a 3D release seems to have back-fired, with the film leaving cinemas without recouping its budget with competition fierce for the comparatively limited number of 3D screens - a shame as Dredd deserves to be seen by more - if only for bizarre use of the Snuff Box theme about 25 minutes in.

Review: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

In this directorial debut from Lorene Scafaria, writer of the underrated Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Keira Knightley steps into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl role for a tale of an odd couple's road trip across the country in the face of impending apocalypse.

Steve Carell is once again back on regular turf as the sad sack middle-aged man, whose life had seemingly already fallen apart 3 weeks before Armageddon, who decides to help Knightly's Penny track down a plane to see her parents whilst finally mustering up the courage to take a chance for the first time in his life and track down his childhood sweetheart.

At times the film does seem like a collection a scenes with a few cameos thrown in for good measure (namely William Petersen, Martin Sheen and one of the blokes from Cloverfield) but the likeable chemistry between the leads holds the film together and makes the romantic storyline much sweeter than it has any right to be on paper, with plenty of gentle laughs thrown in along the way.

Review: Shame

There's something sordid about the whole experience of watching Shame - Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan as the siblings at the centre of the story let it all hang out there, both emotionally and at times quite literally physically too.

Enjoyable doesn't seem like the right word to describe this film, its far from fun to watch - but powerful, compelling and claustrophobic can all be applied to the second film from Steve McQueen. Fassbender is great as usual, with his distant portrayal of sex addict Brandon now drawing interesting parallels with his turn as android David in Prometheus - the emotional distance they both have giving them a not-quite human quality to them.

Shame is definitely one to watch on your own, but not for those reasons you might expect going into it.

Review: Haywire

The two Expendables movies have been a bit a disappointment as despite being billed as an all-star action cast, they've really featured far too much Stallone and Statham, with little more than short cameos from the rest.

But with the likes of Traffic, the Oceans' Trilogy and most recently Contagion, Steven Soderbergh has proven himself to be the master of pulling together an all-star cast. So whilst its unlikely to see him behind the camera of Expendables 3, Haywire might be closest you'll get to see what he would do with a cast of a-list ass kickers.

Gina Carano is the lead who does more talking with her feet and fists, but can handle herself in both senses against the likes of Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum and Ewan McGregor. Haywire at heart is a simple story of someone having to fight their way to find answers/vengeance, but its stripped back b-movie aesthetic actually results in a fresh 90 minutes that breezes by, avoiding many of the bloated tropes that have blighted a few recent action blockbusters.

Review: Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows

The surprise success of the first Sherlock Holmes film meant that hopes were high going into this sequel, once again directed by Guy Ritchie and reuniting Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as the super-sleuth and sidekick.

Sadly it's not just the increased number of Holmes Vision scenes that add to the feeling of deja-vu - the whole film suffers in comparison to the freshness found in the first outing, the action scenes and bromance banter between Holmes and Watson comes across a bit predictable and jaded in comparison.

It's a bit of shame to be so harsh on Sherlock Holmes 2, as its does seem as if everyone is trying and is far from the lazy cash-in that some feared the first would would be - A Game of Shadows is an apt title, as in the end this film suffers from the shadow cast from its first effort.

Review: Lawless

Despite sticking him on the poster, Gary Oldman probably gets more screen time in those new O2 adverts than he does in this, so those wanting to see another Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy acting master class will be left disappointed.

Fans of Tom Hardy mumbling are in luck though, as despite delivering another convincingly menacing performance, it would be nice to be able to hear what he was saying more often. Shia Labeouf gets the most screen time as the youngest of three moonshine-selling brothers in Prohibtion-era America, trying to win the heart of the local preacher's daughter, as well as the respect of his two big brothers - and coming from the pen of Nick Cave, you can guess there's a few grisly moments along the way.

In a similar way to Public Enemies, Lawless has to count as something of a disappointment considering the names involved, but the general air of negativity around the reviews so far underplaying the many things the film does well. So adjust your expectations accordingly and you'll find another decent crime thriller lies within.

Review: Skyfall

Inception was often accused of owing more than a bit to the Bond movies, but the 23rd film in 007 series certainly returns the favour, with a fair few nods towards Christopher Nolan's recent efforts.

For starters we get a daring raid on a Shanghai skyscraper, followed by a villain's liar that looks more than a little reminiscent of Limbo. Bond even has his own Alfred-type character show up at one point, but as Nolan sadly denied us the chance to see Caine wield a sawed-off shotgun Get Carter-style, Skyfall easily one ups it in this area.

Jokes aside, Skyfall picks up where Casino Royale left off, righting the wrongs of the last effort (Quantum of Solace) and continuing the renaissance in the series since Daniel Craig took over in the lead role.

Bond has often been cited as the epitome of all things Anglo and Skyfall succeeds by making the series feel more English than it has in a long, long time - casting the cream of British acting talent and actually setting a fair bit of the story here in and amongst the traditional far-flung set pieces in foreign climes.

That being said, it is one of the international stars the steals the show, Javier Bardem plays his Bond Baddie with just the right amount of over-the-top mania that shows that despite what many would have had you believe a Roger Moore style villain can work in a modern setting.

Review: Argo

Argo tells a truth is stranger than fiction story of a 1980s CIA operation to rescue six American diplomats from revolutionary Iran - under the cover of a science fiction film.

You'll be surprised at just how funny much of Argo is, with the plans to put together the fake film from which the name is taken from coming across like an Ocean's Eleven-esque wisecracking caper. What Ben Affleck as director deserves a great deal of credit for is how it seamlessly shifts gears to its evacuation ending, which features some of the most tense scenes of recent memory.

The only black mark against Argo is the slightly stereotypical Hollywood portrayal of all Iranians as hostile hoodlums, which Team America lampooned so successfully - but I doubt Ben Affleck has watched that for some reason...