"How Many Killings?"

I know you're all just dying to know not only what films I've seen lately, but what I thought of them! I know it. Well, wait no longer!

I went into 300 and pretty much got exactly what I expected from a film based on the work of Frank Miller; a visually slick, technically accomplished film that was down on anyone who's not white, straight, male and muscular.

Positives: The cast was excellent, with Gerard Butler bringing an immense amount of gravitas and empathy to his role of Leonidas the warrior-king. His performance completely sucks you in. But that was the way with all the cast. My only problem would have been with David Wenham's hair. He's a great actor, but the feathered-tip fair-hair he was sporting looked so anachronistic and Anglo-Saxon. It was weird.

The bravado and machismo were very addictive. You couldn't help but feel swept up in a good portion of the action scenes, but even more so whenever the characters were posturing.

It also managed to achieve what Ang Lee attempted in Hulk, by presenting a live-action depiction of comic book frames; instead of Lee's clumsy use of split-screen, director Zac Snyder sped up then slowed down pivotal action sequences, thereby making them a series of sequential still images, replicating comic book storytelling almost perfectly.

Negatives: Well, the film's depiction of race, gender, sexual orientation. My first question would be, in a story about Spartans, why were there no real Greeks?

But mostly it was all just Frank Miller bowing down once more in front of his image of perfect masculinity. A lot of people have excused the film's problems by pointing out that it doesn't skirt over all the Spartan's drawbacks, depicting as it does their practice of throwing imperfect newborns off the side of a cliff. But given that Miller provides justification for that action, and that argument comes tumbling down like a deck of cards. And for all the film's talk about freedom, not once is it mentioned that Spartans kept slaves of their own, who were all forced to fight at the very same battle against the "evil" Persian empire.

This is just the tip of the problems I had with the film, despite I how much I enjoyed it on a visceral level. I suppose at the very least you can see it's good that it's such a provocative film that can inspire a good deal of conversation. I'd much rather see films like that in cinemas - and doing just as well as 300 has been doing - than, say, another bloody Saw movie.

It seems I'm a bit of a Danny Boyle fan. Whenever he's directing, you know you're in for a well-considered piece of film-making. What he seems to enjoy more than anything else is genre-dabbling, running from horror to urban drama to family friendly to this, a high-concept sci-fi thriller. Whenever he gets his hands on a different genre, it's not long before he's looking for a way to shake things up.

There are three things that are really striking about Sunshine. The first is the visuals, but given that it's a Danny Boyle film that's an obvious one. The second is the exploration of sacrifice, dedication, and what we do for the greater good. And the third ... well ... I know I had a third. But it's 2 am and I can't remember. In any case, there's a third.

And it's striking.