Film Guide

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; most vampire films fail to impress me. Thirst however now sits comfortable on top of my favourite vampire movies of all time list, easily removing Let The Right One In from its coveted position.

Thirst tells the story of a popular priest from a small town, who after enduring the agony of seeing friends die, petition’s to be allowed to sign up for a medical experiment in the hope of finding a cure for this disease that ravages portions of the population. The Priest is one of fifty volunteers for the experiment that turns out to be a total failure, resulting in a one hundred percent mortality rate.

However, whilst attempting to save the Priest’s life, the doctors, some how manage to infuse the Priest with vampire blood, and the healing properties contained therein, brings the beloved Priest back to life, with one minor side effect; the Priest is now a vampire.

With heightened senses and superhuman abilities comes a darker, carnal desire, the desire for blood, and as is the cliché for vampires, a lustful fixation on the main female character, the bored wife of his childhood friend. Fortunately for the Priest (or un-fortunately, depending on which way you look at it) the bored wife has always had her eye on the Priest.  Read the rest of this entry »

Hayao Miyazaki never fails to breath fresh life into traditional animation. His movies not only capture the magic of imagination, but also manage to bring the screen alive with his colour saturated living animation style.

Ponyo is no different, yet some how streets ahead of what Miyazaki has created before. Inspired by a combination of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid and watching his own five-year-old son comes a story about a goldfish (Ponyo) who wants to become human and a five-year-old boy that saves her life and unintentionally falls in love with her.

As with previous Miyazaki tales, Ponyo has a definite moral and environmental message contained within – but one that doesn’t try to preach to you.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the summer of ’87. Dumped, with dreams of a European vacation in tatters, what’s a boy to do? Get a job at the crappy local theme park! And that is exactly what aspiring journalism grad student James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg: Zombieland) finds himself doing when the parental money pot runs dry. In need of college funds and applying for all manner of summer jobs James finds his literature degree of little help and is forced to take a minimum wage position at the titular Adventureland where his testicle punching junior school friend ‘Frigo’ works (a startlingly familiar feeling Matt Bush). Armed with only wit, naive charm, and a bag of pot gifted from his Europe-bound buddy, James sets out to negotiate a drear summer job at the bottom of the Pittsburgh twenty-something barrel. What he finds instead is a drear summer job punctuated with moments of love, lust, solidarity, betrayal, danger, and giant-ass pandas.

James quickly befriends, then falls head over heels for fellow “Games Games Games…” crew member Em (Kristen Stewart: Twilight) only to find their burgeoning romance full of complications. So too with the friendships that rise and fall in the space of an adolescent summer; leaving behind a trail of beautiful, angst strewn wreckage. Read the rest of this entry »

I really don’t want to say too much about this film, so I’ll just give you the tag line tease: 6 Strangers, 2 Killers, 1 Paradise Island. Let the games begin.

I’d seen the trailer it looked like it would be your typical cheesy horror with a possible hint of sadistic violence.

And it had Milla Jovovich. That may have just been the clincher. But to be honest I wasn’t expecting much besides some action, a predictable plot and a number of ‘NO! don’t go there with him. You Idiot, he’s gonna kill you’. moments.

Well it had the action and the ‘moments’ but A Perfect Getaway is far from predictable, with plenty of red snapper (you’ll under stand if you see the film) moments it turns into an adrenaline laced thriller that will have you guessing all over the place as to who is actually the good guys and who is the bad guys.  Read the rest of this entry »

The problem with films like Flame and Citron is that they make me feel so inadequate as a reviewer. I fail to see how I can do such a good movie justice with my grasp of literary prose, and all my attempts at writing turn out sounding like the stark ravings of a lunatic fanboy.

But I have to write a review, so I will approach it with a little history that will probably only reinforce my sounding like a frothing fanboy….

I desperately wanted to see Flame and Citron at last years Film Festival, but couldn’t make any screenings align with my ability to be in the city, so when I first heard that Vendetta was releasing it on DVD this year, my eager anticipation went into overdrive. I’m not sure why I was so interested in this particular film – sure I have an apparently unhealthy fixation on World War 2 – but this wasn’t a true war film. It was a Danish film based on the true exploits of two Danish resistance fighters in World War 2.

But there was just something about it that intrigued me. I somehow knew it was going to be a good film.

