The original Ghost Rider was released in 2007 and took its time to tell the origin story of the flaming skulled demon rider from Hell. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance follows on from the original, but with a few notable changes that make it almost a reboot of the character. Nicolas Cage is once again cast as daredevil motorbike jumper Johnny Blaze. This time the script and … [Read more...]
Review: Ghost Rider (2007)
After the explosion of comic book films that followed the incredible success of Superman: The Movie, Batman and Spider-Man, a lot of lesser known characters had their stories adapted to the silver screen. One such film, released in 2007 was Ghost-Rider, starring Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, the man who sold his soul to the Devil to save his father's life and became the demon … [Read more...]
Review: The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Most people are familiar with Hayoa Miyazaki's work, specifically Spirited Away, which became the first foreign film to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, and went on to become the most successful Japanese film of all time. The film propelled Studio Ghibli into fame, and other films they did, such as Princess Mononoke, The Cat Returns, Whisper of the Heart, and My … [Read more...]
Review: The Vow (2012)
2012 saw the release of The Vow, not to be confused with the slightly more memorable Stalinist propaganda film from 1946. Based loosely on the true events surrounding a real life couple, Kim and Krickitt Carpenter it sees Paige Collins (Rachel McAdams) suffer a severe head trauma after a car accident that makes her forget the last couple of years of her life including her … [Read more...]
Review: Jesus Camp (2006)
Jesus Camp follows the work of Becky Fischer, a preacher who specialises in teaching children about the Bible at a camp in North Dakota. Rather than preach to free thinking adults, she takes those who are easily trained in her words “ children “ and whips them into a brainwashed frenzy in the name of worshiping God and becoming his ˜army' to take back America from the … [Read more...]
Review: Senna (2011)
Senna is a documentary film, directed by Asif Kapadia, which focuses on the life and career of Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna. Starting with his early life as a Go Kart champion in Brazil, moving onto his arrival on the F1 circuit, through his heated rivalry with Alain Prost and all the way to his untimely death, the documentary paints the picture of a man obsessed with winning, … [Read more...]
Review: The Town (2010)
When Ben Affleck first turned his hand to writing his own film he came up with the amazingly brilliant Good Will Hunting (along with buddy and co-star Matt Damon). Many years later he directs and plays a part in writing The Town (2010), casting himself as the lead Doug MacRay, with Jeremy Renner as his right hand man James (Jem) Coughlin. Rebecca Hall features as Affleck's … [Read more...]
Review: Transformers (2007)
The original Transformers cartoon is widely considered a classic in children's programming. The Transformers animated film was a success among fans, so it's a surprise a live action film took this long. But in 2007, we got Transformers, a high-budget action flick directed by the manifestation of everything wrong with Hollywood, Michael Bay. His CV isn't exactly full of … [Read more...]
Review: The Bodyguard (1992)
In the late 1980s and early 1990s there were no bigger stars in music and film as Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. It made sense at the time to put them together in order to increase their profiles and deliver a sure-fire box office hit. Taking over $410m, The Bodyguard did just that. Originally written with Steve McQueen and Diana Ross in mind, the script hung around … [Read more...]
Review: Unknown (2011)
Usually the stars of action movies make their names in the genre “ starting young they get their break as a tough guy, then spend the rest of their careers trying to diversify, like Arnold Schwarzennegger's move into broad family comedies, or Bruce Willis' attempts to get into more ˜serious' roles. Liam Neeson seems to have gone about his career in the opposite direction and … [Read more...]