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4,181 articles
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Les Misérables
7 Jan 2013
A strong cast with good singing voices lift up Tom Hooper's French Revolution musical adap
The musical is a taste that, once acquired, tends to stick. Fall for South Pacific or Evita or The Rocky Horror Picture Show at an impressionable age, and your crush is likely to outlast far more credible affiliations. Conversely, if you never got your…
West of Memphis
3 Jan 2013
A diligent, complex and justly indignant documentary about a grisly triple murder case
The triple murder of Christopher Byers, Steven Branch and Michael Moore in Arkansas in 1993 was one of those crimes that’s liable to make you lose the will to be part of the human race if you dwell on it too much – and that’s before you even get to the…
Dabangg 2
3 Jan 2013
Enjoyable Bollywood action sequel starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor
Dabangg, released in 2010, introduced us to hyper-macho super-cop Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan), a sharply dressed unorthodox policeman living and working in rural northern India. The sequel, produced and directed by Arbaaz Khan (who also stars in both…
Confession of a Child of the Century
21 Dec 2012
Pete Doherty's acting derails this 19th century period drama
The former pop star and tabloid fixation Pete Doherty has always seemed like such an unstable, needy construction – a walking set of influences lacking the supporting structure of a personality – that it’s not impossible to see how he might have seemed…
Grabbers
21 Dec 2012
A contrived, one-note sci-fi horror comedy in which a community stays drunk to repel an alien attack
In Grabbers, an interplanetary invasion of earth can potentially be foiled, not by the fighting spirit of the human race, but due to the aversion of the aliens to drinking blood contaminated by alcohol. It’s a situation which forces the inhabitants of a…
Jack Reacher
21 Dec 2012
A slow, solid crowd-pleaser that achieves its middlebrow ambitions, starring Tom Cruise
Thirty years on from Risky Business, Tom Cruise is still a potent force in Hollywood, and launches a potential new franchise as Jack Reacher, the ‘top shelf army cop’ from the bestselling books by Lee Child. Adapted from Child’s book One Shot by…
Hors Satan
21 Dec 2012
Contemplative religious drama from Bruno Dumont, director of Hadewijch
For an avowedly atheistic director, the uncompromising French auteur Bruno Dumont seems strangely fascinated by questions of religious faith and the mysterious workings of grace. Following on from Hadewijch, a provocative examination of contemporary…
Zaytoun
20 Dec 2012
A dramatically and emotionally unconvincing Middle-Eastern road movie, starring Stephen Dorff
Israeli director Eran Riklis teams up with first-time Palestinian writer Nader Rizq in this handsomely photographed Middle-Eastern road movie, which charts an improbable friendship between an Israeli pilot Yoni (Stephen Dorff) and an orphaned…
Zombie Flesh Eaters
20 Dec 2012
Reissue of the 1979 video nasty classic on Blu-ray and DVD
How can you not love a film called Zombie Flesh Eaters? And unlike so many exploitation movies it actually lives up to its inflammatory title. We get the infamous splinter meets eyeball scene, zombies fighting sharks underwater, multiple torn throats…
LGBT DVD round-up - Christmas 2012
19 Dec 2012
Yossi, Beauty, Hit So Hard and Co-Dependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same reviewed
If your ideal Christmas involves spending the day on the sofa, a glass of sparkly in one hand and the remote in the other, it’s worth sourcing your entertainment from Peccadillo Pictures, the UK’s only LGBT-interest DVD distributor. Their latest batch…
The Wee Man
19 Dec 2012
Martin Compston stars in this uneven crime drama that glamourises its real-life subject
Based on the memoirs of Glasgow gangland figure Paul Ferris, this chronicle of a bloody underworld feud runs from the early 1970s, when a young Ferris and his friends are menaced by the ruthless Welsh family, to the 80s, when Ferris is married and…
McCullin
19 Dec 2012
Straight up documentary about legendary war photographer Don McCullin
Sometimes a fascinating subject matter is enough in itself to carry a documentary, as is the case in McCullin, a film by Jacqui and David Morris about the British war photographer Don McCullin. Growing up in the impoverished neighbourhood of Finsbury…
Director Juan Antonio Bayona discusses tsunami drama The Impossible
18 Dec 2012
The film, which stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, is based on the true story of the Balon family
