Roger Corman adapted a number of Edgar Allan Poe stories for the big screen, and frequently colloborated with horror icon Vincent Price. The Fall of the House of Usher proved to be the first of both such collaborations, and is a delightfully gothic affair that achieves much on a very meagre budget. Corman took a […] Read more »
More prep work for an appearance on the Auteur Cast show meant revisiting one of the most ridiculous of all the Bond films. Roger Moore teams up with Lois Chiles’ CIA/NASA operative Holly Goodhead to foil an evil plot by Hugo Drax (a rather wonderful Michael Lonsdale) to poison the Earth from space and re-populate […] Read more »
I never bothered to see 2004′s The Chronicles of Riddick, but Vin Diesel’s blind convict originated in 2000′s Pitch Black, a fun if slightly throwaway Alien knock-off that saw a transport ship crash on a remote planet populated by vicious bat-like ceatures that only come out when it gets dark. Riddick’s lack of sight put […] Read more »
Sofia Coppola’s latest has a serious problem at its core – it is not nearly condemning enough about its vacuous, materialistic, fame-obsessed protagonists, who rob the Hollywood homes of famous celebrities when they are overseas promoting their films or hosting fabulous events. Emma Watson, Israel Broussard and Katie Chang lead the cast of wannabes, who […] Read more »
Until I have managed to successfully avoid the films of Rob Zombie, not particularly through any deliberate intention on my part, but simply because I have had not overwhelming desre to see any of them, and the general concensus seems to be that I’m not missing out on much. While the buzz surrounding The Lords […] Read more »
The third installment in Richard Linklater's series of films examining the evolving relationship between Jesse and Celine proves to be the best yeat, and one of the year's most accomplished films. Read more »
Richard Linklater and his stars/co-writers Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy revisit Jesse and Celine once more in the third installment of their ever-improving Before franchise. It is fair to say that very few people were even aware of this film’s existence before it was announced as part of the Sundance line-up at the beginning of […] Read more »
Set nine years after the events in Vienna, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet again in Paris, where Jesse is giving a reading from his new novel – based in large part on their encounter from the first film. While this is the first time they have met or spoken since, they quickly […] Read more »
In the run-up to the release of Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight, it seemed appropriate to revisit his two earlier installments in the occasionally intersecting lives of Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy). Back in 1995 I remember hearing a lot of truth in the pseudo-intellectual rantings of this young couple on their overnight first […] Read more »
Arguably the scariest of Guillermo del Toro’s films to-date, this chilling ghost story takes place in a remote orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. When young Carlos is dumped there following the death of his father, he soon discovers the orphange is haunted. Del Toro would revisit this period of history again for his internationally […] Read more »
Kevin Costner was on the cusp of becoming a huge A-list star when he took the lead in this rather grim but intriguing thriller from Tony Scott. On leaving the navy, Jay Cochran (Costner) heads south to visit his old Mexican gangster buddy (Anthony Quinn), only to fall for his stunning young wife, Miryea (Madeline […] Read more »
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 »