The 'found footage' genre has made steady progress in Hollywood since The Blair Witch Project burst through the barrier of success in 1999. JJ Abrams took it a step further by adding Hollywood special effects in his viral hit Cloverfield and this brings us neatly, via the Paranormal Activity series to Chronicle. Written by Max Landis, the son of 80s icon John Landis and … [Read more...]
Review: Man on a Ledge (2012)
Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) is a man on a ledge. He steps out of the window of the Roosevelt Hotel in New York and draws the attention of the public below and the police, notably his ex-partner Mike Ackerman (Anthony Mackie) and the negotiator Lydia Anderson (Elizabeth Banks). While she tries to talk the potential hero down off the ledge, across the road, Cassidy's brother … [Read more...]
Review: Carnage (2012)
Best known for his 1970s horror classic Rosemary's Baby, Roman Polanski is no stranger to apartment-set dramas. In Carnage, based on the stage play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, he takes four of the finest actors working in Hollywood and sticks them in a New York City apartment for almost the entire running time film. The film set was actually designed and shot in Paris … [Read more...]
Review: Like Crazy (2012)
Long distance relationships are always difficult, with couples failing to keep in touch, communication inevitably breaks down “ out of sight out of mind. Like Crazy is an art house and ˜stylishly' made film that tries to test the distance theory. When two people are so deeply in love and devoted to each other, breaking the bond is difficult; oh how naive can one be. And so … [Read more...]
Review: Inglourious Basterds (2009)
It's the 40s “ World War II to be precise “ and Nazi Germany are spreading their fascist views as far across the globe as possible, including France. Cities are infiltrated and countryside havens are terrorised by the Anti-Semites. Hitler is also unaware that his about to get his ass handed to him on a plate in the slightly fictional Inglourious Basterds. Brad Pitt heads the … [Read more...]
Review: The Front Line (2011, South Korea)
January 1953 and the Korean War has been dragging on for two and a half years. Negotiations for a peace treaty have broken down again over a minor quibble about where borders between the north and the south should be drawn yet again. Kang Eun-pyo, an intelligence officer in the South Korean army, in his frustration, lets off too much steam in public and finds himself in … [Read more...]
Review: The Departed (2006)
When Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon are cast in a film together, you know it's going to be a first-rate production. Nothing less can be said about The Departed (2006), Martin Scorsese once again hit the nail on the head with his multiple Oscar winner. Set in the tired and troublesome areas of South Boston and Charlestown, Massachusetts. The … [Read more...]
Review: An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2007, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is a hugely entertaining look at the damaging effects of global warming and a call to arms to the world to sit up now and take notice before it is too late. That it is effectively a Powerpoint driven lecture put on film makes it all the more extraordinary that it can be so compelling for … [Read more...]
Review: Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 (2009)
Adaptations of popular television shows into films are a reasonably rare occurrence these days, but even rarer are television films that later get a theatrical release. This was however the case for the Red Riding trilogy produced by Channel 4 that was so acclaimed that all three films were released in theatres in the US in 2010. Based on the four novels by David Peace, the Red … [Read more...]
Review: The Secret in Their Eyes (2009, Argentina)
Benjamin Esposito sits at his desk and tries to make the words come. We see two scenes he's striving to describe “ lovers breakfasting together for the final time; a train pulling away from a station and separating a couple; the brutal murder of a young woman. Esposito is a retired legal counsellor and he's decided to write a novel based on a case twenty five years old, but … [Read more...]