The phrase ‘cancer comedy’ sounds distasteful, but writer Will Reisner has managed to turn his own personal cancer story into a bromantic comedy-drama with character-driven wit and charm. My apprehensions were met as 50/50 features Seth Rogen on typical crude, mildly offensive, weed-smoking form. This may all sound too familiar, yes, but in a crucially…
Firstly, can I make it quite clear that I don’t overreact when it comes to these torture-porn films, and most of the time I see an audience and even sometimes artistic credit to them: Saw, Hostel, and I managed to sit through the majority A Serbian Film (2010). Even in The Human Centipede (First Sequence)…
This is a wonderfully creepy and very intelligent ghost story from first-time feature film director Nick Murphy. Backed by the BBC and French film giants StudioCanal, it’s yet another example of how exciting, vibrant and varied British filmmaking is at this moment in time. The story is reminiscent of other similar chillers, such as The…
The first part of the final chapter of the sickening vampire love story series is both pointless and boring.
This is a rather unsuccessful adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel by Hunter S. Thompson, a fictionalised account of his experience as a writer trying to make his mark in the world of journalism and publishing. Our protagonist’s name is Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp), a struggling author who arrives in Puerto Rico to work as an…
Union Films confuse the audience with laughable ‘horror’ films, in addition to an incredible gorefest, at their Halloween all-nighter.
This year has been a great year for good, high quality cinema. The Ides of March is one of 2011’s best. It’s directed by George Clooney (who also takes a supporting role) and stars Ryan Gosling, the hottest – both talent-wise and looks-wise – young actor on the planet right now. It’s a twisty and…
Paedophobic cinema has become a fairly classic staple of the horror genre. The Omen, The Exorcist and The Shining have all helped cultivate, or perhaps manipulate, our very potent fear of witnessing something so innocent display traces of evil. To some extent We Need to Talk About Kevin is a horror movie. First and foremost…
Let me get something essential out of the way: if you are going to see this film expecting a dramatic remake of Outbreak, a movie with the same moody bleakness as Children of Men, or in fact anything resembling a post-apocalyptic disaster movie, then you may be slightly disappointed. Contagion is filmed like a documentary, has…
This severely overrated romantic comedy drama is a rather boring rehash of Valentine’s Day, The Kids Are All Right and It’s Complicated, with none of the latter two’s charm or wit. It isn’t as horrendous as Valentine’s Day (not many things are), but it does have one of those all-these-different-people-connected-by-love-or-the-hunt-for-love-and-maybe-they-are-closer-connected-than-you-think type of narratives. Steve Carell…
The best Norwegian mockumentary about trolls you’ll see all year…
Think feminine equivalent to Taken for this new high-concept low-quality action thriller co-scripted by Luc Besson, which rips its plot from his own Leon. Zoe Saldana is the daughter of a Colombian mobster whose boss has her father and mother killed in front of her, triggering her violent and vengeful path towards retribution. Cliff Curtis…
New Brit-film ‘A Lonely Place to Die’ suffers from an identity crisis, says The EDGE.
The Devil’s Double tells the unbelievable story of Latif Yahia, the proud Iraqi soldier who was forced to serve as Uday Hussein’s (the eldest son of Saddam Hussein) body double. Dominic Cooper, whose past work includes The History Boys and Mamma Mia!, steps up to the challenge of playing both of these characters with an…