Movie time

Well, despite the often annoying media profile of Tom Cruise I have to admit he was good in Mission Impossible III. With it coming from JJ Abrams, the man behind Alias and Lost, I was expecting it to be convoluted, but it was a turbo-charged romp through who-is-the-bad-guy-oh-my-god-he-killed-her-or-did-he-yes-no-eek... First half was good, second half floored the warp speed button and never eased off until the end (and it was a long movie, especially by action flick standards). It was utterly relentless and even Mel loved it, despite not being a big fan of big action flicks. Cracking fun and a good start to the summer blockbuster season - roll on X-Men 3 and Superman Returns now! I wasn't too fussed about Supes until I saw the new trailer and they played the John William's theme from Superman: the Movie and I felt the excitement stirring: dum de dee dum de dee, dum de dee dum de dee, dum de dee dum de dee... Urge to rip open shirt to reveal big S almost overwhelming. Although in my case it stands not for Superman but Sarcastic.

Actually that's three very enjoyable films I've seen recently, none of which I had very high expectations of, to be honest, and so was pleasantly surprised. Slither was a terrific romp, pure B movie horror and proud of it, referencing other B movies and horrors right, left and centre (notably the Blob, Slugs and various Romero flicks as well as Heinlein's Puppet Masters, but a lot of others too). And Firefly/Serenity/Buffy's Nathan Fillion was perfectly cast with his deadpan expression and delivery as the local sheriff of the shitkicker town under threat from a nasty alien which arrives in a meteor. Basically like the Tremors movie it was a celebration adn pastiche of the classic B movie horror.

Silent Hill was also a revelation - as a computer game to movie adaptation I wasn't even going to bother checking it out, but even some of the broadsheets not usually well-disposed to horror and SF movies rated it, so I went along. Like the games it mostly avoids out and out gore in favour of a genuinely creepy atmosphere of relentless dread and disturbing imagery (although some seemed to be influenced a lot by early Clive Barker I think). Alice (Borg Queen) Krige's mad, witch-burning pastor was a bonus, although poor old Sean Bean's father was pretty much useless character.