So, spoilers: The Usual Suspects is actually pretty shitty. It has a good reputation in a many quarters, launching the career of Bryan Singer (who went on to direct some good X-Men films and a critically-reviled Superman reboot) and featuring lynchpin performances from Kevin Spacey and Gabriel Byrne. It’s mostly remembered for that twist, one…
I was ten years old when The Mask was released, and it quickly became my favourite film: to the point where I had a sizable collection of trading cards from the movie. It’s not hard to see why: there’s cartoonish excess – from the humour and bright palette to Jim Carrey’s broad performance (not a…
“Say, Lou, didya hear the one about the guy who couldn’t afford personalised plates, so he went and changed his name to J3L2404?” “Yah, that’s a good one.” Fargo concerns a convoluted kidnapping plot filled with misunderstandings, mayhem and the occasional murder, and the film tells its story simply, without bold flourishes, letting the story…
Flight’s first act is dominated by an astounding, heart-pounding, incredibly edited flight sequence. There’s clear stakes and an ever-present sense of danger thanks to the inebriation of lead pilot, Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington, in a resonant performance that warranted the Oscar nomination). The technical details may be hard to understand, but it manages to be…
It’s perhaps surprising that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the last of Kevin Smith’s films set in the View Askewniverse (just pretending that Clerks 2 doesn’t exist), has held up best in the preceding years. Mallrats and Chasing Amy aren’t really contenders, and Dogma’s “ain’t-I-a-stinker!” take on organised religion seems quaint nowadays: it’s funny…
Excision is a bizarre film. I picked it up purely on the basis of its attention-grabbing Blu-Ray cover… …expecting some kind of horror film, probably heavy on the blood and gore. Excision has that, but it’s primarily a black teen comedy, focusing on the struggles of main character Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) to find her own…
Argo’s recent release on Blu-Ray gave me the chance to watch the Best Picture winner, and it’s easy to see why Ben Affleck’s film won the Oscar. It’s classic Hollywood from beginning to end; a crisply-filmed tale of good versus bad where everything important happens at the last possible second. Affleck uses an expansive budget…
Save the Date might look like another forgettable romantic comedy. With Alison Brie (Community), Lizzy Caplan (Party Down) and Martin Starr (Knocked Up) involved – all talented actors who excel at taking comedic roles and extending them beyond the stereotypes – I had higher hopes. For the most part, my expectations were met – the…
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is somewhere between a history lesson and a thoughtful campfire tale, but without the romanticism this suggests – the outlaws here are real men, flawed, prideful, often inarticulate. This is not to say that the film is dry; its players may mumble their words, but the…
Dark City feels hopelessly indebted to The Matrix, and yet it predates The Wachowski’s sci-fi phenomenon by a year. Both films have a particular feel, very much of their time, a mix of exaggerated ‘40s noir and cyberpunk aesthetic of the video games of the time. They each begin in medias res, leaving a first-time…
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