Justine (Lorenzo Izzo) is a college student who becomes interested in a local activist group who are planning to travel to Peru to protest against the deforestation in the area which is displacing ancient tribes still living in these areas. Group leader Alejandro (Ariel Levy) decides that Justine would be useful to bring along but not because of her views, she just so happens to have a father who is a diplomat in the UN.

While their initial protest is reasonable successful, on their return home their plane suffers engine problems and crash lands deep in the jungle where the survivors are captured by a local tribe. Back at the village they are herded into a crude cell and watch horrifically as one of their group is devoured by what they now realise are cannibals so it becomes a fight for their lives against this tribe that have been untouched humans or any technology.

Director Eli Roths is no stranger to graphic horror films and is a leading light in the ‘torture horror’ genre so this tribute to the Italian horror movies of the late 70’s/early 80’s (particularly Cannibal Holocaust one of the very first found footage movies) is right down that alley. Very reminiscent of one of Roths other movies, Hostel, in terms of a gang of Americans are thrown into a despicable situation from which they need to survive by letting go of their ideals and morals and starting to act and think like their captors. There’s death and gore galore and if you’re easily shocked then you’ll probably be horrified by some of the scenes which are both over the top and graphic.

I can only assume the director felt that he was making some form of social commentary on the assumption that modern civilisation whose idealism of assistance is driven through the internet is oblivious to the actual plight and way of living of these ancient, uncivilised tribes. There’s plenty or irony here as well with activists ending up being devoured by the people they are trying to save in the first place and he main character Justine, who is being motivated by a class she attended which spoke of the genital mutilation which still occurs on women across the world, ends up in that very same situation but this irony doesn’t really improve what it a weak script with no acting stand out and I had no empathy towards any of the characters so their deaths had no impact on me. At least the movie had the decency to not go down the road of including jump scares which are all the rage at the moment so some credit is deserved for that.

If you’re a fan of this genre or just like horror movie is general then it’s watchable but far from a classic, if you didn’t like Roths other movies then you most likely won’t like this either.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

Dev Patel stars as Srinivasa Ramanujan a self taught, Indian mathematician who’s work in the field of number theory during the era around World War I resulted in the discovery of a number of new ideas in the area of mathematics. This movie is the tale of his initially attempt to get his ideas discovered, his trip to England to work with theorist GH Hardy (Jeremy Irons) and the struggle both men faced to have Ramanujan ideas accepted.

Very similar in parts to both The Imitation Game and A Beautiful Mind but without the lead actor to drive the movie. Patel does a decent job as the overawed young man being dropped in at the deep end but there is only so much to be gained from shots of him running with his new ideas on paper and this role lacks the heart of the performance he showed in Slumdog Millionaire while his relationship with his wife Janaki (Devika Bhise) never has the impact that the situation should have brought to the screen. It is Irons who stands out and his dry humour will have you chuckling while his characters development from doubting teacher to partner and friend is the best, and most believable, part of the movie with Toby Jones turn as John Edensor Littlewood also worth a mention, even if his part is a lot smaller.

It’s a typical tale of the new kid in town, initially ostracised by most who eventually wins people over against the odds and credit must be given to the fact that they didn’t try and dumb down the movie by trying to use exposition to explain the theories and by actually filming in and around the college the atmosphere of the movie feels in keeping with the time. It is just a case that for every scene which works there are many others that don’t and the really clever ones such as the exchange by Hardy and Ramanujan about the special fact that cab number 1729 is a very special cab because it is the smallest possible number that is expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. (I’m taking their word for it) are lost among the rest of the film so it feels like there was a lot of potential with the story of Ramanujans obvious genius that was left unexplored thus the film fails to elevate itself above the many other fish out of water tales which have preceded this one.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

Earth has been taken over by aliens who have inhabited most of the population of the planet and act as souls for humans which means that all emotion has been stripped back and there is no war, no conflict and no anger so the whole planet lives in a state of peace.

The protagonist is Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) who, through a weird twist of fate, is inhabited by one such host but still retains her human memories and emotions and thus can communicate with the host.

