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Each November, after Bond jets off for a dirty weekend with the one woman he hasn’t got killed on his latest adventure, comic book heroes are placed back in their draw and the studios roll out the big guns in preparation for Oscar season. Read full story |
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David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is the front runner at this year’s Academy Awards with 13 nominations, the same number garnered by “Forrest Gump,” a film to which it bears many similarities, not least its screenwriter Eric Roth. Read full story |
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A wry look at modern Hollywood from the inside out, “What Just Happened” is the newest offering from Barry Levinson, the man behind “Good Morning Vietnam,” (but also “The Perfect Storm,” so let’s not get ahead of ourselves — what is more dull than Mark Wahlberg in a maritime setting?). Read full story |
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At heart, “Pineapple Express” is a simple buddy movie, relying primarily on the chemistry of its two stars. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) is a process server with a cannabis habit, disturbed by the attempts of his amiable drug dealer, Saul Silver (James Franco), to make friends. Read full story |
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Some films defy genre, other films define them. “Tokyo Decadence” is very much the latter, wearing its classification as “artporn” like a badge of honor. Having already been banned in South Korea and Australia, this Japanese film was first released in 1992 and it is only now that it has been released in Russia. Read full story |
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The last time a star-studded cast gave me such a rush was just a few weeks ago when “Righteous Kill” hit the cinemas, so naturally I was trying to assuage my expectations on this occasion. Still, whereas Al and Bobby somehow got roped into a lousily-written film helmed by a complete nobody, “Body of Lies” has impeccable credentials. Read full story |
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Finally, in a year when we’ve had to duck and dive through a crossfire of inanely cryptic film titles (“Cloverfield” anyone?) people are starting to talk sense again. “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” gave a fairly good impression of what was to follow, but the similarly verbose “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” could never be construed as misleading. Read full story |
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One of the Bond films’ many trademarks is their opening scene, usually presenting 007 in a curiously compromising position — preferably being chased by some cheesed-off band of moustachioed baddies — which he proceeds to negotiate with consummate smarm before his chiselled silhouette dissolves into a fluid montage of wavy bullets and naked women. Read full story |
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‘City of Ember” is a perfect example of the value of market research in Hollywood. On paper the studio execs must have been feeling pretty confident about this one: An award-winning fantasy novel, an Oscar-nominated director, and a cast boasting Tim Robbins, Bill Murray and “Atonement”-educated prodigy Saoirse Ronan. Read full story |
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I think it’s about time Samuel L. Jackson took a sabbatical. Having acquired superstardom following the release of “Pulp Fiction” in 1994 he has been making, on average, 3-5 films a year. Read full story |
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British people love a loser; with all that self-loathing at their disposal it was about time someone documented it, and Toby Young has to be one of the all-time great British losers. Read full story |
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It’s ironic but fitting that a movie about a famous naval officer sinks like a steamship from the weight of its own bombastic production. Andrei Kravchuk’s “Admiral,” starring Konstantin Khabensky and Yelizaveta Boyarskaya, has all the trappings of a stereotypical blockbuster: huge explosions, bad digital effects, a cloying score, and plenty of unexplained plot characteristics which the audience is simply expected to endure and accept. Read full story |
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You would have thought after writing, producing and directing a multi-Oscar winning film the Coen brothers would like nothing more than a nice rest. Not so. Even before they picked up their statuettes they were wrapping up the smooth-tongued espionage comedy “Burn After Reading,” a far cry from the savagery and despair of “No Country for Old Men.” Read full story |
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You could say that the black comedy is to cinema what the reverse sweep is to cricket. It’s their paradoxical nature which makes them so daunting to tackle and so rewarding when they work, but equally embarrassing when they backfire. The release of Martin McDonagh’s “In Bruges” earlier this year has breathed new life into the genre and now Randall Miller is getting in on the act as writer-director of “Nobel Son.” Read full story |
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You can’t beat a good double act. Freeman and Robbins. Carrey and Daniels. Shearer and Sutton. The ambitious producers of “Righteous Kill” were clearly thinking along the same lines when they set about getting the grandest pair of all. It’s been 13 years since that somewhat underwhelming scene in the diner, and it seems fair to say that Robert De Niro and Al Pacino owed us another round. Read full story |
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When I was asked to go and see a film called “Death Race” directed by the guy who did “Alien vs. Predator” starring Jason “kick-you-in-the-bollocks” Statham, I didn’t know what to expect. A heart-rending depiction of Van Gogh’s tragic final years? Or perhaps a giggly rom-com about a camp male cheerleader? It was only when the film opened with a high-speed adrenaline-fuelled race to the bloody death that I pieced the clues together. The year is 2012 and the U.S. economy is in tatters. Read full story |
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In “Dr. Strangelove” and “Team America: World Police,” the largely uncharted waters of political satire have spawned two absolute gems, and while it clearly idolizes Kubrick’s chef-d’oeuvre, “War, Inc.” never comes close to emulating it. Hardly a cause for criticism, but as a result the film feels fractured and not terribly well thought out. If ever a film had A.D.D., this is it. Set in the not too distant future, Brand Hauser (John Cusack) is an ex-CIA assassin and martial arts specialist. Read full story |
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It’s hard to pinpoint where Dennis Lee came unstuck in making “Fireflies in the Garden.” Perhaps it was due to him being a first time writer/director of a feature length movie? This seems unlikely as debutant film-makers have the rare fortune of a blank scorecard and a lifetime of material to work with. Maybe he felt suffocated by the extraordinary surplus of talent in his cast? Read full story |
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David Mitchell and Robert Webb are something of a British institution, having made their way from comedy hopefuls to starring in the funniest U.K. television show since “The Office.” For those still in the dark, “Peep Show” is an immensely popular English sitcom which follows the lives of unlikely duo Jeremy, a talentless pop star wannabe, and Mark, an uber-conservative and social dyslexic. Read full story |
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When Peter Berg went to the Hollywood library 12 or so months ago, he must have left his dog-eared copy of “Comic Book Movie Dos and Don’ts” at the counter. Well-thumbed of late, this particular rule book advocates unambiguous plot development and is an absolute must for those wading into unchartered territory (Berg’s previous major production was the politically-charged “The Kingdom”). But just like Ang Lee before him with “Hulk,” Berg decided to do it his way, and it works, sort of. Read full story |
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