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10 Cloverfield Lane [ Hits:4538 ]
Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane follows Cloverfield, a sci-fi thriller that tracked some kids with a first-person video camera perspective during a monster attack on New York City. Matt Reeves went on to direct Let Me In and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and there wasn't much thought to a Cloverfield prequel or sequel. Well, eight years down the track we have one. Instead of going for another city demolition monster movie in the vein of Godzilla, they've gone for a tight, claustrophobic and rural thriller ...

10,000 B.C. [ 2008 ] [ Hits:8454 ]
Review: D’Leh (Strait), a young mammoth hunter, leads an army of tribes to free his people and his Evolet (Belle) in 10,000 B.C., a historically inaccurate adventure. The film doesn’t pretend to be a documentary, but is riddled with anachronisms: the people speak English, use ships for transport, rapid climate changes, dislocated creatures, domesticated mammals, metalwork, pyramids and horse riding. These wild “liberties” render the film inaccurate to the point of science-fiction, and Roland Emm...

12 Rounds [ 2009 ] [ Hits:9227 ]
Review: 12 Rounds is a gut-busting action thriller in the style of movies like Speed, S.W.A.T., Die Hard 2: With A Vengeance, The Marine and The Italian Job. Wrestler-turn-stuntman, John Cena, makes another appearance as a gung-ho muscle man with a similar effect to the worst aspects of Mark Wahlberg and Channing Tatum. Is it a drinking game or a concept film... you decide for yourself. Either way, 12 Rounds is one of those high concept action thrillers that fixes a framework for our hero, who valiantly...

12 Years A Slave [ Hits:5235 ]
Review: Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, was kidnapped and sold into slavery in antebellum United states in 1841. An enticing job offer led to his abduction after his prospective employers drugged him and sold him as a slave. 12 Years A Slave is an account of his emotional and physical turmoil at the mercy of plantation owners.Steve McQueen is one of Hollywood's most exciting directors on the back of Hunger, Shame and now 12 Years A Slave. Each of his films are contentious, beaut...

127 Hours [ Hits:8905 ]
Review: Would you cut your own arm off to save your life? That's what it all boils down to in 127 Hours, an adventure-thriller and drama starring James Franco and directed by Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle. The film is an adaptation of Between a Rock and a Hard Place, a biographical account of now famous adventurer Aron Ralston, who did exactly that. After a solo mountain climbing expedition accident, Ralston was pinned by a boulder and eventually resorted to desperate measures in order to survive.Th...

17 Again [ 2009 ] [ Hits:10134 ]
Review: 17 Again is just like those fantasy age concept movies from the late ’80s: Big, 18 Again! and Like Father, Like Son. In fact, it’s like a combination between 18 Again! with George Burns/Charlie Schlatter and Like Father, Like Son with Dudley Moore/Kirk Cameron. This time it’s a Matthew Perry/Zac Efron pairing that put the age reversal on for size. The concept may be about 20 years late, but like 13 Going On 30, its just the kind of light entertainment that people crave in times like these....

2012 [ 2009 ] [ Hits:10985 ]
Review: "When they tell you not to panic... that's when you run.", says Jackson Curtis, published author of 'Farewell Atlantis', played by John Cusack (Con Air). Undisputed "Master of Disaster", Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow) brings us 2012, a doomsday, apocalypse, cataclysm, "it's the end of the world as we know it", catastrophe of a film in every sense of the word. Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanoes, fire-balls... 2012 is meant to be the film to end all disaster films. Cusack is 2012's...

204: Getting Away with Murder [ Hits:5345 ]
Review: 204: Getting Away with Murder is a docudrama that unearths the shocking story behind the murder of Brett Kebble. The title is a little clunky, but don't let it deter you, 204: Getting Away with Murder is an absorbing, gritty, pulpy and layered documentary. To clear things up a bit, '204' means a full and permanent indemnity from prosecution in exchange for truthful testimony, which is what was afforded to many key individuals in the wake of Brett Kebble's demise. The documentary sets about prof...

