Reviews
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DVD Review: ‘The King’s Speech’
★★★★☆ The King’s Speech (2010) delves deep into the relationship between two men – one a common man and the other a royal – by exploring the romance of true friendship and asks us to invest ourselves emotionally in such a relationship. The film traces the turbulent and painful accession to the throne of King George…
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DVD Review: ‘Dinoshark’
★☆☆☆☆ From the producers of Sharktopus (2011) comes its long lost cousin, Dinoshark (2011) – a prehistoric beast frozen in ice for around 150 million years. When global warming strikes the polar ice caps, its frozen tomb is shattered, leaving it free to roam the oceans of the 21st century. Roger Corman is back once…
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Cannes Film Festival 2011: Preview
With a week to go until the highly anticipated 2011 edition of the Cannes Film Festival gets underway, CineVue takes a brief look at some of the award front runners and exciting program choices which comprise this year’s lineup.As always, a plethora of distinguished guests and world-cinema stars will grace the red carpet in the…
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DVD Review: ‘Bloodrayne: The Third Reich’
★☆☆☆☆ It probably doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a cinematic combination between Nazis and vampires is, at best, a misguided concept. However, if one were so inclined to pursue such a ridiculous idea, then it should at least be conducted with a sense of humour or a tongue-in-cheek slant.Yet somehow, the atrocity…
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Film Review: ‘Insidious’
★★★☆☆ Having been billed as the new Paranormal Activity (2008), I went to see Inisidious (2011) with perhaps undue expectation. Was I disappointed? In a way, yes: it’s no way near as clever nor innovative, but it certainly delivers the necessary abundance of ‘jumps’ and tension-filled over-the-shoulder tracking shots to be credited as an effective…
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Udine Far East Film Festival 2011: ‘The Lost Bladesman’
★★★★☆ The opening night of the 13th Udine Far East Film Festival showcased the latest in a long line of Chinese pseudo-historical blockbusters, the European premiere of Alan Mak and Felix Chong’s The Lost Bladesman (2011), starring Donnie Yen. Beautiful images in soft hues, powerful ear splitting sound effects and soaring music announce this epic martial…
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Film Review: ‘Scream 4’
★★★☆☆ As belated as it is unexpected, considering the loose end-tying finale of the flat third instalment in the franchise, Scream 4 (2011) (or Scre4m in some circles) comes eleven years after the previous and apparently final chapter in the post-modern slasher trilogy, reuniting screenwriter Kevin Williamson with self-made master of suspense Wes Craven for…
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DVD Review: ‘Ink’
★★★☆☆ After ten minutes of viewing Ink (2009), you may feel the overwhelming compulsion to rip the disc from your DVD player and break it into a hundred shiny pieces. You will have been appalled by the ham acting, disgusted by the shaky camera work and cheap digital cinematography and the dialogue will have caused…
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DVD Releases: ‘Abel’
Those familiar with the name Diego Luna will most likely associate him with his breakthrough performance as Tenoch Iturbide, in Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (2001). Having recently appeared alongside Sean Penn in Milk (2008) Luna is now plying his trade as director, with his debut feature Abel (2010) receiving critical acclaim in abundance.Part…
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DVD Review: ‘Confessions’
★★★★☆ Tetsuya Nakashima’s Confessions (2010) is a powerful exploration and dissection of what we understand about ourselves as human beings and the fine line between our civility and the reality of our innate primal behaviour. By juxtaposing the bewildering and inconsequential age of adolescence with the reality of adulthood, Nakashima provides a fierce arena, within…