This film is too small, sensitive and understated to get much mainstream attention, but it was very well received by both audiences and critics when it was released in cinemas last year. It looks at the subject of gender identity by observing a sweet family drama, played from the point of view of a ten-year-old…
After last year’s rather unfair and lazy list of nominations, the 2012 ‘Razzies’ ceremony (known officially as the Golden Raspberry Awards, the ceremony which highlights the worst films of the past 12 months) has grabbed headlines by awarding every single category to the same film. I haven’t seen this year’s biggest winner Jack and Jill, which…
Ken Russell sadly died November last year, and The Devils is a work that haunted him throughout the last forty years of his life. It’s had a troubled history, with censors enforcing cuts upon it. Russell was pressured into reducing and changing certain scenes so as to avoid the film falling foul of the laws and…
The best thing about 21 Jump Street, an adaptation of a 1980s TV series, is its knowing humour. This film isn’t afraid to make fun of itself, Hollywood, the derivative nature of modern filmmaking, high school movies, the youth of today, and the people in the audience. And it really works. This is the first truly…
Coming hot on the heels of last year’s Contagion, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire is the astoundingly prolific director’s first proper foray into the action genre. Soderbergh has never struggled with making genres his own, leaving an obvious authorial signature on each film despite his extensive back catalogue, and Haywire is no exception. The essence of this…
One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, The Hunger Games, is released in cinemas this Friday (23rd March 2012). With a sterling cast including the likes of Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Woody Harrelson (No Country for Old Men) and musician Lenny Kravitz there are high expectations for it to be successful.…
Actors don’t always make great directors when they transfer their talents from in front of the camera to behind it, but British actress Rachel Ward manages the transition rather well. Beautiful Kate, adapted from a novel by Newton Thornberg, observes the relationship between a father and his estranged son. It flashes back to when the…
If you’re looking for something original to watch, avoid this derivative piece of low-budget nonsense. The plot involves a big house, a new family moving into it, a wife who starts to suspect it is haunted, husband/friends who accuse her of being mad, and a horrific crime that happened inside the house years ago. Now…
Joel Schumacher, known for his destruction of the Batman film franchise prior to Nolan’s adaption, returns with what can only be described as a below-average popcorn flick.It follows a clichéd rich family (Nicole Kidman, Nicholas Cage and Liana Liberato) as they are trapped and taken hostage within their own private domain after a group of…
Two Mexican-American sisters (Alex Vega and Camilla Belle) who have lost their mother suddenly become orphans when their father dies. They have lived comfortably all their lives in a beautiful mansion, but it turns out their dad was in debt and they have no choice but let the house go. They move to a dodgy…
You can immediately tell something may be amiss with a person when you hear their nickname is “Date Rape”. This is most certainly the case with LAPD Officer Dave Brown, played with gusto by Woody Harrelson, who is partial to the odd bit of racism, womanising as well as violently assaulting any person that crosses…
Robert Pattinson is bankable property, being the star of one of the most lucrative teen franchises of modern times, and it would be easy to get cynical about his casting in this new adaptation of the classic Guy de Maupassant novel. But he’s rather good and gives hope that there may be a bright cinematic…
Essentially an exhausting two-hour chase, Swedish Director Daniel Espinosa’s espionage thriller abortively endeavours to emulate the convoluted sophistication of the Bourne trilogy. Obeying the formulaic, enigmatic and valiant assault against corruption, David Guggenheim’s script sacrifices the elegant intricacy of the Bourne films in favour of simplistic, brutal action which seldom stops to breathe. Whilst being…
I haven’t seen every film ever nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, but I’m sure Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close has to be one of the worst to be given such high recognition. It isn’t exactly hard to work out why it received Oscar nods. The drama is stimulated by the sense of loss…