With interest in superhero movies at an all time high, many studios have begun fighting for the hottest properties. Everyone’s heard of Batman, Spider-Man and by now, even Thor, but one name that never seems to be mentioned is the Crimson Bolt. This is of course part of the charm of James Gunn’s deliciously deluded…
Christmas can be a bloody nightmare. Apparently.
It’s nearly Halloween! And that means you have to be thinking about scary films, and every Christmas list needs some scary treats on it (even if it’s just to stock up for next Halloween!). This is a Universal horror film. In the 30s, Universal was a pioneer in the horror genre, making scares a legitimate…
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 Allan Poe. The real…
Carey Mulligan always used to seem like an actor teetering on the very brink of stardom, but with this film she finally made it, giving a wonderful performance. She plays a bright eyed young Oxbridge hopeful, who is cramming in as much studying as she can for her big exams. But when she meets smooth…
David Fincher’s The Social Network is a superb film; a modern masterpiece – an excellent drama of well-drawn real life characters, compelling situations and a key event in recent history. Jeff Cronenweth’s exquisite cinematography, shot on the Red One digital camera, gives the film a dark and claustrophobic sense of menace. The beautifully controlled lighting also brings…
Barnaby Walter reviews the BFI’s new collection of classic Christmas Ghost Stories
Universal’s classic family film, directed by Steven Spielberg, has just been given a dazzling new high definition blu-ray release to coincide with Universal Pictures’ 100th Anniversary Celebrations. This gorgeous steelbook edition will be hungrily hunted down by all BD obsessives and E.T. lovers everywhere. The story, about a harmless alien who befriends a young boy, beautifully captures…
Gosling plays Stephen Meyers, the press secretary to the potential next President, governor Mike Morris (Clooney). Meyers may not be the top-dog on the campaign – that position goes to Paul (Philip Seymour Hoffman) – but he has a certain power and control that his opponents revere and envy. He knows exactly what to do,…
Weaving together the stories of American cook Julia Child (an astonishing Meryl Streep) and New York blogger Julie Powell, this is about two interesting women finding themselves through cooking. Julie Powell cooks her way through Child’s book of 500-plus recipes, giving herself a year to complete her challenge. She’s living the book, and Child, in her part…
Lovely Molly is an outstanding new horror film from Eduardo Sánchez, the co-director of The Blair Witch Project. He is widely regarded as the man who invented, or at least helped champion, the found-footage horror movie, and his latest chiller is an exceptional marriage of third-person and first-person narrative filmmaking. Though arguably derivative, its tone and the…
Adapted from Colin Clark’s memoir The Prince, the Showgirl and Me, the film tells the true story of Colin’s brief relationship with Marilyn Monroe while she was in England shooting at Pinewood. The production of the film, The Prince and the Showgirl, was not smooth, and saw clashes between director Lawrence Olivier and Ms Monroe. Colin, a 23-year-old film…
Everyone loves a Dickens adaptation at Christmas, and this is one of the best ever produced. Spread over fifteen compelling episodes, acclaimed screenwriter Andrew Davies superbly adapts Dickens’s huge multi-stranded novel so that it works perfectly as a mini-series. The cast list contains some of Britain’s finest actors, but for me Gillian Anderson is the highlight. She plays the mysterious…
Salvatore Totino’s cinematography is excellently presented on this Blu-ray release from Universal Pictures.