Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) is a very large, physically imposing coloured youth growing up in Tennessee in foster care since he was taken from his drug addicted mother Denise (Adriane Lenox). Purely on the basis that he believes that it will assist the schools American Football team coach Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon) convinces the board to accept Michael as a student but they soon find out that Michael is not academic and he struggles to fit in. One evening when driving home Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), who knows Michael through the fact that her children Collins (Lily Collins) and S.J (Jae Head) attend the same school, sees Michael walking in the rain and, believing he is living rough, invites him to stay the night in their home. During his brief stay Leigh Anne and her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) sees something in Michael and gradually begin to warm to the young man as they find out a little more about what is hidden behind the imposing exterior. In time Leigh Anne begins to become a surrogate mother of sorts and Michael becomes more and more like a family member as time passes, must to the shock of Leigh Annes friends, local authorities and members of the school board. But Leigh Anne is a feisty Southern lady and gives as good as she gets shaming all and sundry into believing that she is doing this for any reason other than to help a kid in need of some stability and care.

While the movie has all the elements of a feel good story with an unlikely friendship developing into something of an inspirational story of success against the odds, perhaps it’s just my sceptical mind working but something just felt off about the tale. For example, Bullock has her perfect family, who don’t seem to have any flaws, arguments or imperfections yet (aside from even opening the racial issue door) they take this stranger that they don’t know, into their home at the drop of a hat, with young kids in the house. A questionable action at best. Or, at one point Bullock takes Michael back to see his mother in a ‘ghetto’ and stands up to the local gang members without any major incident. Very unlikely. Plus, the whole situation just didn’t seem to fit with where the family sat within the community. I know this is just based on events but if you are making a ‘true life’ tale then any element of improbability takes away from the realism.

Also, is this actually the tale of Michael Oher and his rags to riches story of finding success from humble beginnings? I believe that is what the tale is supposed to be but this felt more like the Leigh Anne Tuohy story of how she managed to put social and racial prejudice aside and help a coloured kid from the ghetto achieve a goal in his life which, without her assistance, would have been doomed for failure. Maybe that is down to the excellent performance from Bullock, although not Oscar worthy in my opinion, which is head and shoulders above any other in the film and she commands the screen when she appears (which is almost every scene) and, with no disrespect meant to any of the other cast members, she is the only A-lister in the movie so I would expect her to stand out. Aaron doesn’t have a lot to do even though he is supposed to be the main focus of the movie but what he has to do he does well and comes across as the big, lovable, teddy bear he is being depicted as, with seeming ease. McGraw subtly plays Leigh Annes husband who seems like a quiet, hen pecked man but when needed can still rein her in when required and both Head, who sees Oher as a larger, bigger brother and Collins who shows a good range as the family member most uneasy about the situation as she struggles with the jibes from her friends and some sexual insinuation from others about their new tenant.

To give the film credit it is still very enjoyable and although I may not believe it is deserving of the same high praise it has received, if you can suspend some of the questionable moments it is a nice account of the impact, change and development the situation had both for Oher and for the Tuohy family.

DJ Speaks: 5.5 out Of 10

Starting in 1850 with Author of the novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) visits innkeeper Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson) the last remaining survivor of a last voyage by the whaling vessel Essex for an account of the events and while initially reluctant he is persuaded by his wife to recount the tale so we return to thirty years previous where Nickerson (Tom Holland) is a cabin boy on the newly fitted ship where the ship is being led by first mate, experienced whaler Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) and an inexperienced captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker) who initially clash but must learn to put their differences aside in order to ensure that they do not cause both the sinking of the ship and the death of their crew. When their Atlantic search proves they decide to head to the Pacific where they are advised by a Spanish captain that the waters are much more fruitful but he also tells of a huge albino whale which attached their fleet. Unperturbed the crew head out to find their bounty but get far more than they bargained for in the giant whale and so it becomes a test of man versus beast and nature in order to survive.

The acting was fine in so far as the script would allow, with Holland holding his own as the likable cabin boy, Walker playing the under qualified but aristocratic captain well and Hemsworth taking center stage as the fat too overqualified first mate resentful of the position he is in. I was disappointed with the under use of Cillian Murphy as Matthew Joy, as the moments when he was involved his talent shone through, there were just too few of them.

You know when Ron Howard is in charge that, in general, you are going to get a good movie and in that sense he has provided an entertaining adventure on the seas where men must face their own fears which need to be conquered and must dig deep within themselves in order to survive so it that sense it works, but the question here is does the movie want to be a retelling of the tale that inspired Moby Dick, is it a survival tale based around the adventures of the Essex ship and its crew or is it a moralistic tale about the negativity of whaling? I found it a little of all, which was potentially the movies downfall. I was very much reminded of the situation in Apollo 13 when watching this movie although it never tugged the heart strings or has those edge of your seat moments of that movie and instead felt like a bunch of individuals who all had their own desires and agendas who were thrown into a situation but the camaraderie and bond I would have expected never really came through on screen.

