The Grudge (2004)

Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on horror series, until now wholly Japanese productions, continues with this third movie, high on spooky atmosphere but low on sense, that casts Americans Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Paxton in the lead roles of a story - something about a curse that makes children blue and wide-eyed, that makes dead bodies appear and/or disappear, and sees the dead spiritually tethered to the places of their death but then also free to visit people at work or at home - don't ask too many questions.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Aliens (1986)

For poor Rip-(van Wink)-ley, 57 years of sleep in an escape pod must have seemed like a mere heartbeat when in fact it was plenty of time for the eggs on the LV-426 colony (sighted in the original Alien) to hatch into an alien plague; Ripley skips breakfast and gets straight into alien-busting consultant mode for some macho commandos, but before long, Director James Cameron wipes everyone else out so that the mother-progeny theme that is to become the series' signature can come to the fore as Ripley defends herself and Newt, the colony's lone survivor and first daughter figure of the series, from the aliens and their queen.

★★★★★

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

The repetitive Groundhog Day nature of this sci-fi action, about a man who lives and relives the same day of an alien invasion on the beaches of France, is like watching a friend grapple repeatedly with a difficult boss encounter, but the live-die-repeat loop is made fairly interesting with some dry humour, good performances by the leads, and impressive cgi detail.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS