Film and Action

GFF 2012 - Mark Millar interview

The comic book creator of Kick-Ass and Wanted tells us about his role at the Glasgow Film Festival

13 Feb 2012

Mark Millar has written some of the biggest comics of the last 20 years. He’s tackled the X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman and Fantastic Four alongside...

Safe House

Brutally slick but flawed action thriller starring Denzel Washtington and Ryan Reynolds

8 Feb 2012

(15) 115mins Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds make a formidable partnership in Daniel Espinosa's Safe House, a brutally slick, if flawed, action thriller.

GFF 2012 - Day planner

Our highlights for each day of the Glasgow Film Festival

6 Feb 2012

It can be difficult, when any festival rolls around, to decide which events to skip in favour of others. Searching rigorously through the programme, referring back to the calendar, trying to fit in as much as possible - it's a painstaking piece of work…

Black Gold

Cliched, desert-set action adventure starring Mark Strong, Antonio Banderas and Tahar Rahim

27 Jan 2012

(12A) 130min The financial muscle of the Middle East has had a major impact on many spheres in recent years. Now that money is being directed towards movies. Bankrolled by the Doha Film Institute this action-adventure is set at the turn of the 20th…

Preview of 2012 - Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino flexes his Western muscles with Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio

6 Jan 2012

Quentin Tarantino has already given us his heist movie (Reservoir Dogs), his take on blaxploitation (Jackie Brown), his war film (Inglourious Basterds), horror (Death Proof), kung fu (Kill Bill 1 & 2) and of course his crime thriller (Pulp Fiction).

Haywire

Steven Soderbergh's fast-paced chase movie stars Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor and Michael Douglas

5 Jan 2012

(15) 93min While other directors talk endlessly about the next great movie they are going to make, Steven Soderbergh keeps on quietly making films at a frequent rate, never repeating himself (Ocean’s sequels notwithstanding), and consistently…

Coriolanus

Ralph Fiennes proves as adept behind the camera as in front of it in this Shakespeare adaptation

5 Jan 2012

(15) 123min Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut is a powerful reimagining of the Shakespearean tragedy and is a resonant story about leadership, politics and power. Acting as well as directing, Fiennes stars as the central character, the eponymous…

Ralph Fiennes, star and director of Coriolanus - profile

Man behind the modernised Shakespeare adap has Bardic pedigree

5 Jan 2012

Name Ralph Fiennes Born Ipswich, Suffolk, 22 December, 1962 Background Initially a star onstage with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Fiennes gained international film recognition for his Oscar-nominated performance as Nazi Commander Amon Göth in…

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Slight but entertaining sequel from Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law

13 Dec 2011

Guy Ritchie’s 2009 Sherlock Holmes was considerably better than could reasonably have been expected from the fading and formerly feted Lock, Stock director. Ritchie and his writers successfully pulled off a tough balancing act, rooting the character in…

Miss Bala

Impressive crime drama from Mexican director Gerardo Naranjo

12 Oct 2011

(15) 113min Maria Full of Grace meets Heat in this absorbing thriller from Mexican writer/director Gerardo Naranjo (I’m Gonna Explode), whose title translates as ‘Miss Bullet’. Laura (newcomer Stephanie Sigman) is a young working-class woman living…

Shark Night 3D

Dumb fun as big fish chow down on stereotypical college kids

6 Oct 2011

(15) 91 min The avalanche of 3D releases may be slowing down but there’s still a few chuckles to be had with the format. Shark Night 3D has the flimsiest of plots as seven college kids head out for a weekend at a luxurious lake house in Louisiana…

Warrior

Unfulfilling sports drama starring Nick Nolte, Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton

14 Sep 2011

(12A) 139min The underdog fighter with family issues is back in a big way this year. First came David O. Russell’s Oscar-winner The Fighter, and now writer/director Gavin O’Connor (Pride and Glory) delivers his challenger, a two-hour-plus…

The Debt

Sober-minded spy movie with Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington

14 Sep 2011

(15) 113min The Debt has languished on the distributor’s shelf for a year since screening in Toronto last September, betraying a lack of studio confidence in the commercial prospects for John Madden’s sober-minded remake of 2007 Israeli espionage…

Profile: Melissa George

Aussie actress Melissa George tells us all about her new film A Lonely Place to Die

1 Sep 2011

Born 6 August, 1976, Perth, Australia. Background Yet another Aussie soap alumni done good, after starring as Angel in over 300 episodes of Home & Away. ‘I’m a very good quitter, I always quit a job at the right time,’ explains George. ‘I was…

Colombiana

Photocopy action film features unconvincing super-soldier hit-woman

19 Aug 2011

(12A) 107min After her breakthrough role as the doe-eyed alien love-interest in James Cameron’s Avatar, and as a sexed-up Uhura in JJ Abrams’s Star Trek reboot, Zoe Saldana clearly has the international profile to get almost any picture made. Almost…

Captain America: The First Avenger

Despite a clumsy second half, the Cap sets the stage well for 2012's Avengers

4 Aug 2011

(12A) 124 min Captain America might be subtitled The First Avenger, but he is, in fact, the last of the Marvel Comics superheroes to receive blockbuster movie treatment before he assembles alongside Hulk, Iron Man and Thor in next year’s superhero…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

The boy-wizard franchise goes out on a high

18 Jul 2011

(12A) 130min It gives this critic great pleasure to confirm that the final film in the franchise adapted from JK Rowling’s boy wizard publishing phenomenon is among the top three of the eight-part series. Since the series hit the ground running ten…

Arrietty

Studio Ghibli takes on The Borrowers and delivers charming results

13 Jul 2011

(U) 94min Over three decades, the Studio Ghibli brand of animated storytelling has become a worldwide phenomenon through beloved classics My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and the recent Ponyo. Although not directed by the studio’s co-founder Hayao…

Cars 2

Uninspired sequel fails to keep the Pixar engine running

13 Jul 2011

(U) 112min After 25 years of animation production and a run of critical and commercial smash-hits, the super-smooth Pixar production line finally blows a gasket with Cars 2, a colourful but overstuffed, noisy and heartless sequel that feels more like…

Bikini Machine compose a 'cinéconcert' score for Desperado

24 Jun 2011

Each year, the French Institute for Scotland takes part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival and strives to bring the media of music and film together to form one piece of intercontinental art. This year, the Institute have invited five…

Point Blank (A Bout Portant)

Director Fred Cavayé's French thriller is engaging and well-paced

23 May 2011

(15) 84 min Fashion photographer turned filmmaker Fred Cavayé (Anything For Her) would have thrived in the old Hollywood studio system. His films operate with the speed and single-mindedness of a runaway locomotive. Give him a high concept premise…

Takeshi Miike's 13 Assassins strikes a balance between measured character development and violent brutality

25 Apr 2011

(15) 126min Prolific to the point of insanity, unpredictable and blatantly controversial, Takeshi Miike is not your average Japanese filmmaker. His notorious body of work which includes loads of straight to video fare, the Dead or Alive trilogy, Ichi…

Attack the Block

Plays for scares more than laughs, and succeeds admirably

25 Apr 2011

(15) 87min Coming from the same production team as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, this confident debut from Joe Cornish (one half of duo Adam and Joe) is much less a comedy than might have been expected. Rather it’s a…

Thor

It’s hammer time! Kenneth Branagh's Thor has a theatrical charm

20 Apr 2011

(12A) 130min Kenneth Branagh may have seemed like an unlikely choice to direct Marvel's Thor but he pulls it off with considerable style to kick-start the summer in fun fashion. By no means perfect, and inferior to both Christopher Nolan's genre…

Your Highness starring Danny McBride is a load of fantasy rubbish

James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman fail to improve it

14 Apr 2011

(15) 102min Before Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy heralded a resurgence of the ‘fantasy quest’ movie, this much-derided genre enjoyed a kind of golden age in the late 1980s, when Labyrinth, The Princess Bride and Willow captured the…

Limitless a fun cinematic trip with a mind-altering wonder drug

Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro star in entertaining action thriller

30 Mar 2011

Limitless should come subtitled ‘Better Living Through Chemistry’ as struggling writer Eddie (Bradley Cooper) dives headlong down the rabbit hole as he becomes hooked on NZT, an IQ-enhancing wonder drug that transforms you into the best version of…

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

Luc Besson brings Jacques Tardi's adventure comics to the screen

24 Mar 2011

(12A) 107min The ‘cinéma du look’ pioneer Luc Besson returns with this old-fashioned adventure-cum-fantasy yarn, adapted from Jacques Tardi’s long-running comic book series. Although set on the eve of World War One, its intrepid titular heroine…

Polish director, writer and actor Jerzy Skolimowski on new film Essential Killing

Vincent Gallo-starring film tells tale of fugitive on the run from the CIA

18 Mar 2011

‘I live in a remote area of the Masurian forest in Poland and one night I was driving back home on a very slippery road. My car skidded and I very nearly went over the edge, which would have killed me. I felt a real shock and I realised I was near this…

Source Code

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan star in body-swapping thriller

18 Mar 2011

Duncan Jones’ dazzling debut Moon is, by any standard, a tough act to follow, but while sophomore effort Source Code can’t quite match up, it does ensure the director’s career remains on the right track. The film is an intriguing race-against-time…

Drive Angry 3D - review

Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard and William Fichtner star in off-the-wall hellbound actioner

9 Mar 2011

(18) 104min More than any other actor, Nicolas Cage has the ability to move from the sublime to the ridiculous. For every Moonstruck, Leaving Las Vegas and Kick-Ass, there is a Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous or World Trade Centre. Whereas his…

GFF blog: Jason Eisener on Rutger Hauer exploitation flick, Hobo With a Shotgun

The former Grindhouse trailer gets the feature-length treatment

2 Mar 2011

Almost everything you want to know plot-wise about the film Hobo With a Shotgun is right there in the title. There’s a hobo. He has a shotgun. You can probably fill in the blanks yourself. The film’s genesis has a slightly more intricate story…

The Adjustment Bureau

Philip K Dick-inspired sci-fi thriller starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt

