I was surprised that Sam Worthington dominated the scenes with Christian Bale – perhaps because his character was the more interesting of the two. I’m a big Bale fan, but I don’t think his performance was as strong as I’ve come to expect.

Admittedly I don’t like all Emmerich movies, I thought “10,000BC” was awful; I liked “Godzilla” and “The Day After Tomorrow” too.

As an action film it’s not too bad; it has good CGI and action, and good production design too.

However, for me, the problem of the film is the story. In the context of what has gone before with the first two excellent movies, the third and fourth installments don’t match the first two for quality of storytelling.

I think there are too many little holes in 3 & 4 and characters act out of character, which really breaks the story for me. Cameron/Wisher wrote such superb stories in the first two movies that it does build one’s expectations of what a Terminator film should be, so everything is measured against this.

Plus I think that Cameron as a director just seems better at delivering these stories than Mostow and McG, and because it’s his work his passion for it really shines through.

G.I. Joe: only one superficial reason for me to watch it, Sienna Miller, hubba hubba.

I think the first one I saw was The Royal Tenenbaums. After seeing it I thought it was okay, another movie about dysfunctional families, so what? After seeing more of Anderson’s movies I became more aware of the kinds of stories he tells and one can see what kind of writer/director he is. Seeing that film again a few years later and I can appreciate and enjoy it a little bit more, but at the end of the day it’s another movie about a dysfunctional family though with Anderson’s unique storytelling, and it has a stellar cast, which certainly helps to elevate it.

It’s interesting when you talk about films that “connect with your soul” with those special ingredients that we can’t really quantify. I think that it’s perhaps a good thing that very few movies can do this as it keeps it magical. We can enjoy good movies and be entertained, but the next level really is to touch one’s inner core in a way that movies seldom do regularly.

For me Anderson’s breakthrough film was The Darjeeling Limited, which I genuinely love. This speaks to me in a way the others hadn’t so far so I hold this in high regard.

I should also mention that the DVD I rented had a lot of great commentary and interviews. Recommended for fans like us who are appreciating it with new perspective.

I love BTTF and remember vividly when I first saw it back in the 80s (when I was 14!). It encapsulates the perfect idea of a fun movie in the 80s, with its cool effects, wonderful Silvestri score, humour, a dash of romance, and Huey Lewis’s Power of Love.

What’s even better is that it manages to transcend age differences in the audience too. I loved it when I saw it as a mid-teen and even now still love it as I near 40. The storytelling is perfect and the filmmaking is just right. I even have the paperback novelisation, read literally hundreds of times, which is a lovely book, more than a mere novella. As a teen I saw things that I loved in the whole film, and had a crush on Lea Thompson, as I got older I saw different things that I loved in the film as I gained more life experience, and I still have a crush on Lea Thompson! Wonderful film.

As for Ronin, wow, that’s a very cool film. Not seen it in years, but very memorable. Love the action, the acting, the car chases and the story. It’s a movie made for men; leather jackets, car chases, guns, and De Niro. Glad you like it.