Movie Rating 7 out of 10 Family Rating It is PG rated and suitable for teenagers Those of you asking why I would call the movie Crazy Rich Asians a banana have not yet seen the movie. The term 'banana' is an Asian slur used to describe a person of South East Asian heritage living in a Western country and who have lost touch with their cultural identity. Thus yellow on the outside but white on the inside. This movie was heralded as the first Hollywood movie in over 20 years with an entirely Asian cast and while it is a good entertaining movie it is a banana. The story is a light romantic drama that sees Nick Young, Henry Golding, take his American girlfriend Rachel Chu, Constance Wu, home to Singapore to meet his family. Unknown to Rachel, Nick comes from one of the richest families in Asia and therefore is a very eligible bachelor for the mega-rich families back home. Rachel, on the other hand, was brought up by her single mother in a very humble home. Rachel agrees to go but does not realize what she is getting herself into. Having arrived in Singapore and finding out how rich Nick really is, Rachel has to deal with the snobbery and cattiness from Nick's mother, grandmother, aunties, friends, former girlfriends etc who all believe that she is not good enough for him. Rachel is not all on her own as she meets up with Peik Lin, a fellow university student friend and Nick's sister, Astrid who provide support when the nastiness gets her down. Michelle Yeoh plays Nick's mum, Eleanor and there is a good supporting cast. While I enjoyed the movie, it felt that I had seen all the plot points in other movies. The couple's wealth gap from Notting Hill, the mother vs future daughter in law from Monster in law, the kooky family members from My Best Friends Wedding and the cultural divide in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. While it had an all Asian cast it did not show me a culture any different to others. You could have replaced Golding and Wu with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and the story could have been told using the exact same dialogue. This story could have been used to show the same plight for an English, Italian or Australian family and you would have only had to change the reference to dumplings with pizza or lamingtons. For a better example of TV displaying Asian family culture I recommend you watch the Australian show 'Family Law' or Wu's 'Fresh off the Boat'. So what was good about the film. It was an easy film to watch with the main couple pulling it all together. Wu has the ability to play sarcasm but without being overbearing or disagreeable. Golding is a natural…

Movie Rating 7.5 out of 10 Family Rating. Has some mild swearing and tense scenes but certainly suitable for a PG 13 rating. I have some big movie release reviews to share with you this week in BlacKkKlansman and The Meg but tonight I watched a hidden gem on Netflix called "I Kill Giants". I knew nothing about it but there was a buzz going around this movie and as I had a quiet night I took the time to watch it. Firstly, without giving too much away, there are Giants in the movie but it is not a story of the Buffy genre with lots of gore and body parts rolling around. It is, however, a wonderful movie that I encourage all mums with young/teenage daughters to sit down and watch together. It centres on a nerdy loner teenage girl named Barbara who is struggling with tragedy in her life. She attributes this to Giants who are out to destroy her life and she spends most of her time preparing to fight them off. Along the way a new English girl arrives, Sophia, and an awkward friendship arises that has to develop around Barbara's mission to protect her local town from the Giant. When the school psychologist, Mrs Molle, becomes involved and seeks to understand Barbara, then her life starts to unravel as she questions her worthiness and ability to 'kill the Giant'. As the atmosphere builds you are faced with the question as to whether the Giant exists or not and regardless, how will Barbara meet her current challenges. Madison Wolfe plays Barbara and does an excellent job for such a young actress. Imogen Poots plays her sister Karen and Sydney Wade puts in a good performance as her new friend Sophia. Zoe Saldana plays the caring Mrs Molle, in the first non-science fiction role that I have seen her in. For you older folk the movie is co-produced by Chris Columbus whose movies has the theme of children proving themselves such as The Goonies, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and Home Alone. If I was to give you a sense of how the movie 'feels' without giving away any spoilers it has the emotion of a 'Big Hero 6' and I loved the ending. Anyway, that is how I felt but I would love to hear your opinion once you have watched it. Take the time one wet weekend, when the rain returns, to sit down and enjoy this movie.

Movie Rating 8 out of 10 Family Rating: Lots of excitement, a couple of swear words, fight scenes Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to leave all logic at the door and enjoy the thrills and spills you have come to expect from an MI movie. Tom Cruise is back in his role as Ethan Hunt and takes up where he left off at the end of the last Mission Impossible episode. Cruise must have sold his soul to the devil because he doesn't look much older than he did in Risky Business, is as fit as a bull and apparently does a lot of his own stunts. Being four months older than this 'Peter Pan' I can tell you he is not the standard for us baby boomers. Supporting Tom in this follow up to MI Rogue Nation are his old friends, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson and his arch enemy Sean Harris as Solomon Lane. Still trying to save the world from anarchists, Hunt is set the task of recovering the three plutonium cores that he lost in the last film. At the same time, he has to kidnap Lane from police control to use as bargaining power. There is also the usual infighting between IMF and the CIA about who is in charge and who can be trusted. As is expected there was plenty of action with amazing car and bike chases through the streets of Paris, running over the rooftops of London and a helicopter duel in the river valleys of India. There are twists and turns and you never know until the end who are the goodies and who are the baddies and I am not giving away any spoilers. Henry Cavill plays a CIA agent forced upon the IMF team, and I believe that if he had the courage to drop the Superman role that he could become a decent actor. The other notable newcomer is Vanessa Kirby who plays the White Widow and adds the 'Bond Girl' glamour. If you enjoy going to the movies to be entertained and you can accept that people can come off motorbikes at breakneck speeds and get up without a scratch or a bruise, that you can run and jump from building to building without sweating and then survive a helicopter crash with very little damage then you will really enjoy this show. At well over two hours long make sure you have plenty of snacks and make sure you visit the toilet before the entertainment starts as there are not many slow spots during the movie.

