Margin Call (2011)

Like the 2007-2008 financial crisis that is this movie's context, the problem that befalls Jeremy Irons' investment banking megacorporation cannot be easily explained (something about a flawed equation and always out-of-frame data and graphs that herald tremendous financial loss) so it is hard to care much about this corporate thriller which has its ensemble cast spout platitudes every time the crux of the problem needs elucidation - plus, the people you might actually feel sympathy for, not smug suits staring out of their skyscrapers or weeping in sleek toilet cubicles but the hardworking public who you know ultimately lose out, are kept out of the picture.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Star Trek (2009)

The 11th Star Trek film is the action-packed first of the reboots which cleverly combines a fresh new cast (including a perfectly cast Chris Pine as Captain James T Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock) with an alternate reality/time travel plot that allows director J J Abrams to go right back to the beginning (the birth of Kirk) and then get loose with Star Trek dogma.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Star Trek Beyond (2016)

That scene, barely a second long, showing Sulu when he is not at the helm of the Enterprise is a brilliant addition to a series that at its core is a celebration of universal diversity and inclusion, with this particular episode also succeeding where perhaps Into Darkness didn't, delivering good old reliable Star Trek space exploration, action, humour and philosophy — the franchise doesn't need too many tweaks or new skins or tricks, as its fifty year anniversary this year clearly demonstrates.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

A terror attack sets in motion the convoluted events of this 2013 Star Trek episode which eventually ties together a number of plot threads about warheads, cryogenically frozen superhumans and an Enterprise stopover at Kronos where the Klingons live, but in Director J J Abrams' hands, this scifi action is punchy, fun, exciting and full of ace special effects even if it apparently disappointed Trekkies and contains no openly gay Starfleet officers.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS