The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is the finale to the Millennium trilogy, based on Steig Larsson's phenomenally popular novels. As regular readers of these reviews will know, I was less than impressed by the first two instalments. This third film, however, begins confidently, launching straight in from where The Girl Who played With Fire left off. Director Daniel Alfredson … [Read more...]
Review: Contraband (2012)
Contraband is a remake of the 2008 Icelandic film ReykjavÃk-Rotterdam. ReykjavÃk-Rotterdam was Iceland's official submission into the Oscars 2010 for Best Foreign Film. Of course, it wasn't actually nominated, but it enjoyed great success and critical acclaim in Iceland. Critics in the US (or at the least the ones that reviewed it) were not so impressed. … [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: Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Quentin Tarantino is now an established director in Hollywood, having had a string of commercial and critical success', the release of his films are treated with a similar sense of anticipation as those of Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese. This, however, was not always the case. In 1992 he released his first feature length film, that he also wrote called Reservoir Dogs. From a … [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: 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...]
Review: Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980 (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: 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: 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: 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...]