Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

FEATURING:
The Bank Job Batman Begins Battle: Los Angeles The Battle of the River Plate Bee Movie Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Be Kind Rewind Black Dynamite Black Narcissus The Black Sheep of Whitehall Black Swan Blood Diamond Blue Valentine Bridge to Terebithia A Bug's Life
The Bank Job (2008)
There's some rather lacklustre dialogue and acting on display here, but the plot holds the interested. I knew nothing about the robbery it's based on, but the murky machinations involved made me think that a much better film could have been made based on this story (Clement & Le Frenais wrote the screenplay).
***1/2
Batman Begins (2005)
An uninspired storyline isn't helped by Neeson's somnambulant turn, nor Katie Holmes’ miscasting. Nevertheless, the film ends up in the positive due to some strong individual elements. 

Bale is outstanding as Batman and adequate as Wayne, while Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine merit the other performance honours. Nolan really seems to kick into gear …

Blake's 7 1.12: Deliverance

Deliverance sets the groundwork for the season finale, and the main plotline is likably quirky if unremarkable. We start off thinking the story will be Servalan-centric with her up to no good in the Federation Space Command wheel (the Spacemaster ship she remotely detonates a charge on is an admirable effort, but a not-so-successful piece of effects work). This episode is a veritable feast for fans of Nation’s space prefixes. Servalan cancels her meeting with the “Space Administrators”.

Aboard the Spacemaster are Ensor (Tony Caunter of The Crusade, Colony in Space and Enlightenment) and Space Surgeon (!) Maryatt. So it’s down to Cephlon they flee in their escape pods, a planet populated by a bunch of primitive types. They look the sorts to repeat “Ug” to each other throughout the day. Michael E Briant is blessed with some snow to shoot in (which may account for the line about massive variations in temperature when the Liberator crew discuss going down to s…

Blake's 7 1.11: Bounty

It was inevitable that the series would trot out a retro-planet budget-saver at some point, and it’s a shame that it comes attached to a story as unimaginative as this one. Blake and Cally teleport down to a Federation planet with the intention of returning the exiled President Sarkoff (T.P. McKenna, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy) to his people on Lindor.

Sarkoff is under guard so there’s quite a bit of extended ducking and running for Blake and Cally to do, only to find Sarkoff is extremely reluctant to return. He is content to wallow in the historical artefacts that surround him in his small castle. His daughter Tyce thinks he should grow a pair.

The B-plot, which converges eventually with the A, sees the Liberator detect an unidentified ship (we are told later that it is the civilian cruiser Star Queen, which it turns out not to be) and Gan teleports over to investigate. Vila doesn’t like it, and he’s right.

Avon: As a matter of fact, I don’t like it either. …