The kindest thing one can say about Transformers 3 is it’s not as bad as the second instalment. That’s damning with faint praise however, given the second film was an execrable, obnoxious piece of trash, and a massive step down from the more acceptable first. It’s simply a case of numbers: the first took more than $700 million worldwide against a $150 million budget; and the seco ...
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The Change-Up is intermittently charming; frequently profane; mostly dull. More than anything it reinforces the somewhat depressing notion that mainstream American comedies are rapidly running out of ideas, over-compensating for the lack of creativity with a torrent of foul language. There’s nothing wrong with swearing or crude humour per se, as long as it’s used creatively (see the sc ...
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Hunter S Thompson based his novel The Rum Diary on his personal experiences working for a Puerto Rican newspaper in 1960 but it never saw publication until 1998; coincidentally, the same year that Johnny Depp starred as Thompson in Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Now, in Bruce Robinson’s adaptation of Thompson’s long delayed book, Depp returns as a pre-Gonzo incar ...
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The Iron Lady
The Iron Lady makes for soft drama. That, unfortunately, is how this half-hearted biopic about Margaret Thatcher pans out. One of Britain’s most controversial Prime Ministers, whose time in office provokes fierce opinion even to this day, deserves better on-screen treatment than this.
However, this isn’t to undermine the outstanding work performed by Mer ...
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The somewhat spotty X-Men franchise has had its ups and downs over the years, but with X-Men: First Class, director Matthew Vaughn has taken the comic back to its origins and brought it back up to the level of Bryan Singer’s X2 from 2003. Much like Singer’s film (oft considered to be the best in the series), it has its problems, namely that it’s overly earnest, reliant on cheesy ...
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Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna enjoyed an adrenaline-fuelled, extraordinary career before his tragic death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. So it’s fitting that the man often regarded as the greatest racer who ever lived gets a documentary to match. Senna, directed by Asif Kapadia, is unquestionably one of the finest films of 2011 but that’s mere hyperbole, and only serves to ...
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For a film set in Roman Britain and filled to the brim with more swords, sandals, soldiers, tribes and betrayals than one can shake a toga at, The Eagle is staggeringly boring. What’s even more shocking is that director Kevin McDonald, responsible for such edgy, gripping fare as Touching the Void and The Last King of Scotland, completely fails to invest the film with his usual energy and sop ...
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The Lincoln Lawyer offers plenty of tasty legal jargon but ultimately delivers little. By scattering its supporting cast into the wind and leaving lead star Matthew McConaughey with nothing to do other than reprise his act from A Time to Kill, it remains a film where the ingredients are in place but the pressure cooker’s been turned off. In front of a cinematic jury, there simply isn’t ...
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Skipping over heavy philosophical issues with an appreciably light and frothy touch, The Adjustment Bureau stakes a claim to being the most accessible adaptation of a Phillip K. Dick story to date. Forget the posters blaring ‘Bourne Meets Inception!’ It’s nothing like either of those blockbusters, despite starring Matt Damon from the former and grappling with territory vaguely si ...
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Judging by how much the camera wobbles around and how much debris and metal flies all over the place in Battle Los Angeles, you’d think the film was attempting to set a new benchmark for sci-fi actioners. It doesn’t of course - it’s complete rubbish. But it’s enjoyably visceral, noisy rubbish nonetheless, launching the viewer into war-zone hell and never letting up.
&nbs ...
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The great irony of Unknown is that, despite its title, it’s hardly an unknown quantity. In fact, it’ll be surprising if a less remarkable thriller is released this year. That’s not to say it’s a terrible film. On the contrary, the first half is riveting and builds a sense of quietly clammy menace. However, as is often the case with these high-concept genre pieces, once ever ...
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True Grit. A remake or not a remake? That is the question.
Less controversial are the undeniably superior filmmaking skills of the Coen Brothers, skills which underpin this cracking new adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel. When compared to Henry Hathaway’s 1969 John Wayne starrer, it’s arguably a much more accomplished and effective work, restoring the narrative tan ...
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Where on earth did this Ben Affleck come from? Fresh from Oscar success with Good Will Hunting, buddy and co-writer Matt Damon seemed to sprint ahead; Affleck meanwhile langoured in material ranging from expensive (Daredevil) to abysmal (Gigli) to expensive and abysmal (Pearl Harbour). Then all of a sudden he exploded back on the camera, or rather behind it, with his incisive, gripping thr ...
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The poster for Made In Dagenham is almost insufferably twee: Happy Go Lucky's Sally Hawkins in perky 60s bob and get up, complete with even perkier smile. It's almost a come hither invite to a glib and trite celebration of British cinema at its worst: colourful yet superficial and vacuous. It's therefore a delight to report that Made In Dagenham is made of far tougher, more substantial stuff ...
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