Review: Teeth  Mitchell Lichtenstein’s horror comedy is designed to have the men in the audience crossing their legs and grimacing. It tells the story of Dawn O’Keefe (Jess Weixler) who is part of a Christian group – The Promise – that preaches abstinence from sex. Through the group Dawn meets Tobey (Hale Appleman) who is(…)

Review: Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon  Remember when Luke Skywalker was captured by a Yeti in The Empire Strikes Back and a combination of the Force and some nifty work with a lightsaber saw him make a dramatic escape? I remember it well and it’s with that in mind that I turn my attention(…)

Review: Holy Water  Tom Reeve’s comedy is set in the village of Kilcoulins Leap in Ireland. Now in decline, many of the locals are struggling to earn a living with the lucrative spa business of the past more or less obsolete and even the famous Holy Well not drawing in tourism. A group of bandmates(…)

Review: Inception  Hype is an interesting thing, isn’t it? Some films build up a huge reputation before many of us have even had chance to see them. Christopher Nolan, arguably the best director around at the moment, released Inception in 2010 and the feedback was tremendous. Glowing appraisals worldwide and a decent cast make the(…)

Review: Born on the Fourth of July  Wars continue to divide people. Personally, I was against the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq from the start, the latter in particular. Wars should only be fought as a last resort and as long as all options have been exhausted I can accept conflict. In Oliver Stone’s Born(…)

Review: The Mist  Following the brilliant adaptations of Stephen King’s work – The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Green Mile (1999) – Frank Darabont delivered The Mist in 2007. The story begins with David Drayton (Thomas Jane) waking to find a thunderstorm has led to damage to the house including his art studio. David leaves his(…)

Review: District 9  When I first read the plot for District 9 I assumed it would be just a standard sci-fi film, hopefully a good one, but certainly not offering anything vastly original. Neill Blomkamp’s film, however, turned out to be something of a big surprise but while it endeavours to be different there is(…)

Review: Battle in Heaven Carlos Reygadas’ Battle in Heaven is the story of Marcos (Marcos Hernandez) who is a driver for the General. At the outset, Marcos and his wife (Bertha Ruiz) are selling clocks and sweets in a subway and coming to terms with the death of a baby they have kidnapped with the intention(…)

Review: Mega Python Vs Gatoroid  When Tiffany was topping the charts with I Think We’re Alone Now back in the eighties you would have been laughed at had you taken her to one side and suggested that nearly twenty-five years later she’d be starring in horror films with large monsters! After starring in Mega Piranha (2010),(…)

Review: Nineteen Eighty-Four  Orwell’s dystopian novel is, in my opinion, one of the finest books ever written. I have long had my own image of the society Orwell imagined in the future but I was fascinated to see how Michael Radford’s adaptation would look. The story focuses on Winston Smith (John Hurt) who lives in London(…)

Review: The Spirit of the Beehive  Victor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive tells the tale of a remote Spanish village in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Our focus is on one family – Fernando (Fernando Fernan Gomez) is the father who spends his days tending to beehives and writing at his(…)

Review: Manhunter  Anthony Hopkins’ role as Dr Hannibal Lecktor is legendary in the film world but before that Oscar-winning turn in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Michael Mann adapted Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon and made Manhunter. I’d always wanted to see this one which is still highly regarded despite the massive appeal of Lambs but(…)

Review: Dread  I sincerely doubt there has ever been anyone in history that hasn’t been afraid of something. Anthony DiBlasi’s Dread, based on a story by horror master, Clive Barker, is a gritty exploration of fear, getting to the heart of what a group of people are truly afraid of and seeing if they can face(…)

Review: In the Valley of Elah  Paul Haggis’ In the Valley of Elah tells the story of Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) whose son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) has returned from fighting in Iraq and has gone AWOL. Hank and his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) are naturally concerned and Hank begins looking into his son’s disappearance.(…)

Review: Blackout  Many of us have a phobia or fear. There are plenty of them whether it’s a fear or heights or some material item which the majority of us can look at and use without thinking but other people cannot stand to be around them. Orwell’s 1984 gave victims targeted by Big Brother a(…)

Review: Dead Silence  I can remember a handful of ventriloquist acts when I was growing up in the eighties and nineties and was always impressed by them. Some people don’t share that sentiment, of course, and others find the ventriloquist dolls a tad spooky. James Wan’s Dead Silence may shatter your previous fondness for ventriloquism,(…)

Review: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer  Partly based on serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, the film focuses on the everyday life of Henry (Michael Rooker), a serial killer that tends to target women. Henry is sharing an apartment with Otis (Tom Fowles) who he met in prison and at the outset they have a(…)

Review: Blue Valentine  Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine is both a romance and a drama, depicting the lives of Dean Pereira (Ryan Gosling) and Cynthia Heller (Michelle Williams) at different points in their lives. In the present they are married, have a daughter but all is not well. Cynthia is a nurse while Dean is a(…)