Jamie Neish
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Film Review: ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’
★★☆☆☆ Lasse Hallström revisits familiar territory with The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), a warmly lit but cloyingly corny and drama-free adaptation of Richard C. Morais’ novel of the same name. Talented cook Hassan (Manish Dayal) and his family – Papa (Om Puri) and his other children – are forced out of Mumbai when their restaurant is…
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FrightFest 2014: ‘Extraterrestrial’ review
★★☆☆☆ Four years after making a respectable impact with his debut Timecrimes (2007), Nacho Vigalondo returns with Extraterrestrial (2011), a low-budget Spanish science fiction drama that’s unlikely to have the same impact. The film centres on Julio (Julián Villagrán) and Julia (Michelle Jenner), two people who wake up together with no memory of the night…
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Film Review: ‘What If’
★★★☆☆ Daniel Radcliffe continues to stretch his capacity in Michael Dowse’s What If (2013), a smart and funny American romantic comedy that puts a modern spin on the age-old topic of whether men and woman can merely be friends. Mourning the loss of his failed relationship, Wallace (Radcliffe) attends a party thrown by his friend…
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Film Review: ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’
★★☆☆☆ Nine years after the release of 2005’s Sin City, directors Robert Rodriquez and Frank Miller (who also wrote the script) reunite for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). Not much has changed, however. As visually intoxicating as the film is on the outside, it’s dimly vacant on the inside, with not even…
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DVD Review: ‘The Quiet Ones’
★★☆☆☆ After achieving relative recent success with 2010’s Let Me In (directed by Matt Reeves) and 2012’s Victorian frightener The Woman in Black, the recently revived Hammer return to UK screens with The Quiet Ones (2014), a stylish and ably acted yet ultimately lacklustre psychological horror that’s as predictable as it is almost entirely devoid…
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Film Review: ‘The Unbeatables’
★★☆☆☆ Premièred at last year’s San Sebastian Festival, The Unbeatables (2013) – previously entitled Metegol (Foosball) – is a curious breed of animated adventure fodder, and not merely because it’s Academy Award-winning director Juan José Campanella’s follow-up to the widely different The Secret in Their Eyes (2009). In his youth, skilled foosball player Amadeo (Rupert…
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Film Review: ‘Hector and the Search for Happiness’
★☆☆☆☆ A misfiring Simon Pegg slips up yet again in Peter Chelsom’s Hector & the Search for Happiness (2014), a woeful excuse for a British dramedy. Adapted from self-help author François Lelord’s novel of the same name, the film centres on Hector (Pegg), a psychiatrist with a doting other half Clara (Rosamund Pike) and a…
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Film Review: ‘The Expendables 3’
★★☆☆☆ Sylvester Stallone and his ragtag team of aging action heroes return in the much-pirated The Expendables 3 (2014), the third and potentially final entry in the preposterous, testosterone-fuelled franchise. However, as persistent and mildly diverting as it proves on a surface level, this latest outing is pretty vacant underneath, with only the bare outlines…
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Film Review: ‘The Inbetweeners 2’
★★☆☆☆ The original Inbetweeners Movie (2011) surprised both critics and audiences alike with its financial success. The big screen version of British TV series accumulated an estimated £45m at the UK box office, all but assuring a sequel. Low and behold, three years later and the foursome – now a little older but none the…
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Film Review: ‘The House of Magic’
★★★☆☆ With the likes of Disney Pixar and DreamWorks Animation already riding high on a wave of critical acclaim, box office success and Academy Awards, European animation houses are starting to emerge with increasingly strong output. The House of Magic (2013), the latest 3D animated adventure from Belgium’s nWave Pictures, illustrates this well. Unfortunately, for…