With a special 50th Anniversary Lawrence of Arabia Blu-Ray out this week and a restored cut of the timeless epic being given a cinematic re-release later this month, it seemed like an opportune time to take a glance back at the work of legendary English director, David Lean. Lean was brought up by very strict Quaker parents and wasn’t even allowed to watch movies until he was an adult. Once… Read More »
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Review : Trouble With The Curve
There’s been very little coverage of Robert Lorenz’s debut directorial feature on these shores and it has crept in somewhat under the radar. The fact that it prompted Clint to return to acting after a self-imposed exile since 2008′s Gran Torino however, did fill me with some hope when entering the theatre. Likewise, the presence of Amy Adams and John Goodman among the cast was cause for a fair degree of optimism…. Read More »
The Critical List : American Road Trips
With Walter Salles’ adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s classic beat novel ‘On The Road’ out in cinemas this week, it seems a fitting time to look back at some of the very best American road trips to be found in cinema. It’s quite a broad subject area this one with a wide variety of films to choose from. This is largely due to the fact that filmmakers can have their characters… Read More »
Review: The Watch
When Sci-Fi and comedy combine, there’s certainly no guarantee of a successful end product. For every Ghostbusters or Men In Black, there’s a Paul or Evolution. Yet with a script courtesy of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and with Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughan, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade in the lead roles, the odds were seemingly stacked in The Watch’s favour. Yet after a slew of bad reviews and the… Read More »
The Critical List: Westerns
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Critical List, a quick and handy guide looking at the very best that various genres, series and directors have to offer. This week, I’ll be turning my attention to one of the oldest and most enduring genres in the history of cinema, the Western. Ever since Edwin S. Porter’s 12 minute movie The Great Train Robbery was released back in 1903, the wild and… Read More »
The Critical List: Steven Spielberg
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Critical List, a quick and handy guide looking at the very best that various genres, series and directors have to offer. With one of his most revered movies getting a timely re-release in cinemas last week, I thought it was high time we took a look at the best work of one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest directors, Steven Spielberg. In the mid-70s he practically… Read More »
Review: Snow White and the Huntsman
The year’s second dalliance with the Brothers Grimm fairy tale is a thoroughly more sombre affair than the light-hearted japery of Mirror Mirror. Director Rupert Sanders is a newcomer to feature films, having plied his trade previously in the world of advertising, and while that experience stands him in good stead in terms of the movie’s impressive visual style, it’s ultimately a rather flat fantasy adventure. The plot is of… Read More »
Review: The Dictator
Sacha Baron Cohen returns once again to the sphere of scripted comedy which he last visited, to no great success, back in 2002 with Ali G In Da House. Since then, Cohen has focused more squarely on the mockumentary, stunts and interviews, style of comedy which he refined to great effect with Borat, and then failed to improve upon with the lacklustre Bruno. With The Dictator, Cohen has made a… Read More »
The Critical List : Alfred Hitchcock
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Critical List, a quick and handy guide looking at the very best that various genres, series and directors have to offer. This time out, it’s a look at the best work of a truly legendary director and one of cinema’s all time greats, Alfred Hitchcock. Born 1899 in London as the Victorian era drew to a close, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock had an exceptional… Read More »
The Critical List: James Bond
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Critical List, a quick and handy guide looking at the very best that various genres, series and directors have to offer. To start with, we look at that most English of institutions, the deadly and debonair indestructible super-spy, Royal Navy Commander James Bond. There have been 22 Bond films to date, with number 23, Skyfall, in production as we speak. While Bond’s adventures are… Read More »
