I had always harboured fond memories of Dario Argento’s 1982 slasher flick, as it was the very first of his films I ever saw. I had not rewatched it until now, and must confess I remembered precious little about it save for John Saxon and the famous arm-slicing scene. The sad truth is that the […] Read more »
I sincerely believe that one day Michael Bay will make a masterpiece. To-date I still believe that The Rock is his best film. I know that Bad Boys 2 has lots of fans, but for me it grows too long and unwieldy for its own good. The Rock works because it has smart script, talented […] Read more »
One of the top tier John Hughes efforts that somehow passed me by until now. Molly Ringwald plays Samantha, and it’s her sixteenth birthday – but her entire family seems to have forgotten. She proceeds to have the worst day imaginable, no thanks to her sister getting married, the weird antics of exchange student Long […] Read more »
What is there left to be said about Stanley Kubrick’s deep-space masterpiece. Not only is it the greatest work of science fiction ever put on screen, it’s one of the greatest films ever made in any genre. More than 50 years after its debut, audiences are still enraptured and perplexed by this profound tale of […] Read more »
No doubt plenty of fun for all involved, there is little to recommend in this sequel to Robert Schwentke’s 2010 effort. Following the lead of The Expendables, Red takes the comedy route of putting reitred action heroes back on the front lines, but even hardened thesps like John Malkovich and Helen Mirren can’t hide the […] Read more »
A strange little film from US director Antonio Campos that sees Simon, and American uni grad head off to Paris after a messy break-up with his girlfriend. While there he struggles to make any meaningful relationships, and after befriending a prostitute, events spiral into increasingly grim territory. Honestly, the film didn’t make much of an […] Read more »
A re-watch of Wong Kar Wai’s beautiful meditation on martial arts and heroism, shot through with his perennial preoccupations of time, aging and fading memories. Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi steam up the screen as the rivals who struggle to resist the undercurrent of attraction between them. Read my full review here Read more »
This late colour entry from Federico Fellini sees Marcello Mastroianni play a philandering womaniser who follows hs latest conquest off a train and into a dreamworld populated solely by women. What at first seems like the ultimate indulgent fantasy quickly turns against him and he is eventually brought to trial to answer for his perceived […] Read more »
After a troubling daliance in stoner comedy, David Gordon Green returns to the more independent, thoughtful material on which he made his name. Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch play maintenance workers in the burnt-out woodlands of Texas. Based on the Icelandic film, Either Way, this comedic drama employs plenty of improvisation from its two leads […] Read more »
One of the finest – and certainly my favourite – non-narrative films ever made, Godfrey Reggio’s beautiful work examines mankind’s relationship with the natural world through a kaleidoscope of juxtaposed images, edited into a grand visual opera and accompanied by a majestic score from minimalist composer, Phillip Glass. From deserted, crumbling cities to exploding rockets, […] Read more »
Juno Mak’s directorial debut is a moody revivial of the quintessentially Hong Kong hopping vampire films of the 1980s. Assembling a cast of horror veterans, headed by Chin Siu Ho, Anthony Chan Yau and Paw Chee Hing, the film is the story of a washed up actor who moves into a dilapidated apartment building, intent […] Read more »
You never need an excuse to rewatch a James Bond film, even a middling entry like Guy Hamilton’s Live And Let Die, but this time I was attentively revisiting the film in preparation for my appearance on podcast The Auteur Cast. I was a guest on the show a year or so ago when they […] Read more »
British filmaker and self-confessed Stone Roses fan Shane Meadows chronicles the legendary Manchester band’s brief and heated comeback in fine style in this passionate documentary. Meadows takes the time to go back to the band’s origins, the release of their seminal debut album, before delving into their subsequent woes with their record label that left […] Read more »
When her grandfather dies, 15-year-old Wei Wei (Xu Jiao) inherits his circus, particularly their star attraction: a baseball-playing gorilla, Ling Ling. Unfortunately, she also inherits his huge gambling debts and is only able to fend off the gangsters intent on taking over the circus, by signing Ling Ling over to a Korean baseball team. After […] Read more »
I was unfamiliar with the source material of this Twilight-esque tale of angels and demons walking the Earth amongst us. The film was fairly resoundingly dismissed upon released, both by critics and audiences, but I actually quite enjoyed it. Lily Collins (daughter of Phil) is rather good as Clary, who discovers she is a half-angel […] Read more »
Right in the middle of his golden period, John Carpenter gave us this entertaining ghost story about a small coastal town founded atop a leper colony that is enveloped in a chilling fog that brings with it the malevolent souls of dead pirates. Adrienne Barbeau is the town’s late night radio DJ, while scream queen […] Read more »
Roland Emmerich’s take on the “Die Hard in the White House” action set-up that was visited earlier this year in Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen, is a far bigger, louder and more ludicrous affair. Channing Tatum plays the wannabe Secret Service agent who finds himself – along with his tech-savvy teenage daughter – trapped in […] Read more »
James Wan’s most interesting and artistically successful film since the original Saw goes back to basics, delivering an incredibly effective haunted house tale, with some added ghost hunter fun thrown in for good measure. Perhaps because of the infuriating Insidious films, which Wan directed either side of this similar yet superior period effort, Wan has […] Read more »
Rock Hudson stars as Tony Wilson, the newly rejuvenated version of tired businessman Arthur Hamilton, who enlisted the services of a secret organisation to give him a “second chance” at life. No sooner did he make the decision, however, “the company” becomes increasingly manipulative and controlling, while Tony finds his new life, friends, home and […] Read more »
Michael Winterbottom’s rose-tinted biopic of Paul Raymond, purveyor of pornography and sleaze in London’s SoHo, creates a wonderfully authentic sense of time and place, and boasts a pair of knockout performances from Steve Coogan and Imogen Poots as his troubled daughter, Debbie. However, the film does run a little long, especially as it becomes increasingly […] Read more »