Miracle On 34th Street (1994)

A remake of a festive favourite (and a classic that remains as entertaining today as it must have back when originally released), Miracle On 34th Street isn’t all that bad but it’s certainly not a patch on the fine original. In fact, without some inspired casting it would end up being one...

December 23rd, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

In a time in which the spy genre is dominated by James Bond (returning next year) and more importantly Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt of Mission: Impossible always felt inferior. Not to say that the franchise is bad, although the John Woo-directed sequel was a mess, M:I is really a box-office machine featuring...

December 22nd, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

The only question is, Why? Barely is the 2009 original language version of Stieg Larsson’s pulp procedural out of US art houses than here comes a bigger budget English language film distributed in the mainstream cineplexes. David Fincher’s dragon tattoo girl isn’t enough better than...

December 22nd, 2011 | Feature, Film Reviews | Read More

Gremlins (1984)

When it comes to family entertainment and twisted Christmas movies, few films can hold a spice-scented candle to the brilliance of Gremlins. Taking the idea of “a dog is for life, not just for Christmas” to a twisted extreme, there’s no doubt in my mind that Gremlins is one of the greatest...

December 22nd, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

Santa Claus (1985)

An event movie, a big deal at the time of it’s release, I remember seeing a hundred and one clips of Santa Claus: The Movie on TV when it first came out and I’m sure that everyone involved with it hoped it would become THE modern seasonal must-see in the run up to Christmas. But [...]

December 21st, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

A Christmas Story (1983)

Another Christmas movie from Bob Clark, the man who gave us the original Black Christmas, this is a very different affair, a celebration of just how great it is to be young and so eager for that big day to come around. Written by Clark, Leigh Brown and Jean Shepherd (based on Shepherd’s tales and...

December 20th, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Following his worst creation in the form of Revolver, it seemed unlikely that director Guy Ritchie would make a great return, until he took on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective. Going back to Doyle’s source material and casting Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and John Watson,...

December 19th, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

White Christmas (1954)

The movie that came from the song that, of course, gets another airing in this movie. White Christmas isn’t all that white and isn’t ALWAYS all that Christmassy but it certainly puts everything in place (tree, snow, gifts, Santa suits) when it counts and it’s a nice movie for fans of...

December 19th, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

Beyond Tomorrow (1940)

AKA Beyond Christmas. As illustrated in this fantastic article by Cleaver Patterson, Christmas has long held a tradition of accompanying the celebrations and decorations with time by the fire hearing tales of ghosts and the supernatural. Some of these tales are terrifying and some aren’t, but they...

December 18th, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

Saint (2010)

Dick Maas is quite a guy. He was responsible for one of my favourite “bad” movies of all time, Down AKA The Shaft. If you haven’t seen it then please seek it out ASAP. It stars Naomi Watts, James Marshall, Ron Perlman and many other people who probably don’t have it at the top...

December 17th, 2011 | Film Reviews | Read More

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