Because Everybody Else Has One

Cult classic or just a bit flawed... you decide. This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about After a disastrous climate change experiment wipes out nearly all life on earth, the last few remaining humans spend their lives in Snowpiercer, a highly advanced, self-powered train, on its endless journeys around the world. Within Snowpiercer, however, tensions between the classes are about to reach boiling point and it's up to Curtis (Chris Evans) and his ragtag group of lower-class revolutionaries to bring class equality to the train – or die trying. What we thought An instant cult classic on release, Snowpiercer's curious mix of allegorical science fiction and Asian-cinema-inflected, heightened action sequences has also fallen victim to a fair amount of backlash. Interestingly, it's one of those rare genre films that has had a noticeably warmer reception by critics than by general audiences, as it scored a very respectable 8.4 on Metacritic an...

I'll have a Ninja Turtles review up soon but first a couple more interesting films. This review is also up at  Channel 24 What it's about After a former one-night-stand drops off his baby daughter at his door, Valentin heads off to America to find her but ends up creating a new life for himself and his child. What we thought Instructions Not Included is apparently the highest grossing Spanish-language film of all time in America and it's not that hard to see why. For a start, about a third of the film is actually in English so, presumably, that helped increase its accessibility but considering how familiar and comforting its story is, it doesn't really need much help as far as that goes. Indeed, while there is an absolute fortune to like about this wonderfully charming little story, it's hardly overflowing with originality and it's certainly not afraid of wearing both its sentimentality and its cliches on its sleeve. It's presumabl...

Pardon the lateness but, no, just because I'm one of the last people on earth to review this does not mean I'll be including spoilers here. It's tempting, especially as it makes it so much easier to actually review the thing but you really should go in knowing as little about what happens as possible - well, beyond the basic premise anyway. Although, then again, maybe not... It's incredibly tempting to do two different reviews for Gone Girl: one for those who are utterly unaware of the story and one for those who have already read the book, seen the film or absolutely don't care about spoilers. I'm lazy though, so that's not going to happen. What I will say is this: if you want to go in knowing nothing about what happens in the film, don't read a word beyond the next two paragraphs. The premise itself has been well advertised and actually tells you nothing about the rest of the film so I suppose it's OK to know that Gone Girl - adapted from he...

This review may have gone off on a tangent or two but, considering the film, that seems about right. This review is also up at Channel 24 . What it's about A molecular biologist, who believes in nothing but science, uncovers something in his studies of the human eye that promises to challenge everything he holds to be true about the universe, a bridge between physical and spiritual worlds. What we thought Writer/ director Mike Cahill's debut film, Another Earth, was a low-budget, indie science fiction movie that used its well-worn scifi premise of a parallel Earth to explore the twin ideas of redemption and forgiveness – and he achieves, or at least tries to achieve, a similar trick with this, his sophomore effort, the puntastically titled, I, Origins. Whatever else you might say about I, Origins, you can't deny its ambitions and you certainly can't deny that Cahill's hyper-intelligent, symbol-heavy science fiction films are a refreshing...

This ain't your granddad's Dracula... and it's all the worse for it. This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about The story of the honourable Vlad Tepes becomes the infamous vampire known as Dracula, after he makes a deal with the devil to protect his family and his people from invading Turks. What we thought “Dracula Untold” is one of those titles that are begging for critics to make stupid puns on – cute puns if it's lucky and/ or good, cruel puns, if its neither. I'm going to do my best to refrain from such cheap shots (hey, there's a first time for everything, right?) but the latest retelling of the Dracula legend kind of deserves what it has coming to it. It's not that Dracula Untold is a terrible movie – it's not – but it suffers from the weight of the story its trying to tell. On the plus side, it isn't quite like those silly myth-busting films (Hercules, Arthur) that try to reveal the much more boring “...

Brosnan's Never Say Never Again - but with more nudity, violence and bad language... This review is also up at Channel 24 . What it's about A retired CIA agent is brought back into the fold on a personal mission that soon finds him going head to head against his former apprentice. What we thought Take one former James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), one Bond Girl (Olga Kurylenko) and chuck them into a plot of super-spies, double crosses and international espionage and you get a film that is much comfort food as it is cliché. There is absolutely nothing even remotely original about The November Man and even less that's genuinely extraordinary about it but, in this case, that might not be such a bad thing. Brosnan plays a spy who is even more of a bastard than Bond but he plays him with much the same suave charm and acerbic wit that he brought to his most famous role and, even if the world he inhabits is less abjectly ridiculous than the one of that era o...

OK, by this time, "couple of weeks" is probably something of an understatement. Still, there's some good stuff that I haven't touched on yet... as well as one or two serious stinkers, of course. Starting off with what is probably my favourite of the films I haven't reviewed yet this month, Begin Again (8/10)   is John Carney's spiritual followup to his wonderful breakthrough film, Once: a serious charmer of a film that came out of nowhere and won over audiences, award ceremonies, critics and other filmmakers, before becoming a highly successful Broadway play. Begin Again isn't quite in the same league as its predecessor but it is certainly in a similar vain. Originally titled, Can a Song Save Your Life, Begin Again is about two lost souls finding each other through music and plays out basically like a more fully produced (and therefore somewhat less charming) remake of Once - but with enough differences to make it worthwhile on its own terms. Even i...

Zzzzzzzhmmmmmmwhoa - This movie in a nutshell... This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about Jep Gambardella is a lothario who has lived the high life in Rome for most of his sixty-five years thanks to the success of his one novel and his affluent social circle. After he finds out that his first love has died and that she had carried a torch for him throughout her life, Jep finds himself taking stock of a life lived in high society but one without much substance behind it. What we thought The Great Beauty won the best foreign language Oscar at last year's Academy Awards but, unlike some of the more approachable fare that has won that particular award over the years, it's a film that is clearly aimed at an arthouse crowd. Forget the fact that it's a subtitled Italian movie – because, seriously, is it really that hard to read subtitles? – it's a 122 minute film that takes its sweet time getting to any sort of point and is filled with a c...

Denzel Washington is back in a very Denzel Washington-y kinda movie. Take that as you will... This review is also up at Channel 24 . What it's about Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) seems like an ordinary blue-collar worker but when a young prostitute (Chloe Grace-Moretz) he befriended is viciously beaten up, his mysterious past comes to the fore as he finds himself up against a ruthless organized crime ring. What we thought Antoine Fuqua is a director who spends his time alternating between grity and quite serious dramas (Training Day, Tears of the Sun) and disposable action movies (Olympus Has Fallen, Shooter) and despite the fact that his last film was the underwhelming shoot-em-up Olympus Has Fallen, it's interesting to see him diving so soon into another glorified b-movie – especially as he has brought along Denzel Washington, the star of his most acclaimed film, along for the ride. The Equalizer is apparently based on an '80s TV show (nope...

The Faultier in Our Stars, perhaps? This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about Mia Hall is your average teenage girl about to graduate high school: juggling boy problems, trying to get into the college of her dreams and figuring out where she, a classical-music-loving cellist fits into her hip, punk-rock family. After being involved in a major car crash and with her life hanging in the balance, she has is suddenly confronted with the most crucial question of all. What we thought It's all but impossible not compare If I Stay with The Fault in our Stars when the two films, separated by a mere couple of months, have so much in common - at least on the surface. Both films are based on highly successful young adult novels, both feature the struggles of a teenage girl at their centre and both deal with themes of love and loss, when superimposed against life and death. They're also both, as it so happens, the work of newcomer directors as Fault'...