Disturbia (2007)

In the more engaging first two-thirds of this suburban thriller, Shia LaBeouf's Kale Brecht is put under house arrest and like Jimmy Stewart's L B 'Jeff' Jefferies finds himself with nothing better to do than spy on his neighbours, but in the less engaging last third, this Rear Window premise gives way to an uninteresting serial killer thriller with David Morse obviously trying to channel Raymond Burr's Lars Thorwald as he stares back down the binocular lens but nothing else is trying very hard, least of all the writers.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Nymph()maniac: Volume I (2013)

A man comes across a woman lying in an alley, takes her home and tends to her and while she talks him through every sexual encounter she has ever had in her life, he interjects with fly fishing analogies, in this occasionally very funny, always interesting first volume of director Lars von Trier's epic five-and-a-half hour contemplation on compulsive passionless sex, just one highlight of which is the mortifying but hilarious scene in which Uma Thurman as a spurned wife, the antithesis of Charlotte Gainsborough's Joe, tries to guilt-trip her husband and his new lover.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

I, Robot (2004)

Isaac Asimov's three laws of robotics are used as the philosophically interesting starting point of what you might hope is a Kubrikesque meditation on sentience, but Will Smith's Detective Spooner, investigating what might be murder committed by a robot, is a wise-cracking action hero of a distinctly Schwarzenegger type ("Control, Alt, Delete, A.I. mofo," he doesn't say but very well could as he sends a bullet through yet another metallic skull); although the flimsily plotted action garnered an Academy Award nomination for its special effects, it is hard to work out exactly what is happening in many of the cgi-heavy scenes.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Harrison Ford's performance is laboured and it is like no-one dares let him utter more than three consecutive words for fear he'll betray his inability to reprise his famous role, but with Cate Blanchett hamming it up as a Soviet agent villain and with a globe-trotting plot involving the usual maps and clues and quicksand and temples, this fourth Indy movie is enjoyable nostalgia albeit a cheesy, slow-witted adventure.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Constantine (2005)

Keanu Reeves need only don a black suit and tie and a movie starts earning rating stars, but unless you're a DC/Vertigo Hellblazer fanboy, this mix of dour Catholic exorcism horror, toony villains, and Matrix-style rock'n'roll action doesn't warrant any more.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS