Airborne

A group of strangers take the last flight to JFK during a snow-storm and end up facing a shit-storm of trouble on the seemingly jinxed flight. Airborne features some of the UK's best known and most up and coming talents including Alan Ford (perennial Guy Richie favourite) and Gemma Atkinson (now, a lot of you may criticise Gemma's acting skills, but personally I have a soft spot for her and reckon she's got good thing in front of her ... don't be crude!) and then, of course, there's Mark Hamill!

Without giving too much away, the film has (as we find out) two plots running side by side and for the most part it's not too badly done, but the inclusion of the second plot (the supernatural side), I feel, ruins anything that has gone before. There actually was no need to give it a supernatural twist as it takes a decent (and I'm not saying good, or great, I'm just saying decent) idea and then takes it into the realms of stupidity. It's unfortunate as I was fully supporting the film until around the hour mark.

The thing is, Airborne is not a terrible movie, it's not even a bad movie, it's just not a good movie. So many times writing this blog I've stumbled upon a film that show so much potential (despite low budgets, poor scripts / actors, whatever it may be) and then they let themselves down before they reach the final hurdle and this film sits nicely in this category.

Probably best left for the die-hards amongst us and those wanting to be just a little more terrified of flying than they already are!!

The Doberman Gang

This brilliantly bonkers 70's flick revolves around the exploits of a group of fairly inept bank robbers who, after their last failed attempt in which they accidentally locked their ill-gotten gains in the boot ('trunk' for my American cousins) of the wrong car during their getaway, decide a new plan is needed. That plan is the creation of 'The Doberman Gang'.

The dogs are the real stars of this movie, and are brilliantly trained and look cute and cuddly one minute, vicious and violent the next. On a few occasions some fairly bloody scenes are included, into what is essentially a family film.

The acting is pretty appalling, the script is patchy at best and the music is a crazy mix of half decent 70's tunes, bizarre nonsensical songs and annoying elevator music, yet somehow, in some strange way, it actually works. There are some genuinely (although unintentionally) funny moments and the actual robbery is entertaining and great fun to watch. Sure, this film was never going to win any awards, but for a pure throwback to the heady days of bad films, long hair and tight trousers, you could do much worse than settle down with a hotdog and a 'hair of the dog' and watch this odd little B-Movie caper.