Search results for: “label/Adam Lowes”
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DVD Review: Eye of the Needle
★★★☆☆ A British war-time thriller with a difference, Eye of the Needle is played out as far removed from those war-torn battlefields as you could get. Instead, director Richard Marquand opts largely for more intimate surrounding and manages to squeeze out some memorable moments of Hitchcockian suspense and tension. On the strength of his self-assured work…
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Film Review: The Man From Mo’Wax
★★★★☆ The rise, fall and eventual rise again of James Lavelle, vinyl junkie turned trailblazing record label producer and creative figurehead of musical outfit UNKLE, may be an overly familiar tale of the young ingénue who succumbs to his own bloated ego and lifestyle excesses. But what gives The Man From Mo’Wax character and depth, lifting…
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DVD Review: House: The Complete Collection
★★☆☆☆ While 1980s comedy horror series House may not have been greeted with quite the same fanfare as other similar offerings from that era (many may probably be unaware it spawned a fourth film), Arrow Video have forged ahead and put together yet another great-looking Blu-ray set, complete with the usual informative and carefully compiled…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Seconds’
★★★★☆ Although described as a sci-fi thriller in most quarters, both of these labels seem a little too disingenuous when it comes to identifying the twisted beauty of Seconds (1966). The film’s opening credits courtesy of the great Saul Bass offer an abstract and distorted reflection of a series of figures. It’s a simply-staged but…
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Film Review: ‘Cry of the City’
★★★★☆ Rereleased to coincide in the forthcoming retrospective at the BFI of director Robert Siodmak, the supporting promotional blurb around the 1948 New York-set crime yarn, Cry of the City (1948) mentions its influence over one the city’s favourite cinematic sons, Martin Scorsese. The grimy depiction of the mean streets of Little Italy might be…
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Film Review: ‘Jupiter Ascending’
★★☆☆☆ Unceremoniously shifted from a healthy summer spot last year to capitalise on the pre-blockbuster month of February, it’s doubtful that lack of competition will bolster the box office of Jupiter Ascending (2015) – a tiresome sci-fi yarn that cannibalises from so many past fantasy properties that in the future, special ‘spot the homage’ screenings…
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DVD Review: ‘Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For’
★★☆☆☆ After an almost decade-long gap since Sin City (2005), you’d think that collaborators Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez would have made time to craft a watertight narrative and ensure that expectations were not only met but exceeded in belated sequel, Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For (2014). Sadly, that isn’t the case.…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘The Last American Virgin’
★★☆☆☆ Unlike the majority of previous films to have resurfaced via the esteemed Arrow Video label, the years haven’t been particularly kind to 1982’s The Last American Virgin – a grandiose title which suggests some kind of a smutty coming-of-age epic, but in reality only manages to deliver the grubby goods sporadically. Brought to the…
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BFI Uncut Season: ‘Pink Flamingos’ review
★★★★☆ John Walters’ 1972 cult classic Pink Flamingos proved less problematic across the Atlantic than it did in the UK, and found a niche via the midnight movies circuit – a movement which also offered a cinematic afterlife to similar, non-mainstream features (films which formed the basis, alongside Pink Flamingos, of an entertaining 2005 documentary…
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Film Review: ‘The Liability’
★★☆☆☆ The second feature from Craig Viveiros, The Liability (2012) straddles a number of interesting sub-genres (road trip, gangster yarn, the world-weary hitman). It’s a shame these outwardly intriguing elements have to do battle with a predictable and pretty contrived story. Even an impressive visual canvas eventually plumps for style over substance as the script…
