Film, Action

Apocalypto

(18) 138min

3 Jan 2007

ACTION/ADVENTURE Welcome to the jungle. A place where pierced savages josh and jest as they rip the flesh of a freshly speared boar. Life is simple, life is good, but trouble is hiding in the undergrowth and young family man Jaguar Paw (Rudy…

American Gangster

15 Nov 2007

Ridley Scott’s American Gangster opens with callous urban cruelty as a man is tied to a chair, doused with petrol and set on fire. But the reasons behind this violent act are less to do with anarchy than with good business, or at least that’s the lesson…

Batman: Gotham Knight

DVD Review

17 Jul 2008

Intended to fill the gaps between Batman Begins and Dark Knight, Gotham Knights offers us six animated shorts, much in the same way as The Animatrix did for The Matrix. Each story is self-contained and created by a different writer (including Greg…

The Escapist - Brian Cox interview

Edinburgh International Film Festival

19 Jun 2008

As Brian Cox welcomes me into the interview room at London’s Gibson Guitar Studio, he points out a picture of Syd Barrett, ‘a son of Cambridge’, on the wall. It’s been just a few months since the Dundee-born actor was treading the boards on Broadway to…

Beyond a Joke - Dark Knight

17 Jul 2008

As the latest Batman adaptation arrives on the silver screen, Alan Bissett explores the colourful history and enduring appeal of the caped crusader’s arch nemesis, the Joker

RocknRolla

4 Sep 2008

Is there a filmmaker in Britain who’s been more derided than Mr Madonna? A bit unfair all this criticism is too: it’s not Guy Ritchie’s fault that the competent, very watchable gangster flicks Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch were some of…

Bat's Life - Dark Knight

17 Jul 2008

Leigh Rafferty traces the highs and lows of the caped crusader’s cultural career

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

19 Jun 2008

FANTASY/ACTION (PG) 143min In the second instalment of the Narnia film adaptations, the Pevensie children are summoned back to CS Lewis’ fantasy kingdom by Prince Caspian’s blowing of a magic horn, expecting lion king Aslan to rear his head and…

Gwyneth Paltrow tells of injuries on Iron Man set

8 May 2008

Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed she left the set of upcoming movie, Iron Man, battered and bruised. The actress, who has broken her toe over 30 times, said she managed to break her knee on set, while playing the part of Petter Potts, opposite Robert Downey…

Day Watch

4 Oct 2007

Timur Bekmambetov’s 2004 fantasy Night Watch was grounded in dank layers of impenetrable local mysticism, made palatable by flashes of Matrix-style spectacle. A trilogy was as inevitable with Twilight Watch currently in pre-production and this…

Death Proof

20 Sep 2007

HORROR/ACTION (18) 113min Like the best roller-coasters, Death Proof takes an eternity to get moving, but once in top gear, Quentin Tarantino’s thriller will leave you hanging on tighter than poor Zoe Bell, who clings grimly to a speeding car’s…

Rise of the Footsoldier

6 Sep 2007

If you’ve already picked up any of the Nick Love titles displayed alongside the vegetable-rack in your local supermarket (The Football Factory, The Business, Outlaw), then you’re in the target audience for Julian 'Rollin’ With the Nines' Gibley’s feral…

Transformers

16 Jul 2007

ACTION/ADVENTURE/SCI-FI TRANSFORMERS (12A) 144min In 1984 toy manufacturer Hasbro released the Transformers, and as part of its marketing strategy, commissioned a Marvel comic strip and an animated TV series that became an instant…

Wanted

19 Jun 2008

THRILLER/ACTION (18) 111min Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar's ultra-violent graphic novel gets the Hollywood blockbuster treatment in this sfx-heavy actioner that benefits from the skewered perspective of Russian director Timur Bekmambetov, who…

Beowulf

15 Nov 2007

(12A) 114min Beowulf is being released on four formats: 35mm, digital, digital 3D and IMAX. This review is based on the IMAX version, Beowulf being the first mainstream film to successfully employ this technology. Much of the initial wow factor is…

Mr Brooks

4 Oct 2007

Mr Brooks (Kevin Costner) works in a cardboard box factory, but also murders women, photographs their corpses, then feeds the pictures into a furnace in his family home’s basement while prancing around naked. Demi Moore is Tracy Atwood, the detective…

The Kingdom

4 Oct 2007

The Kingdom of the title is a reference to Saudi Arabia. A potted history in the opening credits boils down everything that’s ever happened to the country to oil or the United States. America, we are reminded, is the number one oil consumer in the world…

Also Released

2 Jul 2007

Die Hard 4.0 (15) 128min, 3 Stars Renegade cop and one man destroyer of municipal property John McClane (Bruce Willis) steps up to the plate one more time. Older, but not much wiser this time out, he has to contend with a bunch of über geek terrorists.

