Everything Express
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Opinion: The Magic of the Movies (Re-post)
Originally posted at Catling on Film. I’ve been watching movies as long as I can remember. Silent clowns Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton; classic Westerns (all of them!), visionary science fiction from Forbidden Planet to The Day the Earth Stood Still. I thrilled at Errol Flyn as Robin Hood and the Sea Hawk; Jimmy Stewart … Continue reading
Movie Catch-Up: Source Code (2011)
Duncan Jones’ superb high-concept second feature eventually sinks under the weight of its’ own pseudo-science nonsense, but not before Jake Gyllenhaal turns in a star performance. Implanted into a dead man’s last eight minutes of life, air-force pilot Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) has to find a terrorist bomber on a train in order to stop an … Continue reading
Review: Danny Boyle – Man of Wonder (BBC Culture Show Special)
“In a Culture Show special, Oscar winning director Danny Boyle talks to Mark Kermode about his new film Trance, London 2012′s afterglow and the highs and lows of an extraordinary film-making career.” Danny Boyle began his career in subversive agit-prop theatre at the Royal Court and went on to be equally subversive in TV. Breaking … Continue reading
Movie Catch-Up: Ichi
The Zatoichi legend continues with this handsome tale of a blind, wandering musician and a cowardly samurai fighting bandits, spaghetti-Western style – with twists. Firstly, this languid, at times dream-like Japanese movie is far from your standard katana-actioner, a long way from it’s frenetic forebears. Second, the Ichi character is a woman. Blind from birth, … Continue reading
Movie Catch-up: Body of Lies (2008)
Ridley Scott’s superior post-911, post-Bourne counter-terrorism thriller loses its way in dusty red landscapes, satellite tracking and every cliché in the espionage how-to manual. There’s plenty of helicopter shots, Bourne-like action sequences in hand-held wobble-cam, Middle-Eastern sunsets and suspicious Arabs in sunglasses on every street corner. What better way to catch the un-catchable terrorist leader … Continue reading
Movie Catch-up: Gladiatress (2005)
This is a public service announcement. Never EVER be tempted to watch Gladiatress. This alleged ‘comedy’ from Channel 4′s Smack the Pony comedy team misfires on every level. It’s like Vogon poetry – you may have to gnaw one of your own legs off in order to survive. Ostensibly a sword-and-sandals comedy adventure spoof about … Continue reading
Movie Catch-up: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (2009)
Author Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy grinds to a close in two and a half hours of TV-movie dullness. After the excellent The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you knew the trilogy had gone off the rails when disturbed Goth heroine Lisbeth Salander’s father was revealed as a Soviet KGB defector. It took The Girl Who Played … Continue reading
Movie Catch-up: City of Ember (2008)
Based on Jeanne DuPrau’s best-selling novel, the City of Ember is mankind’s last refuge from an unspecified environmental disaster: a bunker built to last two hundred years when the survivors will return to the surface. Problem is, no body told them and the secret instructions have been lost. While food is running out and the … Continue reading
In Memoriam: Roger Ebert
One of Roger’s classic pans: “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the … Continue reading
Movie Catch-up: How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Dreamworks on fine form with this family animation that ticks all the boxes in adapting Cressida Cowell’s dragon tales. Hiccup, the laconic nerdy son of a Viking chief, befriends a juvenille dragon he’s supposed to kill, in the process discovering the secret of the dragon lair from which the beasts’ deadly raids are launched. Dreamworks … Continue reading
Movie Catch-up: From Time to Time (2009)
Ghost-story-time-travel kids’ adventure crossover does double-period drama and goes to some very dark places indeed. The Secret Garden meets The Devil’s Backbone, with cut-glass British accents. In 1944, Manchester lad Tolly (Alex Etel) goes to stay with estranged grandmother Linnet (Maggie Smith – Harry Potter, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) at the family’s ramshackle estate; Tolly’s … Continue reading
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