Set twenty years after the original alien attack where earth has been using technology recovered for salvaged equipment to build defences and update equipment to match the original alien weaponry in order to ensure there can be no re-occurrence of the original invasion however while earth has had twenty years to develop so have the aliens and when David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) who is now head of the Earth Space Defence based in Area 51, is shown a ship which has been newly discovered in Africa he realises that this ship sent a distress signal during the original invasion and believes that a second invasion is imminent and when the aliens do arrive the ships size is beyond imaginable and causes wide spread destruction with earth seemingly defenceless once again. It is then up to Levinson with a little help from another survivor from the original invasion Dr.Brakish Okun (Brent Spiner) and ace pilots Jake Morrison (Liam Hemsworth) and Captain Dylan Dubrow-Hiller (Jessie Usher) to plot an attack on the queen alien and destroy the fleet.

While the original was, and still is to some extent, a classic action movie full of witty one liners, massive explosions and the memorable speech from Bill Pullman, the sequel feels lacking. There is still plenty of action and a few humerous moments there is something lacking in the entertainment value. Perhaps it is down to the fact that I didn’t warm to the characters in the same way that I did with the original so I didn’t really care who survived or didn’t and I didn’t understand why every main character is seemingly linked to each other by past events most of which are just brushed upon. Also, the aliens have apparently become so advanced that even our future technology is archaic against it but yet they are, once again, still weak against a seemingly very basic attack plan. Thirdly, with the exception of Levinson and Okun, there was no need for any of the returning characters in terms of the story other than to ensure that the movie could keep enough links with the original to ensure it could be an actual sequel.

It is still worth a watch, has some good special effects and few decent action sequences but at time it felt a bit like a remake rather than a sequel as the movie follows almost the exact same format as the original and given the twenty years between the movies it would have been nice if any of the five writers had been able to come up with something a little different.

DJ Speaks Rating:  5 Out Of 10

After an embarrassing incident in her teenage years which made her the laughing stock of the town, writer and professional sex expert Cassie Cranston (Jewel Staite) arrives home following the death of her mother hoping to collect some inheritance money to pay off a publishing house who gave her an advance and are pressing her for a novel based on her experiences. When she arrives back some of the towns repressed thirty-something members feel she is the catalyst that they need to spice up their lives so it seems like a match made in heaven when they decide the best way to do this is to hold an orgy which she can use as subject matter for her book so it’s looks like it’s a win-win situation.

Of course there wouldn’t be much of a movie if all went to plan so we get to watch one disaster after another as the characters who’s small town mentalities and years of living in each other’s pockets put up so many boundaries that it makes it impossible for them to lose their shackles.

The mix of characters are diverse enough to feel genuine, their relationships feel weathered and each of their motivations are believable and there’s no standout character so it feels like a good blend and in that sense director Jeremy Lalonde deserves credit, but the movie suffers from not pushing the boundaries far enough to be fully raunchy yet pushing them too far at times which masks the actual humour so it felt like watching an extended Benny Hill show (The town is called Beaver’s Ridge….see what I mean?) as the content and dialogue is adult but the nudity is partial and obscured so it’s stuck in limbo. It felt more like a small screen drama which was given a raunchy title and twist to try and gain some attention as beneath the content there’s is a good story of relationships in a small town, the narrow mindedness of people and the inability to both let go of the past and embrace change.

The film is better than most for a crowdfunded indie movie with a very small budget but it’s gets lost in not knowing what it actually wants to be so it ends up caught between a rock and a hard place, no pun intended!

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Set one year after they allowed Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett) as The Falcon take credit for their last victory the turtles still live in their secret underground lair using reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) as their link to the world and she tips off The Turtles to the fact that the Foot Clan under the guidance of a scientist Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry) are going to spring their foe in their previous outing The Shredder (Brian Tee) as he is being transported to a more secure facility along with two other prisoners Bebop (Gary Anthony Williams) & Rocksteady (Stephen Farrelly) by corrections officer Casey Jones (Stephen Amell)

Once the Foot Clan attacks the convoy The Turtles intervene but Shredder escapes and meets up with alien warlord Krang (Brad Garrett) who gives Shredder a mutagen compound in exchange for some items he needs located. So it’s up to The Turtles with a little help from April & Casey to stop The Shredder who has now recruited Bebop & Rocksteady, and his Foot Clan from their plans to give Krang the items for his plan to take over the world.

