White House Down - 2013 **** 1/2

A Capitol Police Officer takes his daughter for a tour of the White House and is caught up in a terrifying hostage situation involving the President. Jamie Foxx is very convincing as the President and actually I liked how he had a sense of dry humour but seemed kind and decent as well (apparently they aren't basing this on anyone we know). Channing Tatum normally has as much appeal as a blank wall, but here he really acted his socks off, and comes across as the kind of person who you would want to protect you if you were in power.
I watched this quite soon after 'Olympus Has Fallen' and actually preferred it which I was surprised by. Tatum and Foxx make a good and realistic team.
I liked it, I was gripped, and I thought in general that the graphics and photography were very impressive. Watch this over the former.

Predator - 1987 ****

Okay, yes, I admit it, I'm now a Predator convert. I have spent the last decade or so putting myself off watching this, and it was only when my boyfriend put it on and practically chained me to the bed to watch it did I realise that it was actually pretty good. Granted, Schwarzenegger is a hilarious actor (unintentionally of course) but the story is really gripping, and when we had also seen a behind the scenes look at how the 'Predator' costume was designed it made it a lot more interesting to me. This movie is quite ahead of it's time when you look at how some of the scenes are filmed (including the heat detector).
Now I have seen it, I realise how exciting it is that two worldwide blockbusters decided to come together and incorporate their stories (Alien vs. Predator). I can't wait to see it.

A Good Day To Die Hard - 2013 **

Such a confusing film, with one of the longest most amazing vehicle chase scenes I've ever seen. Bruce Willis is getting on a bit now, and it does show. In this film he meets his son for the first time in decades in the middle of a particularly nasty action scene and they get together to shoot various nasty characters. There's a lot of double-crossing in this film and even more explosions but apart from that it didn't have a very clear storyline.

Body of Lies - 2008 ****

Didn't know what to expect with this film, but I actually enjoyed it. It had an interesting story, and Leo Di Caprio was better than I hoped. I felt he might be a bit past it after his celebrity status of the 1990s, but actually he still gives a fine performance. Russell Crowe takes a backseat to Di Caprio as his boss who couldn't care less about trying to forge relationships with the Middle East and makes the rules up as he goes along. I was in the mood for an action film and this was just the ticket. I do find films based around current affairs to be quite gripping, and as most of this was filmed in Jordan, Iran, Syria and Dubai it was riveting to watch. I can imagine it must of been quite nerve-wracking to film in those places as well given the strict moral codes they all enforce. Ridley Scott is a pretty good director so really it was a given that this would be exciting. Watch please.

(NOIR) Edge of the City - 1957 ****

This was a brilliantly captivating film, and I found Sidney Poitier's performance to be totally gripping and heart-breaking.
Cassavetes stars as army deserter Axel, who arrives at the waterside of Manhattan looking for work as a longshoreman. He is lucky enough to find work under a man named Charlie, who turns out to be a vicious, racist bully when he finds out that Axel has become friends with and would rather work for a kind-hearted and decent man named Tommy. Axel decides he would be a lot happier working for Tommy after he starts renting a room close by to him, makes friends with his wife and starts a relationship with the wife's best friend. Charlie on the other hand is not happy with this, and will do anything he can to break up the friendship between the two men.
The film is captivating in many ways, mainly for it's plot content (an interracial friendship which was quite a daring topic for 1950s film) and for Poitier's acting which constantly blows me away in any film I see him in. You come away from the film wishing that if everyone had a friend like Tommy, then the world would be a much happier and serene place.
Watch this.

The Hit List - 2011 ****

I seem to be going through a period of Cuba Gooding movies at the moment. This wasn't a bad movie. A man named Allan's life is turned upside down after he drunkenly tells a stranger named Jonas in a bar that there are a list of people he would like murdered. The man calmly tells Allan that he can arrange this for him, but understandably Allan thinks he is just humouring his mood. Not long after the meeting however the people on Allan's 'Hit List' start to die, and he has to find a way to stop Jonas from finishing up the job. I liked it, it was tense and Cuba Gooding's acting was quite eerie.