Reviews in a nutshell
Beneath Clouds (2002) writer-director Ivan Sen has found a pitch-perfect niche in the crime-thriller genre with his new film Mystery Road, set in the Australian outback. This marvellously atmospheric and sumptuous-looking film has all the mellow attitude of a western, pausing to take in panoramic, burnt-orange sunrises and sunsets, while punctuated by bursts of action …
We’ve become blasé about our sci-fi stories – anything goes that initially seems crackers but gets persuasive as things progress. Luc Besson has combined a sci-fi passion with that of one of his strong, kick-ass women in Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson. You would be forgiven for thinking it was another Malick The Tree Of Life …
The novelty of ‘found footage’ films is starting to wear thin. Not only does it always have certain shots that couldn’t possibly have been captured by any of the characters – hence rendering the status quo questionable, but also it expects us to arrogantly take it a little more seriously, which in this case is …
Families moving into creepy haunted houses then things going bump in the night are the backbone of horror. It’s finding that slight tweak to the usual tropes that keeps things fresh. Debut filmmakers, director Adam Wimpenny and writer J.S. Hill have attempted that with British horror Blackwood, combining a traditional haunting with a psychological crime …
The thing that kept the tension wound tight in The Purge (2013) was everything being contained within a comfortable four walls, feeding on our deepest fears of being under siege in a safe environment; our home. Returning writer-director James DeMonaco now taps into the other fear that the first film triggers: What would happen if …
Horror director Jim Mickle (We Are What We Are) has done the near impossible with his latest flick, Cold In July, and turned the usual home-violation thriller into a fresh revenge movie with tangible emotion. No one is prepared for where the plot veers, even though one of its stars, Dexter actor Michael C. Hall …
Novelist Patricia Highsmith gave us the murderer Tom Ripley, introduced to film buffs in the acclaimed 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley, a charming psychopath played by Matt Damon. Now our curiosity is further pricked some 15 years later with the promise of another big-screen-adapted period psychological thriller set on some sunny Mediterranean shores, The …
Writer-director Caradog W James tackles the age-old sci-fi fantasy of making artificial life with superior intellect in The Machine. The thriller raises the moral dilemma of playing god and the pitfalls of having such power to hand. In a sinister twist with recent events surrounding the missing Flight MH370, the film also brews political tension …
Seeing Liam Neeson in the action-man role has fast become the norm, surprising as the actor is in his sixties and only really ventured into the genre eight years ago with the successful Taken (2008). Teaming up again with Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra of Unknown (2011) – his last action-hero part, Neeson plays another like …