I haven’t seen the 2014 Turtles movie so I don’t have a comparison to that film but what I did find with this movie is that the first fifteen minutes was full of unnecessary voice over exposition, the human characters were annoying and Splinter appears then disappears just as quickly so I was disappointed not to see the Yoda like figure I remember his being. The Turtles had some good action sequences, some good interaction with each other and the four brothers felt like they were all bringing something to the table to form a team but the rest of the cast were terrible with only Williams and Farrelly producing anything like the characters I remember.

Although there is a new director on board in Dave Green, with Michael Bay on board as a producer we still get a spattering of USA flags and fast car sequences as one would expect. Yes, some of the CGI laden action sequences are very good, there are a few funny moments and there’s a very thin thread about brotherhood, staying true to who you are and working together to achieve your goals but in all there’s not a lot here for adults so I’m sure it does exactly what it is designed to do, keep the kids entertained, highlight more merchandise and if that’s the goal then it’s onto a winner.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

With a clever play on words Race is a sports biography based around the achievements of the African American athlete Jesse Owens (Stephan James) in winning four gold medals at the Nazi propaganda driven 1936 Olympic games in Berlin. Dealing with both the Aryan superiority stance from Germany and the racism of the time in America this film starts with his college years in Ohio State University where he meets coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudekis) who hones his talent and sets him on the road to eventual glory.

There are a number of subplots such as the filming of the games by German director Leni Riefenstahl and the battle between Jeremiah Mahoney (William Hurt) and Avery Brundage (Jeremy Irons) around the potential boycotting of the games by American athletes which, while having a valid place in the tale only succeed in diverting away from the central tale and could have seen a little less screen time. on the other side some of the best moments in the movie which come towards the end of the movie particularly when Owens meets his eventual friend Carl Long (David Kross), a German long jump athlete who broke several ‘rules’ by treating Owens like he would any fellow competitor and even went so far as to celebrate with Owens afterwards, and it would have been nice to have seen additional focus put on this theme.

Overall Race does a good job of showing use the remarkable achievements of Owens but with the odd exception it doesn’t give us a good look at who Owens really was and what the man behind the success was really like, I already knew about his achievements before I watched this film and afterwards I still don’t think it has taught me an awful lot new so while the story and the acting are good it just feels a little flat for a movie that should invoke emotions like a really good sports movie should especially in the wake of the achievements of a legend of the track.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Set fourteen years alter the first movie and twelve years after the sequel this third installment of the franchise sees Calvin (Ice Cube) and his staff trying to save their premises in the South Side of Chicago from the ever increasing gang violence in the area where the shop was always viewed as a safe place where the troubles of the streets could be left behind so they decide to advertise via social media that for 48 hours they are asking the rival gangs in the area to call a truce and during this period all haircuts will be free.

This ties in nicely with the sub plot of Calvins son Jalen (Michael Rainey Jr) who is now a teenager and his friend Kenny (Diallo Thompson) being enticed towards the prospect of the power of local gang membership and he is rebelling against his father’s strict, no nonsense approach to parenting which leads to tension within the shop since both Calvins friend Rashad (Common) also works in the shop and feels that Calvin may be partially to blame for pushing their kids towards gang life. It is this thread which gives the movie it’s real focus as both actors do a fine job of portraying the tension and struggle of trying to keep their kids on the right side of the tracks despite the glittering lights and allure of the prospects on the other side, the rest of the movie feels like a snapshot between the light hearted comic moments, mainly from Eddie (Cedric The Entertainer) and bickering between employees over every day mundane items but it pulls the movie together to make it feel like a place of employment, which I assume is the purpose of the film.

Ice Cube was excellent as a man trying to balance his work life with looking out of his son and is struggling to cope with both, as stated above Common done a fine job as both friend and foil to Ice Cube and Cedric The Entertainer also shone with what he was given to work with as loud mouthed Eddie. The rest of the cast were fine but felt like they were background players to these two. Having not seen either of the first two movies some of the history of the franchise and character relationships may have been lost on me but overall the movie entertained if never excelling and I thought it was too comedic to be a drama and too dramatic to be a comedy so it felt a little lost in between.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Director Duncan Jones previous efforts Moon and Source Code were both clever and underrated movies but this time he takes on the might of the Warcraft name with it’s huge following across both the video and table top gaming platforms and delivers a good if not great game to screen transfer.

