Blended

Posted 5:12pm Sunday 20th July 2014

Rating: E Movies, like any art, reflect the culture that created them. If any aliens were to pick up the tired romcom Blended and draw conclusions about our planet’s cultural values, unfortunately they would be morally obliged to vaporise us all immediately. Formula: Adam Sandler is Read more...

The fault in our stars

Posted 1:08pm Sunday 6th July 2014

Rating: A Of the big movies released over the break, perhaps the dark horse of these was The Fault in Our Stars. It’s an absolutely spot-on film adaptation of the New York Times number-one best-selling young adult novel by vlogbrother John Green, and it’s exciting that two more of his novels Read more...

The selfish giant

Posted 1:58pm Sunday 27th April 2014

Rating: A- The Selfish Giant is bleak. Not only is it about two brats, Arbor and Swifty, being expelled from school and scratching a living pilfering scrap metal for a crooked bookie in an impoverished town in Northern England, it also features a beautiful horse being electrocuted and melted Read more...

The Monuments Men

Posted 7:01pm Sunday 30th March 2014

Rating: D- The story about the preservation of precious art during the Second World War is fascinating as a page in history, but as an all-star Hollywood war epic, it’s simply appalling. Ironically, it is very preachy about the innate value of cultural products (such as films. Yes, George Read more...

Le Weekend

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 23rd March 2014

Rating: A+ Le Weekend is about an aging couple, Nick and Meg, played by Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan, taking a long-overdue second honeymoon to Paris, trying to recreate a time in their lives when they were happy, in love, and blissfully unconcerned with the future. The cast are Read more...

Winter's Tale

Posted 2:59pm Sunday 16th March 2014

Grade: E I have limited space for this review, so I’ll just go ahead and start my list of “A Thousand Things Wrong with Winter’s Tale,” and we’ll see how far we get. Big number one: cast. Colin Farrell couldn’t sell the main character, a thief named Peter Lake, for a moment. With only his two Read more...

The Railway Man

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 9th March 2014

Grade: C+ The Railway Man is a film adaptation of Eric Lomax’s memoir about the time he was in the British Army in Singapore when it was invaded in 1942. His company surrendered as prisoners of war, only to be tortured and dehumanised on the Burma railway construction effort. I was prepared Read more...

Saving Mr. Banks

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014

Grade: A - Exquisite performances and a powerful story make this film a success. You may be familiar with the classic 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins. The 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks invites you to become familiar with the tormented artists responsible for producing such an uplifting and Read more...