Lesbian Vampire Killers (2009) Movie Review

It’s obvious to anyone who doesn’t have his head stuck up his ass that you don’t go into a movie called “Lesbian Vampire Killers” expecting the second coming of “Citizen Kane”. While the threshold for “success” is undoubtedly set very low as a result, there are nevertheless expectations...

May 24th, 2009 | Read More

The Cottage (2008) Movie Review

The British already know that writer-director Paul Andrew Williams is one to watch. His feature film debut, “London to Brighton” (2006), saw him being nominated for a BAFTA, as the Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer. He may have lost out on that one to Andrea Arnold for “Red...

May 6th, 2008 | Read More

The Baker (2007) Movie Review

Quirky hitman movies are nothing new, and unfortunately the plots themselves are, well, never anything overly original. After all, there are only so many twists you can come up with when the premise must always revolve around a killer who, for one reason or another, begins to question his profession....

April 12th, 2008 | Read More

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

The Zombie Diaries (2006) Movie Review

It’s hard to make a zombie movie and have it stand out nowadays, which is probably why British writers/directors Michael Bartlett and Kevin Gates decided to make a zombie movie that is shot exclusively from the perspective of handheld video camcorders. The premise is a simple one: It is the early...

September 8th, 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

Children of Men (2006) Movie Review

“Children Of Men,” the latest film from rising Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron (”Y tu mama tambi’n”), asks a very curious question: What would the world be like if we could no longer have children? Pretty crappy, it seems. The film takes place in London in the year 2027,...

December 21st, 2006 | Read More

Casino Royale (2006) Movie Review / “007 and Counting”: The Life and Times of the James Bonds

In Michael Winterbottom’s “24 Hour Party People”, a film about the London music and club scene of the 1970s and 80s, the Tony Wilson character claims that it was the invention of broccoli that funded the James Bond films. Believe it or not, there is supposedly some truth to this: Albert...

November 23rd, 2006 | Read More

Stormbreaker (2006) Movie Review

Hollywood has cornered the market on teen spy movies for a while, and now the British are getting in on the action with their own version. Enter Alex Rider, junior secret agent. Or, actually, reluctant junior secret agent. Based on the series of adventure novels by Anthony Horowitz (who also pens the...

November 10th, 2006 | Read More

The Last King of Scotland (2006) Movie Review

The late 1960s through the 1970s were a tumultuous time for central Africa. It was during this span that the European powers gave up and/or lost their colonial possessions on the ‘Dark Continent.’ But what could have been a golden opportunity for progress quickly spiraled into chaos as the...

October 27th, 2006 | Read More

The Queen (2006) Movie Review

(Movie review by John C. Ford) In 2003, a well-regarded director of independent films spun Oscar gold from a wisp of a storyline — a tone poem about a woman and a man from different generations who make a faltering, elusive connection in an exotic setting. And now, it has been done again. Ladies...

October 23rd, 2006 | Read More

Severance (2006) Movie Review

“Severance” is the latest from British horror hope Christopher Smith, who had a hit in 2004 with his excellent tube-bound chiller “Creep”. Here, Smith tackles something a little more ambitious, attempting to work in satirical humour and even social commentary amongst the ever...

August 28th, 2006 | Read More

Wilderness (2006) Movie Review

“Wilderness”, Michael Bassett’s follow-up to his World War I horror movie “Death Watch” can best be described as “Lords of the Flies” meets “Friday the 13th”. The film concerns an intrepid band of delinquent teens who, after one of their own commits...

August 23rd, 2006 | Read More

Footsteps (2006) Movie Review

I am not certain about the cultural prevalence of snuff films in countries outside the U.S. , but I am rather certain that, even in this debauched land, snuff remains a seedy underground taboo which rarely, if ever, pokes its horrific organs through a hernia in the mainstream. Sure, you and your...

August 1st, 2006 | Read More

Brothers of the Head (2005) Movie Review

In no way do I wish to encourage film makers, or film goers, to indulge in any more “mockumentaries”. “Spinal Tap” is an inanely brilliant comedy, but beyond that, all the fake interviews where people act serious but say stupid shit and the humor is dryer than the deserts of the...

June 22nd, 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