Given that it was based on a book by Stephane Meyer who also wrote the Twilight series I expected a teenage romance film based with aliens rather then vampires and to an extent this is true but it is elevated by yet another excellent performance by Ronan as the alien who finds its human side and as the human battling to stay alive in the alien body and her performance makes the torment of her character totally believable. Ronan is ably assisted by Diane Kruger as The Seeker who is like a chief of police for the aliens and it is her job to track down the remaining human survivors which she does with an unwavering purpose.

These survivors live underground in New Mexico in a community run by Jeb (William Hurt) who has developed a livable eco-system in an extinct volcano and just so happens to be related to Melanie so she knows exactly where the survivors are hiding and is torn between trusting her increasingly empathetic host and bringing her body back to her family or trying to suppress her emotions, which she is finding increasingly difficult, to preserve the safety of the survivors.

Rather than taking the premise to higher levels the movie feels like an extended Twilight Zone episode in that it’s taking itself too seriously without the script to back it up and unfortunately it reverts to the alien falls in love with generic male teen #1 while human emotions are still in love with male teen #2 (yet strangely neither of them seem bothered by this) as the central plot line.

It’s better then the Twilight movies, but not by much, and if you like your science fiction there a decent concept underneath the love triangle, although essentially it’s a re-hash of the Invasion Of The Body Snatchers premise and without the efforts of Ronan and Kruger there’s wouldn’t be a lot to recommend.

DJ speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

Indian thriller movie, starring the king of Bollywood (Shah Rukh Khan) in a dual role about Gaurav Chandna who is a look alike and die-hard fan of Aryan Khanna (both played by Shah Rukh Khan). So when Gaurav wins local popidol type contest he used the cash prize to go on an expedition to meet his idol. Unfortunately upon arrival at his idols house he realises that he is just another fan in the thousands that gather around Aryans home so when he sees one of Aryans rivals, Sid Kapoor, speak out in the media he decides to get his idols attention by gate crashing his way into Sids film shoot, ties him up and forces him to apologies to Aryan, this video goes viral and a horrified Aryan has Gaurav quietly arrested where he berates him for his actions and sends Gaurav home with his tail between his legs. However, Gaurav does not take this lightly and goes home to plot his revenge against the man that he has spent his life imitating and idolising so the movie then becomes a jet setting ride of Gaurav prodding deeper and deeper into Ayrans professional and personal life in increasingly disturbing levels of volume which begins to unhinge Aryans life both on and off screen which in turn leads Ayran to take measures into his own hands and fight right back.

It’s my first step into Bollywood movies so I do not have a lot to refer this film against but I found myself looking past the subtitles and slightly overlong running time and enjoyed the excellent dual acting of the star, some very good choreography during the fight and chase scenes and the cautionary tale of whether the man makes the fan or does the fan make the man comes across very well.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

The story of the real like 1952 rescue of the sailors on the SS Pendleton which is split in half by a huge storm and the front section along with all commanding officers and most communication methodology is lost but the survivors manage to delay the sinking of the rear half by steering the wreck onto a nearby reef which buys them some time so when word gets to the coast guard it’s a race to save these men before the rising water overwhelms the remainder of the ship.

The action is decent and some of the battles against the huge waves look good, with one of two exceptions, but it all reminded me of the 2000 movie The Perfect Storm yet it doesn’t get you as emotionally engrossed as the characters are very under played.

Eric Bana as Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff is a fish out of water as the ranking official who doesn’t know the area of the hazards but we never really find out how this came to be and he is viewed as sending the men to their death on what is deemed a suicidal mission. Chris Pine as Bernie Webber is our central point and Pine does an okay job in portraying a shy and nervous character but his relationship with his soon to be wife Miriam (Holliday Grainger) just doesn’t invoke enough feeling to make you invest in the story but it was nice to see Pine show something a little different that his usual typecast. Most of the others cast come across as filler and it is only Casey Affleck as Ray Sybert who struggles to keep the survivors on the boat working together to keep themselves alive that shows any real semblance of character change and is given any semblance of character depth.

Perhaps if another film studio rather than Disney had made the movie it could have taken a bit of a darker tone and thus been a bit less ‘safe’ but instead the true peril of this heroic tale, of which I did not know about before I watched the film, never really comes across on screen so what should have been a heart-warming true life tale of heroism against terrible odds ends up feeling like another run of the mill rescue movie.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10