The original Alien from 1979 was a masterpiece of production design that infused Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett’s ‘haunted house in space’ concept with Ridley Scott’s remarkable aesthetic sense. James Cameron’s 1986 sequel, Aliens, while lacking the original’s eloquent artistry, inventively expanded some its ideas and reworked the concept into a brutally efficient, white knuckle action film. After two reasonably
Read moreIt Ends With Us adapts Colleen Hoover’s highly successful 2016 novel to the big screen. Going into this film I wasn’t familiar with the novel and based on the trailer, had some trepidation that it would be a generic romantic drama. There are familiar elements here, as well as a few clunky moments but it was a more affecting film
Read moreWriter/ Director M. Night Shyamalan has become a strange addiction for filmgoers. After the first magical rush of The Sixth Sense 25 years ago, we’ve been chasing that cinematic high ever since… but it has never come. Some of his films have started promisingly, featured some novel ideas and contained inventive visuals but they’ve invariably given way to glaring tonal
Read moreSometimes a film misfires so inexplicably badly that we start to suspect it must be some sort of elaborate practical joke. Jocelyn Moorhouse’s latest film, The Fabulous Four creates that suspicion but sadly this is no joke, it was apparently meant to turn out the way it did. Despite a cast that features one of the best in the business,
Read moreSleeping Dogs, which stars Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan and Martin Csokas, attempts to update the 1940’s film noir crime thriller to the present day. This is a tricky undertaking as that brooding style of film making was a very subtle art. While first-time director Adam Cooper manages – at least for a while – to build satisfying layers of mystery,
Read moreThe thriller Long Legs has been touted as one of the scariest films of recent times and even a modern horror classic. It’s neither of these things and will probably wind up as one of the year’s most overrated movies but that shouldn’t dissuade people from seeing it as this is still an impressively stylish and creepy film. This movie
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