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Category Archives: Film
Review in Brief: Blade of the Immortal (2017)
BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL is one-man filmmaking army Takashi Miike’s 100th feature and arguably his largest scale project to date. I doubt the man who makes Ridley Scott look sluggish even broke a sweat (only a film a year, Ridders? … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Blade of the Immortal, Hana Sugisaki, Highlander, Martial Arts, Ridley Scott, Takashi Miike, Takuya Kimura, Thriller, World Cinema
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Review: Isle of Dogs (2018)
ISLE OF DOGS…I…love…dogs. I only just got that. Anyway, I have a confession: I’m a cat person. I value their independence, their intelligence and their lack of need to be subservient to us. Anyway, while I don’t particularly like dogs … Continue reading
Review in Brief: The Director and the Jedi (2018)
Whatever you thought about EPISODE VIII (and whether or not you need to get over yourself), behind-the-scenes documentary THE DIRECTOR AND THE JEDI brings chills (Frank Oz taking up the Yoda puppet again) and tears (filming Carrie Fisher and Mark … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Carrie Fisher, Documentary, Frank Oz, Mark Hamill, Rian Johnson, The Director and the Jedi, The Last Jedi
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Review: Ready Player One (2018)
A thought kept occurring to me while watching Steven Spielberg’s READY PLAYER ONE: what would a director like Paul Verhoeven have done with this material? The movie would certainly have had more bite. Spielberg isn’t prepared to step over that … Continue reading
Review: Annihilation (2018)
Fear not, viewers outside North America, despite reaching us through Netflix ANNIHILATION is not another straight-to-streaming stinker. In fact, Alex Garland’s second film as director is a thought provoking, odd and uniquely beautiful beast. A military-science expedition into a quarantined … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Alex Garland, Aliens, Annihilation, Arrival, Ex Machina, Jeff VanderMeer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Natalie Portman, Netflix, Oscar Isaac, Sci-fi, Tessa Thompson
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Review: Game Night (2018)
GAME NIGHT is an unexpected delight. Something that could just be raucous and crude in the hands of the guys behind the VACATION remake from a couple of years back ends up being not only a really sharp comedy but … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Colossal (2016/17)
When I first heard about COLOSSAL – premise: giant monster is mysteriously linked to drunk Anne Hathaway – I thought, yes, that does sound like just my kind of movie. And you know what? It is! Hathaway and Jason Sudekis … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Anne Hathaway, Colossal, Drama, Jason Sudekis, Sci-fi, The Skeleton Twins
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Review in Brief: Jigsaw (2017)
While JIGSAW isn’t a bad movie, not even particularly low down in the wider SAW franchise (for the record it goes I, III, VI then Jigsaw) but it’s hard to love. Expect pleasing references to the earlier movies, new traps … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Horror, Jigsaw, Predestination, Saw, The Spierig Brothers, Tobin Bell, Tom and Jerry
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Review in Brief: Their Finest (2016/17)
Yes, it’s probably destined to be a perennial Sunday afternoon favourite along with all the other cosy feelgood historical fare, but THEIR FINEST has a fair bit of bite to it as well. It has what SUFFRAGETTE (dignified as it … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Bill Nighy, Comedy, Gemma Arterton, Historical Drama, Suffragette, Their Finest
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Review in Brief: The Vault (2017)
THE VAULT isn’t a very good…anything. Marketed as a horror-thriller (haunted bank vaults: why isn’t that a genre go-to?) but it just doesn’t work because it’s not scary and it’s not exciting. I think they might have been going for … Continue reading
Posted in Film, Film Review
Tagged Francesca Eastwood, Horror, James Franco, Taryn Manning, The Vault, Thriller
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