Exodus (2007) Movie Review

In late 2006, UK television company Channel 4 began to hype a film that ostensibly had the power to revolutionise the British movie industry. The film, tentatively called “The Margate Exodus” was set to break new ground. Director Penny Woolcock was at the helm of one of the biggest cinematic undertakings...

November 21st, 2007 | Read More

Phantom Love (2007) Movie Review

At its base level, Nina Menkes’ “Phantom Love” draws a line between introspective art and unbearable pretentiousness. Although the rich visuals and beautiful photography may create a vivid cinematic world, there are no real characters to fill it. Although the heavy visual metaphors...

September 1st, 2007 | Read More

The Toybox (2005) Movie Review

Oh unbounded joy, another low-budget British horror DVD presents itself to me for review. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love watching and reviewing movies, and I am a big advocate of British cinema, but if you’ve ever endured films like “The Witches Hammer” then you’ll excuse...

May 18th, 2007 | Read More

This is England (2006) Movie Review

Of the many filmmakers working in Britain today, Shane Meadows can be seen as the only one making films about Britain. With “This Is England”, he transports the viewer into the seedy world of inner-city gangs, just as he did a decade ago with “TwentyFourSeven”. However, the world...

May 4th, 2007 | Read More

Sunshine (2007) Movie Review

Once, every now and then, a movie comes along with imagery and tone so solid that it makes me say, “Yeah”. I say it with a sort of nonchalant awe and relaxed wonder, not unlike the reaction Shaft would give upon seeing a UFO landing and a super fine alien chick stepping out. The first ten...

April 10th, 2007 | Read More

Hot Fuzz (2007) Movie Review

“Hot Fuzz” is the latest offering from the writer/director team of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, whose last collaboration was 2004’s brilliant zombie-romantic comedy “Shaun of the Dead”. This time the duo turns to lampooning the police buddy action genre, but they also have...

March 7th, 2007 | Read More

The Witches Hammer (2006) Movie Review

“The Witches Hammer” is, in essence, a low-budget British take on the “babe with a blade” vampire movie formula. Over the last few years, the likes of the “Underworld” movies, “Ultraviolet” and “Bloodrayne” have all tried to lend a feminine...

February 6th, 2007 | Read More

Saw III (2006) Movie Review

When “Saw” came on the scene in 2004, it delivered a much-needed jolt to the limp body of American horror. Working with a relatively small budget, James Wan and Leigh Whannell created a visceral yet psychological character-driven horror movie, eschewing the generic slasher flicks and anemic...

February 1st, 2007 | Read More

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) Movie Review

One would think that “Run Lola Run” director Tom Tykwer would have approached the task of adapting Bernd Eichinger’s novel “Perfume” for screen with a sense of trepidation. Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton and Stanley Kubrick had all been approached at one time...

January 12th, 2007 | Read More

See No Evil (2006) Movie Review

“See No Evil” is a movie designed essentially to showcase WWE wrestler Kane. Proof of this comes about thirty seconds in, when “produced by WWE films” appears on screen. Oddly enough, “See No Evil” was also produced by Lionsgate, a company that has been fairly consistent...

December 16th, 2006 | Read More

Karla (2006) Movie Review

Many of you will probably know Laura Prepon as “the redhead” from the popular Fox sitcom “That 70s Show”, and after seeing her play girl-next-door Donna Pinciotti for eight years, it’s kind of hard to accept her as a peroxide-blonde accessory to the rape and murder of three...

October 28th, 2006 | Read More

Snakes on a Plane (2006) Movie Review

Believe it or not, the aptly titled “Snakes on a Plane” began life when studio execs tried to come up with the worst movie concept ever: a myriad of venomous and very angry snakes are released on a plane while in mid-air and start attacking passengers. As a joke, they put this idea on a website,...

September 15th, 2006 | Read More

How is Your Fish Today? (2006) Movie Review

“How Is Your Fish Today?” began life as a British-commissioned Chinese documentary about Mohe, a small village in the northernmost part of China , lying on the Russian border. However, when the crew reached Mohe, a supposedly mystical town where it’s light twenty hours out of the...

August 31st, 2006 | Read More

BloodRayne (2006) Movie Review

For those of you not already familiar with director Uwe Boll, let me bring you up to date: Boll is a German doctor of literature, who, ever since 2003’s “House of the Dead” has made a name for himself by buying the rights to videogames, bastardising their plots, concepts and characters...

August 18th, 2006 | Read More

Ultraviolet (2006) Movie Review

In his filmmaking career, director Kurt Wimmer has been pretty unlucky. His films have something to say, but have suffered from bad fortune in the process of conception to realisation. His 2002 sci-fi piece “Equilibrium” (in my opinion a very innovative movie with brilliant action and a strong...

August 9th, 2006 | Read More

Reeker (2005) Movie Review

It’s safe to assume that almost everyone in the developed world is overly familiar with the slasher movie formula. Normally, a group of promiscuous high school/college students travel into the mountains or countryside for some reason, get lost, then all but one or two of them are horribly killed...

August 1st, 2006 | Read More

Kidulthood (2006) Movie Review

“Gritty” is a word used far too often to categorise films. It appears that anything vaguely realistic or that plays outside of the regular rom-com or blockbuster format of Hollywood is labelled “gritty”, regardless of importance or quality. To give Menhaj Huda’s “KiDulthood”...

June 18th, 2006 | Read More

Skrypt (2004) Movie Review

I can safely say that “Skrypt” is the only Austrian film I’ve ever reviewed, seen or known to have existed. And, from what I can tell, the Austrian film market isn’t exactly booming. However, being from Scotland myself, criticising another country’s film industry is...

April 29th, 2006 | Read More

The Aristocrats (2005) Movie Review

On paper, the concept of “The Aristocrats” sounds terrible: it is, essentially, 90 minutes of comedians being interviewed about a very dirty joke with the titular two-word punch line, “The Aristocrats”, and the role said joke plays in the comedy community. From this, one would...

March 23rd, 2006 | Read More

King Kong (2005) Movie Review

I do not envy Peter Jackson. Since 1996, when work began on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the man has been consistently taking on some of the most arduous cinematic tasks in history. When “Return of the King” came out, Jackson said he wasn’t going to work on another...

January 11th, 2006 | Read More