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Eddie Harrison

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Paul Brannigan, star of Ken Loach's The Angels' Share - profile

Paul Brannigan, star of Ken Loach's The Angels' Share - profile

The actor is also set to appear with Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin

23 May 2012

Born 1987, Glasgow, Scotland Background After working as a football coach in the Barrowfield community in Glasgow and helping to tackle knife crime as part of a Strathclyde Police initiative, Paul Brannigan was spotted by screenwriter Paul Laverty…

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

A witless and bland work based on the pregnancy self-help book

(2 stars)23 May 2012

‘You don’t know what love is until you’ve wiped someone’s ass,’ offers one of the many baby-boomers in Kirk (Waking Ned, Everybody’s Fine) Jones’ multi-stranded adaptation of the bestselling self-help book about the dos and don’ts of pregnancy.

The Apocalypse Archives - Nikolaj Arcel

The Apocalypse Archives - Nikolaj Arcel

Screenwriter of original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

22 May 2012

Screenwriter of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie and director of new Danish drama A Royal Affair, Nikolaj Arcel, picks five films he’d rescue in the face of the apocalypse. 1. Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939) ‘Just to show I’m…

Casa de mi Padre

Casa de mi Padre

Will Ferrell's Spanish-language comedy is at once unfunny and too silly to take seriously

(2 stars)11 May 2012

Funnyman Will Ferrell as a tough rancher in a violent Spanish-language Western? It could only be a joke, and that’s exactly what Case de mi Padre is, a ragged, silly spoof in the Airplane/Naked Gun mode. Unfortunately, as jokes go, it’s a not…

The Pact

The Pact

An unoriginal, low budget thriller that’s light on gore and stronger on tension

(3 stars)11 May 2012

The latest US horror/thriller to be granted a UK release has a slightly better pedigree than most: writer/director Nicholas McCarthy’s film was developed from his own short, which was shown last year at Sundance, quickly developed into this feature…

A Royal Affair

A Royal Affair

A skillfully delivered but coldly aloof period drama from the Swedish Dragon Tattoo team

(3 stars)11 May 2012

Reuniting the writing team behind the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, A Royal Affair is a welcome break from the current plethora of morbid Scandinavian thrillers; instead, Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel have co-adapted an unfamiliar but…

Red Tails

Red Tails

George Lucas pet WWII project suffers from thin characterization, cliché and crude simplification

(2 stars)11 May 2012

Star Wars creator George Lucas used clips from his favourite aviation dramas to stand in for battle scenes in the original rough-cut of Star Wars, so it’s no surprise that several decades later, Lucas has invested some of his personal wealth in an…

Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy

Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy

An agonisingly watered-down imitation of Welsh's short story

(2 stars)19 Apr 2012

Nothing dates faster than drug culture, and writer-director Rob Heydon’s Irvine Welsh adaptation arrives nearly two decades after the era of the dedicated pill-popper. Taken from Welsh’s story 'The Undefeated', part of the 1996 compilation that provides…

666: The Prophecy

666: The Prophecy

By-the-numbers horror from Darren Lynn Bousman, inspired by calendar numerology

(2 stars)18 Apr 2012

(15) 90mins The current public appetite for horror barely excuses the eventual, much delayed release of 666: The Prophecy, which was opportunistically released in the US in November last year on the date (and under the title) 11-11-11. The idea that…

Outside Bet

Outside Bet

Low-budget British horse-racing comedy falls at the first hurdle

(1 star)18 Apr 2012

(12A) 101mins The cinematic equivalent of the clumps of horse dung that characters repeatedly step into for the cheapest of laughs, Outside Bet is strictly a non-runner in terms of light entertainment. In this painfully naïve British comedy, Bob…

The Raid

The Raid

A short, tough, pumped-up flick for die-hard action fans

(4 stars)17 Apr 2012

(18) 101min ‘1 ruthless crime lord. 20 elite cops. 80 floors of chaos.’ The advertising sets exactly the right proficient tone; crunching the numbers as well as bones, The Raid features a small group of policemen taking on a vertically stacked army of…

