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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Huge disappointment after the surprisingly witty original. Here, the film seems completely disinterested in its characters, so ripe with nuance and subversion, and is instead content simply to gross out its audience with a parade of low brow humour, casual mysogyny and unimaginative action. Not even the addition of an enthusiastic Jim Carrey – in […] Read more »
I never got around to seeing the first film in the series that looked like little more than an American knock-off of Harry Potter, albeit one embroiled in the world of Greek Mythology. The sequel proves to be competent yet leagely inconsequential, as Percy, who is the illegitimate son of Poseidon, God of the Oceans, […] Read more »
While there’s no denying the Disney/Depp relationship went stale a long time ago and his clownish buffoonery has entirely consumed the once-great screen actor, there is still plenty to appreciate in Gore Verbinski’s beautifully realised, mean-spirited western. Quite why $250 million was pumped into it, or why anyone thought this was a suitable topic for […] Read more »
Overlong but consistently funny, Paul Feig follows up the hugely successful Bridesmaids with another female-centric comedy, this time turning Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy into action heroes. The plot is cliched, rambling and largely inconsequential, but the film gets by on strong chemistry between the two leads and the fact that Sandra Bullock, who is […] Read more »
Dante Lam follows up his action spectacular The Viral Factor with this far more character focused and melodramatic story of two MMA fighters in Macau. Nick Cheung goes even further to transform himself into a twisted knot of walking muscle while Eddie Peng stakes his claim as the young Chinese hope in the relam of […] Read more »
Tom Hanks leads a convincing charge for his third Best Actor Oscar as real-life merchant seaman Capt. Richard Phillips, whose container ship is overpowered by Somali pirates in Paul Greengrass’ breathless and exhilarating thriller. While Hollywood spent much of the last decade obsessing over the rum-swigging dandy pirates personified by a swaggering Johnny Depp, the […] Read more »
On second viewing it must be conceded that Guillermo del Toro’s film is far more of a disappointment than many wee willing to admit – but still manages to be lots of fun. The characterisation is non-existent, the acting almost uniformly terrible and the relationships perfunctory at best, but where it counts – when big […] Read more »
Still very enjoyable on second viewing, with James Franco in particular continuing to impress as the ridiculously charicatured drug dealer, Alien, who bails out a group of college girls looking for a new kind of thrill during their vacation. Read more »
Hugh Jackman reprises his signature role yet again, this time employing James Mangold to take Logan to Japan and embrace one of the character’s best-loved comic book story arcs. While proceedings do ultimately descend into indestructible objects punching each other, this is far more of a crime drama built around strong characters and meaningful relationships […] Read more »
The closing film at PiFan this year was this modest, yet mostly effective thriller starring Ha Jung-woo as a shamed TV anchor, now radio DJ, who is forced back on the air when a terrorist calls into his morning show. Falling somewhere between Phone Booth and Talk Radio, the action takes place entirely within the […] Read more »
A somewhat pedestrian documentary about a group of misguided eco-warriors becomes a captivating exercise in car crash voyeurism as the members of the bizarre Fuck For Forest campaign head from Berlin to the depths of the Amazon basin to spread their singular vision and hopefully save the planet. Their biggest obstacle, however, proves to be […] Read more »
After losing his job, a lowly office lad attempts to drown his sorrows, only to be thrown out of a girly bar. He manages to anger a gang of yakuza in the process and hides in a derelict building, where he discovers a beautiful mannequin doll that begins to show signs of life. While this […] Read more »
Excellent low budget Indonesian thriller about a young, pornography-addicted taxi driver who becomes obsessed with the prostitute next door. With echoes of Drive and Taxi Driver, this is nevertheless an impressively executed tale of obsession and misplaced affection. Read my full review here Read more »
In what promises to be a new landmark, both in science fiction cinema and the craft of filmmaking itself, Alfonso Cuaron’s deep space survival thriller offers jaw dropping spectacle, nail-chewing suspense and an incredibly intimate character study, shot against the stunning backdrop of planet Earth itself. A difficult filmmaker to pigeonhole, Alfonso Cuaron has accumulated […] Read more »