Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats Grant Heslov’s comedy war film follows the story of Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) whose marriage falls apart at the outset so he decides to head for Iraq in search of a story. Stuck in Kuwait, Bob meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) formerly of a unique branch of the US(…)

Review: Johnny Got His Gun  Dalton Trumbo’s war film tells the tragic story of Joe (Timothy Bottoms) who is nearly killed fighting in the First World War. Though alive, Joe has been left with no arms, legs, ears, eyes, mouth or nose. He is aware of vibrations around him but cannot communicate with the doctors and(…)

Review: Fragments  Gun crime is a worldwide crisis and I recall a time when the use of guns in the UK was unthinkable but now drive by shootings are not uncommon, society is far less safer than it used to be and things sadly don’t look like changing anytime soon. In Rowan Woods’ Fragments a(…)

Review: Wasting Away  Matthew Kohnen’s Wasting Away is the latest zombie comedy I have come across and given that previously I’ve enjoyed Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, it had some hard acts to follow. The film tells the story of a serum that is effectively green goo and has accidentally been unleashed. A group(…)

Review: The Player Hollywood. It’s one of the first words that comes to mind when you think of the film industry but what happens in the run up to all these films being released? Robert Altman’s The Player is something of a satire of the Hollywood studios but weaves an intriguing murder mystery together while(…)

Review: Intolerable Cruelty  The Coens reunite with George Clooney for this black comedy about lawyer Miles Massey (Clooney) who specialises in winning big divorce cases but more than meets his match when he comes up against Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who does not suffer defeat gladly and what follows is a fierce exchange between her(…)

Review: Requiem for a Dream  Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream is one film I’ve wanted to see for ages. The feedback I’d heard was very positive though strangely my knowledge of the film’s plot was basic to say the least. All I was assured of was this was going to be a gritty experience(…)

Review: Norwegian Wood  Those that know me well would tell you Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood is my favourite novel and one I have loved ever since I first read it. When I learned that a film was being made I was both excited and apprehensive. I’m not against film adaptations of books but they have(…)

Review: Notes on a Scandal  Based on the novel by Zoe Heller, Notes on a Scandal tells the story of Barbara Covett (Judi Dench), a history teacher who lives a lonely life, her only friends being her cat and the diaries she keeps. When a new teacher, Sheba (Cate Blanchett), joins the school, Barbara is(…)

Review: A Cock and Bull Story  I remembered studying The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy at university. I wrote an essay under exam conditions on it and got 74%, my highest ever mark, a 1st class distinction, yet I’d only read 10 pages of this unusual and complex novel. Its author Lawrence Sterne was(…)

Review: Mimic  An earlier effort from director Guillermo del Toro, Mimic begins with a deadly disease that is killing children in Manhattan and is coming from cockroaches. Entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) is called in and with her husband Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) develops Judas Breed, a large insect that secretes an enzyme to kill(…)

Review: Burke and Hare  I hadn’t heard anything of John Landis for years until I happened upon this film. The director of The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London had not made a film for a decade so naturally I was eager to see if he was still churning out the same classics(…)

Review: Rosemary’s Baby (1968) It’s hard being a fan of films and not hearing something about Roman Polanski’s classic horror film, Rosemary’s Baby. I had never seen this one until now I’m ashamed to admit but I knew the film had something to do with a pregnant woman carrying a somewhat sinister child but other(…)

Review: Gentleman’s Agreement  It’s not unreasonable to assume that if Jewish people come up in a conversation there will be mention of the Holocaust which is something none of us should ever forget. What may surprise many people, myself included here, is the prevalence of anti-Semitism in the aftermath of the Second World War, a(…)

Review: Killer Klowns from Outer Space  Directed by Stephen Chiodo, Killer Klowns from Outer Space is one of those films that doesn’t require much explanation given its title. The locals at Crescent Cove, California, witness a comet or meteor falling to earth and first a farmer and later a young couple Mike (Grant Cramer) and(…)

Review: Phenomena  Dario Argento’s cult horror classic tells the story of Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) who is sent to a boarding school in Switzerland. There she learns that murders have been taking place for the last year and the girls at the school are very much in danger. Nice welcome, eh? One night, Jennifer goes(…)

Review: Knowing Many believe in prophecies and fate, that frightening notion that everything we do is pre-determined and that truth be told we have no control of our destinies. Alex Proyas Knowing explores the possibility of being able to see disasters in the future and explores how, if possible, we can try to avert such(…)

Review: Shelter  I remember first seeing Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Gormenghast and finding him a revelation as the dark and twisted Steerpike. Since then he’s been racking up the credits on both TV and the big screen. Shelter saw him paired up with Julianne Moore, another good acting talent, so my hopes were understandably high when(…)