Silent House

Silent House

A ponderously slow psychological drama packaged as a horror film

(2 stars)17 Apr 2012

(18) 85min With Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen proved herself to be a young actress with great potential by persuasively playing a refugee haunted by her experiences with a murderous cult. Silent House features her in a disappointingly…

StreetDance 2

StreetDance 2

A sequel of so-so dances, hackneyed plotting and wooden performances

(2 stars)2 Apr 2012

(PG) 85mins The ‘kids dancing their way out of the ghetto’ trope has been a staple of cinema since the 1950s but taking inspiration from recent US products like Step Up and Stomp the Yard, StreetDance 3D inexplicably became the UK’s most popular…

Act of Valour

Act of Valour

Impressive technique and verisimilitude delivered at the expense of plot and characterisation

(2 stars)2 Apr 2012

(15) 110min The on-screen pursuit of combat verisimilitude is the driving force behind Act of Valour, an anti-terrorist action flick which aims to make a virtue of casting real life Navy SEALs (United States Navy's Sea, Air, and Land Teams) as…

John Carter

John Carter

Visually impressive epic adventure suffers by prepping for sequels

(3 stars)8 Mar 2012

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 creation finally hits the screen after 79 years of development hell, with pre-production on an animated feature originally scheduled for 1931. Andrew Stanton, director of Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo and WALL-E, has…

The Devil Inside

The Devil Inside

Skimpy, poorly shot and incoherent entry in the exorcism stakes

(1 star)22 Feb 2012

(15)83min Horror has a new home in the ‘found footage’ genre that spawned The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, with The Devil Inside the latest low-budget effort to conjure up huge box office returns with the aid of heavy studio marketing…

Contraband

Contraband

Bland, low-key but solid and watchable action film

(3 stars)22 Feb 2012

(15) 109min ‘This is world-class smuggling!’ enthuses a member of Mark Wahlberg’s crew in Contaband, a terse US remake of 2008 Icelandic thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam. Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, an ex-smuggler whose attempts to go straight with…

Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema 2012

Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema 2012

Programme includes The First Born, Another Fine Mess, The Black Pirate and Safety Last!

17 Feb 2012

Shhh...! Whisper it quietly, but it’s fair to say that 2012 is likely to be the biggest year in silent cinema for nearly eight decades. The global success of Michel Hazanavicius’ glowing tribute The Artist means that silent films currently have their…

GFF 2012 - Death Watch

GFF 2012 - Death Watch

Bertrand Tavernier’s remarkable Glasgow-shot film foresaw the coming of voyeuristic TV

2 Feb 2012

It’s arguably the best film ever shot in Scotland, but chances are you’ve never seen it. Directed in 1979 by French auteur Bertrand Tavernier (A Sunday in the Country, Round Midnight) and set in the near future, Death Watch is a Glasgow-set sci-fi drama…

The Muppets

The Muppets

Old-school bonhomie and well-calculated cameos in affectionate reboot

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

(U) 103min Long before there were computer generated characters, fuzz, felt and puppetry launched talking animals onto our television and cinema screens, and few were as well loved as Jim Henson’s Muppets. A bona fide pop-culture phenomenon, Kermit…

Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans

Predictable grim Northern tale that fails despite Stephen Graham's great central performance

(2 stars)1 Feb 2012

(15) 108min Positive arguments for the public financing of UK films will not be encouraged by the release of Best Laid Plans, a dreary miserablist fable haplessly reconfiguring John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men into the world of Northern…

Jack and Jill

Jack and Jill

Mirthless comedy atrocity sets a new low for all concerned

(1 star)1 Feb 2012

(PG) 91min Adam Sandler’s run of popular low-brow comedies has rarely hit the charming heights of The Wedding Singer, but even fans of Don’t Mess With the Zohan or I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry will choke on their popcorn when confronted by his…

