How to Stop Being a Loser (2011)

After Hitch, Wedding Crashers and – most recently – Crazy Stupid Love, the wingman/buddy movie is slowly coming into vogue, establishing a canon all of its own. Though How to Stop Being a Loser treads very similar (read: derivative) ground, this unfunny mess sadly doesn’t sit well alongside its...

February 10th, 2012 | DVD Reviews | Read More

Farewell My Queen (2012)

As the opening film to this year’s Berlinale and one of the competition films, Farewell My Queen (Les Adieux a la Reine) has high expectations placed upon it. Unfortunately this historical drama was rather underwhelming. Set in Versailles in July 1789, the film follows Sidonie (brilliantly played by...

February 10th, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

Death Row (2012)

*** Warning ‘ere be spoilers *** This documentary series is a companion piece to Werner Herzog’s 2011 film Into the Abyss and is part of his death row project. The series is in four parts, each part focusing on one person on death row and each section paints a portrait of the human behind the...

February 10th, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

The Woman in Black (2012)

Victorian gloom and doom In James Watkins’ posh and tasteful horror movie The Woman in Black, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Ciarán Hinds with Janet McTeer, David Burke and Shaun Dooley, a young lawyer called Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe), threatened with being fired if he fails at this mission, is...

February 9th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

Chronicle (2012)

The found-footage movie has become something of a horror and Sci-Fi movie staple of late and these genres seemed to have claimed a monopoly over its usage. With Chronicle however, the already rather saturated market for superhero movies was given a valuable shot in the arm using this novel narrative...

February 8th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

4.3.2.1 (2010)

4.3.2.1 doesn’t do itself any favours with the way it, almost from the very beginning, puts itself up for comparison with great movies like Pulp Fiction and Go. Thankfully, the movie does well enough to sit comfortably in such esteemed company and provides a lot of great entertainment from start...

February 8th, 2012 | Film Reviews | Read More

Love Birds (2011)

A paint-by-numbers avian rom-com, Love Birds is an amiable if clichéd genre effort which never quite takes flight. It’s got a cute enough concept: schlubby boy meets duck, duck needs vet, vet falls for boy – and voila! Romance ensues. When Harry Met Drake this ain’t, however. Given...

February 6th, 2012 | DVD Reviews | Read More

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Woody Allen’s recent output can best be described as inconsistent. Only fleetingly finding the unique comedic essence which made his previous work so gratifying, Midnight in Paris see’s Allen take a much safer approach, imbuing his narrative with a fantasy element which allows him to take...

February 6th, 2012 | DVD Reviews | Read More

The Woman In Black (2012)

What a cheering prospect: two great institutions of British supernatural cinema making a good show of not being stone dead after all. Latterly consensus had it that Hammer Film Productions, having introduced the post war generation to spanky gothic horror, was a long time deceased, wiped off the map...

February 6th, 2012 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

Ben Hur (2010)

The grandiose entertainment of a good old sword and sandals tale has never really waned in popularity over the years. Of course, sometimes there’s a resurgence (I think we can all point to Gladiator this time around even though it is over a decade old now) but it tends to be a solid time-filler...

February 4th, 2012 | DVD Reviews | Read More

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