Dune (1984)

This 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's dense and difficult 800-page read was at one point ten to fourteen hours of footage that over the course of director David Lynch's famously difficult production, was pared down to just two, and the result is laughable, with glib voiceovers bridging those lost hours on the cutting-room floor and mere sentences attempting to confer importance on too many details - too many feudal empires and ruling families warring over a precious resource on the planet Arrakis - but nonetheless the movie succeeds as a psychedelic rock opera full of fantastic SFX (a floating bloated villain, gleaming hyper-blue eyes, gigantic earthworms, yellow upside-down lightning) all set to a Toto-and-Brian Eno soundtrack, a heady, mind-numbing treat bringing to mind the camp excess and pulp spectacle of Flash Gordon - for better or worse.

★★★☆☆

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Charlie's Angels (2019)

The earlier movies were especially vacant exercises with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu not so much playing the Angels as playing themselves playing at being Angels in a series of spoofs that seemed more of a lark for the cast than for viewers, but this 2019 re-fashioning delivers to audiences a reasonable action plot (albeit one far too long and predictable) set in a spy agency that believes "hugs work" and includes some intelligent humour, refreshing girl-power messages and Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinska, and Naomi Scott saving the world, helped along the way by their "Bosley", director and star Elizabeth Banks.

★★★★☆

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Excalibur (1981)

This fantasy adventure tells the story of King Arthur (and Merlin, Camelot, the Lady of the Lake, Sir Gawain, Morgana, and the Knights of the Round Table...) and is much more captivating on its 1981 film budget than more recent sfx-driven Hollywood extravaganzas, helped enormously by its being studded with big-name British superstars-in-the-making like Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart and Liam Neeson, who all loan a Shakespearean weight to proceedings.

★★★★☆

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Logan (2017)

Superhero movie franchises get stuck rebooting and telling the same story over and over again but the Marvel X-men franchise's new solution to this problem seems to be not telling any story at all, as in 'Logan', the mostly joyless, ultra violent (really violent - perhaps the most violent movie ever made) Terminator 2-like Wolverine episode which offers up the barest sliver of plot that can be summarised, "Weapon X/James Howlett/Wolverine/Logan, Professor Xavier and a mutant kid drive for two hours...to be continued."

★★★☆☆

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X2: X-men United (2003)

The best of all the X-men movies, this sequel of the original has it all - a thrilling non-stop action plot, moments of laugh-out-loud humour mostly thanks to Wolverine, and the best thing of all — alone, worth the price of admission — is the invasion scene at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in which audiences are treated to a fast-paced and exhilarating showcase of the mutants' weird and wonderful gifts.

★★★★☆

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Green Room (2015)

Underdogs fighting back in seige situations is a genre that was heralded by Die Hard in 1988 with boys-own adventures like Toy Soldiers and Under Siege following suit in the 90s but this 2016 entry about a punk rock band caught up with a murderous neo Nazi gang opts for horror over adventure - the band members bear weapons, not MacGyver-style smarts, and in the absence of plot, the audience is asked to remain interested in 90-minutes of weapon choices (fluorescent tubes, box knives, vicious dogs), the bullet count (he has three bullets left, she has two...), and the difficult task of keeping track of who has and who hasn't been violently hacked to death.

★★☆☆☆

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Star Trek First Contact (1996)

Heralding a new era of Star Trek movie quality and a departure from the 80s kitsch of the Shatner movies, First Contact improves on the less interesting Generations, bringing the Enterprise in contact with an Earth under threat from the Borgs, and is entertaining despite several scenes in which James Cromwell groovily dances.

★★★☆☆

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X-men: The Last Stand (2006)

The third installment of the X-men series dutifully upholds the superhero filmmaking law which states a third installment superhero movie must be so unrestrained it collapses from its own bombast.

★★☆☆☆

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