James Franklin

Michael Bay is a good director, Jake Gyllenhaal a good actor - as are the rest of the cast - but boy the story stinks. It is the most unrealistic film since Frozen which is a real shame because made with a decent script that was more realistic then it could be a really good film - as it is, its a B movie at best. If you like shoot'em'up action movies removed from reasonable reality then you will love this because it is just pure entertainment - but it is as devoid from reality as a Trump speech.

Thankfully different from most 'spy' thrillers. 6 Episodes in snd no-one has died - pleasant change. Its got two really gripping stories running concurrently, one official connected to a missing field agent, and one connected to Michael Fassbender's character, from his backstory in the field. It is filmed really well, has the right amount of tension with an believable script and 3D characters that creates realism. Its good to see Richard Gere in this, he plays his role very well but all the cast do exceptional jobs. This is not Slow Horses and it is not a typical thriller, but it is well worth watching and sticking with.

I didn't realise this was a Chinese made film until I started watching it - and scrambled for subtitles - I was pleased they were smart - when English was used, there were no subtitles, when Chinese dialogue, subtitles - that were easy to follow unlike some films of this type. Acting - as good as anything you will get from Hollywood except for the very top tier of actors, but it is very good to see Chinese actors getting a chance at international aclaim. Jason Isaacs was great - and actor we do not see enough of in my humble opinion. Cinemetography - very good, but when you look wat who was directing, its hardly surprising. This was as good as anything produced in Hollywood and deserves recognitions for this. Special Effects - pretty decent for a disaster movie that the makers would know would never challenge blockbusters for revenue return, but they clearly spent a decent amount and came up with some decent graphics, so fair play to them. My only gripe would be the volcano itself - Yes, Mount Fuji and Mt Ranier have this stereotypical appearance, but it is exceptionally rare to find an island volcano with the type of cone they displayed - that could have been modelled better and more relalistic IMHO. Story - pretty predicable, same old disaster movie plot line that was like Dante's Peak with younger cast in a more tropical setting - akin to Hawaii Five-O or maybe Jurassic Park. Scientific accuracy - Its a film, I do not expect them to be spot on the money, however, China has some of the finest geophysicists and volcanologists in the world who are doing amazing work - would it have been so hard to seek their advice and really take this film to the next level - bit of a clue - No-one, and I mean no-one survives a pyro-clastic flow, even in a car - they are travelling at 200mph+ and have temperatures of at least 750°C (1382°F) - you are killed instantly because your insides likely explode as does your skull as the fluids boil - Also, they showed a flank eruption in one scene, then a few minutes later is was gone - had the aliens stolen it, they do not go away that quick - the explosion would be catastrophic. Lastly - lava really does not flow that fast unless it is downhill - which a lot wasn't - The fastest lava flow ever recorded occurred when the shield volcano Mount Nyiragongo, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, erupted on 10 January 1977. The lava, which burst through fissures on the volcano's flank, travelled at speeds of up to 37–62 mph (60–100 km/hr), but on flat ground they only flow at about 10mph (16km/hr) on average - some at meters per day - it all depends on the magma. Look, if you are not a picky bugger like me and you like disaster movies - you will love this one, it is well worth a watch as it is a very pleasing film to watch, it does not get staid or boring, the story flow is good and showing how the film was made in the end credits is awesome.

This is the only war film made by Sam Peckinpa, it has his flare. There is a little Hollywood to it, but it shows the war from a wholly different perspective, one you rarely see. It is gritty, hard hitting and actually confronts issues such as traumatic head injury, homosexuality, PTSD, child soldiers and women soldiers decades before anyone else dared. It shows you average German soldier as a man fighting for his life, his friends and a sense of understanding of the hell they have been thrust into, which makes a change from how German soldiers are often portrayed in Hollywood. Of course the film shows its age - but the explosions are scarily real, you can almost feel them on occasion. If you like war films, this is one you should not miss.

Pants. Same old Eddie Murphy script and story line. Don't know why I expected it yo be anything different from his other offerings from decades ago. Unfunny then, unfunnier now. All they did was dust of the script, use older actors and current cars. Don't waste your time.

Adam Driver does well to make a lacking script and production watchable. The dinosaurs do not match current knowledge and depicting them all as theropod carnivores is really stretching credibility. That they depict a 'meteor' stream the way they do demonstrates the complete lack of scientific advisor on the production even more glaring than the dinosaur epic fails. This film gets a 2 purely because Adam Driver recovered it - if we rated the script and the production on their own it would be -2 (script) and -50 for production. The internet is a mine of useful and accurate science data about asteroids, dinosaurs and many other topics - a little research is NOT hard. Seriously - Adam Driver can do far better than this tripe.

I presume the program was originally in Norwegian, but the dubbing into English was atrocious, it was hard to really assess the script because it lost so much in flat, bland and uninspiring dubbing. There is a lot to unpick with this drama, but the most egregious elements are the complete failure of reality. Toward the end, an airliner is stopped by a crack in the runway on take off - barely any damage - then the plane gets struck by a several hundred meter high tsunami - and nearly everyone survives - the plane would be smashed to dust and never seen again, along with passengers and crew. The premise of the program is based on real fears that about 20% of the Island could undergo a flank collapse that could potentially result in a huge tsunami between 100&600m high depending on the speed of the collapse and full scale. What this program ignores is that IF such an event happened, the worst impact of this event would be the US East coast down through the Caribbean, onto South America, resulting in tens of millions of deaths. The program had a lot of potential, but squandered it by concentrating on flawed characters that lacked depth, a workable script and a full, holistic global impact of such an event if it happened as some researchers fear.

Well made film, good script and storyline, well produced and not over the top gung ho nonsense.