I got to watch some cool films on my trip to Asia -there is nothing like 11 hours on a plane that focuses you on the 8 inch screen in front of you! With time like that to kill, theres pretty much only a few things to do, I like to read and watch movies where I can…sometimes I use my laptop, sometimes the in-flight entertainment presents some great options - heres what I covered off during this trip:

Derailed - Excellent thriller (taken from a James Siegel novel) with Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston playing professionals who become attracted to each other during the morning train ride, their affair has an almighty twist as Vincent Cassels becomes involved as a violent third party. I’m no fan of Aniston, but she plays well in this movie, which moves along at a quick pace and develops into a cool, taut thriller. 6/10.

Good Night and Good Luck - George Clooney directs himself as one of a group of brave and fearless TV journalists in the the US during the McCarthy fearing era of the 1950’s. Their CBS news programme took aim at McCarthy and his ‘purge’ of anything remotely liberal as the US government became fearful of possible communist influence during the cold-war. The film is lovingly shot in black and white, recalling the 1950’s era of the script. David Strathairn plays Ed Murrow, and brings the character to life, with amazing replication of the Murrows facial expressions and tics. The whole cast is excellent, with Robert Downey Jr and Patricia Clarkson playing news room colleagues. Its a superb film, great script, well shot and directed and a timely reminder of the interaction between mainstream news media and the governments of the day. 8/10.

Prime - at the cinema recently I saw a trailer for this - and almost discounted it completely as a run of the mill rom-com, but I decided that a couple of reviews looked good enough so I watched this one on the flight home. Uma Thurman plays a 30 something year old divorcee who meets and falls in love with a 23 year old man who just happens to be the son of her therapist 0 played by Meryl Streep, who also just happens to be jewish. And you can make the rest of the story up yourself…Thurman and Streep play their parts excellently and the script is really funny. It turns out the film was just a run of the mill rom-com, but a pretty good one - nice and watchable. 6/10.