Director Hany Abu-Assad’s latest film Omar portrays the saddening and desperate conflict in the West Bank in a believable manner that thankfully doesn’t ignore basic humanity of people on both sides. Omar (Adam Bakri) is a young baker who has recently joined the Palestinian resistance forces with his childhood friends the hard-headed Tarek (Iyad Hoorani) and the meek Amjad (Samer
Read moreThe last place we might expect to find Scarlett Johansen is in a low budget Scottish sci-fi flick about murderous aliens and the grim monotony of life in Glasgow but that’s exactly what we have in the creepy, obtuse film Under the Skin. Sporting dark hair, a posh British accent and oddly anachronistic acid-wash jeans, Scarlett plays a mysterious woman
Read moreSo many mediocre cgi-drenched fairy tales, mythical adventures and superhero films have filled our cinema screens lately that audiences would be forgiven for feeling a bit jaded and approaching the Snow White re-imagining, Maleficent with low expectations. This film is, however, one of the cinematic surprises of the year. Exciting, funny, visually captivating and even emotionally involving Maleficent more than
Read moreAfter our classic live album extravaganza last week, we return to more recent recordings on Built For Speed with new music from Bob Mould, Halfway, Jack White and many others. On the movie front we review documentary The Last Impresario which examines the remarkable life of theatre producer Michael White. We also take a look at the latest cinematic adaptation from
Read moreThis week on Built For Speed we bring you the thrill of live rock’n’roll (just recorded, engineered and re-played via CD and digital download) as we play tracks from our favourite live albums. There’ll be classics from Cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy, Roky Erickson and many others. On the movie front we let you know whether the latest collaboration between Drew Barrymore
Read moreThe film adaptations of Marvel’s X-Men Comics, which feature super-powered mutants or X-Men led by Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) battling super-villain Magneto (Ian McKellan) and fearful, prejudiced “normal” humans, began in startling fashion in 2000. With 2006’s disappointing X-Men: The Last Stand and 2009’s clunky spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine, though, the franchise seemed to be in very poor shape, at
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