Movies

  Oh the sweet power of a tale tautly and imaginatively told. Villainous is a remarkable short film I came across via laughing squid.com, made by talented filmmaker Paul Constantakis, who wrote and directed this visually delightful and powerful story. In three far-too-short minutes – not that the story is Continue Reading

  While Gulliermo del Toro’s monster masterpiece, Pacific Rim, is hardly a work of Shakespearian splendour, it is also not the braindead blockbuster monstrosity that many purported it to be. Granted it has all the trappings of the latter – cardboard-cutout characters, an overly-earnest seriously-intoned opening narration replete with cliches Continue Reading

  SNAPSHOT “Pixar takes audiences on incredible journeys into extraordinary worlds: from the darkest depths of the ocean to the top of the tepui mountains in South America; from the fictional metropolis of Monstropolis to a futuristic fantasy of outer space. From director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) and producer Continue Reading

It ain’t being green says Kermit and  nor is it easy or cheap to be one of the major cultural touchstones of the American landscape. Not only is there angst-ridden emotional toll – though Superman has never seemed as psychologically tormented as Batman or Spiderman (and yes I know I Continue Reading

  Comic-con, which has just wrapped in San Diego (18 – 21 July), is greatly loved by Hollywood. Amid some soul-searching that the annual pop culture extravaganza has sold its soul to commercial interests, lots of Hollywood studios were on hand to show their upcoming movie fares including of course Continue Reading

  Let me say upfront that I make no apologies whatsoever for the Speed reference in the headline. It is after all, the movie that first drew Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves together – the less said about Speed 2 the better thank you – and one of my favourite Continue Reading

  Paul Feig, director of The Heat, 2011’s Bridesmaids, and cult TV show Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000) is a man propelled by a laudable mission – to increase the representation of strong, funny women in Hollywood films. But it’s not just some warm and fuzzy notion of joining the pop Continue Reading

SNAPSHOT After a failed experiment to stop global warming, an Ice Age kills off all life on the planet except for the inhabitants of the Snow Piercer, a train that travels around the globe and is powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine. A class system evolves on the train but Continue Reading