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Film Review: ‘The Adjustment Bureau’
★★★★☆ Adapted from a Philip K. Dick short story first published in the 1950s, screenwriter George Nolfi’s directorial debut The Adjustment Bureau (2011) is less sci-fi-thriller and more timeless romance than perhaps anyone may ever have expected from the writer of The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Carefully but never dutifully maintaining a highly watchable neutral on the…
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Birds Eye View Film Festival 2011: Preview
Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Antonioni and Steven Spielberg; what do they have in common? Well, quite obviously they are all extremely well-known directors. The other thing they have in common is that they are all male. How often when reading a newspaper, a magazine or watching a tv show do you get to…
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Film Review: ‘Terry’
★★★☆☆ Nick Nevern’s debut Terry (2011) is an impressive first outing, more so when you consider that Nevern himself not only wrote, produced and directed the feature, but also starred. The plot hinges on a young film student, Charlie Ruez who makes a documentary in 2009 about the life of an unemployed, working-class man named…
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DVD Review: ‘And Soon the Darkness’
★★☆☆☆ Horror has always been a genre that has produced films into which no time or effort has been put. Cinema history is riddled with horror flicks that were turned out in a matter of months, for as little money as possible, hoping to make an even profit on the video and DVD releases. And…
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DVD Review: ‘Phenomena’
★★☆☆☆ First and foremost, it is important to stress that Phenomena (1985) is a complete mess. Following his run of mid-career masterpieces, starting with Deep Red (1975) and culminating in 1982’s definitive Giallo thriller Tenebrae, Argento attempted to push the formal experimentation of the late 70’s to even giddier extremes. The result is frequently dazzling…
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Jameson Cult Film Club: ‘Monsters’
Despite what some well-known contrarians may have you believe, 2010 was undoubtedly a very strong year for cinema. At the box office, intelligent cinema with mass appeal flourished, with big hitters such as Toy Story 3, Inception and The Social Network balancing extremely positive critical reception with all important profitability.It was also a fine year for British…
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Film Review: ‘Archipelago’
★★★★☆ Joanna Hogg’s debut feature Unrelated (2007) won widespread critical acclaim with its painfully moving depiction of a family going through an emotional crisis whilst on a Tuscan holiday. Hogg’s latest film Archipelago (2011) revisits this subject in even more depth, in a drama that examines the slow, quiet disintegration of a middle-class family with…
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Special Features: Wikio Top 20 UK Cinema Blogs – March 2011
Every month, the hard working guys and girls at the online news provider Wikio produce a definitive run-down of the Top 20 UK Cinema Blogs. This month, we’re delighted to announce that CineVue has climbed up to 18th position, an all time best for the site.A huge congratulations goes out to the fantastic HeyUGuys for holding on to the top spot…
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Film Review: ‘West is West’
★★☆☆☆ The release of the long awaited sequel to 1999’s hit comedy/drama East is East should in theory hit all the right buttons; it has a strong cast, an interesting premise and the personal insight of screenwriter Ayub Khan-Din, who has based both films on his own experiences of the culture clash felt by many…
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Film Review: ‘Carmen 3D’
★☆☆☆☆ It may seem cruel to be giving one of the most well known operas (and one that was well received during its run at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House) such a poor review. However, the central problem of Carmen 3D (2011) isn’t the opera; the performances are predominantly very good, with a fantastic cast including Christine…
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