Throw out everything you know about Found Footage films. Throw it out. From a realm that used to rely on realism and a medium that thrived on narratives as close to reality as possible comes the story of three high school geeks planning the party to be remembered for all time. Spoiler alert, they succeed. […]
Before the Show It’s been quite a few years since I’ve really, truly cared about the Oscars, but before that I was their biggest fan. They never gave the awards to the right people, and most of the presenters were lackluster, and the hosts seemed to have an incredibly thankless job, but god did I […]
Wanderlust, the new David Wain (Stella, Wet Hot American Summer) comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston, is a deeply funny movie, with laughs that run the gamut from the shocked “Oh Shit!” style laughter to the character-based chuckle. Unfortunately, despite its producer pedigree in the form of one Mr. Judd Apatow, it’s also a […]
I was extremely excited when I got a special sneak preview of Act Of Valor, the highly promoted film starring actual Navy SEALS and based on “real life” scenarios they may face in the field. I have a number of friends who served in the armed forces and a few who, while in active […]
There are many, many things that do not work about This Means War; check out Rotten Tomatoes, where the film is currently getting a 26% fresh rating. The movie is home to enough clichés to power about fourteen thousand post-modern comedies (like Friends with Benefits) about how clichéd romantic comedies are. The ending you can […]
The Oscar-nominated third installment of HBO’s Paradise Lost documentary series is provocatively unsettling to watch. The crippling poverty, widespread ignorance, self-righteous rage and incomprehensible hatred that mark the Arkansas town of West Memphis made me shudder. You sit and you watch excruciatingly unedited crime scene footage from the murders at the centre of the story […]
Girls are crazy for Channing Tatum. Seriously, there was a row of girls behind me at The Vow who literally squealed when he appeared shirtless for 15 seconds (they also giggled during the love scenes and muttered “say yes” in case Rachel McAdams looked like she might say no). And, like the Gerard Butler fascination, […]
Chicago is the best movie-musical ever made, Singing in the Rain is my favourite classic and I will always have a special place in my heart for the underrated gem that is the Madonna-Antonio Banderas-Jonathan Pryce version of Evita. But there’s only one film that’s “The most successful movie musical of all time!” and that’s […]