News|Movies|BD & DVD|Writings|Other

Personally, I've always found children to be creepy little fuckers, so the idea of a horror movie in which a group of them turn into murderous psychopaths and start bumping off their parents is an incredibly potent one. I didn't...

Posted at 2:27 PM in BD Impressions

Can you tell I'm on holiday? I'm positively barrelling through my "to watch" pile. I'm back to work on Saturday so I'm making the most of what little time I have left. A quote on the front cover of Franklyn...

Posted at 1:39 PM in BD Impressions

Critics and fans alike continually shower Joss Whedon's Serenity with praise for its witty dialogue, adrenaline-pumping action and rich characterisation, and rightly so, but it always surprises me that very few of them mention Jack Green's striking cinematography. It's beautifully...

Posted at 4:46 PM in BD Impressions

My copy of Eden Lake has a sticker on the cover proclaiming it to be "from the producer of The Descent". It really should have said "and the composer too", for David Julyan's bombastic score is the most prominent of...

Posted at 12:05 PM in BD Impressions

Watched Martyrs last night, and it was... well, an experience, and one that I've yet to develop a definite position on. I certainly didn't hate it, but I came away from it feeling decidedly unfulfilled, which may or may not...

Posted at 12:25 PM in BD Impressions

My good friend the Baron informs me that the original My Bloody Valentine has the reputation of being one of the better examples of the 80s slasher cycle. This could well be the case, but conversely the 2009 remake is...

Posted at 2:35 PM in BD Impressions

It had been a few years since I'd last watched Bound, and I'd forgotten how funny it could be, traipsing playfully through the conventions of film noir and gangster movies, turning them on their heads in this potent cocktail of...

Posted at 11:27 AM in BD Impressions

I must admit that Gran Torino slightly disappointed me, particularly given the strengths of Clint Eastwood's previous film, Changeling, which I personally thought was terrific. The jury seems to be out on which of the two 2008 offerings from the...

Posted at 9:56 PM in BD Impressions

Oof! Well, that was pretty underwhelming. This evening, we watched The Unborn, the latest offering from Platinum Dunes, Michael Bay's PG-13 horror-lite factory. Written and directed by David S. Goyer, the screenwriter behind the Blade franchise and Batman Begins, to...

Posted at 11:51 PM in BD Impressions

Rewatching Monsters, Inc. last night for the first time in a few years, my brother commented about how "overbearing" the film felt at times. I'm inclined to agree: this is the most frenetic of Pixar's films in terms of its...

Posted at 12:41 PM in BD Impressions

I'm actually pretty surprised that Slumdog Millionaire has been so widely marketed as a "feel-good" film, as in reality it's actually pretty grim in places, with police brutality, domestic abuse and exploitation of children being part of the backdrop to...

Posted at 12:00 AM in BD Impressions

A Bug's Life was Pixar's second feature and one that was a good deal more ambitious in terms of scale and scope than its predecessor, Toy Story. Ironically, while Toy Story looks rather dated nowadays, this is less obvious than...

Posted at 12:50 PM in BD Impressions