With their wonderful, ornate prose and vivid imagery, Charles Dickens’ novels seem ideally suited to cinema adaptations. David Lean realized this potential magnificently with his atmospheric 1946 version of Great Expectations. Less successful was Alfonso Cuaron’s miscalculated modern day version of Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke and Robert de Niro. The latest adaptation of this novel, from British director Mike
Read moreFor a country in which sport is almost a religion it seems strange that Australia has produced so few decent sporting movies. While American films have successfully turned baseball, into a near-mythic commentary on clashing American values, Australia’s sporting films seem to be little more than a mix of nationalistic chest-beating dramas, well-meaning, blink and you’ll miss them low-budgeters and
Read moreLike the Al Pacino film City Hall, Broken City immerses us in the grubby world of New York politics. Unfortunately, this film also immerses us in a world of clichés, clunky dialogue, dull heroes and ridiculous villains. Mark Wahlberg plays disgraced New York cop Billy Taggart who, years after a questionable shooting, is now a struggling, debt-laden private eye. When
Read moreThe sensational documentary The Imposter is a triumph for young director Bart Layton who has mostly worked on the TV show Banged Up Abroad. The film describes the astonishing events surrounding the 1994 disappearance of 13 year old Texas boy Nicholas Barclay. The circumstances of this case are so bizarre that if this was a fiction film no one would
Read moreI Give It A Year is the latest film from the Working Title production company who redefined the British rom with movies like Love Actually and Notting Hill. This film, however, takes a noticeably different approach to the standard Working Title flick both in terms of comedy and romance. Written and directed by Ali G alumnus Dan Mazer, the film
Read moreThe Paperboy is a slightly loopy, gleefully trashy and occasionally entertaining adaptation of Peter Dexter’s steamy story of murder and sexual taboos in the Florida swamps. The star-packed film, which is set in 1969, sees journalist Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) returning to his former home town of Somerton Florida to investigate the questionable murder conviction of slimy, white trash creep
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