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Most of the beginning is almost a recap of Kevin Smith's career so far, and it comes off as amazingly self indulgent, starting with Dante (Brian O'Hallaran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) in the Quick Stop from Clerks, and then moving to Brodie (Jason Lee) of Mallrats, where one of the lines that was lazily thrown in was 'would you like a chocolate covered pretzel?', they then progress further to re-meet Holden (Ben Affleck) of Chasing Amy. For some reason it was fairly easy on Dogma references, the only reference to it I can think of being '...passed down by god herself...' I thought this film would be mostly terrible, but it wasn't at all, the self-loving brings it down, but Jay And Silent Bob are great as usual, the plot is throwaway, and could be replaced with anything to just make Jay and Bob run around, but not too many complaints about it. Any references to previous View Askew films later on in the film, were scattered around well enough to not make them cringe-worthy, although it's too heavy on them right at the end. One thing I really disliked about the film, although I forgive it is Jason Mewes' fart near the beginning of the movie, that was the most cringe-worthy thing to do with Kevin Smith ever, and not because of the vulgarity, like I'd cringe at 'it was like sticking my dick in battery acid', because of the sheer thoughtlessness of it, I can forgive it though as in the commentary Kevin Smith admitted to it being his least favourite shot in anything he's ever done, although he did also say he was proud of the fart joke with Ali Larter, which was something I definitely could've done without in the film. Smith took a risk by returning to his low-brow roots of Mallrats (and taking it further), after doing the more thoughtful (for his standards) Dogma and Chasing Amy, he also took a risk by putting Will Ferrel in a semi-major role in the film, many Smith fans may dislike his inclusion, but me personally, I enjoyed his performance a lot, despite not really being a fan. Could've been an 8/10 without all the self indulgent rubbish. Smith denies sitting at home thinking 'I am a f**king comic genius' on his DVD An Evening With Kevin Smith 2, but I'm not so sure. So I took this time to address all the negatives about this film, what about all the positives? The positives of this film were...everything else I hadn't mentioned! I was expecting a return to low brow humour and was expecting a lot worse. Was the worst of the VA films but after Clerks 2, he is back on form. I rate it a safe 7/10

Cloverfield was a very enjoyable film, thrilling, exciting, loud. It had a good story, good effects, and it was everything it should've been. It was a good film to start my 2008 cinema-going, and although it's unlikely to be my favourite, it will stay in my mind for a while. The film, despite being very enjoyable is cursed with a few unavoidable plot holes based on the premise, which have been addressed many times already. Although the film's premise is easily compared, and probably heavily influenced by The Blair Witch Project, there's a major difference between them, Blair Witch; despite being fairly original was a fairly unentertaining film where the only thing it has to offer is people shouting at each other, and being frightened by darkness and noises, Cloverfield was interesting and I could barely take my eyes off it. Cloverfield is a hugely successful film at the moment, but don't wait for it out to be out on DVD, see it now! I, obviously haven't seen it on DVD, but I don't think there's any possible way it will be half as thrilling as it is on the big screen. It is possibly the most 'cinema only' film I've ever seen, but if the extra features are any good, hey, I just might buy it. I give it a secure 8/10.

This is a very strange film to watch, but easy to do so despite the fact that the plot is only added to near the end of the film with the men in black. It's no masterpiece at all, not even on a low budget standard, but one thing that brings above a lot of other films is a great performance by Joe Morton as The Brother, not an easy role to do, but his mute performance is pulled off so charismatically, that we can't help but be drawn into to The Brother's adventures. The film is at times very witty, very clever and very charming. John Sayles (writer/director) did well at adding in just enough subtle comedy. Most of the way through, the film is not really a science fiction film, it just happens to contain an alien. If I were to hazard a guess at how Sayles came up with the idea of The Brother From Another Planet, I would assume he started with the idea of; what if everything was kind of new and unfamiliar to you, as if you were born again, he probably started with that and worked from there to form this delightful film. One down side is the ending, because; as I mentioned before, 80% of the film is not really science fiction like, but the ending is very much science fiction, but it doesn't spoil the picture too much.

I give this gem a firm 8/10.