And this is where we get to the raving fan boy part of the review.  Read the rest of this entry »

In the near future, you don’t live to play… you’ll play to live.

Set in a future-world where humans can control other humans in mass-scale-multi-player online gaming environments, a star player from a game called Slayers’ looks to regain his independence while taking down the game’s mastermind.

Sweet, a film that brings together my two loves; gaming and films.

Add to that Gerald Butler in the lead role and you have the probability of a winner.

Then you read the small print; written and directed by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor. For some reason I’ve seen every film these two idiots have made, staring with Crank, moving through the interesting but ultimately a hash job that was Pathology, through the dismal mess that should have seen them thrown out of Hollywood, Crank 2 and now Gamer.

These two hacks may have come up with an awesome concept – who knows, they do have the writing credit, but maybe they stole to concept from someone with an ounce or two of creativity – but they managed to destroy it in the process of turning it into a film. The high points would be the social commentary on how addicted we are becoming to virtual worlds where our Avatar can be what ever we desire, and do anything without having to deal with the consequences.  Read the rest of this entry »

In true brutal Korean action-thriller mode (think Old Boy) virgin director Na Hong-Jin’s The Chaser is at once thoughtful storytelling and as visceral as they come. To be sure, this is not a movie for the faint of stomach!

Eom Joong-ho (Kim Yoon-suk), a not particularly likeable pimp, is in trouble. Several of his girls have gone missing and Kim Mi-jin (Seo Young-hee) is the straw that breaks this camel’s back. Suspecting a kidnapping/human trafficking conspiracy he turns his previous experience as a police detective toward finding his ‘charge’ and is led on a twisty and twisted journey over a tension charged 12 hrs. As Joong-ho faces down an alleged serial killer who he believes has taken his lost girl, we witness the multitudes of reasons he is no longer a member of the local constabulary.

In classic noir style Joong-ho is a flawed protagonist; in this case deeply flawed. He brow beats underlings, physically beats suspects, shows little to no sensitivity to other victims and witnesses, lies to the cops, and appears driven solely by his desire to not lose his own personal financial investment in the girls. In fact the most prominent positive trait you can ascribe to him is his tenacity in searching out his quarry; he simply refuses to give up. In the latter parts of The Chaser some more admirable qualities push their way to the fore but by that time you know for sure that this is one troubled guy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Small town boy Shawn MacArthur is barely earning a living selling counterfeit goods on the streets, but his luck changes when he meets hustler Harvey Boarden who introduces him to the world of bare knuckle street fighting. Shawn of course is a natural.

The thing that irked me right from the start – and I’ll admit, its something that I let slide in many films, but for some reason it bugged me in this one – is that we’re given no reason for Shawn to be out on the street seeling knockoffs. It’s like one day he just up and left home, travelled to New York and decided to try his had at selling counterfeit. It just didn’t seem right.

Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t be looking for reality in a film about back street fighting, but there you go.  Read the rest of this entry »

Perception and experience both effect reality, as a group of strangers discover when a random act of violence erupt in a LA diner, resulting in a number of patrons being shot dead.

How the survivors cope, how their loved ones try and understand, relate and help then is the concept of this film.

Sadly it’s a concept that never really gets off the ground.

On the one had it plays like a cheap and nasty Christian film, with one of the main characters turning to God an insisting that everyone else sees the miracle and becomes instant converts.  Read the rest of this entry »

In Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of The Simpsons, Season 20 has been fast tracked to DVD. We get to see Homer and Ned team up as Bounty Hunters; Grandpa buying a pub in Ireland, Marge working in an erotic bakery; Bart meeting his wealthy doppleganger and of course, Maggie speaks!

Now the Simpsons is the kind of show you either love or hate. Me, I love the Simposons, but even with this love I have difficulty falling in love with the packaging for Season 20. An accordion style cardboard affair makes getting the discs out a frustrating experience, one that is very susceptible to scratching. The easy solution – and one I used for Band of Brothers – is to buy some cheap cases and make your own covers – a bit extreme some might say, but a good way to protect your investment.

So anyway, the Simpsons have lost a bit of steam recently, and this shows through in some of the episodes, but I’m happy to say for the most part Season 20 tends to improve on the last couple of seasons. When you find yourself pleasantly amused for the most part you can’t complain, throw in some laugh out loud moments and you’re onto a winner.  Read the rest of this entry »