Fleeing from their dying world of Drenor the Orcs have chosen the peaceful region of Azeroth for their new home and they utilise a portal which is controlled by the use of magic called The Fel powered by human souls to transfer an advanced party of warriors to wage war on the region and gain enough of a grip to allow the rest of the clan to come through the portal.

Battling to stave off the Orcs is Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) who is a knight that will give all for his King Llane Wrynn (Dominic Cooper) and needs the help of the missing fabled guardian Medivh (Ben Foster) to try and understand how this invasion has occurred and more importantly how to defeat it.

The wild card in the mix is a half-human, half-orc character Garona (Paula Patton) who is brought through the portal by the Orcs as a slave and acts as an advisor of sorts to the Orc leader Gul’dan (Daniel Wu) but gets captured by Lothar and finds herself torn between both sides.

It was the orcs that got the better character building with Durotan, the chieftain of the Frostwolf clan being the most interesting character in the movie. Their society chain and clan ethos were far more interesting than anything on the human side and their presence on screen is the main selling point of this film.

Having not played any of the games there may have been something within the story lost on me but it felt like a poor man’s Lord Of The Rings with good CGI and excellent battle scenes not being able to overcome the poor script and mediocre acting so I would suggest that you catch this in 3D or Imax as I can’t see the small screen version keeping your interest.

Unless the movie absolutely bombs this is going to be the start of a franchise and maybe if we get to invest more time with the characters it will improve the situation but this is a movie which suffers from not having the material to reach the levels of other epic fantasy movies so if they are going to build folklore it’s going to have to be done the hard way as I would be very surprised if this film is a massive box office success.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Set two years after the original movie Seth Rogen & Rose Byrne reprise their roles as Mac and Kelly Radner for this second outing in the series and this time they are expecting their second child so they want to sell their house and head out to live in the suburbs. Luckily they have found new buyers for the house and are in the middle of their 30 day escrow period (basically a month long trial) where the new buyers can pull out of the deal if there are any issues with the house inclusive of the living conditions.

At the same time Shelby (Chloe Grace Moretz) is starting her stint in college but is offended by how fraternities have parties which degrade women yet sororities are nothing other than glorified prayer meetings, so she decides to set up a sorority off campus and becomes the leader and founder of Kappa Nu which just so happens to be in the old Delta Psi Beta house next door to the Radners.

The third wheel in the tale is Teddy Sanders (Zac Effron) who lives with his old frat-brother Pete Regazoll (Dave Franco) however Pete is moving on and wants to live with his new partner meaning Teddy will need to find somewhere else to live. Teddy has nowhere else to go except his old frat-house so he sets himself up as an adviser to the new sorority. While things work well at first  the girls soon tire of him and he is homeless once again but this time he finds solace in the strangest of places as his sworn enemies from the first movie the Radners agree to let him move into their home as long as he helps them remove the new neighbours as an uneasy partnership is formed.

Like him or not Rogens comic ability cannot be questioned and, as he was in the original, he is perfectly suited to his role here. Moritz add further strings to her bow as a perfect foil to the Radners and Byrne matches Rogen all the way with some fantastic one liners and great comedic timing. Unfortunately it’s Effron who feels like the weak link and it felt like the story was amended to ensure there was a position for his character as it’s very likely that the movie would have worked just as well without him. In saying that there’s nothing wrong with Effron’s performance and what he has to do is done well it’s just that his comic moments seemed flatter and more forced than the others.

You already know what you’re getting with this movie, especially if you have watched the first one and while a large number of comedy sequels have failed miserably, this one takes the premise of the first movie, just twists the plot slightly and it still works well. While never hilarious, it is genuinely funny in parts but because most of the jokes are a repeat, or very similar to the first movie, it doesn’t quite hit the same heights as the original.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Tom Hiddleston takes the reins as Hank Williams in this biopic of the Country & Western music star. Hiddleston deserves credit for his immersion in the role, singing his own music for the film, and putting on a great southern accent. According to reports he spent months learning to play guitar and practicing with country singer Rodney Crowell and it pays off as he mimics the yodeling styles of Williams excellently. He is joined along for the ride by the ever more impressive Elizabeth Olsen as Audrey his wife, manager and sometimes singing partner.

