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Set in the land of Halloween, this dark and creepy stop-motion animation from the mind of Tim Burton and James and the Giant Peach director Henry Selick has become something of a cult classic since its release in 1993. Jack Skellington, who bares the celebrity title “The Pumpkin King” (a skeletal creation many will be familiar with without evens seeing […]
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This nasty and offensive little horror film centres around a woman with postnatal depression. The depression gets worse, she has a psychotic breakdown, then tries to murder all her children. At one point we see her stab to death one of her little boys with the handle of a mirror, blood splashing onto her face. […]
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Private Peaceful is based on a novel by Michael Morpurgo. I read the book when I was very young – possibly eleven or twelve – and I found it extraordinarily affecting. It was told is such a simple but memorable way and the final few pages still haunt me to this day. This film adaptation doesn’t quite […]
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Nancy Meyer’s continues to spread her charming, joyful humour with this typically gentle romcom. As ever with her films, It’s Complicated features actors a little older than those you’d expect to find in a mainstream romantic comedy, and all the houses look enviably divine. Meryl Streep plays a divorced, posh-cafe owner who lives in a big […]
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This low budget but high voltage Brit thriller contains unflinching depictions of strong sex and brutal, bloody violence. I thoroughly enjoyed it. When three Leeds girls, holidaying in Mallorca, decide to accompany a bunch of amiable young men to their posh yacht they happily join in with the recreational drug use and group sex that […]
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This superb comedy drama from Juno director Jason Reitman lets George Clooney fall back into his usual role…..the role of George Clooney. Intelligently spoken, quick in a conversation and never boring. But even though he does nothing here we haven’t seen him do before, he happens to be in a movie that’s equal to him […]
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Pedro Almodóvar has to be one of the most interesting directors working today. Bad Educaition, released in 2004, is a vibrant and beguiling movie, mixing together film noir, melodrama and colourful characters to make something bittersweet and utterly gorgeous. Almodova’s films are like a bucket of different coloured paints, swirled around to make something spectacular, out of […]
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Award winning Author Sarah Walters’ novel about Victorian England, Fingersmith was adapted into a BBC mini-series by Sally Head Productions in 2005. The DVD combines the two parts into a three hour film (I’m not too sure why, as the two parts of the story work well separately). It has a stellar cast including Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance […]
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Before it descended into pointless nastiness, the Saw series kicked off with some very good films. The first two movies were terrific, and my personal favourite is number one. Simply and provocatively entitled Saw (who knew what a powerhouse of a franchise that name would become), the film has echoes of David Fincher and Edgar […]
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Yesterday afternoon, I made a purchase on an online retailer. It was for a blu-ray box set of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours Trilogy. A collection of three films – Three Colours Blue, Three Colours White, and Three Colours Red – sat on my shelf, watching me as I ordered its replacement. But the collection I […]
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Now they have reached their third adaptation, Disney seems to think Dickens’s classic story about the spirit of the festive season is well and truly theirs. Billed as “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”, you’d think that Charles Dickens bloke was just part of the initial conception process, with the Hollywood guys taking it off his hands […]
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As I’m sure you have already gathered, 2012 is Bond’s 50th anniversary, and Skyfall really marks that landmark with style. It’s the best Bond film for years, even better than Daniel Craig’s fantastic debut Casino Royale back in 2006. I was one of the few people who actually rather liked Quantum of Solace, but that […]
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After the hype of Casino Royale, the best bond film since the Connery years, it was almost inevitable that the second helping of the rebooted franchise wouldn’t be as satisfying. This is true, but for me, it didn’t ruin my enjoyment at all. Picking up just an hour after Casino Royale left us hanging, we […]
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Movies as fun, warm-hearted and terrifically scripted as this don’t come along regularly. Surprisingly, we’ve had two in one month – The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and now Liberal Arts, a romantic comedy with wit, intelligence, and a fabulous group of talented actors. Josh Radner, famous for his television comedy work, writes, directs and […]