Son of Rambow

Release date: 14 September 2007 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Son of Rambow is the name of the home movie two misfit British school lads start filming after they run into each other in the hallway of their school. There is Will, the only son of a family of strict religious folk who will not permit him to watch TV or associate with anyone outside their sect. And there is Lee Carter, the son of rich absentee parents who spends his time idolizing his older brother, raising hell in his school and trying to prepare a film for ScreenTest, a contest for up and coming film-makers. Directed by Garth Jennings, this film is a wonderful coming of age tale filled with lessons on friendship and family. It is fun, funny, eclectic, heartwarming and a little off centre and is certainly one of the finest films I've seen this year.

My rating 9 out of 10.

Superman Returns

Release date: 21 June 2006 (Los Angeles, USA)

Brandon Routh stars as Superman, who after an absence of five years on the remains of his home planet Krypton, returns to mother earth to rescue babies and show us poor human folk how good we could be if greed and lust didn't get in our way. Routh is perfectly cast as Superman mimicking Christopher Reeve's sad acting style. Lois is now married with a son, whom we're led to believe is the caped man's own. Kevin Spacey steals the movie as Lex Luthor, who is up to no good stealing Superman's home crystals with a mind to creating a new land mass in the mid-Atlantic to call his own. It's all done very well with lots of action and Superman and Lois Lane looking sadly and longingly at each other. In the end of this too-long-by-30-minutes film, Superman waxes philosophically like Jesus sprouting some Christian parable about sons and fathers. Gugh! This would have been a great movie had director Bryan Singer done the right thing and ended it as Superman hurtles back to earth, after tossing the offending crystal land mass into space, and crashes like a meteor in the heart of Metropolis' version of Central Park.

My rating 7 out of 10.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Release date: 9 September 2007 (Toronto International Film Festival)

Part two of the Elizabeth saga stars, once again, Cate Blanchett. And 'stars' is the perfect term for Cate. You could take Cate Blanchett, dress her up as a guy, give her an awful script with nothing to work with and she'd still shine through ... oh, wait, they've already done that; remember: I'm Not There. The latest Elizabeth - the many historical inaccuracies aside - revolves around Elizabeth's struggle with the pirate, Sir Walter Raleigh, her nemesis Mary, Queen of Scots and the Spanish Armada, which, had the weather cooperated, would have had us all speaking Spanish not English at the present moment. That aside, this film is lavish and luscious and Cate steals most every scene ... though the CGI created Armada is a close second. Clive Owen stars (in an altogether different sense) as Sir Walter Raleigh and does his usual stiff and flat acting routine. Not half as good as the original, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, however, sets the standard high for period dramas in the absence of Ivory & Merchant films. The sheer sweep of the film is breathtaking.

My rating 7 out of 10.

The Bourne Supremacy

Release date: 15 July 2004 (USA)

Despite the plethora of raves on rottentomatoes.com, this second version of Matt doing his Bourne thing flounders on a (yawn) done-it-before story of amnesia and Russian spies and just doesn't live up to the original. Matt Damon does his best to seem interested in what's going on but just can't quite pull it off (perhaps that's the amnesia at work?). The directing, by Paul Greengrass, is all MTV with jumpy shots, flashbacks and lots of shaky camera work. It's all way too much and left me distracted and disinterested.

My rating 6 out of 10.

For Your Consideration

Release date: 10 September 2006 (Toronto International Film Festival)

A spoof on all things Hollywood and, in particular, those who vie for Oscar. The story centers on a the filming of a disaster of a movie called Home for Purim, and the rumour mill that starts up about actors getting Oscar nominations. The has-been actors - a plastic-looking, over-botoxed Catharine O'Hara, former hot-dog adman Victor Allen Miller (played brilliantly by Harry Shearer) and young Callie Webb (the wonderful Parker Posey) all get caught up in the hope of this only to have their hopes dashed, dashed, dashed. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this film and plenty of socially and ethnically incorrect references that are hilarious. A harmless, fun film that will brighten a snowy evening.

My rating 8 out of 10.

Hannibal Rising

Release date: 9 February 2007 (Canada)

Unwatchable and interminably dull and boring. The best I can say about this horror of a horror is that Gong Li's English is improving. The meaningless abhorrent violence aside, this is a good antidote for insomnia. Embarrassing for all involved. Proves that not all film franchises need to go back to give us the origins of the species. Sometimes it's best to leave enough alone.

My rating 0 out of 10.