DVD - Round-up

2 Jul 2007

No mucking about this issue; the home entertainment selection is just too good. After slim pickings last time the box set market is booming. The Coen Brothers Box Set (Fox, 4 Stars) contains three of their best films - Raising Arizona (1987), Miller’s…

Interview - Maggie Q

2 Jul 2007

In Die Hard 4.0 Maggie Q is described by Bruce Willis’ John McClane character as ‘The Asian kid that kicks people.’ Although, Maggie Q has become the first chick to kick John McClane’s behind, and was recently seen battling it out with Tom Cruise and…

1971

DVD

21 May 2007

ACTION/WAR Debut writer/director Amrit Sagar’s factional action adventure, follows 54 Indian POWs gathered from Pakistan’s national prisons and herded into a secret POW camp close to the border, where Major Suraj Singh (Manoj Bajpai) leads a daring…

Never Back Down

7 Aug 2008

ACTION (15) 108min (Momentum DVD retail/rental) Never Back Down isn’t meant for high analysis, it’s basically a film of hot young teens punching each other. The plot to string these acts of violence together is so basic it hardly warrants a mention…

Beaufort

24 Apr 2008

WAR/ACTION/DRAMA (15) 125min The Beaufort of the title refers to a castle built by the Crusaders during the 12th century in southern Lebanon. In 2000 this mountaintop fortress is occupied by IDF (Israeli Defence Force) troops, who are preparing to…

Jane Doe

10 Apr 2008

ACTION/THRILLER (15) 90min (Metrodome DVD retail) Resuscitated almost-ran Teri Hatcher gets the gun and an action vehicle in this re-released 2001 TV movie. After the desperate housewife is fired from her job at Cy-Kor, a major arms dealer, her…

Rambo

14 Feb 2008

ACTION/THRILLER (18) 90min Last year Sylvester Stallone successfully revitalised the Rocky franchise with Rocky Balboa. After a number of dud sequels, Stallone breathed life back into the pugilist by revisiting him in his decrepitude to winning…

Cloverfield

(15) 84min

31 Jan 2008

Nobody knows how to spin out a yarn like Lost creator JJ Abrams, but even at a short running time, his shaky-cam disaster horror flick Cloverfield turns out to be all spin and no substance. Essentially a marketing concept in search of a movie…

Underdog

(U) 81min

31 Jan 2008

‘This is so much more fun than sticking your head out the car window!’ whoops the gifted canine protagonist of Underdog, a live-action feature from Disney about a crime fighting dog with super-powers. Attractive as this proposition might sound to fans…

Rescue Dawn

15 Nov 2007

Born in 1938 in the Black Forest region of Germany, Dieter Dengler never wanted to go to war, he just wanted to fly. After emigrating to America at the age of 18 and completing flight training, in 1966 Dengler found himself on board an aircraft carrier…

Planet Terror

15 Nov 2007

Cut loose from its Grindhouse packaging Robert Sin City Rodriguez’s freaky, apocalyptic horror film is undoubtedly the baddest, nastiest and least well behaved child to come out of that divorce. But in this case that’s a very good thing. When an…

DVD Roundup

15 Nov 2007

‘No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees/No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds!’ That’s how English poet and humourist Thomas Hood chose to describe the month of November. There is some of Hood’s cheeky sense of observation in John Waters: This…

The Last Legion

18 Oct 2007

ACTION/ADVENTURE (12A) 101min Director Doug Lefler honed his questionable skills directing episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess before legendary producer Dino de Laurentiis let him loose on this risible slice of sword and sorcery buffoonery.

War

20 Sep 2007

ACTION/THRILLER (18) 102min War, as Edwin Starr once noted, is good for absolutely nothing, particularly when it’s a non-event of a smack-down between cockney tough-guy Jason Statham and celebrated martial arts star Jet Li. Pop promo director Phillip…

Shooter

(15) 125min

11 Apr 2007

ACTION/THRILLER More adventures for Mark Wahlberg at the frontline of flawed American foreign policy. Here he swaps the Iraqi desert of Three Kings for the African coast. When a mission ends with the death of his best mate and spotter (the human…

Casino Royale

(12A) 144min

13 Nov 2006

ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER This second adaptation (following the 1967 spoof) of Ian Fleming’s first 007 novel is pitched as a prequel to the 20 films that came before it. It begins with James Bond becoming a ‘double 0’ licensed to kill agent and…