Movie Reviews

“This is the phoniest set-up I’ve ever seen.”

I can’t help but adore this movie.

It is unashamedly off its trolley, and wholly unique, yet it embraces a lot of traditional genre tropes whilst spinning off along its own chaotic and maniacal path. Both blackly funny and full of icky menace, Jack Hill’s cult classic creates a surreal atmosphere of camp dread and taboo-tickling. All the cast are terrific, and it is difficult to pick anyone who doesn’t bring something beautifully bizarre or captivatingly kooky to the pot. Lon Chaney is as magnificent as ever, as is Quinn Redeker, whose quirky characterisation... [Read more]

Spielberg has produced another epic here, but it will not be to everyone’s taste and does not get the same “Must See” tag as some of his other works. There is no denying that the American Civil War and the 13th Amendment were extremely important in freeing slaves from emancipation, but the treatment here is painfully slow at times and despite the sterling performances of the cast, it just failed to engage me.

Technically, it approaches the zenith of what can be achieved on 35mm, with low film grain, excellent stability and extremely watchable picture. The problem is that digital now exceeds the quality achievable with conventional film in terms of low level... [Read more]

"So, what does the 'S' stand for?"

Unfortunately, not really 'Super'-anything. Perhaps 'Solid'; 'Seven out of Ten'; 'Starts off promisingly but eventually devolves into banal CG action'.

Certainly Man of Steel does a fair job at providing us with a fresh retcon of the franchise, as well as occasionally moving, occasionally spectacular Summer blockbuster thrills, but, on the whole, it does not deliver a truly memorable - truly defining - interpretation of Superman.

Worth seeing for the good bits - mainly the supporting cast - and... [Read more]

Drums, drums and more drums. Yet Hans Zimmer, defying all expectations, steadfastly sticks to his fan-dividing style and still comes up with a work that is blistering, beautiful, bold and, I have to say it, brilliant.

Drums, then ... and whole lotta heart, too.

His naysayers, of which I am a part-time member, may not be convinced that this mammoth score is anything better, nor indeed, anything different from any number he has come up with since Gladiator. But I, for one, am extremely pleased to celebrate and applaud his efforts to help make a new Man of Steel fly.

With an extraordinary amount of dreamy,... [Read more]

Tabu: A Story of the South Seas is F.W. Murnau’s last film and using his wealth of experience and storytelling grandeur he produces a tragic tale that is at once powerful and emotive as well as majestic and grand. Drawing on his familiar subject matter of lovers trapped in a tragic inevitability the story tells of two island lovers who try to defy a God's decree when the girl is branded Tabu, and whose struggle against it encompasses love but eventual loss when the walls of fate come closing in. Filled with rich imagery and shot on location in the Southern Islands of Bora Bora and Tahiti, Murnau and his cinematographer Floyd Crosby produce a film which has a story that anyone... [Read more]

Marathon Man is an ‘old school’ film. It takes its time to introduce the characters and situations, using what, at first, seems to be unconnected events, that, once unfolded, start to knit together to form a cohesive whole. With twists, turns, betrayals, murder, intrigue, theft and redemption, there is pretty much everything you need for a modern day thriller – only it’s told with the deliberate pacing that only a film from the seventies can muster. The fact that it contains two of the best actors of their generations giving one of the best performances of their respective careers is a bonus, the film is tense and shocking, as well as passionate and deliberate.... [Read more]

You might think that; I can't possibly comment.

All the style and punch of a David Fincher production; the Machiavellian uber-plotting of a Dumas epic; and a cast of perfectly-captured characters which is simply to die for, headlined by Kevin Spacey, who is revelling in a much-deserved, latter-end career-high. Indeed, if this is the way forth for acclaimed actors and directors, then consider me sold.

On Region Free UK Blu-ray we get the same stunning video and excellent audio that the stateside package offered, and the same complete lack of extras thanks to Netflix’s embargo on putting extras on hardcopy releases of their productions,... [Read more]

Terence Hill’s Django venture is a splendid slice of Spaghetti. A semi-official follow-on in a series of films that have attained a mythical status for name-dropped cashing-in, this one takes a less far out avenue, but still delivers plenty of the essentials. Coffin? Check. Machine-gun? Check. Savage beating? Check. It’s all here. Nobody can come close to Franco Nero’s portrayal in Corbucci’s original, but Hill certainly looks the part of the long-suffering antihero out to right wrongs in a lawless land, and does far better than most that took up the name. It is easy to see why he became so popular with his own Trinity films. Ferdinando Baldi directs... [Read more]

A Good Day To Have Low Expectations.

I’m not going to come out of the underdog corner, fists blazing, trying to argue that this is somehow a good movie, let alone a good Die Hard movie. From an action standpoint, fans of the start to Expendables 2 and the end to Live Free or Die Hard should be thoroughly entertained. Unfortunately the characters – in particular the villains – are woefully underdeveloped and the story takes a distinct back-seat to the non-stop spectacle. Even the one-liners are disappointing. Still, low expectations work wonders. They make this disappointing fifth entry an easily bearable,... [Read more]

Kathryn Bigelow at the absolute top of her game; three decades of experience working in such a male-dominated industry culminating in an astounding piece of expert filmmaking; one of the best films of 2012 (or 2013 if you accept its UK release date). Whilst The Hurt Locker may have earned her Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, Zero Dark Thirty is arguably an even more accomplished feature. With its intense, seminal storytelling, it is one of the greatest detective stories ever told – the greatest police procedural ever crafted – and, although it happily blurs the line between fact and fiction, it may well be the most exciting... [Read more]