Letterboxd — Your life in film

I'll be honest: I've never watched the original.

I don't know whether it's along with watching pretty much none of Arnie's films, bar the big ones, or it just never appealed to me but I just have never watched Total Recall. So, having seen the trailers and the buzz for the new one, I decided I should give the new one a go. And you know what? You could do a whole lot worse.

Firstly, the cast hits it on…

Wow. Simply wow.

Not just a Bond film, but a film about Bond. A film that supersedes all expectations of how good the film was touted, Skyfall is a modern tour-de-force in filmmaking, scripting and acting. A film that, dare I say, won't be topped for a long time.

Having watched a lot of the Bond films, more commonly the recent ones, Bond never felt like an assassin to me. He felt more of a token British icon, full of…

Having seen the Judge Dredd with Sly, and since reading a few 2000 AD books, I can safely say that this is the better film by being... just so much better.

Dredd sticks to the comic book formula so much better than the original, and as such, becomes the better film for it. No lingering toe-to-head shots, no hammy dialogue, no tongue-in-cheek parts that made the original feel a comedy at times.

Focusing on what the Judges do best -…

This is one of the best films I've seen in recent months, and it's nothing to do with the story, or the futuristic setting. It has everything to do with the characters, and the nuances you don't expect from a film of this genre.

Set in the near future, I really love how this is presented as normal and the film doesn't try to sell the idea of the future to the viewer. Hovercars, futuristic buildings, a split civilisation with…

I love Bourne. I love the books by Robert Ludlum. I love the sequels by Eric van Lustbader. I love the films with Matt Damon. I wanted to love this.

There's nothing too explicitly bad with the film, but take away the Bourne title, and the mentions of BlackBriar, Treadstone and previous characters, and this could pass for any decent action film.

Maybe that what was wrong with my approach, but when you attach a name that is revered in…

After quite enjoying the previous trilogy of films with Tobey Maguire, except the emo-Spidey bit from the third film, I took to reading the comics and I realised what everyone else was saying about the films.

This film, however, is more akin to the comics, and all the better for it. Where the Sam Raimi trilogy felt like they were commercialising Spider-Man, this sticks true to the books, with a cocky Peter Parker, a nice partnership with Gwen Stacy and…

I was actually quite dreading this movie, as the second was a real shame compared to the novelty and surprise of the first and really let fans down. Men In Black III, however, restored a little faith in movie sequels, and shows that if you give people what they want, everyone is happy.

Following a rather simple story for a time-travel plot, the film is well-paced, fun, funny and actually quite intriguing at the end, when you least expect it…