I couldn’t help to compare the movie to the similar film Walk The Line and this just never reaches the same heights despite being a more tragic tale since Williams was cut down at the young age of 29 after a life of excess where he essentially drove himself into an early grave.

The movie seems to lack real tension or emotion outside the pieces involving his turbulent marriage to the equally strong willed Audrey or when he is performing on stage but I’m not sure if that is down to Williams life itself or director Marc Abrahams interpretation and while first part of the film where Williams finds his feet, hones his talents and forces his way onto the Grand Ole Opry through sheer persistence as well as his obvious talent is intriguing and entertaining the second half then becomes a decline into alcoholism, drug abuse and womanising which, while perhaps accurate, slow the movie down as we essentially watch Williams drifting towards his demise, only interspersed with small moments of interest. While I don’t know a huge amount about the man I can’t say that the movie feels like it does justice to the life of a legend of music.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Sold as a horror movie but more a love story with a vague supernatural sub plot Crimson Peak stars Mia Wasikowska as Edith Cushing a writer obsessed with ghost stories ever since she believes she was visited by the spirit of her mother as a child. More interested into her literature than potential suitors it’s not until the mysterious Thomas Sharp (Tom Hiddleston) arrives along with this sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) that she allows anyone into her inner world. A turn of events lead to her heading back to England with Thomas who is now her husband and her new life in Allerdale Hall the Sharps family home where the ghost appearances begin for Edith once again. Allerdale Hall is a rundown house with locked doors, mysterious noises and long shadows on the walls and it’s only as Edith health starts to fade and she begins to search the deeper, darker areas of the house finding hints and clues to the real events occurring that she realises there is more to the situation than initially meets the eye.

What the movie lack in the stories substance it makes up for in its settings as director Guillermo del Toro sets up some beautifully filmed shots which ooze atmosphere and tension and it is his master class in directing which keeps you watching the constantly shifting blackness all across the screen, even in the innocent moments, for something to move or appear. There is very little light use and this all builds a gloomy and foreboding presence on screen.  The actors all do their respective parts well but the whole thing has a very Shakespearean feel of a play rather than a movie. The horror elements are not particularly scary and play second fiddle to the queries of the relationship triangle of Edith, Thomas and Lucille so the movie sometimes feels disjointed.

If you like suspenseful, atmospheric dramas with subplots of a love story then this will be right up your street and the movie settings look superb but for a movie supposedly tinged with horror and lurking danger it never felt scary or really filled with any form of suspense as the exposition is far too obvious and leaves nothing to the imagination so in the end it really became more of a thriller/drama.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

Guy Richie puts his spin on the classic 1960’s TV show of American spy Napoleon Solo (Henry Caville) and Russian Ilya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) starting on opposites side of the divide and both chasing down the same girl, Gaby (Alicia Vikander), a female mechanic who’s father is working with some Italian terrorists and after a chase through Berlin which ends with a zip line escape by Solo over the wall he is aghast when he is told by his boss (Jared Harris) that they are going to have to partner up to work together in order to track down their target.

The movie does get across a vibe of the 60’s very well but it’s all lost in the on screen action which unfortunately at times push the leads into Austin Powers territory. It’s good to see Caville in something other than his Superman outfit and he does a decent job as the James Bond wannabe but he comes across as more British than American. Hammer has a little less to work with but is adequate and believable as the Russian spy with a very short fuse but it’s only Vikander who gives any kind of stand out performance and adequately holds her own while stuck in the middle of the testosterone filled and partly sexual tension of the two male spies.

Hugh Grant’s appearances are far too brief yet it’s his character who ends up being the glue that actually brings the story all together and changes the script from an action romp with little purpose to the integration of the U.N.C.L.E (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) organisation.

If you don’t think about it much and just enjoy the campiness of the movie, weak premise and over the top action then there’s enough entertainment here to keep your interested peaked but it’s a far cry from Ritchies original forays into directing and you can sense struggle of trying to keep you entertained with a weak plot.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10