I may be going soft in my old age. A documentary about a man learning to be a Santa Claus, and I give it a perfect score? Yes, I gave it a one, and if zero were better I’d give it that. I’ve watched many a cruel movie this year; too many times I’ve watched [...]

Let’s get this out of the way first: Black Death is by no means an enjoyable movie due to its bleak and unflinching depiction of the 14th Century. Be that as it may, it is a riveting, dramatic horror picture that’s as brilliant as it is challenging. Coming from director Christopher Smith (Severance, Triangle), Black [...]

Former WWE wrestler Steve Austin, it seems, has become the new luminary of straight-to-video action films. Arriving after Damage, The Stranger, Hunt to Kill and Knockout, 2011’s Tactical Force was made by newcomer writer-director Adamo P. Cultraro, and his inexperience shows. A high-gloss action-thriller, Tactical Force solely aimed to provide some brainless thrills, but it [...]

I never thought the life of a pickpocket was particularly endearing but after seeing the trailer for IFC Films’ Loosies, I’m not so sure. Master thief Bobby seems to be cruising along easy street — fine dining, buying to his hearts content and bedding pretty girls — that is until he finds out a one-night [...]

Character growth seems like a lost art in many films these days but I’m happy to say that self-discovery plays a prominent role in The Descendants, Alexander Payne’s first film since Sideways seven years ago. Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, George Clooney is Matt King, a well-to-do real estate lawyer, who lives [...]

A “found footage” mockumentary, Lake Mungo is not a typical horror movie in the vein of The Blair Witch Project or The Exorcist. Instead of a schlocky series of cheap scares, freshman writer-director Joel Anderson has crafted a low-key supernatural drama which examines the emotional repercussions of a family dealing with grief. With that said [...]

Fans of David Cronenberg may be at first put off by the pristine stuffiness that envelops A Dangerous Method. While the historical basis for the film is depicted in John Kerr’s “A Most Dangerous Method,” the screenplay has been adapted by Christopher Hampton from his 2002 stage play “The Talking Cure,” and it shows. This [...]

There’s a lot of hoopla surrounding Martin Scorsese’s latest, Hugo, which is the director’s introduction to family films, and the only one to utilize 3D technology. Not run-of-the-mill praise, I’ve heard phrases like “timeless,” “a masterpiece,” and “one of the best movies about filmmaking ever made,” being thrown about. And because I have no life [...]

During the mid-fifties American puppeteer Jim Henson, and his muppets, a varied collection of custom marionettes, took the entertainment world by storm. Through the years, the most iconic has been Kermit the Frog, the only “amphibian” to address the Oxford Union, and also the first to receive an honorary doctorate from Southampton College. But although [...]

Based on an actual racial incident in Gothenburg, Sweden in which a group of black teenagers carried out a series of thefts of other children’s personal belongings for a period of two years, Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Play is about using psychological game playing rather than name-calling, threats, or overt violence to bully your target. [...]

It is rare to see movie walk outs; people will usually stick out rough films until the end because they willingly paid to be there. It is rarer still to see walk outs in an art house theater because the patrons typically have more experienced expectations on contemplative and metaphorical features. The Turin Horse will [...]

In 2006 George Miller, Warren Coleman, Judy Morris, and John Collee brought us Happy Feet, which proved that despite being confined to the barren, icy wasteland of Antarctica, penguins can have fun too (usually by singing radio hits). Despite mild controversy over the film’s environmentalist stance and its supposed polar reconstruction of an urban environment [...]

2005’s low-budget, halfway-charming Hoodwinked! developed into a minor hit despite its humble origins, but does anyone out there honestly remember it? More pertinently, who genuinely wanted to see a sequel? Limping into cinemas almost six years after its predecessor, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil is easily one of the worst animated movies ever made to [...]

It’s a curious situation when so many people get a kick at the same cinematic can and none of them can get it right. Is the material to blame? The filmmakers? The whole bloody idea? Let’s call it a three-way tie. Following in the footsteps of occasionally decent (but you wouldn’t know it from this [...]

Based on a true story, Snowtown lets viewers inside the Vlassakis family home as they unknowingly welcome in what turns out to be one of Australia’s most notorious serial killers, John Bunting (Daniel Henshall). The Vlassakis family consists of Elizabeth (Louise Harris) the mother and her four sons: Troy (Anthony Groves), Jamie (Lucas Pittaway), Alex [...]

“I saw The Inbetweeners Movie last night, it was great.” “I’m sorry, the what?” Despite this British sitcom’s surprisingly far-reaching fan base (not a single seat of the four hundred in my cinema was left unoccupied) I still find myself having to explain the show to family members, casual acquaintances and my favorite movie-loving cab [...]

Since the teaser, which was released in June, didn’t delve much into the story of Brave (choosing to instead focus on artistry and mystery), Disney-Pixar has finally released a full theatrical trailer which presents more of the story arc for their latest animated adventure. Denied allowance into the trials of the first borns because she [...]

Reflecting both the film’s target audience and the man at the helm (who we can all agree has seen better days), Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar opens with its titular protagonist (Leonardo DiCaprio), loose-skinned, prune-hued, and silver-haired, doing what people his age do: Ranting and raving. In his particular case it is about communism, which he [...]

It seems just like yesterday, a trailer for an updated take on a fairy tale was released. Oh wait, it was and for the same fairy tale too (Snow White and the Huntsman)! This adaptation from the imaginative mind of Tarsem Singh has more comedy and a family fun flair to it, and to be [...]

I often feel like I don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done (I could always use a few more hours for movie watching!), but such complaining pales in comparison to the plight of the citizens of Andrew Niccol’s sci-fi parable In Time. For them, time is their lifeblood and not having [...]

