Film reviews and more
How do you review a film that you’re not allowed to talk about? New film releases are generally placed under an embargo of some sort, but Secret Cinema – the London-based film event where patrons buy a ticket without knowing […]
★★☆☆☆ The First Movie (1999) is an ultimately disappointing, overly self-reverential documentary from filmmaker and journalist Mark Cousins, whose recent More4 TV series The Story of Film: An Odyssey was – adversely – an intelligently written and insightful piece of […]
★★☆☆☆ Conan the Barbarian (2011), starring Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa as the more brawn than brain warrior and Rachel Nichols as Tamara his prerequisite love interest, is a lacklustre reboot of the original 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic. Conan […]
★★★★☆ The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) opens with the forever sexually-deluded Jay (James Buckley), naked but for a pair of snorkels and slithers of ham strewn inexplicably about his person, enthusiastically masturbating to European pornography. At this exquisite moment of teenage […]
★★★★☆ Written and directed by J.J. Abrams and with Steven Spielberg as its producer, Super 8 (2011) tells the story of a group of young filmmakers who inadvertently capture a horrific train crash whilst filming a scene for their amateur […]
★★★☆☆ One of few box office successes to stand out from a crop of misfiring summer blockbusters, Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) may not be the subtlest of allegories but its revolutionary hero Caesar – […]
★★★★☆ Winner of the Special Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Mike Cahill’s celestial cinematic voyage Another Earth (2011) is a fantastic example of how science fiction should be used – transcending the spectacle associated with the […]
Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) received its European premiere tonight in London’s Leicester Square amidst wind, rain and the cheers of a huge, bedraggled crowd. Braving the icy weather, director Ritchie and stars Jude Law and […]
★★★☆☆ This August saw the sad death of prolific Chilean director Raoul Ruiz, whose last complete film Mysteries of Lisbon (2010) – based upon Camilo Castelo Branco’s classic novel – opens this week at selected cinemas. Set in the 19th […]
★☆☆☆☆ Few occasions hold as much emotional significance in people’s minds as the end of another year, and few moments are able to elicit as many new resolutions, life-changing thoughts and tears of sorrow and regret as the New Year’s […]
★★★★☆ Almost a decade after DreamWorks Animation first released Shrek (2001), the billion dollar franchise’s quality control hit an all time low with the tired and clumsy Shrek Forever After (2010). It might be a while before we see a […]
With his shock of white hair and chat show friendly exuberance, the late cult director Ken Russell was a recognisable and entertaining presence throughout the seventies and eighties. He belonged to an extraordinary generation of British filmmakers, which included John […]