The Raid (Film Review)
The notion of a foreign director coming into the martial arts industry and changing it is not a new one. One of the most important Chinese martial arts films that established countless conventions (King Boxer) was directed by a Korean, which in the early 70s was unheard of. Over 40 years later we have someone from Wales – Gareth Evans – shooting his second Indonesian film. That film is the Raid. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (May 18th)
The Raid
Director: Gareth Evans
Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George and Ray Sahetapy
Dark Shadows (Film Review)
Dark Shadows is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s 8th collaboration and their interpretation of the cult 1960s Supernatural drama of the same name. In both versions the Collins family is the order of the day, of which we are introduced to through Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), an early patriarch of the family who helped establish them after moving from England. Who was at the centre of an unfortunate love triangle between his true love Josette DuPres and the jealous servant Angelique Bouchard – a spiteful witch. Angelique concludes that if she cannot have her love no one can by murdering Josette, cursing Barnabus to spend eternity as a vampire and then setting the townspeople on him, sealing him in a coffin, burying him ‘alive’. Then, thanks to all the curses on his family and lover lining up he is freed from his captivity. No longer is it 1790s frontier America, it is 1972. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (May 11th)
Piranha 3DD
Director: John Gulager
Starring: Danielle Panabaker, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd and David Hasselhoff
Safe (Film Review)
You rarely get a surprise when you visit the cinema intending to watch the latest Jason Statham movie. You know he’ll be bald and stubbly, his dialogue will be delivered in a very gruff accent, he’ll make a few sarcastic comments, and he’ll kick seven shades of shit out of nameless bad guys for 90 minutes. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (May 4th)
Silent House
Director: Chris Kentis, Laura Lau
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer Stevensn
Battleship (Film Review)
Battleship is a movie that starts dumb, and gets progressively dumber as it progress. It’s high on unintentional comedy, and low on excitement, originality and particularly, a decent plot. It’s a cliché-fest in which you’ll have no sympathy for any of the characters, or be able to decide if you’re supposed to be on the side of the good old US Navy, or the (apparently) really terribly nasty aliens. (more…)
Avenger’s Assemble (Film Review)
The Incredible Hulk, Iron man 1 & 2, Thor and Captain America, all of these Marvel produced superhero films were made with their own aspirations and goals most of which were achieved to varying levels. Alongside each pictures own aims, Marvel created its own self-sustaining hype machine. An added allure that fanned the flames of anticipation at the prospect of all these superheroes coming together to fight with each other. The fact is finally here, the massively anticipated avengers written and directed by Joss Whedon is here. Typically such a weight of expectation would suffocate most films, which makes it all the more satisfying to confirm that this ensemble blockbuster is everything fans wanted. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (April 27th)
Avengers Assemble
Director: Joss Whedon
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson
Lockout (Film Review)
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Based on an original story by Luc Besson, there’s an embellishment. Lockout is from Besson’s production studio and the best way to describe it without going into the specifics is to say that it is a blend of Escape from New York, Alien 3, Con Air and Die Hard. Maggie Grace is Emilie Warnock, the president’s daughter and she’s on a humanitarian visit to the space station/prison MS One (Maximum Security) to investigate the effects of hyper sleep. As she is there something inevitably goes wrong, the prisoners break free and the president’s daughter is held hostage. On Earth, Guy Pearce is Snow, a rogue agent involved in a conspiracy. Getting caught by the government, he is eventually offered a bargaining chip to go solo into MS one, along with 500 violent convicts to rescue the president’s daughter. His promise to a dying friend and his freedom neatly coincide and an understanding is reached. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (April 20th)
Lockout
Director: James Mather, Stephen St. Leger
Starring: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace and Peter Stormare
The Cabin in the Woods (Film Review)
How to discuss the Cabin in the Woods? Now there is a million dollar question. A group of college students made up of Chris Hemsworth (pre-Thor), Anna Hutchinson, Fran Kranz, Kristen Connolly and Jesse Williams all decide to disappear off the grid and go to Hemsworth’s cousin’s Cabin in the Woods for the weekend. The horror archetype is right there, only instead of the characters being stupid stereotypes, they are all intellectual in their own way. Keeping true to the genre stereotypes, they have a run in with a creepy local before arriving at the cabin. That is a sequence of often travelled horror clichés and it takes very little time to shake those shackles free. (more…)
Headhunters (Film Review)
