Category Archives: Film Review
Review: Thor: The Dark World (2013)
As well as all involved have tried to hide it, THOR: THE DARK WORLD feels more than a little fractured. It looks fantastic, and the key players bring their A-game, but the plot veers and lurches alarmingly. Following the events of THE … Continue reading
Review: Four Lions (2010)
FOUR LIONS is one of, if not the most daring comedy films of the past decade. It’s the feature directorial debut of Chris Morris, and he has transferred his passion for satirising controversial subject matter on the TV incredibly successfully onto … Continue reading
Review: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
The filmmaking powerhouse that is Christopher Nolan delivered a fairly satisfying final chapter of his Dark Knight trilogy, even if it’s much easier to pick holes in than his previous two outings with the Caped Crusader. The plot of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES … Continue reading
Review: The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is an interesting, if flawed film. It works incredibly well, in part. The plot is effectively split into three distinct chapters focussing on different characters who rarely interact, but whose actions spill into successive stories and have … Continue reading
Review: Doomsday (2008)
DOOMSDAY is by far the weakest link in British writer-director Neil Marshall’s career so far. Following a pair of highly original horror films DOG SOLDIERS and THE DESCENT, Marshall endeavoured to continue his run of success, and sadly as soon as he brought sci-fi … Continue reading
Review: Flight (2012)
FLIGHT is a solid high-concept drama for the most part, and is certainly the best thing Robert Zemeckis has done in a long time. The story of William “Whip” Whitaker (Denzel Washington), a skilled airline pilot with a severe dependence … Continue reading
Review: The Sessions (2012)
THE SESSIONS may well be one of the most honest and unabashed discussions of sex and disability on film. John Hawkes gives a remarkable performance as the real-life severely disabled journalist and poet Mark O’Brien, who having lead a miraculous and … Continue reading
Review: Brick (2005)
BRICK is the kind of film that really shouldn’t work. The premise: a hardboiled detective film set in an American high school. It’s a unique combination of disparate ideas, and somehow everything comes together and makes for a fantastically weird and wonderful end … Continue reading
Iron Man 3: Marvel’s Gambit Pays Off (In My Opinion)
The general consensus about whether Shane Black’s IRON MAN 3 is any good seems to be split about 50/50. Personally, I loved it – it’s a bold, pacey, sometimes dark and nearly always funny hero-in-crisis movie. I see it as … Continue reading
When Russian Film Came in From the Cold: Night Watch and Day Watch
This article was originally written for Subtitled Online July 2012. The Russian fantasy blockbusters NIGHT WATCH (2004) and DAY WATCH (2006), written and directed by Timur Bekmambetov and based on the novels by Sergey Lukyaneko, are far more relevant to Russian filmmaking … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 