Movie Reviews

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]

Technically a tour-de-force, with stunning picture and audio quality, looking particularly strong in 3D, but no slouch in 2D either. Anybody who thought 3D was dead needs to postpone judgment until they have had a chance to watch this movie. Highly recommended.

Wanna get drunk and fool around?

Does a bear sh*t in the woods?

Grizzly is a great little B-movie that dipped its claws into the big pond that Spielberg's Great White Shark dominated, and certainly held its own ... treading water for a little while, at least. I love the film - it gave me goose-bumps when I was a kid and it still creates a sense of danger and terror even today. The three leads are immensely likeable - stalwart lesser-knowns doing their damnedest to bring their characters to life, and the level of butchery on show is actually far more shocking than you'd expect. It may be cheap but it is... [Read more]

What Richard Did is a quietly uncompromising, bleak and gritty drama that manages to stay with you long after you've finished watching. Its subject matter is centred around a group of well-to-do young teenagers in Dublin, who find that the complications of life and love are altogether overwhelming. As the title suggests, the whole narrative moves very slowly towards one specific incident that forms the backbone of the movie's premise. It's bleak and unforgiving, and perhaps something of an endurance test for the audience, but stick with it and there's plenty to get out of this very personal and intimate movie from esteemed Dublin director Lenny Abrahamson. You're not... [Read more]

It saddens me greatly that I cannot sing the praises of something I would normally champion, but this slice of sixties SF is a tawdry affair that falls far short of its own visual style by being unremittingly dull, dull, dull. For me, Peter Cushing can usually do no wrong, and the fact remains that he does all that he can with this interpretation of Doctor Who, but the screenplay is so damn wretched that even he can’t provide much polish, passion or charisma. Castle is good clownish value, but the Daleks, who should be the stars of the show, drag the pace right down to coma levels. And the Thals are absolutely ridiculous.

In a major shock to my system, I found that I... [Read more]