army of the dead (2021)

"Did you see her die?"
Following on from the heist comedy Army of Thieves, the search for the third of the legendary Wagner safes leads Sebastian, now called Ludwig (Matthias Schweighöfer), to Las Vegas, when recruited by Scott Ward (Dave Bautista). Complicating things is that Vegas is now a quarantine for zombies and about to be nuked! Wonderful mix of drama, comedy and horror, in this stylish looking crime heist twist. Yes there are terrible plot holes, but its a zombie film not war and piece!

dawn of the dead (2004)

"I don't want to die here."
Ana (Sarah Polley), a nurse working nights, clocks off and goes to sleep, missing the zombie outbreak. When she awakes her world has turned upside-down. In need of somewhere secure and away from the zombies, she stumbles on and takes shelter in a mall with Kenneth (Ving Rhames) and a number of others.
Re-versioning the original, and providing enough changes to make it an entertaining watch. Its main innovation being that the zombies now have lightning reactions, upping the anti on the previous versions.

sucker punch (2011)

"if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."
Abused by her stepfather Babydoll (Emily Browning) retreats into an fantasy world, is institutionalised, and faces undergoing a lobotomy. Can she and four others escape the facility before this happens.
Visually stunning noir fantasy steampunk thriller, which fails to make you empathise with its participants: A computer game mashup of a Pussycat Doll video and the Matrix.

300 (2006)

"The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even a god-king can bleed."
King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) is confronted by emmissaries of the Persian king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), wanting him to give tribute to the might of the Persian empire and become part of his kingdom. This is something that Leonidas cannot do. Thus Sparta goes to war against the Persians, and Leonidas gambles on stopping Xerxes vastly superior forces at Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass. Due to a forthcoming festival (when no Spartan can go to war) and some tratorous politicians Leonidas has no choice but to only take 300 men, but can he really overcome such overwhelming odds?
The epic story of the Battle of Thermopylae, between the Spartan's and Persian's, that took place in 480 BC. Live action is rendered with rotoscoping, to present a more comic look and feel, making it look like a Tom of Finland take on the Spartan army. Remember before critisising it as inaccurate and portraying the Persians as monsters, this is based on a COMIC!

watchmen (2009)

"This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face."
Its 1985, in a US that won the Vietnam war due to their not so secret weapon, Dr Manhatten (Billy Crudup), a scientist who due to a nuclear accident has developed into a superhuman collossus capable of bending the laws of physics. Dr Manhatten was a member of an disbanded organisation of costumed superheroes, called the Watchmen and we follow the various members as they come back together to investigate the violent murder of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Could the murder be in any way connected to the mounting tension between the US and Russia, that threatens to explode into nuclear annialation.
An incredibly dark and twisted graphic novel is straightened out and thinned down to make an interesting film, full of great action sequences. Some will quibble with the adaption, but its actually a good version of what many considered an unfilmable story. Its not Alan Moores Watchmen, but its still a complex and beautifully atmospheric and realised world.