American Gladiators has been resurrected. Well not really, but it is in a similar fashion that penance is paid to the rulers of Panem in Lionsgate’s upcoming film The Hunger Games. In the future, the 12 districts that comprise what was once North America, each submit one teenage girl and boy to take part in [...]

Based on the play “God of Carnage,” by French playwright Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski’s latest outing, Carnage, follows 2010′s The Ghost Writer, a film unceremoniously swept under the rug. Not to suffer the same fate, the retitled, Brooklyn-transplanted (an impressive facsimile utilizing special effects and careful production design, mimicking the real thing adeptly despite having [...]

Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, known sometimes as Tarsem Singh or merely Tarsem (maybe just “T” one day), certainly has an affinity for pretty, shiny things. His third and shiniest film to date, the plodding, silly, wake-me-when-it’s-over Greek mythology pic Immortals has its fair share of impressive images. Well, more than its fair share, really. Every shot [...]

It is estimated that there are between 21.4 and 32.1 illegal immigrants or 10-15% of the total of all immigrants in the world. How to deal with illegal immigration has been a source of controversy in most Western countries and raises many complex political, economic and social issues. Le Havre, however, the latest film by [...]

Would you be terribly surprised to hear that Jason Statham was starring in yet another actioner showcasing his hand to hand prowess? He is and you shouldn’t. In Safe, for which the first theatrical trailer was released by Lionsgate today, he is pitted against crooked NY police and the Chinese and Russian mafias. Instead of [...]

Every fairy tale deserves an updated telling, I suppose (notably Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding Hood). The latest, Snow White and the Huntsman, previewed it’s trailer today. In this rework, the lovely Sleeping Beauty, isn’t quite the pushover we remember as a toddler. The evil queen, who sucks the beauty from all she sees [...]

A middle-aged truck driver’s long years of hauling lumber from Asuncion, Paraguay to Buenos Aires is etched on his grizzled face. Looking as if he hasn’t shaved in weeks, maybe months, his body language displays a passive solitude, as if he has become reconciled to a world of emptiness. Winner of the Camera d’Or for [...]

In 1999, American Pie had its main character violate a warm apple pie. In 2003, Billy Bob Thornton portrayed the most offensive, self-destructive, and felonious Santa anyone has ever imagined in Bad Santa. Now, attempting to grab the mantle of the most provoking and/or distasteful movie ever is A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. [...]

Hidden inside a birthday cake and smuggled out of the country, the 75-minute “effort”, This is Not a Film, tells us all we need to know about the cruelty of the Iranian dictatorship and the courage of film director Jafar Panahi. Panahi, who has given the world such masterpieces as The White Balloon, The Circle, [...]

Daniel Cormack’s ten-minute short, Amelia and Michael, has little dialogue but draws us in with its compelling use of gestures, facial expressions, and subtle glances to establish an unsettling mood. Featuring outstanding performances from Natasha Powell and Anthony Head as an estranged couple named Amelia and Michael, the film is a compelling experience of two [...]

Tower Heist enjoys a coincidence of sorts in its choice of opening weekend. The Occupy Wall Street protest is alive and well not too far from where this film is set and hundreds of other Occupy protests are simultaneously happening around the world. Tapping into a particular segment of that angst, Tower Heist is about [...]

Dito Montiel, chose Channing Tatum as the star for his drama about corrupt police and childhood secrets, The Son of No One, correctly. He needed a guy that was wooden and could believably convey sullenness with no effort whatsoever. There is not, however, much else that is right about this feature, unless noting that in [...]

“Most events are inexpressible, taking place in a realm which no word has ever entered, and more inexpressible than all else are works of art, mysterious existences, the life of which, while ours passes away, endures.” — Rainer Maria Rilke Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a fascinating journey back in time. In this [...]

I must say, when Denzel Washington plays a badass motherfucker, no one can compare. In his latest, Safe House, he takes on the role of Tobin Frost, a wanted, rogue CIA agent — one responsible for the deaths of many agents and informants. When he suddenly turns up in Cape Town with a secret, all [...]

“Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses, who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.” – Rainer Maria Rilke As we know, high school can be a difficult and challenging place for even the most socially adaptive student. For those who are different in one way or another, it can [...]

The world has changed a great deal in 12 years. Humans have learned of the existence of werewolves and vampires and are on a crusade to eradicate them. In the second trailer for Underworld: Awakening, Screen Gems gives a closer look at the key to the war — a hybrid child. Selene must use her [...]

In the late 1990’s, Sam Childers, a criminal and a member of a notorious Pennsylvania motorcycle gang, decided to change his ways and turned to God for guidance. From that point onwards he devoted his life to helping Sudanese orphans who were suffering at the hands of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army). The LRA (led [...]

The only person who would have ever thought about making a film documentary of former CIA Director William Colby must be related to him. In fact, his son Carl Colby did just that. William Colby was a driven individual who lived during interesting times and ended up in a fascinating job; however, this does not [...]

No theme in drama touches the heart more than the separation of lovers. In classic dramas from Romeo and Juliet to Wuthering Heights, we empathize with the feelings of sadness and loss that estrangement brings and can relate them to our own experience. Some stories of separation, however, lack deeply-drawn characters and do not have [...]

Just as slasher films were done to death in the ’80s and ’90s, the “found footage” subgenre (made popular by 1999’s The Blair Witch Project) is now being exploited to the point of becoming tired. After films like Cloverfield, [Rec], Quarantine, The Last Exorcism, Diary of the Dead and countless other films, it’s becoming increasingly [...]