-
Highway to the Green Zone
15th March | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Perhaps the Iraq War is still too close in our memories, but Hollywood has yet to make a decent film about the conflict. Even the Hurt Locker deliberately ignored the politics to concentrate on the human side of the story. If anyone could pull it off, it would be Paul Greengrass, the director who made works about Bloody Sunday and September 11th cinematic, while maintaining the verisimilitude.
After the invasion of... -
Hurt Locker trounces Avatar at the Oscars
8th March | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
In the end, it was triumph for guerrilla filmmaking over excess as the Hurt Locker ran out the big winner at the Academy Awards. Avatar is the most successful film of all time, while the Hurt Locker made less than $20 million at the US box office. This is what the Oscars are all about though. The Shawshank Redemption may not have become one of the most popular films of...
-
Solomon Kane – The Bristol Beastmaster
1st March | 2 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
The early 80s saw a whole raft of so-called sword and sorcery epics. The success of Star Wars meant that audiences were obviously desperate for more fantasy cinema - or not. Nowadays the likes of Krull, Hawk the Slayer and the Beastmaster are more likely to be seen propping up the late night film schedules and only people of a certain age will admit to liking them.
Solomon Kane seems intent... -
The Lovely Bones – Strong skeleton but no soul
25th February | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
After initial footage of the Lovely Bones was released before Christmas, it looked like the film was going to be a shoo in for the Oscars. Based on a best selling novel – check, award baiting cast (Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Saoise Ronan) – check, multi award winning director (Peter Jackson) – check. A perfect spine then, but sadly the sum of the bones has failed to create a good...
-
What’s that coming over the hill - is it a Wolfman?
10th February | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
From the director of Jurassic Park 3; Seven words that filled me with utter dread when it was announced that Joe Johnston would be taking over the reins of The Wolfman after initial choice Mark Romanek dropped out. Apparently Johnston was chosen because he was the only one who agreed to complete the film on budget. Hardly an indictment of quality. However, after a rather dull 20 opening minutes, the...
-
Invictus - A worthy Mandela biopic?
8th February | 2 comments | 1 person likes this
When Nelson Mandela was asked who should play him in a movie of his life, his unequivocal answer was Morgan Freeman. You can’t get a much better recommendation than that.
Invictus deals the portion of Mandela’s life after he takes up the Presidency. Sensing a country still hugely divided, he identifies rugby (formerly a symbol of white hierachical society) as a potential unifying force and approaches the Springbok captain Francois Pienaar... -
Will Sam make a worthy Dracula?
28th January | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Just two years ago, chances are the name Sam Worthington would have meant nothing to you. Yet after an annus fair dinkumus in 2009 which saw the Australian star in Terminator: Salvation and Avatar and complete filming on the Clash of the Titans re-make, it seems the 33 year old can do no wrong. The rumour mill has seen him linked to all the big new roles from Captain America...
-
Up in the Air - Come fly with George Clooney
19th January | 0 comments | 2 people like this
Director Jason Reitman is on the cusp of greatness. In three movies he has taken potentially unlikeable characters (tobacco lobbyist, teenager mother, corporate firer) and crafted feel mostlygood stories that would make adults want to go to the cinema again. Up in the Air may be his best yet.
With a job that has him travelling around the country firing people, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) leads an empty life out of... -
Sherlock Holmes and the case of the missing geezers
4th January | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
When Guy Ritchie announced he was planning a film featuring Britain’s most famous detective and starring an American as Sherlock Holmes, many purists may have choked on their own opium pipes.
Fear not. Although Sherlock Holmes takes an undoubtedly modern spin on Conan Doyle’s sleuth, it is Ritchie’s most accessible film. Being sent back to the Victorian era has forced the director out of his world of well monikored cockney geezers.... -
The Golden Globe nominations – Will there be a domestic?
16th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
If this time last year someone had said that the 2009 Golden Globes would have been a competition between James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino, I may have checked you hadn’t been overdoing the Christmas mould wine.
Cameron and Quentin may have won Oscars but their films are never traditionally seen as bankers to win awards. Bigelow’s Hurt Locker was an excellent film but also a complete surprise as she...
CONTRIBUTOR
Michael Shelton
I am a freelance writer based in the UK. I am passionate about films and like to blog about releases, trends and reaction to movie news. I can easily watch The Godfather and Ferris Bueller's Day Off in the same sitting. There may be some righteous indignation about some of Hollywood's releases but you may discover some rare gems!
