Runaway (1984) Dir: Michael Crichton

Tom Selleck stars in this futuristic thriller, and just about manages to get away with it.

The plot:
In the near future, mankind's reliance on robotic technology has become all consuming. every aspect of life is either controlled or assisted by robots, to make the life of the living safer, more comfortable. Problem is, more often than seems normal, the damned things go wrong and, when they do, terrible things can occur. be it a 'bot designed for construction hurling slabs from a building, or a 'bot about the house turning kill crazy and slaughtering an entire family. That's where the special Runaway division of the police come in, to control, handle and, if needs be, take down the errant robots. And, as if all that weren't bad enough, Gene Simmons turns up as an unlikely villain, determined to corrupt the technology even further....

Writer director Crichton has something of a fascination for 'when technology attacks' plotlines, being the mind behind Jurassic Park, Westworld, The Andromeda Strain. Here, handling directorial duties as well, this was clearly perceived as the big budget big hitter of the year, but never quite made the impact expected. Selleck is likeable enough in the lead role, but the movie is hampered somewhat by some shocking design choices - seriously, these robots couldn't have looked cool even in 1984.
With a streak of silliness running through it that I thoroughly enjoyed, this borders on the terrible, but somehow manages to be most entertaining throughout.
Liked it.

4 out of 5

Cowboys and Aliens (2011) Dir: Jon Favreau

With a title that just screams popcorn entertainment, Jon 'Iron Man' Favreau behind the camera, and the acting talents of both James Bond and Indiana Jones on screen, this has to be fantastic, right?

The plot:
It's the Wild West, and Daniel Craig's Jake Lonergan is a wanted man.
Awakening in the desert with no memory, and with a Predator-like gauntlet strapped to his wrist, Jake winds up in Absolution, a fading mining town that has seen better days. Having got on the wrong side of pioneering businessman Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) it seems Jake is to spend the rest of his days behind bars, that is until an attack squadron of alien spacecraft strafe the town, metal chains descending from the heavens to ensnare the townsfolk and carry them off.
Then Jake's gauntlet activates, and the fight back begins.....

Let's begin with a bit of a complaint.
All of the reviews of this I have heard and read seem to suggest that mixing the Western and sci-fi genres is somehow dazzlingly new and inventive.
Joss Whedon must be pissing blood from his eyes in frustration.
Does no-one remember the simply excellent Firefly, and spin-off movie Serenity? Or Westworld for that matter.
Anyway, that gripe aside, this begins as a surprisingly serious straight ahead Western, as the Man With No Name (sic) arrives in town and ruffles a few feathers and, it has to be said, it's pretty entertaining stuff.
Daniel Craig is excellent as the tall, handsome, hard as fucking nails stranger - seriously, you would not want to fight this man - and Harrison Ford is a welcome presence too as the crotchety, dangerously blood thirsty old fart.
Then the aliens turn up and things begin to fall apart.
See, this is a much better Western than it is a sci-fi movie and, frankly, the sci-fi stuff just feels like it has been added in for the sake of the gag title. It's almost as if they thought of the title, then had to figure a way to crowbar a plot from within it.
Though Craig and Ford get most of the screen time, the smokin' hot Olivia Wilde is a bit wasted, really, which is a shame as she is a fine performer, not just eye candy.
With a plot that peters out with a depressingly predictable special effects fest that goes on for fucking ages, this really needed tighter editing, as they could easily have shorn thirty minutes off the run time and vastly improved it in the process.
A bit of a wasted opportunity, then, and one reflected in the poor box office takings both in the UK and The States.
Disappointed.

