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Below you'll find our latest reviews of films out in cinemas and on DVD, as well as updates on festivals and short films. For a list of older reviews just click on the relevant section from the menu above.
You would have thought that aliens would have learned their lesson by now. Why when invading earth do they pick on the America, the largest stockpile of armaments in the world, first? 'Battle: Los Angeles' features a bunch of pressure-cooker headed aliens short on intelligence, but apparently better armed than we are, who decide to lay waste to one of the most well defended areas on the planet. With most of LA reduced to smoking piles of rubble and burnt out cars in the first 10 minutes, it’s up to Staff Sergeant Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) to lead a team of largely anonymous grunts on a ground mission...
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The latest art-house drama and 2010 London Film Festival entry from Joanna Hogg remains loyal to her fascinating and confident film-making style of lengthy character improvisation. Archipelago is certainly not to everyone’s taste, almost Cinéma vérité in nature, but without depicting real-life events. It’s also a very slow burner that gives the opportunity to ‘people watch’ on screen. It demands our attention and patience in letting events play out, as we gaze at its landscape beauty. When the subject matter is as strong as it is in Archipelago, the drama speaks volumes for itself, often...
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Regardless of how it’s sold, opera is an acquired taste, and to see any such production suggests an initial glimmer of interest from the start. This is both the fascinating experiment of Julian Napier’s ‘RealD’ (3D)-shot film of the Royal Opera House’s production of Carmen and its Achilles’ Heel. It poses a vicious cycle to break, to rouse the interest of the average, non-opera-participant and cinema buff to pay to see it on the big screen. But Carmen in 3D should not be dismissed off hand as a ‘lost big screen cause’ as it offers awe-inspiring and striking depth of vision and perspective...
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Liam Neeson proves that age doesn’t matter as once again he makes a formidably convincing action hero in this taut thriller about identity theft. Based on the novel Out of My Head by Didier van Cauwelaert Neeson plays a scientist who wakes up from a car crash in Berlin to discover his wife (January Jones) doesn’t recognise him and another man (Aidan Quinn) has assumed his identity. The authorities do not believe him and he finds himself being pursued by mysterious assassins. With the help of the taxi driver (Diane Kruger) who saved his life he starts to uncover the truth. That is all I can reveal...
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If you love to philosophize about the meaning of life and you adore cowboy films then you are in for a real treat. 'Rango' is a surreal animated feature where existentialism meets the spaghetti western. However if you are a child then sadly 'Rango' will go over your little head. In fact be prepared to be terrified, bemused and bored. 'Rango' is an ingenious and spectacular homage to the western featuring animated lizards and desert creatures. Directed by Gore Verbinski it is as wild and colourful and mad capped as the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies he also directed. It stars Johnny Depp...
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Revisionist history in the movies is nothing new. Only last year we had Ridley Scott’s 'Robin Hood' implying that the titular character’s dad wrote the Magna Carta, and that document is now the focal point of 'Ironclad', which picks up where 'Robin Hood' ended, flinging us headlong into the bloody Barons’ War: a swords and chainmail medieval romp which reduces the 100 men in the siege of Rochester to a handful of heroes and boasts almost splatter levels of gore. It’s 1215 and King John (Paul Giamatti) has been forced to sign the Magna Carta, a document which strips the king of some of his powers...
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'Age Of The Dragons' had the potential to be gloriously trashy. A reimagining of 'Moby Dick' but with dragons instead of the titular white whale, and starring Danny Glover: this had got “Cult Classic” written all over it. Unfortunately, it’s just as bad as it sounds but not bad enough to be ironically enjoyable. The story will be familiar to anyone that’s read or seen the source material. Whaler (or in this case Dragon Hunter) Ishmael (Corey Sevier) and his companion Queequeg (Kepa Kruse) board the ship Peaquod (this time a mobile fort on wheels) run by the enigmatic Captain Ahab (Danny...
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Who wants to see Nicholas Cage go crazy? Come on, it must be a fair proportion of you? The man has become legendary for his loco outbursts, from the virtuoso performances in films like 'Bad Lieutenant' to frankly laughable outings in such atrocities as the 'Wicker Man' remake. And the popularity of this insanity is exactly what 'Drive Angry' is cashing in on. Better still, it throws in the delectable Amber Heard and some mega 3D mayhem for good measure. The story begins with Milton (Nicholas Cage) escaping from prison in fiery ball of rage. His reason for fleeing the confines of his cell is that...
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East Is East (1999) was a breath of British comedy fresh air, a playful and broad-minded but poignantly comical look at the issues of integrating Pakistani culture in 1970s’ Britain, as portrayed through the lives of one Anglo-Pakistani family based in Salford, Greater Manchester. It had tears, laughter and frustrations, triggered through a series of everyday clashes and compromises, as experienced by the different generations of the Khan family. Over 10 years on, the same talented writer, Ayub Khan-Din, gives us the sequel, West Is West, that begins a heartfelt ‘coming-of-age’ journey in Salford,...
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'No Strings Attached' has a curiously similar plot to the forthcoming 'Friends With Benefits', due out later this year which stars Natalie Portman’s co-star from 'Black Swan' Mila Kunis. Coincidence or deliberate rivalry, we’re not sure but what is certain is that 'No Strings Attached' is a largely mirthless romantic comedy which drags its feet through a predictable over-long plot and wastes its support cast’s talent. It stars Ashton Kutcher as Adam, a production assistant on a popular TV show (which bears more than a passing resemblance to 'Glee'), who has flirted with Emma (Natalie Portman)...