It’s a watchable movie as the cinematography is superb and the ship scenes are very realistic, due to the fact that a full scale replica of the original ship was built for the film. The CGI on the whales is excellent and it never feels like the actors are not in the depth of the action when it occurs. There just a lack of spark in the movie which I can only attribute to the desire to be a tale of many levels instead of focusing on one area. It’s worth checking out if only for the excellent camera work but as for me I think I’d rather just watch Jaws again.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10

The Duel begins with a showdown in the town of Helena where Abraham Brand (Woody Harrelson) is battling Jesse Kingston (Jimmy Lee Jr.) to death in a knife fight and Jesse’s son watches on as he is beaten. We then cut forward to where David Kingston (Liam Hemsworth) is a Texas Ranger and is assigned back to the town of Helena to investigate a sudden increase in the deaths within the local Mexican population including the nephew of General Calderon (Jose Zuniga) a high ranking Mexican army official who is threatening to bring militia into Texas to investigate himself.

So the premise seems like a pretty standard revenge Western but all is not as it seems in the town of Helena and the noble, law abiding David and his life Marisol (Alice Braga) are placed straight in the middle of a town run by Brand, who is now called ‘The Preacher’, with an almost cult like iron fist and so begins the good versus evil battle with Marisol smack bang in the middle.

Director Kieran Darcy Smith does a great job during the duels and gun fighing scenes themselves which are excellent as the camera cuts back and forward and never really shows the carnage however it keeps the movement frenetic. The rest of the action however is just standard fare and the motivations of both characters are questionable at best so I was never really invested in the characters and with the exception of the two main characters the rest of the cast, inclusive of Braga felt like background noise and filler. The movie never really explains who Abraham has become and why, yes he is the epitome of evil right down to the use of snakes in his sermons, but is he just a mad man, is there something satanic going on or is he just the leader of a local cult and whichever it is, why? Perhaps I missed something but I was left hanging in this sense.

To give credit to Hemsworth he put up a good show as the protagonist and, more so than in Independence Day, showed some signs that he can become a lead man in the future, he looked great as the sheriff, his presence on screen was good and he matched Harrelson every step of the way while Harrrelson played crazy as we know he can and would expect.

If you like Westerns then you might find something in this movie but for me it was just all a bit flat and never raised itself above the level it opens up at.

DJ Speaks Rating: 4.5 Out Of 10

Colleen (Claudia Lee) is a young woman who is being pestered by somebody leaving photographs at her grocery store which seem to depict images of dead girls but without being able to prove that they are dead and with no body count to speak of the local sheriff is unwilling to take action. Meanwhile in Los Angeles photographer and former Spearfish, South Dakota, resident Peter Hemmings (Kal Penn) is reading about the ongoing trend of the ‘Dead Model’ look, which he believes could give him a lucrative edge in the industry so he decides to head back to Spearfish to find out more with his assistant and entourage in tow.

When they bump into Colleen and Peter realises she is receiving the photographs he has seen online he decides to invite her to his holiday house for a party he is throwing which causes friction with her stifling boyfriend Ben (Toby Hemingway) but she decides to go anyway and finds herself warming to Peter’s assistant Chris (Kenny Wormald), when Peter offers her a job as a model she decides to throw off her small town shackles, chase fame and fortune and joins Peters group in his house for their final night before they head back to California but that is when Colleens stalker steps up the stakes.

Horror genius Wes Craven is listed as a producer on this film so with a beginning echoing back to the start of the original Scream movie, albeit not as dramatically and you can see his influences all through this movie, from the naive small town sheriff, through the stalker feel of the killer interactions with the main character and the clever use of camera work to show us hints of what is to come, whether we realise it or not but unfortunately all these elements are done to a lesser standard so his name that seems to be as far as the influence went as the other fascets of the movie just feel all over the place and it felt like the continuity was all wrong so perhaps some pieces were left on the cutting room floor that possibly should have stayed in.

I don’t normally talk specifics in movies but there are two particular moments in the movie, which won’t spoil it, that I noticed as being particularly bad and feel the need to point out as, unless I missed something they make no sense and add to my point above. One is when Chris first meets Coleen in the store and calls her by name, now while it is possible that he spotted her name tag she never reacts to the fact that this stranger calls her by name. Coincidence, maybe? But given this girl feels like she is being stalked I’d have expected some reaction to the event . The second is a text conversation where Coleen is texting a friend but the person on the other end is not who she thinks tit is and during the conversation Coleen mentions the party and meeting up to go, to which the reply comes that ‘I’ll see you there’ or something to that effect but Colleen never mentioned a time or place for the party that I spotted.

The plot and most of the acting are awful and the characters are all throw away, even the main ones. There was no sense of empathy towards Colleen as she didn’t seem to show any over concern for her missing friends and her reactions were very emotionless all through the movie, even Kal Penn couldn’t save some face and seemed to be phoning it in as the sarcastic photographer. I hope his stuff was ad-libbed as it certainly felt that way. Save for the excellent cinematography by Dean Cundey who brought all his experience from his work on the original Halloween and The Fog to liven this disaster up and a couple of good death scenes, which I would expect anyway in a horror film this is not good and unless you are really a die-hard fan of the genre I would recommend you give this one a miss.

