| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloverfield - PG-13 |
Cloverfield is based on the brilliantly simple idea that you can shoot an entire monster movie - Blair Witch style - from a single camcorder. The result is made of awesome. Starting with a going-away party, which justifies the running camera, something goes boom and the rest of the film is a solid adrenaline rush all the way. There is a surprisingly well plotted story under all the screaming and shaky camera work, as well as some well drawn characters. All of this is very carefully revealed within the 'found footage' conceit of the film and comes together in a way that is both very effective and avoids drawing attention to the cleverness of the scriptwriting. Cloverfield is an all-round, damn good disaster movie. |
October 10, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Shao Lin jiang shi (Shaolin vs. Evil Dead) - Unrated | October 1, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| W. - PG-13 | August 9, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| In the Loop - Unrated | July 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| La Chiesa (The Church) (Cathedral of Demons) - R | July 24, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Dr. No - PG |
So, way back in 1962 a low budget action film starring an unknown Scottish actor was released. I doubt that anyone thought at the time that they were witnessing the start of the most successful film franchise in history. Many of the elements that became familiar in the subsequent films are already here. We have a megalomaniac super-villain seeking world domination; we have a hero who shags his way around an exotic location (Jamaica in this case); we have the one-liners and we have a theme tune that went on to become iconic. That said, not all of the elements are in place just yet. Q doesn't make an appearance in this film and there are none of the gimmicky gadgets that became such a feature of the later films. In this outing, Bond is forced to rely far more on his wits and his fists to save the world. No-one has come close to challenging Sean Connery for the title of best Bond until Daniel Craig starred in Casino Royale, and in this first film Connery's Bond is a lit closer to Craig's reboot than I remembered. Rather than the suave superspy that we have grown to expect, this Bond is a much more down-to-earth character that spends much of his time being beaten, brutalised and coming close to losing everything. This does, of course, make for a much more satisfying ending when he finally does get the girl and kill the baddies. While I'm on the subject of getting the girl, it is impossible to talk about Dr. No without mentioning Ursula Andress. Not only does she provide the film's most memorable scene - and one that was consciously nodded to in Casino Royale - but she also managed to largely define the long line of Bond girls that followed her. While Dr. No is a very solid film, it isn't the strongest film in the series and, as such, the film is more significant for what it spawned than what it is. That said, spawning a franchise as successful as this one is no mean feat and Dr. No is a fine start to the series. |
July 21, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Jigoku (The Sinners of Hell) - Unrated | July 9, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Dr. Plonk - Unrated | July 8, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Public Enemies - R | July 1, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| El Alambrista: The Fence Jumper - Unrated |
The life of El Alambrista (Fausto Olmos Renterķa), an aspiring luchador, changes drastically when his father dies in a mining accident. Taking on the responsibility of being the chief breadwinner for his family, he heads for the US border in search of work. This is not an easy life and, once over the border, he discovers just how hard it can be for an illegal immigrant. The constant fear of deportation leaves these people unable to turn to the authorities for help and, consequently, vulnerable to exploitation and abuse at the hands of dishonest employers, racist thugs and worse. Not one to stand back and let his people suffer, and having no family fearing deportation, El Alambrista starts to step in to protect his people and to stand up for their rights. El Alambrista: The Fence Jumper a bit of a rarity. While it is a low budget action film that harks back to the Mexican masked heroes of the 1960s and 1970s, it is also a modern film with a social conscience and one that attempts to address some of the issues surrounding illegal immigration and border control. That it manages to achieve this without falling back onto obvious stereotypes makes it a film well worth seeing. Full review |
June 16, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Moon - R | June 10, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - PG-13 | June 10, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Hogfather - Unrated | June 6, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Kung Fu Panda - PG |
It has to be said that Kung Fu Panda does not have the most complex plot ever set in celluloid, nor does it have the most rounded characters and the animation (apart from a superbly stylised opening sequence) is pretty much your bog-standard Dreamworks CGI. What the film does have in abundance, though, is a huge sense of fun. Po, voiced by Jack Black, is an overweight panda working in his father's noodle shop. He is accidentally named as the Dragon Warrior and suddenly finds himself on a crash course in kung fu so he can face the ferocious, and recently excaped, Tai Lung. What we get is a stream of slapstick silliness that really is a joy to watch. While the film does affectionately mock some of the stereotypes of the martial arts genre, there is a refreshing lack of ironic winking at the audience. The film is also thankfully free of trite moral platitudes or irritating attempts to be anything more than it is. Kung Fu Panda makes no attempt to be anything other than a film about a panda that does kung fu. It's not the most ambitious film ever made, but it does do a very effective job in achieving the goal that it has set for itself. |
June 4, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus - R | May 29, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Drag Me to Hell - PG-13 | May 29, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Gunheavy - Unrated |
It's a pretty big claim to say that Gunheavy has more firepower than any other film in history and writer/director, Angelo Lopes is certainly ambitious, claiming on the back of the DVD that the film proves ?that inside the digital film making revolution, very impressive special effects don?t need massive budgets.? This post-apocalyptic military dystopia is certainly an audacious film and in many ways it's this sheer audacity that is the most impressive aspect of the film. The film's background, as described and hinted at, certainly has a great deal of potential and I would like to have seen more done with this. Lopes, however, largely ignores this in the rush get to the action and to maintain an often frenetic pace. Gunheavy does work as an action film and will certainly satisfy anyone looking for ordnance heavy thrills. The real strength of the film, however, is in the darkly stylish atmosphere that Lopes manages to bring to the screen. Full review here |
May 23, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Terminator Salvation - PG-13 | May 20, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Woodsman - R | May 18, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Angels & Demons - PG-13 | May 13, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Society - R | Gloriously over-the-top satire.Weird, surreal and totally unlike anything that had gone before. Well worth a watch. | May 10, 2009 | N/A | |||
| Hannah Montana: The Movie - G | May 6, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Monsters vs. Aliens - PG | May 6, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| Little Ashes - R | May 6, 2009 | N/A | ||||
| The Horror Vault 2 - PG |
This second film in the Horror Vault series of anthologies nimbly avoids retreading old ground by grouping the films around a theme that is very different to that of the first film. While the focus of The Horror Vault was on stories of madness and cruelty, The Horror Vault 2 turns this around to give us five darkly humorous tales with an emphasis on the absurd. The Horror Vault 2 is a very strong anthology in its own right, boasting a collection of films that range from the good to the very good. The writing, the direction, the characterisation and the performances are consistently strong across all five films and the result is an anthology that not only deserves a place in any horror fan's collection but also one that is very rewatchable. Moreover, the change of theme from the first film in the series to this one allows it to make the most of the anthology format while retaining a freshness for the series as a whole. Full review here |
May 4, 2009 | N/A |
523 ratings
84 reviews
