You know the drill with sci/fi horror these days: a disparate group of pretty young adults are forced to stop whining and unite to battle a seemingly indestructible alien menace. You can clothe it in military fetishism ala Battle: Los Angeles or Inner city housing estate culture as in Attack the Block but it’s still the same film. The Darkest
Read moreLook out gen x-ers, the 90’s we thought were so cool and edgy are now middle-aged nostalgia. Young Adult, the bittersweet new film from Jason Reitman, celebrates 90’s pop culture – particularly the music – while showing the damaging effects of hanging onto the past. Much like Gross Point Blank from 1997 (scenes, music and characters from which Young Adult
Read moreWhat the hell was Journey 1 you might ask? Well J1 was in fact the 2008 Journey to the Centre of the Earth remake with Brendan Fraser. This sequel-of-sorts takes another Jules Verne adventure novel in this case Mysterious Island and gives if the same contemporary tweaking. In Journey 2, Josh Hutcherson, the kid from J 1 is now a
Read moreThis week on Built for Speed we review gen x drama Young Adult and play a selection of classic 90’s music from the film’s soundtrack. We also review fantasy adventure Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and sci fi action flick The Darkest Hour. There’s plenty of great music including selections from Uncut Magazine’s best of 2011 and Wild Flag which features members
Read moreMartin Scorsese’s latest film Hugo is a weird mix of tween romance, gadget film, Oliver style orphan drama, slapstick comedy, cinema nostalgia and of course (being a Scorsese film) a redemption story. This incongruous mix could have been a huge mess (some parts certainly fail to fire) but with Scorsese’s sure hand it holds together and offers something for kids
Read moreThe Descendants is the latest film for writer/director Alexander Payne who brought us the excellent Sideways back in 2004. Like Sideways, The Descendants combines painful self-reflection, male mid-life crisis and quirky comedy for a slightly odd but engrossing view of middle class angst. With The Descendants, Payne also adds potent family drama and a moving story of loss. Despite a
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