Reviews
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DVD Releases: ‘Wake Wood’
Wake Wood (2011) is the latest Hammer outing in association with Vertigo Films and with the backing of the Irish Film Council. Does it have the same ingredients, resonance and capacity to stand the test of time as did the Hammer productions of the 60s and 70s? The answer here is a definitive ‘Yes.’Wake Wood…
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DVD Releases: ‘In the Land of the Free’
In the Land of the Free (2010) documents the experiences of Robert King, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who were imprisoned in the 1970s for petty offences that they may not have comitted. Following their incarceration. each of the men became actively involved with the Black Panther Party (BPP). The BPP campaigned, sometimes violently, for further…
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DVD Review: ‘Caged’
★★☆☆☆ From the disturbing nuances of Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf (2003), through the convulsive violence of Gaspar Noé and Bruno Dumont to the hypnotic lunacy of Vincent Gallo succumbing to an unexplained bloodlust in Clair Denis’ Trouble Every Day (2001), corporeal shock tactics have been somewhat in vogue over the past decade in France,…
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Film Review: ‘Source Code’
★★★★☆ Having knocked the sci-fi world for six with his critically-lauded debut, Moon, back in 2009, anticipation and speculation has continued to build around whether or not Duncan Jones is merely a one-trick pony or this generation’s Ridley Scott. With his second feature Source Code (2011) hitting the cinemas this week, we’re finally able to…
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DVD Review: ‘Edge of the Empire’
★★☆☆☆ Some may argue that without a cultured knowledge of Thai cinema it would be unfair to judge a film like Edge of the Empire (2010) alongside similar westernised productions, as we may not understand its true worth; therefore, a little research into the film’s crew and cast is necessary before analysing the overall quality…
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Film Review: ‘Sucker Punch’
★★☆☆☆ Zack Snyder is not a director who does things by halves. One needs look no further than his previous three offerings, 300 (2006), Watchmen (2009) and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010) to see the kind of visual ambition he brings to each and every one of his films. Even if…
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Film Review: ‘Oranges and Sunshine’
★★★★☆ ‘Understated’ is a word that is rarely applied to mainstream entertainment today. With the rapid advancement in technology that enables 3D graphics and surround-sound not just into people’s cinemas but their living rooms, it’s a refreshing experience to sit and observe, and not be a player in the action. Don’t get me wrong –…
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Film Review: ‘Blooded’
★★☆☆☆ On his knees, a gun to his head and wearing nought but his underwear, the UK’s leading pro-fox hunting figurehead stares into the camera of his captors and refuses to submit that his life-long passion is actually nothing more than inhuman brutality. This is just one of many equally underwhelming sequences that comprise British…
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DVD Releases: ‘Made in Dagenham’
For a film that wants itself to be taken seriously, Made in Dagenham’s (2010) marketing campaign has made it very hard to look at the film as anything other than light-hearted and cheap. The generic ‘group of smiling people on a white background’ poster and uninspired title makes it out to be a dull and vacuous affair, but…
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Film Review: ‘His & Hers’
★★★★☆ What stays with the viewer most after watching Ken Wardrop’s documentary His & Hers (2011) is not the power of film, specifically documentary, to capture the intricacies of normal life; it’s the beauty of the apparently ‘normal life’ itself. The relatively uninspiring subject of presenting a series of women (seventy in total) talking about…