Reviews
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DVD Review: ‘Blitz on Britain’
★★★★☆ If you enjoy sitting on Grandad’s knee listening to tales of the war, then pull up a pew for 68 minutes, watch this rerelease of Harry Booth’s classic British documentary Blitz on Britain (1960), and prepare to be uplifted, surprised and informed about the Nazi “Blitzkrieg” that near-levelled entire towns and cities, yet at the…
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Raindance Film Festival 2010: Preview
Amidst the backdrop of torrential rain, tube strikes and road warfare, yesterday saw the press launch of the 2010 Raindance Film Festival, at a top class May Fair hotel. First up on my personal “Must-See List” is opening film Jackboots on Whitehall (2010), Edward and Rory McHenry’s animated satirical comedy which tells the story of a Nazi-occupied, alternate reality England.Featuring…
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DVD Releases: ‘The Brit Indie Collection’
Probably the best value Blu-ray released for a long while, The Brit Indie Collection contains four of the best British films of the 1990’s/early 2000’s. Two are Danny Boyle’s initial films, Trainspotting (1996) and Shallow Grave (1994), and both are brilliant pieces of work. Although most remember Trainspotting as the first “The British are coming!”…
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Theatrical Releases: ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’
As the director of Channel 4’s cult comedy Spaced, Edgar Wright put a surreal, hyperactive slant on the story of a bunch of twenty-something slackers; with Shaun of the Dead (2004), he showed that he could wrench a heartfelt emotional payoff from even the most unlikely of scenarios; and with Hot Fuzz (2007), he proved himself…
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Theatrical Releases: ‘Certified Copy’
Certified Copy is the first of Abbas Kiarostami’s features to be filmed outside his native Iran. He is renowned for his use of non-professional actors, but here he employs the considerable talents of Juliette Binoche (winner of the Best Actress award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival) to work alongside British opera-singer William Shimmel, in…
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DVD Review: ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’
★★★☆☆ With such a ridiculous title, it would be unwise to enter the world of Hot Tub Time Machine with the preconception that what you are about to see is anything but lavishly ludicrous. The plot fails to stretch far beyond the fact that four guys hop into a hot tub, only to find when…
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DVD Review: ‘Four Lions’
★★★★★ It was almost inevitable that the cinematic debut from actor, writer and director Chris Morris would attract an inordinate amount of controversy and media attention. For those uninitiated in the work of British comedy’s enfant terrible, Morris kick-started his career on Armando Iannucci’s BBC Radio 4 news-spoof On the Hour as a veracious, ‘Paxman-esque’…
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DVD Releases: ‘Cemetery Junction’
There’s been a lot said about Cemetery Junction (2010), the first feature release co-written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, mostly (and to the film’s detriment) by Gervais himself. What is worth realizing before watching the film is that despite what so many reviews have failed to realize, the film is an homage to…
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Theatrical Releases: ‘The Illusionist’
When you’re writer and director Sylvain Chomet, following up your universally adored and critically acclaimed first feature, whilst at the same time meeting the subsequent expectations that inherently come with such accolades, is understandably going to be an immensely difficult and somewhat daunting task.However, just as he did with Belleville Rendezvous (2003), with his latest…
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Theatrical Releases: ‘Knight and Day’
Tom Cruise often comes across as a pint-sized, arrogant, pampered Hollywood cliché, and his notorious appearance on The Oprah Winfrey show could (and perhaps should) have been the final nail in his career’s 5ft solid gold coffin, yet Cruise somehow bounced back onto screens earlier this year with the globe-trotting action adventure Knight and Day (2010). Knight and…