Just one review for today: Captain America: The Winter Soldier over at Cheated Hearts. A good film, but one that disappointingly suggests it’s going to reinvigorate the increasingly tired Marvel formula before embracing it wholesale. Worth watching, but nothing special.
Steven Spielberg’s telemovie debut, Duel wields its raw simplicity like a weapon. Often, it’s the brute force of a cudgel, as in the bestial roar emanating from the mysterious, menacing truck that looms in the rearview of David Mann (Dennis Weaver) – his surname a nod to the archetypal nature of the story. The truck…
In an era where blockbuster movies direct their immense budgets towards overcoming the restrictions of cinema, The Lego Movie succeeds by embracing its limitations. Those limitations are found in its animation; computer-generated, sure, but constructed from Lego blocks in their millions. Directors/screenwriters Phil Lord and Christopher Miller get a lot of mileage out of their…
Lars von Trier identifies Barry Lyndon as an influence on his 1993 experimental film, Dogville; his choice to break his film up into chapters was inspired by Kubrick’s film, as was his use of a detached, ironical narrator (John Hurt). The films have other similarities – a three hour runtime and a protagonist (Ryan O’Neal…
A few minutes into Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley’s documentary about her family history, I decided I wasn’t going to like the movie. I have a natural disinclination towards documentaries built on recollections. Stylistically they’re built on talking heads, recreations and snippets of stock footage – a far cry from the cinematic creativity behind most…
In my review of 2011’s The Raid: Redemption, I discussed its opening shot, a close-up on a gun and watch, heralded the film’s violence and clockwork tautness. Gareth Evans’ sequel to his modern action classic opens on a long shot of a field of crops, grey-tinged by a sullen sky and lacerated by paths twisting…
It’s impossible to deny the iconic importance of James Whale’s Frankenstein. Its appearance is marked by the ornate artificiality, hand-built sets and classical special effects. The oft-parodied restoration of The Monster (Boris Karloff) has lost no potency, channelling the vitality of a theme park ride with its flashing lights, towering set and rickety rollercoaster cart…
Me, Myself and Mum is a remarkable, touching, one-of-a-kind picture. Based on director/writer/star Guillaume Gallienne’s stage show, it’s like a long-winded yet enthralling party anecdote, where the storyteller’s first priority is entertaining his audience with ribald jokes and quirky asides. This is a riotously funny film, and therein lies much of its appeal. Gallienne plays…
With the Captain America sequel not far away, I decide to catch up on the only Marvel release I’ve yet to see, Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger. Announcing this on Twitter, a friend commented that “the first half is great and then it sucks have fun” A succinct summary, but – sadly –…
They Live is a hodge-podge of sci-fi satire, B-movie maximalism and cheesy humour that spends half its time succeeding on its own merits, and the other half venturing into so-bad-it’s-good territory. The film’s highlights are of a piece with director John Carpenter’s great horror films (Halloween, The Thing), as Nada (Roddy Piper) stumbles onto the…
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