This incredibly boring film, adapted from Owen Sheers’s novel, attempts to show us what life may have been like for Welsh citizens if the Nazis had successfully invaded Britain during the Second World War. Although far from an original set-up, the idea of life during the take-over of a country could have been used to…
I am not lacking in experience when it comes to sick movies. I’ve sat through some pretty nasty stuff; Hostel, the Saw films, Antichrist, Martyrs, a variety of extreme Asian torture movies – all the gore, trauma and pain has passed before my eyes either at the cinema or on the television. However, Sucker Punch has…
Anyone who’s seen Joss Whedon’s cult space western hit Firefly ought to know the appeal of a story about a group of bounty hunters travelling all over the universe, finding paying contracts that lead to all sorts of intriguing escapades, all so they can earn enough to get food on the table. When one follows…
Novelist Julia Leigh’s directorial debut is a strange and uncomfortable drama that is both beautiful and ugly at the same time. Some have taken offence to its subject matter, whereas others (such as the Daily Mail’s critic Chris Tookey) have criticised it for its slow meandering narrative. Tookey described it as ‘very, very, very boring’.…
André Øvredal’s fantasy thriller promises so much, and does offer a few moments of genuine excitement, however it ultimately fails where similar films have succeeded. TrollHunter follows a group of students who are investigating some local bear killings and try to find the poacher Hans (Otto Jespersen) supposedly behind the attacks. However, they discover he…
Despite some buzz early last year, and an impressive cast, Spencer Susser’s odd but curiously sweet film Hesher skips a theatrical outing in the UK and heads straight to DVD. It’s not a brilliant film, but it’s miles better than much of the drivel that frequently crowds the screens. Maybe it will pick up a…
Although David Nicholls’s big-screen adaptation of his own bestseller is far from perfect, the very sweet and engaging lead performances make it fairly enjoyable. Director Loan Scherfig, whose previous film An Education made a star of Carey Mulligan, here takes on two rather more established young actors, Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturges, to play Emma…
The Three Musketeers, made into a film? In 3D you say? Christophe Waltz and Orlando Bloom as the baddies? With Matthew Macfadyen and pretty boy Logan Lermen as the Musketeers? Flying ships and swordfights? And James Corden as a hilarious servant? This sounds fantastic! Well you’d be wrong. Unfortunately this film falls rather flat. There…
The Hunters is an abysmal horror thriller that starts off poorly and continues to climb ever lower down the ladder of quality. The story involves three separate strands that begin to intertwine. One is the story of an ex-army veteran who enters a town’s police force while clearly suffering from PTSD. He is suspicious about…
When Anna (Milla Jovovich), a primary school teacher (or elementary school teacher, as our friends across the Atlantic call them) is attacked by a serial killer after witnessing him commit a murder, she suffers severe brain damage due to a trauma to the head. As a result, she starts to suffer from prosopagnosia, a disorder…
Shot amidst the stunning Scottish countryside, this Brit-flick has a promising start but ultimately struggles to live up to its premise.
Death rears its violent and elaborate head once again in this, the fifth instalment of the Final Destination franchise, but is it time for the nasty fella to finally punch in his last ticket? For those unfamiliar with the series, the average film from the Final Destination canon focuses on a group of people who are…
Pedro Almodóvar is the most internationally acclaimed Spanish director and writer known to modern day cinema. His legacy, including All About My Mother, Talk to Her and Volver, left his latest feature The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito), starring Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya, with a great deal to live up to. Knowing that the…
Watching Kill List was, for me, a rather disappointing experience. When it was released in theatres last autumn it received a large amount of critical fawning and praise, and I can understand why. It’s got some intelligently written dialogue in it; it’s shockingly bloody at times (and I mean shocking); and it has a whiplash…