With Peter Jackson's unbelievably risky The Lord of the Rings trilogy imminent, New Line Cinema wanted to test the water and see if mainstream audiences would be willing to watch a high fantasy film. Naturally worried by the amount of money spent on LotR, they wanted to do this relatively cheaply, and thus was born Dungeons & Dragons, nominally based on the role-playing … [Read more...]
The Gatekeepers (2012) review by The Documentalist
Dror Moreh's The Gatekeepers is one of the five Oscar nominated entries for Best Documentary Feature. Telling the story of Israel's domestic secret service agency, Shin Bet, six former heads of this secretive organisation candidly discuss their roles and their thoughts and reflect on the effect their decisions had on the peace effort. … [Read more...]
Dark Skies (2013) review by That Film Guy
Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Opening with these immortal words of Arthur C. Clarke, Dark Skies, the third film by Scott Stewart blends horror with supernatural science fiction. The fact that the popular computer game XCOM: Enemy Unknown used the exact same quote six months earlier should by no means … [Read more...]
The Stuff (1985) review by That Film Punk
The Stuff has such a beautifully vague, utterly daft title, one finds it impossible to scroll past it when perusing the lower bowels of Netflix (other movie streaming sites are available). It begs to derail all attempt to be a ˜proper' cinephile. Maybe you planned tonight to finally get to the end of There Will Be Blood (let me save you the trouble: There Was Blood). Or maybe … [Read more...]
Rushmore (1998) review by That Film Guy
Following from the success generated from his debut film Bottle Rocket, director Wes Anderson created a film that would give him a more globally recognised level of success from which his entire early career would be built. Rushmore really heightened his notoriety and helped to establish him as the unique film-maker he is today. It also represented the first film of future … [Read more...]
Bottle Rocket (1996) review by That Film Guy
Wes Anderson's first foray into feature films came with Bottle Rocket. Based on a short film produced by Anderson, he brought fellow University of Texas alumni Owen Wilson and brother Luke on board, and then found partial funding from Texas-based screenwriter L.K. Carson and rolled the momentum on to becoming a success at the Sundance Film Festival. … [Read more...]
Review: G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
Toy giant Hasbro continues its run of films based on its merchandise with G.I. Joe: Retaliation. After continued box office success with the Transformers films, Battleship and its predecessor G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Retaliation removes most of the major characters from the first film and installs a small team lead by action favourite and WWE wrestling star Dwayne 'The … [Read more...]
Trance (2013) review by That Film Guy
Master of the combination genre film Danny Boyle is at it again with his first post-Olympic opening ceremony film Trance. One part psychological thriller, one part gangster heist, it even contains smatterings of action and body shock horror. The plot revolves around a young art house auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy) who is part of a plot to steal Francisco Goya's masterpiece … [Read more...]
Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
In the early-to-mid 1980s toy companies realised that to help boost sales of their products it made commercial sense to create cartoons as a way of advertising to children. This lead to a boom in cartoons such as Transformers, He-Man and Thundercats on television. In recent years, Hasbro, one of the biggest toy companies in the world have begun to produce feature films at … [Read more...]
Compliance (2012) review by That Film Brat
Compliance, the latest film from writer/director Craig Zobel, is based on the true story of a man who calls up restaurants around the US and tricks people into stripping and performing....unsavoury acts by convincing them he is a police officer. There were over 70 incidents involving this reported across the country, and now Zobel has made a movie based around it. The actual … [Read more...]