Creatures of the Night
Jack Steadman goes on a nightly stroll with Jake Gyllenhaal
The best X-Men film ever
The X-Men series has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years. The first two entries helped revive the comic book film industry (with X-2 being considered arguably the best of the genre pre-The Dark Knight), but the third film and the first spin-off received mixed reactions.
You’re gonna hear me roar
Godzilla has it all on paper. Provided you take ‘it all’ to mean ‘an extremely promising concoction of interesting choices that might just work’.
Wonders of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Think back to spring 2008. The comic book industry’s ventures into film were showing strong signs of recovery after the apparent death knell that was 1997’s Batman & Robin.
The Governator’s war on drugs
The director of End of Watch (an interesting take on police films that didn’t quite succeed) combining with one of two classic 80s action heroes suffering a string of mediocre...
The big hit of Sundance 2014
The opening lines of Frank are a mixture of odd noises and half-formed (and utterly atrocious) lyrics, providing an amusing and wry look at the plight of the artist in search of inspiration...
Locke’s collapse
Locke is an intriguing premise. Set entirely in the cabin of a BMW (bar a few brief seconds of Locke climbing into his car at the very beginning), and with only one character (the eponymous Ivan Locke) ever visible in the form of a bearded, be-cardiganed Tom Hardy.
Bad boy bad boy
It’s comedy season again, and things are kicking off in the most family-unfriendly way possible (in both a literal ‘this is a crude comedy’ and ‘this is a comedy where unfriendly acts are committed against a family’ sense)
The Raid 2
Subtitled Berandal in the US (much like the original was subtitled Redemption), The Raid 2 picks up (chronologically-speaking) exactly where the original left off, with rookie cop Rama having survived the brutal tower block that claimed the lives of (almost) all of his squad.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The obvious point to be made here is that not only is this yet another sequel, it’s also a sequel to a reboot to a film series that was barely a decade old the first time around. And so it is again, with this reboot sequel coming ten years after the best film in the original trilogy.
Rio 2
The original Rio (I’ve noticed the fact I seem to be using ‘the original’ or variations on that theme a lot of late – probably says something about just how many sequels have been coming out this year) was an entertaining-enough blast of colour and samba, propped up by decent vocal performances and
Noah: A Russell Crowe Epic
The sweeping, captioned opening of Darren Aronofsky’s Noah is reminiscent of its cinematic heritage, the Biblical epics of years past, all elegantly flowing cursive script and delicately composed shots, until it promptly swoops down to the dark brutality of humanity.