Reviews
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DVD Releases: ‘Dream Home’
Hong Kong horror Dream Home (2010) tells the story of single professional Cheng Li-sheung (Josie Ho), who grows up in an area that isn’t worth a great amount, with dreams and hopes of one day owning a harbour-view apartment. Despite working two jobs and countless hours, the dream always seems just out of reach.However, through pure dedication,…
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Film Review: ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’
★★★★★ The millennia old receives the 3D treatment in Werner Herzog’s truly extraordinary Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011). Having travelled to some of the furthest corners of the Earth – filming on every continent, and producing some unquestionably definitive works of cinema (Fitzcarraldo [1982], Aguirre: The Wrath of God [1972]) – Werner Herzog is not only the…
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Film Review: ‘Forget Me Not’
★★☆☆☆ Forget Me Not (2010) could never be called original – a couple meet in an urban environment, have a wild night together and miraculously they fall for each other in a whirlwind romance has been done before (and a lot better than this, but not much) in films such as Before Sunrise (1995) and…
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DVD Releases: ‘City Island’
Andy Garcia’s portrayal of Vincent Mancini in The Godfather: Part III (1990) is one of the great forgotten performances. He’s the flip side of Pacino’s Michael. The young, energetic, passionate street hustler, as opposed to the ageing, weary and emotionally challenged Don. Garcia nails the role, electrifying the screen with his pent up anger and…
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Film Review: ‘Wake Wood’
★★☆☆☆ Hammer were once the kings of the horror genre in the 70s and early 80s and rightly so – they set the standards for horror films that were often not matched. Despite this, the series fell into a decline that left them dormant for the better part of 30 years. Recently however, they have…
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Film Review: ‘Rango’
★★★★☆ Move over Woody, there’s a new sheriff in town – literally. He’s a loner, an actor, and he lends his name to one of the best animated films in years. Oh, and he just happens to be a chameleon. Rango (Johnny Depp) is the Jack Sparrow of the Mojave – with Pirates director Gore Verbinski…
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DVD Releases: ‘Skyline’
Having prepared myself for a huge budget, Hollywood-friendly, man vs. aliens epic, I found myself somewhat dumbfounded at the bizarre results offered up by the Brothers Strause’s Skyline (2010). On one hand, it is not only derivative of just about every major film of this kind to have emerged over the past 20 years; it’s…
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DVD Review: ‘We Are What We Are’
★★★☆☆ A bedraggled man’s gargling death in a Romero-esque shopping centre sets the stage for this exemplary Mexican horror-satire, the preternaturally assured debut of Jorge Michel Grau. No sooner has the man collapsed to the faux marble floor, than a maintenance team scamper into frame, dragging the body away and mopping the bile from the…
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Film Review: ‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’
★★★☆☆ Midway through Woody Allen’s latest dramedy, Anna Friel’s small role as a budding artist laments to her long time friend Sally (Naomi Watts) that the affair she has recently entered into has turned her life into something resembling a soap opera. This description could not be a more apt term to describe You Will…
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Film Review: ‘Limitless’
★★☆☆☆ Based on Alex Glynn’s 2001 novel The Dark Fields, Limitless (2011) tells the story of Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper), a down-and-out writer who’s suffering chronic writer’s block. Eddie believes his life is falling apart but this all changes when he bumps into a friend who introduces him to the experimental drug ‘NZT’.The drug allows…