2 Mar 2011

The work of Philip K Dick has inspired some of cinema’s great sci-fi films, from Blade Runner to Minority Report via Total Recall. The Adjustment Bureau, which is derived from one of the author’s short stories, doesn’t quite measure up to the former or…

The Eagle

Kevin Macdonald's historical drama/war movie, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell

2 Mar 2011

(12A) 113min Following on from State of Play, Kevin Macdonald has created a new adaptation of Rosemary Sutcliff’s children’s adventure The Eagle of the Ninth, which was also the subject of a fondly remembered BBC TV series. After his success with The…

Ironclad

Medieval seige movie starring Paul Giamatti, James Purefoy and Brian Cox

2 Mar 2011

(15) 120min If you’re partial to a bit of medieval madness, then Jonathan English’s Ironclad has it all. Set in 1215, this bawdy, bloody and brutal history lesson tells of what happened in the months following the creation of the Magna Carta, the…

Steve McQueen: King of Cool

Six of the best movies by the coolest American screen actor

17 Aug 2010

Arguably the coolest American screen actor of the last 50 years, McQueen gets his six of the best to help us make it through another damp August. Highlights include Love with the Proper Stranger – actor/director Robert Mulligan’s misguided but…

The Expendables

12 Aug 2010

The Expendables is as much an A to Z of every action movie cliché as it is a who’s who of the leading men who used to populate them. Boasting a line-up of Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts and Steve Austin, as…

Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz star in Knight and Day

3 Aug 2010

‘I’m the guy!’ smirks madcap assassin Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) to mousey June Havens (Cameron Diaz) as he kidnaps her at gunpoint from a Boston cafe. Sadly, on the evidence of James Mangold’s pumped-up spy thriller, Cruise has little to be so cocky about…

Combat Models: Jackboots on Whitehall

2 Jun 2010

If you only see one puppet-based, all-star World War II comedy epic at this year’s EIFF, it surely has to be Jackboots on Whitehall, the long-gestated project of the McHenry brothers, Ed and Rory. Set in an alternative universe where Nazis have…

Toy Story 3 and The Illusionist among Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 highlights

5 May 2010

With The Edinburgh Film Festival 2010, which runs between 16-27 June, only a matter of weeks away, the red carpets are getting waterproofed and the popcorn machines are getting serviced. Now in its 64th year, the twelve day festival, packed with…

The Spy Next Door

31 Mar 2010

(PG) 94min Chan fans will enjoy the first five minutes of uber-hack Brian Levant’s patronising comedy-thriller, which opens with a montage of stunts from Chan’s earlier films. Thereafter, Chan struggles with a glib scenario in which, as secret…

How to Train Your Dragon

22 Mar 2010

(PG) 97min Commendable new DreamWorks animation set in the mythical world of Vikings and dragons, and based on the book by Cressida Cowell. Hiccup, a Viking teenager befriends a dragon. Voice work by Gerard Butler, America Ferrara and Craig…

Storm

18 Mar 2010

(15) 110min Last time out director Hans-Christian Schmid directed the psychological horror Requiem based on the true story of Anneliese Michel, a young Catholic epileptic sufferer who believed that she was possessed by demons. Schmid has a long…

Kick-Ass

18 Mar 2010

(15) 117min Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic book series is a hilarious, hip twist on the superhero genre. Gone are the superpowers, the 100 inch chests and holier than thou attitude. Instead our hero is an awkward teenager, Dave…

Old Dogs

18 Mar 2010

(PG) 88min Having earned his rubbish comedy spurs on Walt Becker’s biker comedy Wild Hogs, John Travolta returns on a fool’s errand to partner Robin Williams in the same director’s follow-up Old Dogs. Via a series of arch plot contrivances that…

Will Ferrell interview

Land of the Lost star talk us through time

6 Nov 2009

With the DVD release of Land of the Lost imminent, Will Ferrell explains his role in this fast-paced, action adventure comedy.

IP Man

23 Oct 2009

(15) 110min Biopic of Wing Chun, the kung fu and sifu master who taught Bruce Lee his killer moves. Released simultaneously on DVD. Filmhouse, Edinburgh on Wed 4 and Thu 5 Nov.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Inspired take on the Dahl classic

16 Oct 2009

Wes Anderson’s animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s much loved book is no straightforward children’s film. Wee ones might enjoy it to a degree, but they won’t get much of the typically arch humour and wanton eccentricities the filmmaker once again…

Ong-Bak: The Beginning

Action packed tale of revenge

5 Oct 2009

Master martial arts star Tony Jaa shows his chops in considerable style – a style that has found him compared favourably to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li – in this action packed tale of an orphan brought up by a gang of thieves who trains to avenge…

Playlist 18 - Short films

Though far from short of quality

17 Sep 2009

The internet has gifted us with the attention spans of goldfish. But that’s no bad thing when the best short films can stimulate more thoroughly than a dozen features, as well as providing the perfect calling card for up and coming directors. Witness…

Hitlist: Films

17 Sep 2009

Army of Crime, The Beaches of Agnes, White Lightnin', The Godfather, Nagisa Oshima, Fish Tank, Adventureland, Three Miles North of Molkom, Inglourious Basterds, The Big Knife, The Stranger