Archive

Call of Juarez: The Cartel

Posted 4:01am Monday 15th August 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, (1.5/5). Call of Juarez 1 and 2 were interesting for roughly, if not exactly, two reasons. #1: The Wild West, at the time, was a cool and totally underutilized setting for an FPS and #2: you played as two protagonists with polar opposite goals, one grizzled Read more...

Layers of Goodness

Posted 4:00am Monday 15th August 2011 by Niki Lomax

My flatmate is a bit of a genius when it comes to vegetarian lasagne. General flat consensus: mince is good, but pumpkin and feta is great. This may have something to do with the fact the majority of our flat is vegetarian, or at least vege-flexible (i.e. doesn’t eat meat usually, but is partial to Read more...

Biutiful

Posted 3:57am Monday 15th August 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, (3.5/5). In Biutiful, Innarritu presents a dark story set amongst the labyrinth-like streets of Barcelona. The film is cyclic, both beginning and ending with death. We watch Uxbal (Javier Bardem), who is the father of two young children and the husband Read more...

Page One: inside the New York Times (Film Fest)

Posted 3:55am Monday 15th August 2011 by Sam McChesney

Directed by Andrew Rossi, (4/5). Page One is the story of an institution in decline, hurt by plummeting advertising revenue and enforced layoffs. It is also shamelessly biased, towards both the New York Times and traditional print media in general. Its protagonists are portrayed as heroic Read more...

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (Film Fest)

Posted 3:54am Monday 15th August 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by James Miller and Constance Marks, (4/5). Stitch by stitch, the crafting of our most beloved Sesame Street companion is revealed in Being Elmo. Through this documentary we learn about Kevin Clash, a man whose arm and voice has brought him international fame. You may not recognise Read more...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Posted 3:52am Monday 15th August 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by Rupert Wyatt, (4.5/5). How to make a successful prequel to a disastrous first film: 1. Ignore original movie in its entirety. 2. Replace bad actors with good actors. 3. Ditch terrible ape costumes and go digital, employing Weta motion-capture. 4. Reboot.   Rise of the Read more...

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Posted 3:49am Monday 15th August 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed/Written/Produced by: Ed Wood. Starring: Bela Lugosi, Tom Mason, Vampira, Tor Johnson, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Duke Moore, Tom Keene. A terrible idea followed up with an even worse execution - that pretty much sums up this film. Many have labelled Plan 9 from Outer Space Read more...

Wild Swans

Posted 2:45am Monday 15th August 2011 by Sylvia Avery

Author: Jung Chang. Publisher: Flamingo, (4.5/5). Wild Swans is Jung Chang’s autobiography and follows the lives of three generations of Chinese women. The book begins with Jung Chang’s concubine grandmother and follows her struggle for independence during the upheaval of her Read more...

Pieter Hugo: Nollywood

Posted 2:37am Monday 15th August 2011 by Miriama Aoake

An Institute of Modern Art Touring Exhibition Upon entering Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood, my eye was first caught by the distinguished ebony head piece of Darth Vader, mounted heroically on a blank Nigerian canvas. The billboard above beckoned, and I followed.   With any Read more...

Norm and Ahmed

Posted 5:04am Thursday 11th August 2011 by Jen Aitken

Written by Alex Buzo, Directed by Kathryn Hurst, Staring Jimmy Currin and Thabo Tshuma. 3.5/5. Racism, the Polish-American Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel suggests, “is man’s gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.” Norm and Ahmed proves Read more...