Juror's Film Festival: One of our Dinosaurs is Missing (d. Robert Stevenson, 1975)

Favourites really can be very odd. A favourite film can be forged by a moment in time as much as they can be by the greatness of the film. For instance, Sink the Bismarck will always hold a very special place in my heart because, as boys, my brother and I watched it endlessly, delighting in aspects of it which, now, we must admit are in fact a bit lacking.

So it was that I was encouraged to watch One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing with a friend who adored it. She had fallen in love with it as a child, and the film has a great pedigree. Directed by Robert Stevenson, the maker of such family favourites as Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Love Bug and the absolutely classic Mary Poppins, it has all of the feel of those classics: a great British cast (Peter Ustinov, Derek Nimmo and Helen Hayes are the leads), that peasouper London setting and a positively madcap plot.

Review: Warrior

A predictable plot given a shot in the arm by a superb cast

Director: Gavin O'Connor

Screenwriters: Gavin O’Connor, Anthony Dambakis & Cliff Dorfman

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo and Nick Nolte

Plot: The Conlon family has been torn apart by father Paddy’s alcoholism. Elder son Brendan has built a tentative life for himself and his young family, whilst younger son Tommy has just returned as a disturbed Iraq-war veteran. However, with Tommy facing a dead-end life, and Brendan facing huge financial problems, both chase a $5mn prize in a winner-takes-all mixed martial arts tournament and the family tensions come to the fore.

Running Time: 139m 43s

Certificate: 12A - Contains frequent moderate sporting violence and oneuse of strong language

Given the basic plot of this film, I was surprised to see that it had been rated as a 12A (and a PG-13 in the States). How can one make a compelling film about cage-fighting which doesn’t go all out on making the violence convincing enough that you feel like the characters are in danger? The answer is that this is a film which isn’t really about the violence.

Juror's Film Festival: Blow-Up (Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1966)

Blow-up is clearly a very significant film. It is clearly a pretty superb film. It is also a rather tedious and often ridiculous film. It is the proof that a movie doesn’t have to be simply good or bad but can be an infuriating mixture of the two.

Review: Kill List

Brutal but baffling, this is a disappointing mixed bag

Director: Ben Wheatley

Screenwriters: Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump

Cast: Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Michael Smiley and Emma Fryer

Plot: Jay and Gal are two hitmen who take on a job to kill three men. The list is bizarre, the people on it being apparently unlinked, nor appearing to have done anything wrong. However, as they begin their killings, they become aware that they are into something far bigger, twisted and dangerous than they could have suspected.

Running Time: 95m 26s

Certificate: 18 - Contains very strong bloody violence

One of the most effectively marketed films of the year, Kill List seems to be most akin to Shane Meadows’ Dead Man’s Shoes, a brutal and emotional revenge film, made on a shoestring but producing tremendous atmosphere.

Kill List is not a revenge film. In fact, it defies such definition, looking like a hitman film at first, but, even in the very early stages of the film, there are suggestions that this may not be what it seems. In the opening, unpleasant dinner party scene, there is a brief cutaway to show a guest carving an enigmatic symbol into the back of a mirror. Expect the unexpected – you’ll have no idea where this story is headed.

Film Review: X-Men: First Class

These superhumans are uncharacteristically underwhelming

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne & January Jones

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Screenwriter: Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn

Plot: In the 1960s, the new breed of mutants is emerging, and as Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) begins to plan using their powers for evil, Charles Xavier is determined to make human beings and mutants accept one another. Caught in the middle of this is Erik Lehnsherr, the young Magneto.