For this month's Genre Grandeur on Bestselling/Popular Novel Adaptations I chose to review Randall Wallace's We Were Soldiers. On 14th November 1965, the men of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, led by Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore landed at LZ X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley. Immediately surrounded by 2000 soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), the Americans fought for three days to defend the landing zone - their only lifeline to the outside world. Based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. General Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joe Galloway, We Were Soldiers tells the story of the first major battle between US and North Vietnamese forces. "Hollywood got it wrong every damned time", those are the words used by Hal Moore to describe every movie ever made about the Vietnam war. They're the same words that inspired writer/director Randall Wallace (Braveheart) to get this one right.  Rather than attempting to glamorise warfare, Wallace wen

There seems to be a lot going on with Star Trek at the moment! Discovery is about to start a second season, Quentin Tarantino is apparently working on his own Star Trek movie and S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, The Defenders) has taken over directing duties from Justin Lin for the fourth instalment in the Kelvin universe. While appearing on Larry King Now, Simon Pegg was questioned about the upcoming sequel to 2016's Star Trek Beyond: I met the new director, S. J. Clarkson, who is the first female director of a Star Trek film, which is exciting, and she is just brimming with ideas and enthusiasm. I can't wait to work with her. The actor - who plays Scotty - was also asked whether he knew about possible production dates, to which he had this to say: As far as I know, we're sort of in soft prep at the moment. I would imagine next year at some point. Hopefully early next year. It's believed that the story of the new movie will revolve around Chris Hemsworth&

The Pearl is the largest, most advanced building in the world, and Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) is the security consultant hired to assess the building's safety and security systems. When an attack on the building causes a fire, Will must fight his way in to save his family. But what do the attackers want? And how far will they go to get it? Described as an homage to Die Hard and The Towering Inferno, Skyscraper doesn't really live up to either. Dwayne Johnson is known for ridiculous movies that are a lot of fun, he is the 80's movie guy of the 21st Century after all. Skyscraper is definitely ridiculous, it's just not that much fun. Take Die Hard for example, John McClane finds himself in a very serious situation; he's the wrong guy, in the wrong place, at the wrong time! But it's still hilarious watching him run around a building doing his level best to piss off the terrorists. There's none of that here, and the one or two moments of humour almost

After their dealings with The Underminer (John Ratzenberger) are met with less than favourable reactions from the government and the public, Mr Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are approached by the Deavour siblings, who have a plan to legalise supers. Winston (Bob Odenkirk) and Evelyn (Catherine Keener) - the heads of a major tech company - want to spearhead a campaign to promote the positive work of superheroes and they want Elastigirl to be their figurehead. Which means while Helen is out saving people, Bob faces his toughest challenge yet...staying home to take care of the kids. It has been 14 years since the Parr family were last in the cinemas - the longest hiatus between movies in any Pixar franchise. The question is: was it worth the wait? Well in a word, abso-frigging-lutely! Incredibles 2 is rip-roaring fun from start to finish and more than lives up to its predecessor, in fact you could say it's on par (pardo

Based on a true story, the movie follows a group of school friends who have been playing the same game of Tag every year during the month of May since 1983. Now, Jerry (Jeremy Renner) - the only member of the group to have never been tagged - plans to quit the game when he gets married at the end of the month. Realising this will be their last chance, Hoagie (Ed Helms) unites the group in a last ditch effort to finally tag him. Along for the ride are Hoagie's wife, the very competitive Anna (Isla Fisher), Jerry's fiancé Susan (Leslie Bibb) and Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis), a journalist for The Wall Street Journal. As Hoagie and the gang put their plan into action, the mad-cap antics ensue. All of the cast look as if they're having a blast bringing this incredible true story to life. Yes this the Hollywood "heightened" version of the story, but it does clearly demonstrate the perils of such a unique game. Throughout the month, players go about the

When four suicide bombers are smuggled into the US by one of the Mexican cartels, the President designates these criminal organisations a terrorist threat. In an effort to weaken the cartels' position, CIA Agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) is brought in to start a war between them. Naturally Graver turns to his old ally, lawyer turned sicario Alejandro (Benecio del Toro) for help. The job involves kidnapping Isabela Reyes  (Isabela Moner) , the daughter of one of the cartel leaders, but when things go south Alejandro is forced to choose between his job and the girl. With Denis Villeneuve busy working on Blade Runner 2049, directing duties fell to Stefano Sollima (Gomorrah) who does a brilliant job picking up where Villeneuve left off. This is thanks in part to Taylor Sheridan, who delivers yet another fantastic script. Not only are his scripts fantastic, they're also incredibly relevant in today's society. Existing in the murky grey area established so well by the fi

After 5 years, Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) gets out of prison with a plan for a big score. She intends to steal a Cartier necklace worth $150 million from the neck of the Hollywood socialite wearing it (Anne Hathaway), during New York's annual Met Gala. If she's going to pull this off, Debbie will need to assemble a crew of skilled individuals...maybe 7 or 8 of them. Director Gary Ross (The Hunger Games) has done a reasonable job of filling Steven Soderbergh's shoes. Ocean's Eight - much like its predecessors - is a lot of fun. It's also a sequel, not a remake. Debbie Ocean is the sister of the now deceased Danny, something the movie repeatedly reminds you of. But apart from the references to Danny and a couple of cameos, Ocean's Eight does a good job of standing on its own two feet. The casting is perfect, our crew of quirky criminals all have excellent chemistry. Bullock and Blanchett are excellent as the ring leaders, just don't try any of Debbi