Reviews in a nutshell
Debut feature director Eli Craig’s take on the comedy-horror genre is a glorious homage to all the townie-meets-country shlock horrors over the years, like an hilarious study of all the gory clichés turned on their heads. It still racks up the body count for genre fans and demonises the local White trash population, but cleverly …
From the beginning projectile poop moment to the end urinating ‘solution’, The Change-Up has got Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin’s goofy, juvenile stamp all over it, complete with two watchable actors of the moment at the helm, Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, trying to deal with life after hitting adulthood. Top lawyer Dave Lockwood (Bateman) …
After Zombieland, director Ruben Fleischer was always going to have big boots to fill with his next film. He remains very much in the same comedy adventure genre, only taps into the Apatow school of idiocy with puerile, often chauvinistic man-child humour. The redeemable feature, however, is Fleischer doesn’t dwell too long on the visual …
Craig Gillespie’s last and probably only memorable film to date was the touchingly quirky Lars and the Real Girl in 2007, starring Ryan Gosling as a delusional guy who has a relationship with a life-like doll. This showed the makings of a great director of twisted unconventionality in the heart of suburbia – kind of …
If the title doesn’t get you first, the promise of ‘a comedy set in a brothel’ ought to. Think ‘Scottish Four Lions’ for deadpan underdog calamities, and you get the idea. Writer-director Wayne Thallon’s 2011 Edinburgh Film Festival closer, A Spanking In Paradise, is a spankin’, swind screamer of pure shant lunacy, right from the …
After the hit 2006 comedy Priceless, writer/director Pierre Salvadori joins forces again with internationally acclaimed actress Audrey Tautou for another situational romantic comedy, Beautiful Lies (De vrais mensonges), looking at how misinterpretation and unfrequented love can bring a bittersweet but charming dose of humour. Tautou plays 30-year-old Emilie, owner of a hairdressing salon who employs …
The protagonist in writer/director and star Gianni Di Gregorio’s poignant new Italian drama, The Salt of Life (Gianni e le donne), may well be in his autumn years and settling down to retirement, but the message is the same for all who catch this touching tale: embrace life and all its opportunities. Gianni (played Di …
On first glance at the poster, you’d be forgiven in thinking it was Night At The Museum: Part 3, only starring cuddly comedian Kevin James of Paul Blart: Mall Cop fame, instead of Ben Stiller. Well, you’ve got the animal business right – and the cute/irritating monkey (depending on your stance). James acting the monkey, …
Marvel’s The Avengers better be the film to end all comic book adapted films in May 2012, as we’ve been serviced with more than our fair share of the genre of late in the build up. Fanboys and girls will always have their favourite characters – which naturally makes them biased in terms of the …
