Month: April 2016
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Film Review: Ratchet & Clank
★★☆☆☆ Some 16 years ago, action-packed third-person videogame Ratchet & Clank blasted into the hearts and minds of many when it was released for the long-shelved PlayStation 2. It was inevitable that, at some point down the line, a film adaptation would be made – and here it is. Even ith many of the original…
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Film Review: Heaven Knows What
★★★☆☆ We all know that some people take heroin but for most of us it is what “those people” do, a practice beyond the fringes of mainstream society we engage with at a distance – if at all – through the press and stylised media representations. With their latest feature, Heaven Knows What, Josh and…
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Film Review: Hard Tide
★★☆☆☆ “Where you going to run? This is Margate!” yells the stocky Mr. Big of the over-familiar seaside crime thriller Hard Tide. This small town on the Kent coast seems an unlikely setting for nefarious doings but the film starts out as a convincing enough tale. Jake (Nathanael Wiseman) is a drug dealer and enforcer,…
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Film Review: Golden Years
★★★☆☆ If there’s one thing to be learned from the Hatton Garden robbery, it’s that OAPs are not to be underestimated when it comes to audacious heists. Golden Years is a light-hearted, entertaining crime romp that bounces around the high street banks of middle England at a geriatric shuffle. There are plenty of laughs and…
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Film Review: Captain America: Civil War
★★★☆☆ The Russo brothers return with Captain America: Civil War, pitting two of Marvel’s favourite sons against each other – but are you #TeamCap or #TeamIronman? Swathes of superheroes go at it and action abounds, but at the core of this film is not the light-hearted frolics of Joss Whedon’s Avengers outings. Instead, this is…
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Film Review: Arabian Nights: Volume Two
★★★★☆ The second part in the Arabian Nights saga slowly but surely raises a middle finger to the Portuguese establishment. As its subtitle suggests the mood moves toward the disconsolate, the desperate and the disenfranchised. There’s a weary helplessness to The Desolate One which makes its overall tone far more sombre than the amusing oddity…
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DVD Review: The Zero Boys
★★★☆☆ Cult film archivists Arrow Video sometimes unearth an obscure artefact from a cinematic bygone era which proves to be something of a lost gem and is rightfully lavished with the kind of praise that has previously eluded it. It’s safe to say The Zero Boys isn’t one of those releases, yet in its own…
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DVD Review: The Ninth Configuration
★★★★☆ Ever had trouble in a casual conversation explaining the plot of a film you’ve recently watched? Try recounting what happens in The Ninth Configuration and you’re liable to end up in a gibbering, tongue-tied mess on the floor. A uniquely original take on the manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder, it tiptoes around maintaining a…
