So you know exactly what to expect with The Expendables series and there's really no point me pointing out any glaring plot holes or lack of real character development or story because you know that these faults are going to be in there. What I will say is that this third film is easily the best of the series and gives an indication as to where Stallone might push it next. Dropping the guns blazing for one scene involving some new young recruits playing a mission stealthily s

IIt's a shame but Lucy has to go down as a disappointment. Taking cues from Luc Besson's masterpiece Leon, we get the awesome heroine (played perfectly by Scarlett Johansson) and the gangster baddie but, what starts off as a strong, pseudo-superhero movie with an academic twist, soon spirals off into highbrow existentialism. The trailer shows the titular Lucy using her increased brain capacity to change her appearance, throw baddies around corridors and scare dogs but these s

The Inbetweeners 2 is probably better than the first one, just. Once again, the boys are off on holiday and it's another chance for them to take the piss out of stereotypes and generally dick about. The series has always excelled in its scripting and the jokes and banter shared by these four friends who are so relatable to everyday life. Once again, this is exemplary here but does rely a little too much on the toilet humour side of things this time. Visual jokes abound with s

Guardians of the Galaxy has to be the best film that Marvel have ever laid their hands on. Setting itself up as a proper sci-fi flick rather than a superhero movie gives it a chance to add depth to all its characters rather than just one lead. Of course, the entire thing is indebted to Star Wars. Quill is just Han Solo, Ronan is Darth Vader and Rocket and Groot a backwards version of C-3PO and R2-D2 but it thrives on playing the retro card the whole way through (spaceships ha

The Purge: Anarchy is a significant build on the first film. The first suffered from a very low budget and a poor delivery on an exciting premise. In my opinion, it's a fantastic idea for a movie. Ridiculous and unrealistic, sure, but Hunger Games-esque. This rights all the original's wrongs by focussing on a set of different characters with different motives who meet in the middle of the chaos and also exposing some of the truth behind the politics. Everything here just make

Hercules is, of course, no match for the classic Disney original. However, it's a nice spin on the old tale with The Rock's titular hero merely a money-motivated gun (well, club) for hire and his legendary exploits just famous exaggerated tales to make the job easier. As such, this is a relatively straightforward action-er but a pretty good one at that. The combat is nice (if relatively bloodless) and the battles come thick and fast with some nicely rounded supporting charact

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the absolute pinnacle of what can be done with special effects in cinema. You take for granted how photoreal the film looks and are totally absorbed into the post-apocalyptic landscape. I'm a sucker for an 'end of the world' apocalypse movie and Apes delivers big time on that front. The story moves on nicely from the first film and develops the relationships between the apes to the point where they are the heroes of the piece and you're rooti

Locke is a brave experiment. One character in a car for an hour and a half isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but, trust me, it's worth going along for the ride. Tom Hardy (with a Welsh accent!) is incredible as a construction worker and husband whose life unravels over this journey thanks to one mistake that he feels he needs to right. A series of phone calls propel the plot and give the film a gripping sense of urgency. My only complaints are with the slightly underwhe

Transformers: Age of Extinction is certainly the best of the long-running series with Michael Bay deciding a semi-reboot was needed. He's pushed the series five years on from the events of the last movie and replaced Shia La Beouf's screaming comedy relief Sam with Mark Wahlberg's more traditional action hero father character. This is a good move (although Sam not having a single mention is a bit of a shame) and you believe a lot more in the motives of the character. In fact

22 Jump Street could be the only film in history to be praised for being exactly the same as its predecessor. The self-reverential humour and film industry critiquing throughout is nigh-on genius and often provides the biggest laughs. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum just have an incredible chemistry and even Ice Cube, once again, is perfectly cast. Sure, a lot of the funniest lines are in the trailer (try not to watch this before going) although one marvellous dining table sequ

A Million Ways To Die In The West is proof positive that Seth MacFarlane can now do whatever he wants. Whatever concept, whatever script and he is given absolutely full license here. Unfortunately, what that means is this script has clearly not been checked for actual jokes and it's certainly about 20 minutes too long. Yes, Ted was a triumph and Family Guy is brilliantly written but MacFarlane seems to have lost his way a tad here. He clearly relishes the screen time (he's ac

Edge Of Tomorrow might just be the best videogame movie ever made. Sure, it's not based on any existing console franchise but neither were Wreck-It Ralph or Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and this sits alongside those heavyweights with the actual game-based films like Resident Evil and Tomb Raider languishing behind. Sure, the 'Groundhog Day' premise isn't original and neither is the alien invasion/mech'-suit war but this has a sense of joy and fun rarely seen in big blockbuster