Movie Rating 8 out of 10 Family Rating Adult themes with strong violence and coarse language. There was something about the original Equalizer that made it stand out from all the other vigilante action movies and not just that Liam Neeson was nowhere to be seen. The action is great but without the need for CGI or death-defying stunts like in a 'Bourne' movie the close-up action brings an intensity that had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Denzel Washington returns to his role of Robert McCall, a former CIA agent, who is believed by most of the world to have been killed in a pre-movie explosion. This time he is working as an Uber-type driver who picks up on the problems of some of his customers and sets about righting wrongs. One of the early scenes sees him return to an apartment of pampered young executives who appear to have taken advantage of a young intern. The violence is up front and brutal as he dishes out on those who have taken advantage of this young women. In the original, Washington, achieves justice for strangers that he comes in contact with. In this story, the search for vengeance comes after losing a close friend to bad guys that should have known better. Along the way, we learn a little more about his previous role in the CIA but there is still a lack of details on what happened to his family and how he came to be considered dead. The showdown occurs when the bad guys and Denzel come in contact and realise that only one group will be still alive come the end of the movie. Travelling to a small town in the middle of a cyclone adds to the tension and difficulty as the game of cat and mouse plays out. The violence is graphic and certainly not for those who cannot stomach the sound of breaking bones, cringe-worthy injuries and gruesome deaths. Throughout all the chaos I love that Washington's character stays calm and collected, refrains from swearing and is even polite to those who he intends to inflict great pain. While there are definite goodies and baddies the line is often blurred as we see vengeance dished up outside the law and while I was always cheering for McCall you sometimes wonder what gives him the right to be the moral judge. I highly recommend this movie to those who enjoyed the original Equalizer and all of those, like me, who love the idea of dishing up vengeance but not too keen on the blood and pain that goes with it.    

Movie Rating 7 out of 10 Family Rating Superhero violence but no blood, few minor swear words, Having watched the second of the Ant-Man movies I realise that if it weren't for Paul Rudd and Michael Pena then this series would not have much appeal at all. The original movie showed how Ant-Man could shrink and grow tall, the powers he possessed but mostly that out of the suit, Scott Lang, was a regular divorced father dealing with family issues. In Civil War, we saw him in action on the side of Captain America and his abilities were shown to better effect. However, in this movie, it appears to be more of the same without much plot and at nearly two hours there were large stretches without much action. A big question coming into this movie is why wasn't Ant-Man part of the Infinity movie. A minor spoiler alert that isn't clearly spelt out is the fact that after the big battle scene in Civil War, Ant-Man is captured and put into 2 years home detention. If he takes on any superhero duties during this period he will be jailed for 20 years and he is not willing to jeopardise his relationship with his daughter. The beginning of the movie sees him with only a couple of days to go on his home detention before he is freed and throughout the movie an inept FBI agent tries to catch him breaking his parole conditions. The movie introduces Hope as the Wasp (Evangeline Lily) as she has been given a super suit by her father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) that allows her to do the shrinking thing as well. They set off to try to find Hope's mother who was shrunk to a microbe size some 30 years earlier. Along the way, they are constantly chased by a bad guy, Sonny Burch, who wants the technology that they are using. They also have to fight off The Ghost and her carer who used to be one of Hank's research partners. There is a lot of racing around the streets of San Francisco with cars that shrink and then return to size. The comedy in the movie comes through Michael Pena's character, Luis, and his two assistants. The truth serum sequence is quite funny. But apart from that, a couple of fight scenes, and the car chase there is not much holding it together .... until the credits. As with all Marvel movies you never leave the theatre until the credits have ended. In this movie, the highlight of the film comes during the first post credit clip. You could hear the audience gasp when it is played. All in all, it wasn't a bad movie but certainly not up to the standard of recent Marvel movies. The ending must have some relevance in the next Avenger…