DJ Speaks Rating: 3.5 Out Of 10

In my second foray into the world of Bollywood, Sultan is a the tale of Sultan Ali Khan (Salman Khan) a man who goes from the bottom to the top and back again before being given one last chance at redemption. The movie stars with Aakash (Amit Sadh) who’s backing of the introduction of MMA into the Indian mainstream has not gone well and money is being lost hand over fist, so he is given six months to turn things around and is advised by his father that the only thing which will invigorate the local population is an Indian fighter for them to support, he points him in the direction of legendary wrestler Sultan but when Aakash manages to locate this supposed legend his is politely turned down by the now aging, unfit man. He manages to track down Govind (Anant Vidhaat), a childhood friend of Sultans who begins to tell us about Sultan and his unwillingness to wrestle through a story that takes us back to many years previous when Sultan lived with his parents and spent his days helping Govind erect satellite dishes, until he met Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) a local female wrestler and fell instantly in love.

However Aarfa had no interest in Sultan so he joined her father’s wrestling club in order to gain her attention and it soon became apparent that Sultan would not stop at anything to win Aarfa’s affection but at the same time he turned out to be an extremely talented wrestler and soon found success after success in the sport. Eventually Sultan and Aarfa were married and were extremely happy together as they found happiness and success both in and out of the sport until a tragedy struck which could have been averted if Sultan has not been so focused on himself and his success so Aarfa left him, where he soon wallowed into self-pity and disappeared out of public view.

But within Sultans misery is an idea he has to open up a local blood bank in which he sees some form of pay back for what he deems as his sins but he is struggling both financially and with bureaucratic red tape so with some convincing from Aakash who agrees to sponsor him both in and out of the ring, he decides to sign up for the Indian MMA league and so begins a re-emergence of the bull of Haryana (his local town).

With a rags to riches tale, and some training montage moments which would sit easily in any Rocky movie (in fact there were early rumours that Stallone would appear as Sultans coach) Sultan is a very entertaining piece, the wrestling and MMA scenes looked realistic, with both Tyron Woodley and Marko Zaror making appearances, and the tale was very well told if a little over sentimental and slushy at times. Salman Khan is believable as both the buffoon like man that you can’t help but root for and the intense, unbending almost unstoppable, wrestler. He is a very engaging actor and although the movie is nearly three hours long it never felt like it dragged while the flashbacks and back story pieces fit neatly into the here and now scenes. If you are willing to take a chance on something a little different and forget some of the obvious cultural differences from movies you may be used to there’s a good film here which more than holds its own against a lot of the Hollywood movies I’ve watched this year.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 out Of 10

Maggie (Greta Gerwig) is a reasonably successful college teacher who is fully in control of all aspects of her life except that she is becoming desperate for a child but is unable to find the right man, so she decides to pursue the route of sperm donation and believes she has found a potential suitor in former college co-student Guy (Travis Fimmell) who was always a math wizard and now runs his own business, even if it is only in pickle selling.

But there’d be no New York tale if things all went according to plan so through a twist of fate she develops a relationship with John (Ethan Hawke) a fellow professor at her college who is developing a book and asks Maggie to read what he has written so far. John is struggling with his marriage to Georgette (Julianne Moore) a Danish Columbia professor who is cold hearted, matter of fact and basically a bitch, so John and Greta fall for each other as their initial relationship develops. We then jump forward a couple of years and Maggie and John now live together, have a child and are also bringing up Johns children from his original marriage but Maggie is beginning to think she has made a mistake as John is only in love with how Maggie makes him feel rather than her as a person and she is losing control of her life, so she develops an idea which she believes will re-unite John with his former wife and leave her free to raise her child alone, thus Maggie’s Plan is formed.

Gerwig plays Maggie to a tee, both clever yet gullible, carefree and hippie like yet meticulous about her life plan and in control yet so out of control she doesn’t even realise it. Hawke plays a role which reminded me of his performance in Before Midnight, just as a more mature character. It was Moore who, as she often does, that took center stage when on screen as she initially seemed to be playing a comic caricature but soon it became apparent that she had her own flaws and ideals despite her frosty exterior. There are also excellent performances from Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph as Maggie’s best friends who’s chaotic life is as polar opposite to Maggie as can be but who are probably the most grounded couple in the whole movie. Hader in particular comes in with some super lines at the right moments which brings great levity to some of the darker moments in the film.

Director Rebecca Miller has put together a very well intertwined tale which has the feel of a stage play but which translates very well to the big screen. The dialogue and character development are very reminiscent of a Woody Allen type movie but each of the three main stars feels well rounded and are given enough time to build a genuinity about them and ensures that you get enough of a laugh out of the almost sit com style tale.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10