Month: January 2011

The Ward – 3*

After a ten-year absence, John Carpenter’s return to feature films with The Ward is one of two exciting releases this week, including the 2010 remake of Meir Zarchi’s controversial I Spit On Your Grave. Both thrillers go head to head, but both offer a horror helping of differing proportions and for different fan bases. After …

The Green Hornet – 4*

Not to be confused with Ryan Reynolds’ The Green Lantern, out soon, this is another superhero-story-cum-film adaptation of Trendle and Striker’s action hero drama from director Michel Gondry that stars Seth Rogen and Jay Chou as a pair of vigilantes by night, ridding downtown of its unsavoury characters and growing drugs problem. And it’s unadulterated …

LFF: Blue Valentine – 4*

Where did all the love go? Writer/director Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine is a super sensitive and tragically taunt tale of a marriage that implodes slowly over time, after one of the sweetest wooing moments seem on film in many years involving a ukulele. From the offset it you feel uneasy, that things in the visually …

Henry’s Crime – 3*

Director Malcolm Venville’s new film, Henry’s Crime, has all the subtleties of a Woody Allen caper and the oddly mismatched characters of a Coen Brothers production, but without the latter’s distinguished expertise on plot development. That said, and with hindsight, it proves to be a charming and indulgent watch because of some delightful performances from …

LFF: Conviction – 3*

It’s hard not to be a tad cynical about this Oscar-paint-by-numbers offering from director Tony Goldwyn and screenwriter Pamela Gray because that’s just what Conviction is: a shamelessly wanton Academy Awards contender with a double-statuette-winning leading lady in Hilary Swank to boot. It is, nevertheless, watchable. Conviction has the melodrama, the struggle, and the real-life …

Brotherhood – 3*

Hazy about what a ‘hazing’ means, the subject of aspiring writer/director Will Canon’s feature debut, Brotherhood? Well, it’s an initiation process involving harassment, and Canon’s frenetic, coming-of-age thriller takes you along on a US fraternity one, imprisoning you in the frat boys’ van from the word go, like an unwilling witness to the tragic acts …

LFF: The King’s Speech – 5*

At any other time in recent years, a film about the Royal Family would only prick the interest of some at the UK box office. But with two royal weddings on the cards this year, there seems to be renewed domestic interest in our famous British family. Tom Hooper’s film, The King’s Speech, could not …

LFF: 127 Hours – 4*

An hour-and-a-half film about a man cutting his arm off to save his own life sounds like an intriguing concept alone. Coupled with the fact that said film is none other than the latest in Oscar-winner Danny Boyle’s (Slumdog Millionaire) arsenal and stars Golden Globe winner James Franco (Milk) should raise interest and awareness further. …

Season of the Witch – 2*

Nicolas Cage recently admitted he’s always wanted to be a knight, ever since the age of five. Well, it looks like he got his wish, chain mail, Crusades and all, in Season of the Witch, which is a curious mix of supernatural horror and historical period drama, with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from one of Cage’s …