20th Century Women [ Hits:4274 ]
Review: 20th Century Women is the story of a teenage boy and the three women who help raise him, set in Southern California in 1979. The comedy drama comes to us from the mind of writer-director Mike Mills, best known for Beginners and Thumbsucker, and plays out like an adaptation of an essay on gender history. Together with a solid ensemble featuring: Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Lucas Jade Zumann and Billy Crudup, Mills is able to curate an offbeat, moody, nostalgic and thoughtful film....

21 Jump Street [ Hits:7986 ]
Review: Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are not a match made in buddy cop heaven. Hill, best known for comedy, got a tip of the hat when he received an Oscar nomination for his role in Moneyball, while Channing Tatum's range is best encapsulated by boxing legend Muhammed Ali's mantra: float like a butterfly (romance) and sting like a bee (action). They seem worlds apart, yet these two Hollywood hopefuls bring a surprising chemistry to screen in the TV series film adaptation, 21 Jump Street. The '80s TV...

22 Jump Street [ Hits:5213 ]
Review: Johnny Depp is probably the most famous thing about the '80s TV show, 21 Jump Street. Now that the TV show has been loosely adapted to film with Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum leading the charge, his legacy is in jeopardy. The first film was a bit of a gamble, taking the TV show's premise of a special cop unit infiltrating youth crimes and giving it the Never Been Kissed treatment. While Hill and Tatum got to undo some high school regrets like Drew Barrymore did, the film was perceived as yet an...

300 [ 2006 ] [ Hits:7993 ]
Review: 300 is essentially the story of how 300 Spartans defeated an army of Persians at least 20 times their number. The Battle of Thermopylae was dramatised as a historical war adventure in The 300 Spartans (1962). Frank Miller was inspired by this story and film, and interpreted it in his graphic novel called 300. Years later, we have the follow-up to the smash hit Frank Miller adaptation of Sin City with 300. Except this isn’t any old remake, this is refreshing cinematic brilliance. The comic book...

300: Rise of an Empire [ Hits:5133 ]
Review: It's been 8 years since Zack Snyder's adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 hit the big screen. The standalone film blazed with battle cries, cutting edge visuals and ancient Greek "This is... SPARTA!" machismo. It set in motion the careers of its director, Zack Snyder and Gerard Butler. No wonder Snyder wanted to rinse and repeat. While mostly unnecessary, a sequel to 300 was almost inevitable after films like Immortals and Clash of the Titans tried to capture the same "God of War" hu...

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days [ 2007 ] [ Hits:10009 ]
Review: 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is a harrowing drama from Romania that deals with illegal abortions and their consequences. Cristian Mungiu, writer-director of 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, composes a film with a stark reality that shocks, awes and implodes. This isn’t to say that his movie is explicit, but it’s his use of the sublime… what’s going on off-camera. Any film that deals with the controversial issue of abortion is going to have an edge, and 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days divides opinion...

50 Dead Men Walking [ 2008 ] [ Hits:8177 ]
Review: Fifty Dead Men Walking has got to be one of the most over-rated films of 2009. Jim Sturgess, the guy that looks like a young Paul McCartney from Across the Universe, stars as Martin McGartland in this gritty real-life action thriller set in Belfast. Fifty Dead Men Walking is based on the book of the same title by Nicholas Davies and Martin McGartland, which tells the incredible true story of McGartland, who was recruited by British Police to spy on the IRA in the late 1980s, saving lives in the ...

50/50 [ Hits:8511 ]
Review: Laughter is the best medicine, but cancer and comedy don't mix - unless your name's Mike Birbiglia or you're watching 50/50. Disambiguation: we're reviewing 50/50, the comedy-drama about a 27-year-old guy struggling to beat the odds, after being diagnosed with cancer and not 50|50, the hard-hitting 27-year-old nature conservation show. There is a difference.Cancer is deadly serious, which is probably why very few people have tried to broach the subject in film, let alone comedy. Yet, they've tak...

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