Movie Reviews

Career-best Travolta; De Palma at the peak of his striking style-meets-substance approach, Blow Out has been perpetually underrated but has thankfully only grown in popularity in the decades since its release. The thriller thrives on its multi-layered format, pulling you into a story that works on so many different levels all at the same time, and taking you on a character-driven voyage where every element of style gets you further into the heads of the protagonists. It is a great suspense film, taking the archetypal bleak seventies-era political conspiracy thriller mould and breaking it for a new, more adventurous Hollywood revolution. And if you can handle the more dated... [Read more]

I love Motel Hell.

Quirky, weird, wacky, subversive, and extremely amusing, it plays it all perfectly straight, yet constantly teases the funny-bone with its macabre sense of humour. The cast are a hoot, but Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons are just an awesome double-act of doting delinquents that keep the pig-sty sly, the meat a-smokin’ and the home-fires burning.

I didn’t really expect great things from the transfer or the extras, but was pleasantly surprised in both departments. Arrow digs out who they can from the production and allow them to air their memories and opinions for us. That, in itself, is commendable when it comes to an ultra... [Read more]

A smart and stylish new Brit thriller, largely breaking free of the limitations of its low budget origins with competent direction, a decent enough cast and a good hook of an opening premise. Sure, it doesn’t quite deliver on the initial promise, with the filmmakers struggling to deliver a truly satisfying conclusion, but the 90-minute horror-styled thriller that evolves in the interim is certainly worth your time.

On Region B-locked UK Blu-ray we get solid video and audio – nothing spectacular, but nothing that particularly hammers home the low budget restrictions – as well as a few interviews in the way of extras. Fans of decent, original Brit thrillers... [Read more]

Technically, the music leads the plaudits, being both intimate and powerful in equal measure. The picture just... [Read more]

After the celebrated Goldsmith score for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and his own glorious and action-packed music for Wrath of Khan, James Horner delivered an absolute belter for Search for Spock. He rocked the universe with his tribal fury and emotional weight with Kirk’s battle of wits with Khan, and there is a clear sense of the composer having settled down, relaxed and gone to town with his second Starfleet score. This is lushly confident and brilliantly assured. His Klingon theme is splendidly wry and full of spit and tempest and, better yet, a delicious sense of knowing fun. The nautical theme for the Enterprise and its chivalrous crew... [Read more]

Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in the South...

Between Quentin Tarantino’s stellar, Oscar-winning script, Christopher Waltz’s Oscar-winning supporting performance, Jamie Foxx’s memorable star turn and a near-perfect set of superb supporting characters, Django Unchained is superior viewing. And that’s even before we get to the evocative score, both directly influenced by and actually featuring contributions from the great composer Ennio Morricone himself; the sumptuous cinematography – which was also Nominated for an Oscar – and the epic scale of the piece, which adopts Tarantino’s usual... [Read more]

I tre volti della paura (The Three Faces of Fear) or as is better known throughout the world, Black Sabbath, is one of Mario Bava’s most well known films and is, indeed, his own personal favourite of all his output in the horror genre. It tells three stories, each looking at a different aspect of horror and under Bava’s expert direction all are atmospheric, eerie, dark, brooding and, at times, terrifying. The film was highly altered for its international release, reordering the stories, re-scored, edited and redubbed, with all these changes making for a very different film. Both, though, have equal merit, the original for being simply that – the original film in its... [Read more]

Taking real-life disaster movies to the next level, The Impossible masterfully blends a stunning, often epic recreation of this true tragedy with a powerful, emotional and incredible tale of suffering, sacrifice and survival against all odds. With compelling central performances and strong direction – complete with clever use of practical effects rather than dominating CG – the film manages to paint an honest portrait of one of the most devastating natural disasters that mankind has ever seen, as viewed from an extremely personal level.

Or Region B-locked UK Blu-ray we get absolutely stunning picture-perfect video and reference quality audio, both... [Read more]

Technically, it looks good for its age, but the audio definitely sounds a little old fashioned, so it will not challenge even the most basic stereo. The lack of any extras at all is disappointing to say the least.

For its faults, this remains a watchable movie and quite good fun as well, with enough subtle humour to keep things light hearted. If you like lightweight thrillers with little violence or bad... [Read more]

Star Trek Into Darkness is nothing more than popcorn entertainment. For even the most rabid and devoted Trek-fan, whose hopes, like mine, were raised perhaps too high due to excellent trailers, tantalizing plot-possibilities being leaked, enjoyable conjecture and last-minute giveaways, not to mention to unhidden adherence to what remains the greatest voyage of the Starship Enterprise – STII:TWOK – to have expected anything more was just plain stupid. Although I hugely enjoyed this outing, it lacked the sparkle, wit, energy and sheer fun of the first reboot, cramming-in high-stakes sacrifice and profound melodrama much too quickly but treating it... [Read more]