Reviews
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DVD Releases: ‘Tangled’
Rumours that Tangled (2010) represented a return to form by Disney have been swirling since it’s release, but I was pessimistic and decided that the gossip was nothing more than good promotion and over hype. On top of that I figured that an animated musical had little or nothing to offer an old timer such…
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DVD Review: ‘True Blood: Season 3’
★★★★☆ With the release of vamp drama True Blood’s third season on DVD and Blu-ray, it’s hard to ignore the show’s rapid climb from cult favourite to ratings winner, a result of its sexy and explosive appearance, making it one of the hottest shows on television in recent years. Whilst at first glance True Blood…
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Cannes Film Festival 2011: Award winners announced
US filmmaker Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011) has won the Palme d’Or prize at this year’s 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The reclusive director did not attend the star-studded ceremony itself, but the award was picked up by producers Bill Pohlad and Dede Gardner. The anticipation surrounding Malick’s fifth film in four decades was…
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DVD Review: ‘Client 9: The Rise & Fall of Eliot Spitzer’
★★★☆☆ In 2008, Eliot Spitzer stepped down as governor of New York when he was found to be ‘Client 9’ at the Emperor’s Club, a high-priced escort service catering to Wall Street’s wealthiest. Spitzer, tipped to become America’s first Jewish president, was forced into an early retirement, to the glee of the city’s market investors…
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DVD Review: ‘Budrus’
★★★★★ Budrus (2009) is a truly remarkable documentary of great power. The film documents Budrus, a small village in Palestine on the borders of Israel, and the story of the village leader who unites Fatah, Hamas and members of the international community in a peaceful protest against occupying troops attempting to erect the dividing wall.The…
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DVD Review: ‘True Justice: Street Wars’
★☆☆☆☆ Apparently Steven Seagal turned down a role in The Expendables (2010) over a falling out with the film’s producer regarding the ageing actor’s poor run of straight to DVD releases, leaving him unable to join Sylvester Stallone in what could have been his first big screen appearance since 2002’s Half Past Dead. Instead, Seagal wrote True Justice:…
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DVD Releases: ‘Lovely, Still’
★★★☆☆ It can be argued that mature romance is a rarely found theme in contemporary cinema, so much so that when it comes to describing Lovely, Still (2008) the first thing you should know is that it is a film that depicts a tenderly observed budding relationship between two older characters, a romance shot with…
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DVD Releases: ‘The Twilight Zone’ Season One Blu-ray (1959-1960)
★★★★★ Having been available in the States and Australia for some time now, the Blu-Ray release of the first season of The Twilight Zone finally reaches UK shores. However, this isn’t just for Zone fans; this Blu-ray release also means that there is now an opportunity for people who have never seen The Twilight Zone to…
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DVD Review: ‘I Saw the Devil’
★★★★☆ Like so many films of its ilk, the opening scene in director Kim Jee-Woon’s stylishly brutal I Saw the Devil (2010) sees a vulnerable young woman viciously murdered in her car by a sadistic serial killer whilst awaiting rescue. Starting as he means to go on, Jee-Woon takes the revenge thriller and turns it…
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DVD Releases: ‘Blue Valentine’
★★★★☆ Paying ill-concealed deference to narrative conventions, the unpredictable and often excruciating twists of love and relationships must be codified into the language of cinema, often more for their ostensive value as entertainment than as study or discussion. Derek Cianfrance’s second feature, Blue Valentine (2010), is then the antithetical romantic drama: a reflection of romance…