10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

*SPOILER ALERT*

A captive woman, always one to flee at the first sign of trouble, learns to, er, bunker down and fight, in J J Abrams' thriller full of painstakingly plotted minor details and enormous gaping unanswered bigger questions, making this a not very impressive movie except for the menace of John Goodman's captor, a doomsday prepper who may not be telling the truth about what lies beyond the airsealed bunker doors (an air filtration system in a stupid place, for one thing, and another problem which turns out to be nothing that a stiff drink and a smoke can't sort out, so calm down, Houston).

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEW

Prometheus (2012)

This sci-fi horror on an epic scale has in its relatively short runtime way too many lofty themes and too many character story arcs - the one about Charlize Theron's family tree is the most clanging and underdeveloped - and so it all feels rushed, and in place of satisfying conclusions, there is an almost completely unnecessary - or, at least, unexplained - tie-in with Ridley Scott's Alien; nonetheless, this succeeds in being thought-provoking and entertaining.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS