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3/5
|
Van Helsing
(2004)
|
Matthew Turner
|
If you're prepared to overlook the canon-messing, plus the odd bit of crap dialogue or dodgy CGI, then Van Helsing is surprisingly enjoyable, with several impressive action set pieces.
Posted Nov 01, 2018
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2/5
|
Kate & Leopold
(2001)
|
Matthew Turner
|
Though watchable, Kate & Leopold is a definite disappointment, particularly to anyone looking for the next When Harry Met Sally, or even the next French Kiss.
Posted Oct 31, 2018
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3/5
|
Someone Like You
(2001)
|
Matthew Turner
|
In general then, this is a standard rom-com with a decent helping of funny lines, some great supporting performances and two attractive leading characters that you genuinely care about.
Posted Oct 31, 2018
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3/5
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The Others
(2001)
|
Matthew Turner
|
If you were scared of the dark as a child, then this movie has your name on it.
Posted Oct 30, 2018
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4/5
|
C.R.A.Z.Y.
(2005)
|
Matthew Turner
|
C.R.A.Z.Y. is a sharply written, beautifully acted and thoroughly enjoyable film that's both moving and frequently hilarious.
Posted Sep 17, 2018
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|
4/5
|
Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007
(2012)
|
Matthew Turner
|
Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007 is a well made, impressively detailed documentary that's a must-see for any Bond fan.
Posted Sep 17, 2018
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|
3/5
|
Music From the Big House
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
When the camera does stray beyond the stage, the cramped, grim conditions are laid bare, the film's lyrical black and white cinematography arrestingly capturing the bleak prison landscape.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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3/5
|
Amnesty
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Director and writer Bujar Alimani who refreshingly favours an understated approach in this subtle romance.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
3/5
|
Black Pond
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Black Pond is an adventurous offering from first-time directors on a small budget.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
3/5
|
Leaving Baghdad
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
These scenes make for both shocking and uncomfortable viewing, but where the film really excels is in the grim but real picture it paints of illegal immigration.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
2/5
|
Tom Thumb and Little Red Riding Hood
(1962)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
A gruesome, cheap-thrill-seeking fantasy, Ferozz Wild Riding Hood strives to be a wild and surreal dark fairytale, but ends resembling a soft-porn panto.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
3/5
|
When China Met Africa
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
The film's cinematography is undoubtedly its strength.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
Hell and Back Again
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
An incredibly brave piece of filmmaking, worth watching for the brutal insight it offers onto life on the frontline.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
4/5
|
Bonsai
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
A script full of quirky deadpan moments never allows the film to become too ponderous. The intriguing, oddball protagonists are the biggest draw.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
Oslo, August 31st
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
This is undoubtedly a bleak film, but it never verges into grim - it's more of a melancholic Before Sunrise-esque city tour.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
The Yellow Sea
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
The Yellow Sea is a genre film that has more to offer than just a high body count.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
4/5
|
This Our Still Life
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Hardly critic-friendly or crowd-pleasing. Instead This Our Still Life is risk-filled, innovative and larger than life.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
|
Hadewijch
(2009)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Hadewijch is a thoughtful piece of raw, austere filmmaking.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
2/5
|
Parked
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
All of the actors put in perfectly acceptable performances but none can do much about the brittle plot-fodder stereotypes they are forced to work with.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
5/5
|
Mysteries of Lisbon
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
This is a film to lose yourself in. Despite its extremely long running time, it is an utterly intriguing and beautifully-shot labyrinth.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
4/5
|
The Nine Muses
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
The Nine Muses is a beautiful, elegiac cinematic poem that demonstrates a highly inventive and singular approach to the treatment archive footage.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
4/5
|
Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
While the film may lack money, it's by no means short on imagination.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
5/5
|
A Useful Life
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
A charming ode to the big screen.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
4/5
|
We Have a Pope
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Pitching him as an existentialist fugitive who drifts round department stores and into bars trying to reconnect with the world again, Piccoli's performance takes the film to a very sombre place.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
3/5
|
Girl Model
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
There is no glamour in this film; a low-key observational approach, keeps judgement and hard-hitting shock tactics at arms length.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
4/5
|
Patience (After Sebald)
(2012)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
How do you unpick a literary work with a film camera? Ideally with plenty of imagination, which is what Gee has done here.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
3/5
|
Carancho
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Visually and viscerally, the film makes for a chilling and sobering 107 minutes.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
Bill Cunningham New York
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Press mainly sits back and watches, but occasionally probes the contradiction that is Bill Cunningham - and the results are fascinating.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
3/5
|
Khodorkovsky
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Frank and revealing.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
5/5
|
This Is Not a Film
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Out of his terrible predicament and the confines of his apartment, Panahi has produced a remarkable film.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
2/5
|
A Man's Story
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Hanging out with Ozwald Boateng for 98 minutes feels far too long as he is rarely probes about either himself or his profession, and as a result his film often resembles a drawn-out reality TV show.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
2/5
|
The Adopted
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Has all the hallmarks of a trying-too-hard-to-be-playful indie: freeze frames of characters posing glumly in playgrounds, slo-mo hospital sequences, along with a few too many close ups and cute kiddie scenes.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
3/5
|
ID:A
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
[Christiansen's] psycho drama-cum-thriller is most effective at the start, as Christiansen keeps the camera close to his nameless heroine.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
African Cats
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
It's just a shame you can't turn the voiceover off and tone down some of the orchestral accompaniment - the African Cats footage itself is dramatic enough alone.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
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3/5
|
Edge
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
The film is most heartfelt when it veers off its heavily-plotted course to linger on narrative fragments.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
3/5
|
Corpo Celeste
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
A good performance from newcomer Yile Vianello as Marta holds much of the film together.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
5/5
|
Breathing
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Thomas Schubert's turn as Roman that is the stand out feature of the film; everything from his boyish face and vacant stare to his withdrawn body language is entirely convincing.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
2/5
|
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
The emphasis throughout is not on action, but melodrama - with a rather long and overstated middle section devoted to Monotome's backstory which has little dramatic tension.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
Faust
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
If you like your cinema absurd and grotesque, Sokurov's Faust won't disappoint.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
3/5
|
Mitsuko Delivers
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Just like its feisty protagonist, Ishii Yuya's film is one of a kind (albeit perhaps not the kind for everyone).
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
5/5
|
Lawrence of Belgravia
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Lovingly photographed with plenty close ups of graffiti sprayed walls, gig posters and vinyl covers, Kelly's film also captures London imaginatively.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
3/5
|
If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
For its atmosphere, gritty realism, and acute social commentary, If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle should be applauded.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
The Turin Horse
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Every frame could be a photograph - not because he prefers lengthy, distant takes (his camera is surprisingly mobile and inquisitive for a 'slow cinema' director) but because each frame is perfectly composed with care.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
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|
4/5
|
Silent Souls
(2010)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Grief is handled here in a such a restrained and unusual way that is rarely seen in cinema.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
4/5
|
Planet of Snail
(2011)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
Planet of Snail could totally re-orientate your perspective on life.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
3/5
|
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present
(2012)
|
Isabel Stevens
|
This insightful, rather than uncritical, documentary justifies its place on the big screen.
Posted Aug 27, 2018
|
|
|
The Loved Ones
(2009)
|
Matthew Turner
|
The direction is superb, with strong use of colour, some truly nasty twists and turns, inventive gore scenes ("Fetch the hammer, daddy...") and impressive use of music, all of which adds up to a pretty intense 84 minutes or so.
Posted Jan 08, 2018
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|
4/5
|
9 Full Moons
(2013)
|
Katherine McLaughlin
|
Amy Seimetz is fast becoming a face to watch.
Posted Apr 13, 2016
|
|
2/5
|
The Magic Flute
(2006)
|
Matthew Turner
|
It never adds up to more than a curiosity for opera fans.
Posted Mar 28, 2016
|
|
3/5
|
My Name Is Khan
(2010)
|
Matthew Turner
|
My Name Is Khan is an impressively directed, sharply written and emotionally engaging Bollywood drama with an important central message and a terrific performance from Shahrukh Khan.
Posted May 26, 2015
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