Depp is as enigmatic as ever as the infamous thief John Dillinger, who with his group of fellow criminals targets big city banks and walks out with all the cash. The surprise of the film however turns out to be Christian Bale as the officer hunting him. Michael Man’s direction is terrific, and the many parts…
Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliantly entertaining chase movie still proves as effective as ever, thanks to an astonishingly crisp new high definition print from Warner Bros. If you’re going to revisit this classic masterpiece, or try it out for the first time, I strongly advise you get hold of Warner Bros’ Blu-ray edition. HD mastering doesn’t come…
I must first make something clear. There is a current movement in blockbuster cinema that has high aspirations. It dares to be different and give its audience good, intelligent stories told in a serious way with superb technical skill and understanding of the power of cinema. Christopher Nolan, the British director of the two previous Batman films…
Director Lee Unkrich’s heart-warming animated charmer may well be the best of the beloved Toy Story series. It serves as a rather beautiful and moving goodbye to the characters Pixar created more than fifteen years ago. Andy is off the university, and is faced with the task of donating his old toys before he leaves. When Woody,…
This is an action movie that isn’t stupid, sexed up, or part of a Hasbro toy franchise/comic-book series/theme-park legacy. Of course, it does star Angelina Jolie, a woman that occupies many men’s dreams, but she is never overly sexualised in this film, nor does her character take part in any kinky antics that involve the…
Trevor Eve and Hermione Norris play the well-off middle class parents of Prue (28 Days Later’s Imogen Poots). She is adored by her father – rather too much, if truth be told – and has become entangled with Gavin (Tom Riley), a dangerous, manipulative and very attractive young man. He is her sixth form English teacher,…
David Fincher’s The Social Network a superb film; a modern masterpiece – an excellent drama of well-drawn real life characters, compelling situations and a key event in recent history. The movie sets out to show how a website that is supposed to unite people ultimately destroyed the friendship of its co-creators. It all begins at…
I wasn’t very complimentary about The Search for Santa Paws, the 2010 straight-to-disc Christmassy family film about Santa’s puppy that gets lost in the big wide world. It was cheap, silly rubbish, and contained some of the most dire musical numbers that I had ever seen. Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups is, at first…
Rambunctious yet lovable Delta House fraternity fight for their college survival against fun-sponge Dean Wormer and his preppy minions here in John Landis’s hysterical frat-comedy. Being one of the films to help launch the gross-out genre, the humour is of the immature sort that you’d expect. Yes, girls are ‘perved’ on, beer bottles are constantly…
The year 1999 was a stand-out year for American cinema, releasing Fight Club, The Matrix, Being John Malkovich, The Green Mile and of course American Pie. However, American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes, is the perfect drama. Following the life mid-life crisis of Lester Burnham, played by the brilliant Kevin Spacey, the film depicts his…
Though far from being a masterpiece – or even just good – this independent British thriller is better than the 1 star reputation it has managed to cultivate. The acting is dodgy and the plotting weak, but a claustrophobia-inducing atmosphere and menacing tension is kept strong throughout. Danny Dyer, who became a bit of a…
Moulin Rouge is every clichéd love story. A penniless writer (Ewan McGregor) falls in love with the beautiful lead courtesan (Nicole Kidman), who tried so hard not to reciprocate these feelings; but in the end realises it’s true love. Oh and it’s set in Paris. And they express themselves through song. As a film concept, it…
When this controversial French film was released earlier this year, many critics condemned it as torture-porn, criticising its relentlessly brutal nature so strongly, you’d think the devil himself was distributing it. I have sympathy with this view – Martyrs is a shockingly violent ordeal, repulsive and visceral in extreme levels. But it is so much more than…
This impressive two-hander, starring Kristen Scott Thomas as a woman who has been abducted, was given a rather lukewarm reception upon its theatrical release earlier this year. In my opinion, it was underrated. In Your Hands is actually an intelligent, superbly acted, quietly intense psychological drama about regret, revenge and desire. Scott Thomas is a…