3 out of 5

King Solomon's Mines (1985) Dir: J. Lee Thompson

Reasonably well known box office flop with a reputation for awfulness that is rather undeserved.
The plot: Richard 'The Thornbirds' Chamberlain plays Allan Quatermain, an Indiana Jones style explorer and general adventure who gets caught ip in a search for the legendary King Solomon's Mines when he gets involved with a beautiful stranger (Sharon Stone).
That's all you need to know about the plot, for this is a movie that lives and dies on its action scenes, and they are plentiful.
Getting dragged behind a moving train; hanging on to the wing of an erratically piloted bi-plane; being boiled alive in a giant pot by cannibals?
It's all in a day's work for Quatermain.
Chamberlain is clearly having a whale of a time as the square jawed hero, ably assisted by a youthful Stone, all pretty blonde curls and squealing innocence.
John Rhys Davies makes a welcome appearance as a villain - another link to Indiana Jones - and the chest-thumping score is provided by the always excellent Jerry Goldsmith, here doing his best to channel the essence of John Williams.
Heh, it's as dumb as a sackful of badgers, but it is also relentlessly entertaining, only occasionally straying into the realm of utter nonsense.
Imagine the more comical moments in the Indiana Jones movies, only extended for the duration and you won't be far away.
Silly, then, but engagingly so.

3 out of 5

TRON: Legacy (2010) Dir: Joseph Kosinski

28 years is one hell of a gap between an original movie and its sequel - I can't think of any that have had longer breaks - so, with Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner and an assortment of other original cast members still on board, would Disney make a complete binary of it?
Well, not entirely.
The plot: Garrett Hedlund plays Sam, a young man whose father, Kevin Flynn, was the head of a game design company that created the legendary Tron before his untimely disappearance.
Drawn to the site of his father's abandoned warehouse by a pager message from a number that should no longer exist, Sam is inadvertently sucked into the digital world of The Grid himself, where he must track down his true father, as well as do battle with the world and programmes in which he finds himself.
And it's a mixed bag.
The visuals are jaw-dropping, but it is just a fraction too dark, a common complaint when 3D is involved.
Jeff Bridges' is under-used, really, Hedlund as his son taking centre stage and his is a lumpen, wooden performance.
The initial set-up is intriguing but, once we enter the digital realm, it quickly descends into expositional dialogue interspersed with drawn out digital fight / chase scenes.
Crucially, though the effects have been updated, it seems little else has as all of the good ideas and impressive visual scenes were merely variations on what has gone before.
Special mention must be made of the 'de-ageing' of Bridges, which looks by turns impressive and genuinely terrifying.
Though no great fan of the original, I was interested enough in this sequel to feel a vague sense of disappointment at the end as, frankly, it was just a little dull. And by the Christ's it was too long.

3 out of 5. But only just.

The Warrior's Way (2010) Dir: Sngmoo Lee

You know, I was only thinking 'tuther day, what this world needs is more Ninja Vs. Cowboy movies and, as luck would have it, along came The Warrior's Way to my local World of Cine.
The plot: Dong-gun Jang plays Yang, finest swordsman in a clan of vicious and feared Ninja's known as The Sad Flutes, a moniker earned in tribute to the sound a throat makes after it has been slashed open. Sent on a mission to wipe out once and for all their most deadly enemies, Yang all but succeeds, but cannot bring himself to kill the last of the enemy clan - a tiny, female baby.
Shunned by his own kind for his act of mercy, Yang travels far, finding himself in America, in a small town called Lode, populated almost exclusively by circus folk. With a tyrannical overlord named Ron (Geoffrey Rush) leaving the population in fear, Yang must try to build himself a new life.
But, inevitably, his past will catch up with him, in a final showdown between Ron's own army and The Sad Flutes, the population of Lode very much caught in the crossfire.
And it's a strange affair, all round.
Mixing humour and cartoon violence, this tries to do too much and ultimately fails to be anything of particular substance. It is, however, beautifully shot, both in terms of the choreography of the action sequences, as well as the backdrops and general cinematography.
And it is not without it's charm.
Dong-gun Jang is a likeable enough lead, and Kate Bosworth makes for a decent foil.
The set-pieces are pretty spectacular, though there aren't enough of them, with the action very much in the comic book ilk, more 300 than The Last Samurai.
Sporadically violent, occasionally amusing, intermittently charming, it's clear to see why this is something of a box office flop, but it is also apparent that it will attract a devoted, cult following.
I quite liked it.

3 out of 5