Film Review: The Cinema Travellers
It’s easy to take for granted how readily available films are nowadays. My city, for example, has four multiplexes and two independent cinemas. Then there’s special events and local cinema clubs/societies. Not to mention the ease of streaming movies in your own home. We’re fortunate in the UK. Even the more remote places aren’t too …
Incoming: Downsizing
Downsizing imagines what might happen if, as a solution to over-population, Norwegian scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall and propose a 200-year global transition from big to small. People soon realize how much further money goes in a miniaturized world, and with the promise of a better life, everyman Paul Safranek …
Blu-Ray Review: Blue Collar
Richard Pryor was arguably the most influential, important and downright funny stand-up comedian of the last fifty years. His X-rated tirades on racial politics and current affairs wowed audiences around the world. His brand of storytelling revolutionised the medium. Pryor starred in a number of comedy films, most notably in Stir Crazy with frequent collaborator …
Incoming: The Commuter
In this action-packed thriller, Liam Neeson plays an insurance salesman, Michael, on his daily commute home, which quickly becomes anything but routine. After being contacted by a mysterious stranger, Michael is forced to uncover the identity of a hidden passenger on his train before the last stop. As he works against the clock to solve …
Blu-Ray Review: Charley Varrick
When we think about Walter Matthau today, it’s his great comedy roles which spring to mind. Comedy is what made him famous, and he was never better than when he was working in tandem with Jack Lemmon. Mattheu won an Oscar for his performance in Fortune Cookie, but it was another of the duo’s films …
DVD Review: Cold Moon
Southern Gothic is one of the most fascinating and enthralling areas of American writing and film-making. The sub-genre is characterised by flawed and eccentric characters, dilapidated rural communities, eerie events and an air of malice. This atmosphere has been most successfully captured on film in Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter, Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar …
Blu-Ray Review: Borg vs McEnroe
Today, tennis is multi-billion-dollar sport which is watched and played all over the world. In order to even consider getting near the top 100 you have to be a superb athlete. Fitness regimes, dietary plans rigorous training sessions are par for the course. This hasn’t always been the case. Until Bjorn Borg arrived on the …
Blu-Ray Review: Hounds of Love
Australians seem to possess a rather perverse dark humour which they bring to their film-making. This is especially the case in their horror films. Whether it’s the psychological terror of the classic Wake in Fright, the deliciously gruesome Wolf Creek, the almost surreal ‘true story’ Lake Mungo or the snappy Black Water, there’s something rather …
DVD Review: Chasing the Dragon
Hong Kong cinema has built up a reputation for stylish and slick crime dramas. The reigning master is undoubtedly Johnnie To, who has transformed his spin on the genre into something of an artform. The likes of PTU, The Mission and Exiled are modern classics. However, he’s not short of competition. When John Woo exploded …
Incoming: Coco
Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel (voice of newcomer Anthony Gonzalez) dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz (voice of Benjamin Bratt). Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colourful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along …