This superb comedy drama from Juno director Jason Reitman lets George Clooney fall back into his usual role…..the role of George Clooney. Intelligently spoken, quick in a conversation and never boring. But even though he does nothing here we haven’t seen him do before, he happens to be in a movie that’s equal to him…
Pedro Almodóvar has to be one of the most interesting directors working today. Bad Educaition, released in 2004, is a vibrant and beguiling movie, mixing together film noir, melodrama and colourful characters to make something bittersweet and utterly gorgeous. Almodova’s films are like a bucket of different coloured paints, swirled around to make something spectacular, out of…
The Halloween All-Nighter was something of a snap decision for me: with deadlines looming and after the debaucheries of Fright Night, staying up ‘til dawn watching horror films wasn’t all that enticing. But peer pressure can sometimes draw you out of your ‘I’d-rather-have-an-early-night box’ and into some brilliant experiences – and for me, the All-Nighter…
This week at Union Films there’s yet again another great line up of films. If you’re still having nightmares from last week’s horror films then this Tuesday’s film Red Lights might help as it follows the myth-debunking psychological investigators in a thrilling drama that’s sure to get you thinking. Following this we have the weekly…
Award winning Author Sarah Walters’ novel about Victorian England, Fingersmith was adapted into a BBC mini-series by Sally Head Productions in 2005. The DVD combines the two parts into a three hour film (I’m not too sure why, as the two parts of the story work well separately). It has a stellar cast including Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance…
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…
Yesterday afternoon, I made a purchase on an online retailer. It was for a blu-ray box set of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours Trilogy. A collection of three films – Three Colours Blue, Three Colours White, and Three Colours Red – sat on my shelf, watching me as I ordered its replacement. But the collection I…
Vindictive. Exploitive. Malicious. Audacious. Psychotic. Neurotic. Subversive. Oppressive. Impressive. Disturbing. Outstanding?…Perhaps. Pointless?….Perhaps. For esoteric and darring director Michael Haneke’s American based revamp of his own cult-classic does pack a punch, but why remake our own film? Why not. Another question, though- how does a violent film with no on-screen violence obtain an 18 certificate in…
Further to an earlier report, George Lucas has announced that he will be donating the majority of his $4.05 billion settlement from the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney to charity. The filmmaker has not announced which specific organisation the money will be going towards yet, but reports indicate that the chosen charity will be one…
Billy Bob Thornton is at his self-loathing best here playing Willie, a disgruntled alcoholic ‘Mall Santa’, a man who despises the kids that request presents from him almost as much as he hates himself. Every Christmas, Willie, and his obscenity-spewing dwarf companion Marcus (brilliantly played by Tony Cox) rob the Mall that they had been…
Spanking the Monkey is a hugely significant movie in that it deals with a subject matter still so taboo that most directors won’t go near it. David O Russell however is no such director. Boldly going where few dare to go, he gives us his own Oedipus in the form of Ray (Jeremy Davies), a…
Now they have reached their third adaptation, Disney seems to think Dickens’s classic story about the spirit of the festive season is well and truly theirs. Billed as “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”, you’d think that Charles Dickens bloke was just part of the initial conception process, with the Hollywood guys taking it off his hands…
In 2007 Quentin Tarantino teamed up with Robert Rodriguez with the intention of wanting to take audiences back to the days of low-brow, low budget and all round low-quality exploitation cinema. So with this in mind the pair served up Grindhouse, a double feature of lovingly crafted schlock designed to make you feel like you…
If you’re missing some horror from your life after the culmination of this weekend’s Halloween All Nighter at Union Films, we’re here to supply the films that can replenish your deadly souls. We’ve got fantasy horror from Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on Tuesday. That’s followed by two screenings of new-release horror Sinister on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then…