Rating     8 out of 10 Family Rating - Suitable for everyone. Lots of people have asked why it has taken 14 years for a sequel to The Incredibles to be created. Well, it may come as a surprise to realise that The Incredibles was made four years before the first Iron Man movie. Since then so many superheroes have come onto the scene that the creators of the Incredible family found it hard to come up with an original story for their characters. I can let you know that having watched Incredibles 2 that the wait was worth it. All the Parr family is back with the youngest, Jack-Jack now an important part of the storyline. The film starts with the age-old question - is the world better off with our without superheroes. Well before Captain America and his friends had to deal with superheroes being made illegal the Incredibles have been forced to hide their special powers. Behind the scenes, the owners of super-rich DEVTECH have plans to change the attitude of the community towards superheroes by working on their public image. Much to Bob's, Mr Incredible, disappointment it is felt that Elastagirl would be much easier to promote and so he takes on the responsibility of raising the children and looking after the home. So everyday issues relating to women's equality, stay at home dads, teenage girl romances and how to encourage the children to find their self-esteem are addressed while trying to capture the latest villain, The Screen Slaver. The story has twists and turns in regards to who is and isn't the real villain. However, the key aspect of the movie develops as Jack-Jack's superpowers are revealed and how to get a toddler to restrain them. Though it took 14 years to bring them back the Incredibles show how a family that sticks together, through thick and thin, that all challenges can be overcome. One of my favourite parts of the movie is the appearance of Edna, as she takes on the job of creating a super suit for Jack-Jack. She still reminds me so much of SBS presenter Lee Lin Chin.  

Movie Rating - 8 out of 10 Family Rating - Not suitable for young children as more gore than before and frightening images of stalking dinosaurs and erupting volcanoes. The strength of a good adventure movie is to have you sitting on the edge of your seat even when you know that the main characters will survive their present danger. Jurassic World did that for me. Whether it was surviving face to face encounters with salivating dinosaurs or escaping from the clutches of bad guys in all sorts of incredible ways I still found myself tense and holding my breath. The story for this episode of the Jurassic story takes place four years after the theme park was destroyed and humans abandoned the island. The situation has arisen where a dormant volcano is threatening to end all life on the island. A decision has to be made whether to let the dinosaurs deal with the natural disaster or try to remove them from the island. The Government says let them die but an opportunity is provided to rescue them and move them to a new sanctuary funded by one of the original founders of Ingen, Benjamin Lockwood. This movie restores an important part of the original Jurassic Park theme by adding a child to the story in Benjamin's granddaughter Maisie Lockwood. The use of children ramps up the intensity of the threat level and a scene with her being stalked by the Indo-raptor (the new baddie dinosaur) will create many nightmares. While on the subject of children my recommendation is that parents should think twice before allowing young primary children to watch this as there is more unsettling images and visible gore as the dinosaurs take out the baddies bit by bit. And of course, this would not be a Jurassic movie without human baddies seeking to make money or gain power from the dinosaurs themselves. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, as Owen and Claire, carry this movie again and apart from Maisie, there were no great additions to the cast, none that lived to appear in the next movie anyway. The reappearance of Blue, the trained Velociraptor, and T-Rex provides a continuation of some popular dinosaurs. The appearance of a young Pachycephalosaurus (look it up) is the only addition of a likable dinosaur, while most seem intent in damage and destruction. This storyline contains enough differences to distinguish it from the other movies in the franchise and provides new settings for the whole dinosaur experiment to go wrong. The movie ends with lots of open questions, especially around Maisie's origins and mankind's future relationship with dinosaurs, sufficient to encourage discussion amongst the family and work colleagues about which direction it will take. I have to say I will be eagerly looking forward to the next episode. 8 out of 10

This movie is based on the Penelope Fitzgerald novel of the same name. I am sure that the story of a young war widow setting out to establish a bookshop in a small English village is very well written and allows you to identify with the many quirky characters, both good and bad. Unfortunately, this movie provided me with no interest in any of them. I will warn you now of story spoilers but I believe the screenplay writers already did a good job of spoiling this story. The movie revolves around war widow, Florence Green played by Emily Mortimer, who moves to a small town and sets up a bookshop in a building known as the Old House. Violet Gamet, Patricia Clarkson, is an older gentry woman who for some reason does not want the bookshop to open and it is inferred that she will do anything to prevent the enterprise from succeeding. Along the way, we meet various members of the community from an unsympathetic bank manager, local cad, some young children and a reclusive Edmund Brundish, Bill Nighy, who appears to be Florence's only adult supporter. The story proceeds very slowly, interrupted by awkward conversations, followed by awkward silence, followed by shots of rustling trees and running water. The movie fails to portray the motivations of most of the characters and so their behaviour is not easy to follow. Which, for me, raised the following questions; What is Florence's attachment to the Old House and how did she come to find it as it does not appear that she has lived in the town before. Why does Violet want the Old House and what is her attachment to it? What hold does Violet have over the rest of the villagers to make them support her? What has Mr Brundish done for his whole life? Is the hand holding scene supposed to be romantic or just creepy? Did Florence actually sell any copies of Lolita? If any fellow Escapees can answer these questions please let me know. This film may appeal to those who enjoy movies such as Remains of the Day, A room with a view or Howards End or anyone else looking for 90 minutes of snooze time. Family Rating - No language, sex, or any signs of life Rating - 3 out of 10