Girl Model

Girl Model

Clinical expose of the modeling industry

(3 stars)27 Jan 2012

(tbc) 78min Far from the fairy-tale fiction of America’s Top Model is Girl Model, a clinical, disturbing industry expose by documentary makers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin (Mardi Gras: Made in China). Ashley Arbaugh is an ex-model and now a…

Oscars 2012 - predictions

Oscars 2012 - predictions

Some of The List's film critics give their predictions on who'll win what at the Oscars

25 Jan 2012

Best Picture. The Artist; simplicity is the reason that is soars above the other Oscar bait. The Artist probably will win, as it has won pretty much everything else going. It deserves it - when was the last time a film came along that made everyone fall…

The Sitter

The Sitter

Zippy but unappealing sub-Apatow comedy starring Jonah Hill

(2 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 81min After springing to stardom in Superbad, Jonah Hill gets his first lead role in The Sitter, an amiable low-brow comedy from director David Gordon Green which throws Hill’s laid-back slacker persona into a similar underworld of criminal…

W.e.

W.E.

Occasionally perceptive but overall flat second movie from Madonna

(2 stars)5 Jan 2012

(15) 119min Madonna’s second film as director after the forgotten comedy Filth and Wisdom aims considerably higher. The initials W.E. refer to the joint signature of American divorcee Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII, whose relationship shook the…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-40

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

HOT 100 2011 - 49 to 1

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Mara and Fincher elevate a populist novel into a compelling drama of bleakness and corruption

(4 stars)13 Dec 2011

David Fincher directs a version of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy – revenge thrillers don’t come with more high-powered credentials than that. While Steven Zaillian’s script sticks a little too closely to the labyrinthine plotting of the original…

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - The story so far

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - The story so far

Background on David Fincher adaptation on Stieg Larsson novels

12 Dec 2011

The imminent release of David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the first in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, is a bona-fide global pop culture event. Larsson’s books have sold over 50 million copies worldwide, and have spawned…

Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas

Jolly enough, but lacking usual Aardman Animation wit and charm

(2 stars)14 Nov 2011

(U) 97mins In over two decades since Wallace and Gromit’s A Grand Day Out, Aardman Animation have become a byword for family entertainment, but Arthur Christmas, their latest attempt at a blockbuster, never reaches the same lovable heights. As he…

Another Earth

Another Earth

Indie hit with science fiction premise explores complexities of flawed human interaction

(4 stars)9 Nov 2011

(12A) 92min Indie hit Another Earth belongs to a microscopic subgenre of love stories revolving around parallel universes; in this case, a planet hidden by the sun which is an exact mirror image of our own planet, right down to the names of the…

The Thing

The Thing

'Prequel' to John Carpenter's 1981 classic is a shapeless mess of a rip-off

(2 stars)9 Nov 2011

(15) 103min Despite confusingly sharing the same title, debutante director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr’s film is a prequel rather than a remake of John Carpenter’s 1981 horror classic, which was itself a remake of Howard Hawks’s 1951 version of John…

Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots

Shrek spin-off offers more fun than should be expected

(4 stars)8 Nov 2011

(U) 90min Given that the quality of the Shrek franchise dropped off dramatically with parts 3 and 4, it’s something of a surprise that Puss In Boots, a spin-off featuring the big-eyed cat voiced by Antonio Banderas, should turn out to be one of the…

Dream House

Dream House

Inert film that united Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz lacks genuine horror

(2 stars)8 Nov 2011

(15) 92min Fated only to be remembered as the long shelved horror-thriller during the making of which Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz discovered their mutual attraction, Dream House sees both stars plus director Jim Sheridan and co-star Naomi Watts all…

Jack Goes Boating

Jack Goes Boating

Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut owes a lot to his theatre background

(3 stars)12 Oct 2011

(15) 90min Philip Seymour Hoffman goes back to his theatrical roots for his directorial debut, reprising the central role he played on stage in Bob Glaudini’s 2007 off-Broadway hit. Hoffman plays the titular Jack, a shy and withdrawn New York limo…

