Review: Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Director: Roland Emmerich Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, Liam Hemsworth Release Date: 23rd June 2016 (UK) It’s been twenty years in the making, but Roland Emmerich has finally brought himself to direct the sequel to Independence Day. Expectation was always going to be high, with many critical of how the story could feasibly continue following Earth’s defeat of the…

Review: Independence Day (1996)

Director: Roland Emmerich Starring: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum Release Date: 9th August 1996 (UK) It’s the mid nineties and Hollywood execs are desperate for something big, a holiday movie that can take the lucrative July 4th weekend by storm but also dominate overseas box office. They need stars, they need effects and they need something to…

Review: The Conjuring 2 (2016)

Director: James Wan Starring: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Madison Wolfe Release Date: 13th June 2016 (UK) It’s unusual for a franchise to offer a prequel before a sequel, with the exception of Star Wars, but James Wan may have pulled off a bit of a masterstroke with The Conjuring, with a film that not only signals the end of the core…

Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

Director:    Dave Green Starring:     Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Stephen Amell, Tyler Perry, Laura Linney Release Date:  30th May 2016 (UK) Those speedo pizza loving turtles are back for more, er….pizza. Who says turtles are boring creatures, huh? This time, it’s an even bigger budget which means more money spent on explosive high octane…

Review: Visions (2016)

Director: Kevin Gruetert Starring: Isla Fisher, Jim Parsons, Anson Mount Release Date: 20th June 2016 (UK) When you watch the trailer you will think Isla Fisher’s straight to DVD horror looks like nothing more than a cheap imitation of Rosemary’s Baby. No doubt Polanski’s masterpiece was an inspiration to the story, like any horror about pregnancy or demonic children…

Review: The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T. (1953)

Director: Roy Rowland Starring: Mary Healy, Hans Conried, Tommy Rettig Release Date: 26th October 1953 (UK) Back when I was a kid, a show called Disney Time formed a staple of the BBC’s TV schedule on public holidays. Disney Time, as its title suggests, compiled musical numbers or famous scenes from the likes of Mary Poppins (1964), Jungle…

Review: 28 Days Later (2002)

Director: Danny Boyle Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston Release Date: 1st November 2002 (UK) One of the films that put Danny Boyle on the Hollywood radar was the breakout zombie horror 28 Days Later. Gritty, visceral and rough around the edges, this tense apocalyptic horror about chemically infected and highly contagious humans would define the sub-genre for…

Review: The Boss (2016)

Director: Ben Falcone Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kirsten Bell, Peter Dinklage Release Date: 10th June 2016 (UK) This is Blue Jasmine –  Melissa McCarthy style, so a very different blueprint of the riches to rags story. And no Woody Allen direction but the man who is married to his leading lady, Ben Falcone. Talk about sleeping with the…

Review: Mother’s Day (2016)

Director: Gary Marshall Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, Jason Sudeikis Release Date: 10th June 2016 (UK) Completing his ‘holiday trilogy’, Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall follows Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve with another inoffensive ensemble rom-com. Fresh off her acclaimed Oscar-snubbed performance in Cake, Jennifer Aniston goes back to type as the single mom with two sons, something we are reminded of…

Review: In The Mood For Love (2000)

Director: Kar-Wai Wong Starring: Tony Chiu Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung, Ping Lam Siu Release Date: 27th October 2000 (UK) Watching In The Mood For Love is like browsing through an art gallery of beautiful color photographs, but in this case, the images are gracefully in motion. I bet even the storyboards for this film are precise and artistic….

Review: Money Monster (2016)

Director: Jodie Foster Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell Release Date: 27th May 2016 (UK) Jodie Foster has come a long way from her Bugsy Malone days. Most will know her as the Oscar winning actress in Silence of the Lambs, though she has spent recent years working behind the camera. Money Monster is the culmination of her efforts, offering…

Review: Daisy Kenyon (1947)

Director: Otto Preminger Starring: Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda Release Date: 25th December 1947 (US) “You’ve got me baffled,” attorney Dan O’Hara (Dana Andrews) tells his rival in love Peter Lapham (Henry Fonda). “I was certain you loved Daisy, but you’ll give her up without a murmur? The least you could do is punch me on the…

Review: Bad Words (2014)

Director: Jason Bateman Starring: Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn, Rohan Chand Release Date: 28th March 2014 First of all, can we just address the elephant in the room because Jason Bateman with short hair – we mean really short hair – just looks plain weird. Get it completely within the context of a calculated, single-minded, no nonsense character, but it…

Review: Race (2016)

Director: Stephen Hopkins Starring: Stephen James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons Release Date: 3rd June 2016 (UK) Every four years we can expect a little furry of sports films to cash in on a heightened interest in athletics. With Rio in tow and equality of ever-growing global prominence, Race was hoping to appeal to the sensibilities of both the American…

Review: The Nice Guys (2016)

Director: Shane Black Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice Release Date: 3rd June 2016 (UK) Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe star as a down-on-his luck private eye and a muscle for hire respectively in The Nice Guys, directed by Shane Black. As fate would have it, their paths cross when Holland Marsh (Gosling) is…

Review: Showgirls (1996)

Director: Paul Verhoeven Starring: Elizabeth Berkeley, Kyle Maclachlan, Gina Gershon Release Date: 12th January 1996 (UK) Titillating is the adjective to describe the ‘strippers in Las Vegas’ movie. It leaves very little to the imagination. You can dissect it and go all Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytical  or you can just take it for what it is – a superficial…

Review: Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

Director:   Michael Patrick Jann Starring:   Kirsten Dunst, Kirstie Alley, Denise Richards, Amy Adams, Ellen Barkin Release Date:  17th September 1999 (UK) Drop dead bitch! We’ve all said that to a man. A black comedy that gets down and real dirty behind the scenes of a US tradition – the beauty pageant. This ain’t no Miss…

Review: Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)

Director: Aldo Lado Starring: Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel, Mario Adorf Release Date: 28th October 1971 (Italy) Over the past year, we’ve looked at horror films from Mexico, the UK, and Japan, as well as the US. During the late 1960s and early 1970s however, horror also enjoyed a boom in continental Europe, especially in Italy. Known as giallo,…

Review: Teen Wolf (1986)

Director: Rod Daniel Starring: Michael J Fox, James Hampton, Scott Paulin Release Date:  24th January 1986 (UK) We’ve all had those days where you feel like a misfit and long to be a hitfit (lame, I know). You grow really hairy and look like a wolf, and then you’re dancing with the wolves. Arh-wooooooooo. Teen Wolf had the…

Review: Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Director: Jonathan Frakes Starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Alice Krige Release Date: 22nd November 1996 (UK) Star Trek, above and beyond, was a failure. After two seasons, the original series was cancelled, only to be brought back at the last minute after popular demand and then immediately axed again before the third season ended due to…