In 2007, Juan Antonio Bayona delivered one of the year’s most effective horror films, The Orphanage. Five years on, he’s back with new film The Impossible. And you might say the 37-year-old Spaniard has achieved just that, creating an experience that’s…
War photographer Don McCullin discusses the new documentary about his life
18 Dec 2012
The 77-year-old photographer talks to us as he prepares to head out to Syria
The photographer Don McCullin has spent over five decades travelling the world and recording for magazines and newspapers the suffering inflicted upon ordinary people caught in civil war, conflict and humanitarian disasters. He has reported from the…
Boxing Day
18 Dec 2012
Disappointing adaptation of Tolstoy's Master and Man from director Bernard Rose
A case of diminishing returns in term of British writer-director Bernard Rose’s Tolstoy adaptations, given that Boxing Day is his fourth film based on the work of the 19th century Russian novelist – see also Anna Karenina, Ivansxtc (inspired by The Life…
Playing For Keeps
18 Dec 2012
A rigidly formulaic and shamelessly sentimental romcom starring Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler has fared pretty badly when it comes to tackling romantic comedies (if you dare recall The Ugly Truth and PS I Love You) and his latest film doesn’t improve on his record. A predictable tale of redemption, Playing for Keeps is a…
The Impossible
18 Dec 2012
A powerful recollection of the 2006 tsunami, starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts
It is hard to recall a film with the raw, visceral impact of The Impossible. Inspired by true events from the 2004 tsunami, it recreates the sense of nature being unleashed with astonishing verisimilitude. Buildings crumble and individuals become like…
Chasing Ice
18 Dec 2012
Documentary on envirnonmental change by National Geographic photographer
For all the talk of climate change and its impact on the planet, actually visualising how our planet is changing is often a challenge. With his project, the Extreme Ice Survey, National Geographic photographer James Balog aims to put the very real…
Preview of 2013
18 Dec 2012
We look ahead to some of the hottest events in the next 12 months, including GTA V and Lana Del Rey
Massimo Bartolini Magical Italian artist set to take over the Fruitmarket One of the most eagerly anticipated exhibitions to arrive in Scotland in the new year is a show of new sculptural work by the Italian artist, Massimo Bartolini. Bartolini is…
Apocalypse Archives: Deepa Mehta, director of Midnight's Children
18 Dec 2012
The Indo-Canadian filmmaker picks the films she'd save at the end of the world
Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955) Sheer cinematic poetry. It was the birth of a new Indian cinema. It is a simple, essential narrative told through the eyes of a small boy. Ray gives such beauty and poignancy to the simple and ordinary…
Alex Cross
17 Dec 2012
Film lacking flair and panache and bearing all the hallmarks of a cult bad film in the making
James Patterson’s series of novels about the titular detective has twice before been adapted for the screen, starring Morgan Freeman in both Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider. Now rebooted in the guise of one-man media empire Tyler Perry, Rob…
The House I Live In
17 Dec 2012
Angry and illuminating documentary about America's war on drugs
Director Eugene Jarecki, the brother of fellow filmmaker Andrew, attacks America’s failed war on drugs in this angry and illuminating documentary that will leave viewers clued-in but fuming. Jarecki’s contention is the multi-billion dollar campaign…
Pitch Perfect
17 Dec 2012
A surprisingly smart take on the potentially clichéd 'songs & starlets' material
While the Glee concert movie proved to be a surprise flop last year, the idea of packaging up chart songs and glamorous teenage starlets has been a Hollywood trope since the advent of sound. The latest effort, Pitch Perfect, is a simple enough piece of…
Dead Europe
17 Dec 2012
Eerie and alienating drama about family ties
A tale of family secrets, cultural detachment and lingering prejudices with a generous helping of European misery, Dead Europe is Australian director Tony Krawitz’s second narrative feature, following 2005’s Jewboy. Ewen Leslie plays Isaac, an…
Manborg
13 Dec 2012
This movie made for $1000 is endearingly lo-fi DIY entertainment
Can you really make a movie for $1000? Director/writer/editor/actor Steven Kostanski certainly gives it his best shot with the ultra low budget Manborg. Made with a lot of love and sticky back plastic over three years it’s purposefully ridiculous – this…