Contagion

Contagion

Starry but shallow epidemic disaster movie from Steven Soderbergh

(3 stars)12 Oct 2011

(12A) 106min Steven Soderbergh revives the all-star disaster movie last seen in the 1970s with Contagion, a sober account of a deadly virus which threatens the world’s population. Nimbly flitting around the globe in the style of the same director’s…

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

Flat romcom vehicle for Justin Bieber's paramour Selena Gomez

(2 stars)12 Oct 2011

(PG) 108min The star of tween drama Wizards of Waverly Place, but better known as the current squeeze of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez is being relentlessly packaged for fame. Her previous venture, last year’s Ramona and Beezus sank like a stone, and…

Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs

Risible remake of Peckinpah's 1970s revenge thriller

(1 star)12 Oct 2011

(18) 109min An early star vehicle for Dustin Hoffman, Sam Peckinpah’s film of Gordon Williams’ novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm was one of the high (or low) watermarks of early 1970s brutalism – a moody, nihilistic polemic that equated violence…

World War Z

World War Z wraps up in Glasgow; where does that leave the Cinema City?

What next for the west coast filming hotspot?

19 Sep 2011

The production of World War Z, an adaptation of Max Brooks’s best-selling account of a zombie apocalypse, brought parts of Glasgow to a well-documented standstill last month. With the City Chambers standing in Philadelphia’s City Hall, Glasgow finally…

The Debt

The Debt

Sober-minded spy movie with Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington

(3 stars)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…

Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Unimaginitive reboot of 70s cult horror film

(2 stars)13 Sep 2011

(15) 99min Looming large in the childhood memories of many US pop culture aficionados, the original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was a minor but effective 1973 TV movie in which Jim Hutton and Kim Darby played a couple menaced by demonic creatures in…

Friends with Benefits

Friends with Benefits

Sappy rom-com fails to deflate clichés of the genre

(2 stars)19 Aug 2011

(15) 109min The rom-com has been a moribund genre for years now, excepting Marc Webb’s acerbic and adventurous (500) Days of Summer. Despite promising a similarly caustic examination of the gap between real-life relationships and romantic clichés…

Colombiana

Colombiana

Photocopy action film features unconvincing super-soldier hit-woman

(2 stars)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…

Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens

Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in film rarely rising to cartoonish mayhem title promises

(2 stars)12 Aug 2011

(12A) 118min Comic-book adaptation Cowboys & Aliens is two genre films in one. It mashes up the western with sci-fi – a strategy which worked well in the outer-space frontiers of Star Trek and Star Wars, but creates frustratingly patchy results in…

Arrietty

Arrietty

Studio Ghibli takes on The Borrowers and delivers charming results

(4 stars)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…

Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses

Seth Gordon's comedy rides high with the titular bosses, but is let down by their minions

(3 stars)13 Jul 2011

(15) 97min The blunt title of Seth Gordon’s star-packed comedy might lack finesse but it is certainly accurate: Horrible Bosses features three utterly repulsive Los Angeles-based line managers as its villains. Dr Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) is…

Cars 2

Cars 2

Uninspired sequel fails to keep the Pixar engine running

(2 stars)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…

The Conspirator

The Conspirator

Mixed results from Robert Redford courtroom drama on shooting of Abraham Lincoln

(3 stars)17 Jun 2011

(12A) 122min Have you ever wondered about the true story of Mary Surratt, the woman charged alongside John Wilkes Booth – the man who shot Abraham Lincoln – and his co-conspirators in 1865? Robert Redford’s courtroom drama supposes that you have and…

Profile: Jim Mickle, director of vampire horror Stake Land

Profile: Jim Mickle, director of vampire horror Stake Land

Director turnes hometown into a post-apocalyptic wasteland

23 May 2011

Name Jim Mickle Born Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1977 Background After graduating from New York University’s filmmaking programme, Mickle worked in the camera department for features Transamerica, Shortbus and Pride and Glory. The experience gave him…

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