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Sir Anthony Hopkins releases his inner demon in this supernatural horror' inspired by true events' about exorcisms, crisis in faith and the proverbial fight of good against evil. It explores the rite of exorcism through the eyes of a veteran expert and a novice. Irish actor Colin O’Donoghue gives an impressive debut performance as the sceptical, young American priest who is sent to an exorcism school at the Vatican to study the controversial practice under the tutelage of the unorthodox Father Lucas (Hopkins). He watches the legendary exorcist at work and sees how he slowly succumbs to evil...
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Do not be put off by the cryptic title, 'I Am Number Four' is a surprisingly entertaining and action packaged teen sci fi adventure about an alien fugitive on the run from ruthless enemies out to kill him. Alex Pettyfer, who looks like he stepped out of a designer photo shoot, stars as teenage John Smith: one of nine specially gifted beings who escaped an intergalactic onslaught by the evil Mogadorian race and ended up attempting to blend into obscurity on Earth. The trouble is that the Mogadorians will stop at nothing in their systematic annihilation of their unfortunate targets, and now three...
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Yesterday’s X-rated becomes tomorrow’s humdrum; terrifying news to anyone that’s ever seen 2 Girls 1 Cup. Rewind 60 years and it wasn’t the antics of naked women with chocolate ice cream that was horrifying the world, but inflammatory literature. Howl is a docu-drama about legendary beat poet Allen Ginsberg and the conception and reaction to his famous poem Howl, a work accused of being obscene and unfit for publication when it was released in 1956, and the subsequent trial and victory for freedom of speech and anti-censorship when it was deemed to be a work of “redeeming social importance”....
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Gru (Steve Carell) is a supervillain in decline. For a start, he is struggling to get a loan from the bank of evil to finance his latest audiacious plot - a daring journey to steal the moon - and to make matters worse his ageing, gadget-building, mad scientist assistant Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) is well past his prime. But worst if all, a young supervillain is on the scene and threatening to steal his thunder. Luckily for Gru, a bunch of cute orphans appear at his door, and bring with them the hope he needs to complete his plan. Gru's madcap supervillain schemes and the clumsy antics of his squeaky...
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The Coen brothers return the the Western genre once more, this time they turn their attention to another much-loved novel but, unlike 'No Country For Old Men', this one has also had a cinematic outing before: helmed by John Wayne no less. But if anyone can stamp their own hallmark on a story it's the Coens. The story centres on 14-year-old Mattie Ross (newcomer and now Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld). Her father has just been killed by a drunk, and with her mother overcome by grief the young girl takes it upon herself to seek vengeance. The man she comes to is maverick U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn...
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The financial crisis has affected everyone, from middle class home owners to outsourced factory workers in some of the world’s poorest communities. 'Inside Job' lifts the lid on exactly how the catastrophic collapse of the world’s economy was not only perpetrated but in some cases actually pre-meditated. Narrated by Matt Damon, it traces the root of the problem back to the Reagan administration and its policy of deregulation and shows how through the corruption and greed of banks we came to be in the situation we are today. It uses clearly laid out and well explained graphics to not only...
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Simon Pegg and Nick Frost return in their third big screen outing together, and although there are some laughs to be had along the way, the end result is a tired collection of quotes from sci-fi films and a weak plot with a bizarrely hard-line agenda. For the past 60 years, a space-traveling smart-ass named Paul (SETH ROGEN of The Green Hornet, Knocked Up) has been locked up in a top-secret military base, advising world leaders about his kind. But when he worries he’s outlived his usefulness and the dissection table is drawing uncomfortably close, Paul escapes on the first RV that passes...
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How do you review a Justin Bieber film? If you’re a fan, it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference what critics write – you’ve got the screening time, the date and the cinema ticket already. So, this is aimed at the non-fan, the curious, and those yet unaffected by ‘Bieber fever’. Is it worth seeing? It certainly builds a better picture of this social media phenomenon, even if feels a little tightly edited and controlled by Bieber’s machine (hardly surprising), and overbearing mentor/producer Scooter Braun, a failed child star if ever there was one, we suspect. The film follows...
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Benjamin Franklin once said that there are two things certain in life: death and taxes. Well, you can add “appalling Big Mommas movies” to that list. Sadly, the third instalment in the Martin Lawrence fat suit franchise fails to be a 21st Century 'Citizen Kane' and instead is same predictable retread of old fat lady jokes that stretch the definition of the word “comedy” to breaking point. Eager for his son to go to college, FBI Agent Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence) ambushes his mailman (Ken Jeong in his latest “I did it for the money” cameo) for the acceptance letter to Duke. His son Trent...
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It seems that it doesn’t actually matter what Adam Sandler does or how many of his movies get panned, they still continue to make money. Last year’s 'Grown Ups', despite having all the charm of a desiccated cockroach made $270m. 'Just Go With' It plays out in a similar vein and will test the patience of even the most optimistic of cinema-goers. Adam Sandler plays Danny, a wealthy plastic surgeon who routinely uses a wedding ring in order to pick up women. After 20 years of successful philandering his plan backfires when he meets Palmer (Brooklyn Decker), who finds the ring in his pocket after...
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