The Avengers? Avengers Assemble? Marvel Avengers Assemble? Marvel’s Avengers Assemble? Marvel’s The Avengers? God knows what this movie is called. Different publications give it different titles depending who they listen to and where they are geographically. Disney reportedly changed the name to Avengers Assemble to avoid confusion with the television series The Avengers, although that…
I must be one of the few people in the world who haven’t read The Hunger Games, the first in a series of novels aimed at teenagers about teenagers. Except the world author Suzanne Collins has created isn’t full of ordinary teen problems such as who fancies who (although there is a bit of that)…
It’s very hard to talk about this entertaining and at times ingenious horror thriller without giving too much away. It really is one of those films where the less you know, the better the experience will be. Therefore I shall do my best to keep the secrets of The Cabin in the Woods. It starts…
After last year’s rather unfair and lazy list of nominations, the 2012 ‘Razzies’ ceremony (known officially as the Golden Raspberry Awards, the ceremony which highlights the worst films of the past 12 months) has grabbed headlines by awarding every single category to the same film. I haven’t seen this year’s biggest winner Jack and Jill, which…
The best thing about 21 Jump Street, an adaptation of a 1980s TV series, is its knowing humour. This film isn’t afraid to make fun of itself, Hollywood, the derivative nature of modern filmmaking, high school movies, the youth of today, and the people in the audience. And it really works. This is the first truly…
One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, The Hunger Games, is released in cinemas this Friday (23rd March 2012). With a sterling cast including the likes of Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Woody Harrelson (No Country for Old Men) and musician Lenny Kravitz there are high expectations for it to be successful.…
You can immediately tell something may be amiss with a person when you hear their nickname is “Date Rape”. This is most certainly the case with LAPD Officer Dave Brown, played with gusto by Woody Harrelson, who is partial to the odd bit of racism, womanising as well as violently assaulting any person that crosses…
Robert Pattinson is bankable property, being the star of one of the most lucrative teen franchises of modern times, and it would be easy to get cynical about his casting in this new adaptation of the classic Guy de Maupassant novel. But he’s rather good and gives hope that there may be a bright cinematic…
Essentially an exhausting two-hour chase, Swedish Director Daniel Espinosa’s espionage thriller abortively endeavours to emulate the convoluted sophistication of the Bourne trilogy. Obeying the formulaic, enigmatic and valiant assault against corruption, David Guggenheim’s script sacrifices the elegant intricacy of the Bourne films in favour of simplistic, brutal action which seldom stops to breathe. Whilst being…
I haven’t seen every film ever nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, but I’m sure Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close has to be one of the worst to be given such high recognition. It isn’t exactly hard to work out why it received Oscar nods. The drama is stimulated by the sense of loss…
It is not uncommon to hear people moan that older actors, particularly women of a certain age, are not sufficiently provided for in terms of proper, leading roles in mainstream cinema. This complaint is not an unfair one. But The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, whilst not perfect, does try to right that wrong. It’s a…
The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, Chronicle, The Devil Inside…there have been a lot of so-called ‘found footage’ movies. Studios like them – it means they can shoot or buy in a film without spending much cash, and then harvest in potentially phenomenal profits. Many of these films have been advertised to their target audiences (generally teenagers) via…
A workable version of the dramatic thriller, but does not reach the heights of the superb 2009 Swedish-language version.
After an arduous two decades, executive producer George Lucas and director Anthony Hemingway finally get to tell the heroic legend of the gallant and courageous Tuskegee Airmen’s gruelling struggle against the German Luftwaffe and the cruel institutional racism within the American military. Despite noble intentions, the film’s poignancy is plagued by predictability as clichés, one-dimensional…