In the last decade there has been a visible movement from Hollywood to cater for a large group of young teenagers. Working on adapting smash hit novels, we've seen Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Twilight and Red Riding Hood. The latest in this trend is The Hunger Games, based on the first in an incredibly successful series of books by Suzanne Collins, which has sold … [Read more...]
Review: Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Kiki (Kirsten Dunst) is a 13-year-old witch in training. An old tradition states that at 13, a young witch can leave home and study to become a full time witch. So, even though her parents are not overjoyed, she decides to leave. She takes her broomstick and her cat Jiji (Phil Hartman) and sets off for Koriko, a big port city. Once there, she finds she does not have any witch … [Read more...]
Review: Return to Oz (1985)
A well-loved trivia question is, ˜Which films have the longest gap between the original release and the sequel?' The answer is Victor Fleming's beloved The Wizard of Oz and its sequel Return to Oz which was filmed forty one years later. Despite the long gap, expectations were high and inevitably comparisons were made. As a result it garnered mixed reviews for its somber tone … [Read more...]
Review: Laputa: Castle In The Sky (1986)
Laputa: Castle In The Sky is Hayao Miyazaki's third feature film. At the time, it was also his best received. It got wide recognition for it's great storytelling, stunning animation, fantastic script, and (as with Nausicaa) a message that didn't shove itself down people's throats. I watched the film hoping for a masterpiece. Of course, hype can kill a film. I don't know whether … [Read more...]
Review: Willow (1988)
George Lucas likes to mix things up. His most well-known brainchild, the incredibly successful Star Wars trilogy is essentially a spaghetti western, samurai story set in space. With Willow, he brings things down to earth to a familiar swords and sorcery setting. However that doesn't mean he doesn't stir a few extra things into the mixing pot. In Willow, producer Lucas and … [Read more...]
Review: Legend (1985)
Before the days of his history biopics; Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven and Robin Hood, Ridley Scott had a penchant for making science fiction movies. In the wake of Alien and Blade Runner he turned his hand to the fantasy genre for the first time with Legend, an archetypal tale of true love versus the machinations of evil. One day in an unspecified time in an unspecified place, a … [Read more...]
Review: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
After The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki made Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Although this is generally considered a Studio Ghibli film, it is actually not. Studio Ghibli was not founded until a year later. However, it is still included in the ˜Studio Ghibli Collection' DVD series. Miyazaki was approached to allow an adaptation of the manga he wrote, and he initially … [Read more...]
Review: Run Lola Run (1998, Germany)
Run Lola Run is a film based on a very simple premise: Lola's boyfriend Manni, has lost 100,000 of some Very Bad Men's Deutschmarks, and they're going to meet him in twenty minutes' time. So Lola (Franka Potente) has twenty minutes to somehow find/borrow/steal 100,000 DM and get to Manni. So she'd better start running. And run she does. To a soundtrack of pulsing techno music … [Read more...]
Review: The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Wizard of Oz has achieved a feat almost unchallenged by any other motion picture of the last century; any frame of the film is almost instantly recognizable, the imagery legendary (twisters, the yellow brick road, the ruby slippers) and is as fresh, loved, venerated and watched as it was at the time of its release over seventy years ago. In actuality, the film was not a … [Read more...]
Review: The Princess Bride (1987)
It˜s testament to modestly-budgeted 1987 fairy tale The Princess Bride that decades later, the mere mention of this film elicits gushing from young and old viewers alike, followed by recollections of everyone's favourite quotes and characters. Most will either wax lyrical over the love story between Buttercup (Robin Wright - before the Penn) and her farm-boy turned … [Read more...]