The late 1980s saw a rise in the popularity of the child's toy The Cabbage Patch Kids. In response to this Topps Cards produced a line of collectible cards that parodied their more popular cousins and were known as The Garbage Pail Kids (latterly The Garbage Gang in the United Kingdom). They became a huge success in their own right and in 1987 a film was commissioned to cash in … [Read more...]
A Field In England (2013) review by That Film Journo
A Field In England is bound to divide opinion; it may even be designed to do so. The latest offbeat offering from director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers, Down Terrace) is a weird, trippy English Civil War film (a largely ignored genre thus far) shot in black and white on a micro-budget. It's not an easy watch but it's never anything but compelling. … [Read more...]
This is the End (2013) review by That Film Guy
The apocalypse starts, what do you do? If you're Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel, you hunker down with your celebrity friend James Franco in his newly designed house and hope to survive. This is the End, based on a short film called Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse, marks the directorial debut of long-time collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg. … [Read more...]
John Dies At The End (2012) review by That Art House Guy
John Dies at the End started life as a web-serial book in 2001, written by David Wong. It was released as a paperback in 2007, and shooting on a movie version began in 2010. The narrator and protagonist, David Wong is a slacker stoner type in his early 20s. But he's not your average slacker stoner type “ he and his friend John can sometimes communicate telepathically and … [Read more...]
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) review by That Film Guy
Very loosely based on Judi and Ron Barrett's children's book of the same name, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a Sony Pictures Animation. During release it became the highest-grossing film released by the animation house taking over $240m at the box office. It represents the directing debut of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who rose to prominence after directing successful … [Read more...]
Monsters, Inc. (2001) review by The Documentalist
The fourth feature from Pixar marked the second departure from the Toy Story franchise and the first time that John Lasseter had relinquished the director's chair. Despite having the biggest budget to date for Pixar, Monsters, Inc. was another huge commercial success proving once again that the kings of animation were not a one trick pony and paving the way for more unique … [Read more...]
Rubber (2010) review by That Film Klown
Rubber tells the story of car tyre called Robert (yes, you read that right). Left lying in the Californian desert, Robert inexplicably comes to life and quickly develops a penchant for causing objects “ from beer bottles to human heads “ to explode. … [Read more...]
Holy Motors (2012, France) review by That Art House Guy
On stumbling out of Holy Motors, my head was full of questions. Not least of which was ˜how do I write a review of this?' Director Leos Carax has eschewed traditional review fodder, such as structure, character development and suchlike, making it tricky to know what to write about. So, by way of review, here are a few of the questions that were rolling around my addled brain … [Read more...]
Cosmopolis (2012) review by That Film Guy
Director David Cronenberg made a name for himself in the 1980s with a series of films that explored the human body and the lengths at which scientists will go to experiment on them. Films such as Videodrome and The Fly have become cult classics and as his career progressed he slowly moved away from the 'body shock' and to a more psychological impacting series of films. In 2012 … [Read more...]
The Three Musketeers (2011) review by That Film Toad
The Three Musketeers (originally a book by Alexandre Dumas) is indisputably a classic work, which has stood the test of time and continues to draw readers back to 17th century France. Such a leviathan of literature is, in short, well outside the scope of a reviewer who likes feasting on film-tastrophes. So imagine my surprise when Paul W.S Anderson stepped up to the plate and … [Read more...]