Film Reviews
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1 July 2007Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution + Catherine Tate is a bizarre phenomenon. -
1 July 2007Michael Clayton + This latest outing from George Clooney is another of the character pieces in which he is beginning to specialise - a close study of one flawed man up against overwhelming odds.After taking on similar parts in the likes of Syriana and The Good German, and having directed films revolving around the same basic concept in Good Night and Good Luck and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, it seems that this is becoming Clooney's personal trademark. -
1 July 2007Knocked Up + A film that stars a bunch of people you've probably never heard of and that's quite explicitly a romantic comedy is not one that would normally be cause for much excitement.Romantic comedies - in fact, comedies full stop - rarely seem to get the critics too excited. -
1 July 20071408 + It's doubtless a little harsh to put John Cusack in the same league as the likes of Ben Affleck in terms of career dives. -
1 July 2007No Reservations + This latest film outing is the first in a glut of new movies for the former Darling Buds of May star, who has managed to become one of the most successful female British stars in Hollywood over the last ten years or so. -
1 July 2007Run, Fat Boy, Run 1 Americans seem to have had a long, special kind of reverence for the British sense of humour. -
1 July 2007Atonement + For the last three decades, Ian McEwan has been at the forefront of the British literary scene - a multiple prize-winner and author of innumerable critically-lauded books that have seen him inducted into the Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and even given a knighthood.His very first collection of short stories won the Somerset Maugham Prize back in 1976, and considering Maugham's long association with Hollywood it is perhaps only fitting that McEwan's Booker Prize-shortlisted 2001 novel Atonement should now receive the movie treatment. -
1 July 20073:10 to Yuma + Back in the 1950s, it was practically impossible to go to the cinema without being confronted with posters for movies about men in wide-brimmed hats with six-shooters at their waists.Where today it's science fiction and superheroes dominating the box office, with every other film seeming to have some kind of fantastical computer-generated special effect or other, in the fifties it was the Western that was king. -
1 July 2007A Mighty Heart + Six years after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Hollywood has begun to gear up to critical approaches to the War on Terror. -
5 June 2007Vacancy + If you're a fan of psycho killer thrillers, this should be right up your street. -
5 June 2007Lucky You + The fact that this much-delayed gambling-based love story was originally supposed to be released nine months ago says much.Movies that have their release dates put back, the general rule goes, are never much cop - but when the film in question was intended to be a comeback vehicle for not just one, but three erstwhile next big things, you know that somewhere in Hollywood, the gods of faltering careers are having a field day. -
5 June 2007Le Vie En Rose + The role of Edith Piaf must count as one of the most challenging real-life potrayals that any French actress could hope for.One of those classic legends in her own lifetime, her rise from obscure poverty to international stardom came on the brink of the Second World War - a war in which she was to play an active part, not just as the best-known voice of France, but also as an active participant in the French Resistance. -
5 June 2007Shrek the Third + Since the first appearance of the big green ogre with the odd Scottish accent back in 2001, Shrek has achieved an enviable place as one of the best loved and most successful animated characters in recent Hollywood history.Both films to date have achieved that rare feat of appealing as much to adults as to the kids, creating that scarcest of all cinematic phenomena - a truly pan-generational movie. -
5 June 2007Ocean’s Thirteen + After the dire second outing in the Steven Soderbergh/George Clooney caper series, it looked rather as if the magic had gone. -
26 May 2007Zodiac + When former music video director David Fincher made the shift from making promos for the likes of Madonna, Sting and George Michael - most famously Vogue and Englishman in New York - he seemed determined to get away from the kind of 80s pop music camp with which he'd previously been associated.His first big Hollywood flick was the decidedly unpleasant Alien 3 - the one where Sigourney Weaver finds that humans can be just as bad as the Aliens she'd been battling in the previous two films, if not worse. -
26 May 2007The Tiger’s Tail + Just a week before Buena Vista does its big budget blockbuster thing again with the third Pirates of the Caribbean film, the studio better known as Disney's distribution wing is out to show that the Mouse can do serious, indie-flavoured movies as well. -
26 May 2007Black Snake Moan + It's a well known rule of the movies that it's damned tough being a former child star. -
26 May 2007Flyboys + It may not have won Martin Scorsese an Oscar, but his epic period biopic The Aviator does, at least, seem to have had a bit of an impact on Hollywood.The spectacular flying sequences during the recreations of the filming of director Howard Hughes' classic First World War film Hell's Angels were amongst the best in Scorsese's impressive film, and they appear to have revived the film industry's interest in the heroic dogfights of the age of biplanes. -
25 October 2006The Devil Wears Prada + Few people who work on the editorial side of the magazine business have to worry about much more than the irritation of dealing with PR people, outdated computer systems, and the ever-approaching deadlines. -
25 October 2006The Departed + After a string of successes of remakes of recent Japanese cult hits like The Ring and The Grudge, Hollywood seems finally to be turning its eye to Hong Kong for material.As the Mecca for extravagant and imaginative action flicks for more than three decades, much has been pilfered from Hong Kong cinema in the past - including the director John Woo and actors like Bruce Lee, Maggie Chung and Jackie Chan.