Aksel Hennie is Roger Brown, the lead in Headhunters, based on the book of the same name by Jo Nesbø. Roger is a diminutive man, standing 5ft6 tall and married to Diana (Synnøve Macody Lund, in her acting début). A statuesque, beautiful woman who has given him Napoleon complex, therefore he believes it necessary to impress his wife with lavish gifts to prevent her from leaving him, none of which he can afford. He has driven himself into a corner where his income as a high-flying head-hunter in the recruitment industry isn’t enough, so on the side he is an accomplished art thief. (more…)
The Cold Light of Day (Film Review)
Abduction was an awful film that saw Taylor Lautner fight against those that murdered his fake parents and throws him head first into the world of spies and international subterfuge. The cold light of day, directed by JCVD director Mabrouk El Mechri, is essentially the same film, only this time the father is Bruce Willis instead of Jason Isaacs and Sigourney Weaver is the antagonist this time, since the first trailer emerged the cold light of day has mockingly been called Abduction 2 in this dojo. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (Apil 4th)
Headhunters
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (Review)
Arthur Christmas, Chicken Run, Curse of the Were-rabbit & The Wrong Trousers, if any of these clay animated films sound familiar, then Britain’s greatest cinematic exponent, Aardman Studios, will be no mystery. If those titles hold no meaning, please greet with open arms their latest film, an adaptation of the first Gideon Coe Pirate novels – the pirates! In an adventure with scientists! Or as it is titled in North America, The Pirates! Band of Misfits! (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (March 30th)
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists
Director: Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt
Starring: Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek, David Tennant and Jeremy Piven
The Hunger Games (Film Review)
Right from the go, there is the issue of the elephant in the room to be addressed and that elephant goes by the name of Battle Royale. The set up for The Hunger Games is of a gladiatorial battle to the death by people aged between 12-18, shown on TV throughout the world and hosted in a dome open to manipulation al a the Truman show. The comparison between the Hunger Games and Battle Royale is there, it would be erroneous to suggest otherwise and it is impossible to ignore, however there is more to this film than a comparison. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (March 23rd)
Act of Valor
Director: Mike McCoy, Scott Waugh
Starring: Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez and Nestor Serrano
21 Jump Street (Film Review)
21 Jump Street was one of the many iconic American TV shows of the 1980s, which launched Johnny Depp’s career. A series that wasn’t embraced in the UK, hence this re-adaptation doesn’t have the weight of fandom weighing it down in these waters. Here, 21 Jump Street is just another buddy cop comedy and that fact alone, isolated from its status as a remake, made this film a tiresome prospect prior to seeing it, especially when the advertising campaign makes it look like insufferable dross. (more…)
The Raven (Film Review)
Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most famous names in literary history, on top of that proud lineage he is also has a huge role in the formation of horror as it is now known. Naturally his role and influence in horror cinema is huge, whether it is in a direct sense and the endless adaptations of his work from the likes of Roger Corman and other less well-known directors or in a more idealistic and stylistic sense. Edgar Allen Poe, the person, is somewhat or a mystery, an enigma. He has rarely, if ever, featured as a character in cinema. In 2012, some 169 years after his death he is making his character début in cinema in John Cusack’s passion project from director James McTeigue, which is named after the legendary wordsmiths most famous work, The Raven. (more…)
Top Film Releases This Weekend (March 16th)
Director: Andrew Stanton
Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins and Willem Dafoe
The Cycle (Short Film/Review)
The Cycle is a short film directed by Chris Suffield of the Vulture Hound parish and Mike Jelves. Opening with the ambiguous and puzzling words of, “I slept last night”, the director duo’s short film follows the exploits of an insomniac. John Bocelli plays a twenty something who is suffering from crippling Insomnia and at the suggestion of his therapist he records himself talking to camera as a vehicle to come to terms with his condition. The Cycle adopts a stylised approach to telling its story which is not quite found footage; this is more of a documentary direction. As far as set-ups for using the camera as a tool to exist in the films world rather than a tool of voyeurism, this is well conceived. (more…)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Film Review)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel comes with an impressive pedigree. Director John Madden, and stars Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson have all won or been nominated for an Oscar, and between them, the entire cast has won a host of BAFTAs. Alongside Dench, Smith and Wilkinson, the cast also includes Dev Patel, Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton. But despite such celebrated stars, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is not an easy sell as a movie. Although there are funny lines in the trailer, on paper the plot is not an exciting one. 7 retirees read about a hotel in India that promises a home for the ‘elderly and beautiful’, and all of them make the decision to go there for different reasons. (more…)
