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CAUTION: Massive spoilers ahead. You have been warned. MÄN SOM HATAR KVINNOR DIRECTOR: Niels Arden Oplev; SCREENPLAY: Rasmus Heisterberg & Nikolaj Arcel; COMPOSER: Jacob Groth; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Eric Kress, DFF; EDITOR: Anne Østeurd; PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Niels Sejer; CAST: Michael Nyqvist (Mikael...

Posted at 4:30 PM in Cinema / Reviews

The film 1975. The giallo craze that consumed the early part of the decade has run out of steam, with Italian audiences turning to macho crime thrillers and sex comedies where once they flocked to lurid whodunits with names like...

Posted at 3:04 PM in Reviews

Note: in the interests of coherence, this review refers to the original 1978 film by its original title, DAY OF THE WOMAN, and the 2010 remake as I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (the title by which its predecessor is also...

Posted at 12:38 AM in Reviews

FAITHFUL PLACE by Tana French; Hachette Ireland; 2010; 448 pages Tana French is an author with an amazing ability to choose exactly the right words to conjure up a particular mood. Although I found certain plot developments a little hard...

Posted at 10:28 AM in Reviews

Two things are clear about the final published instalment in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS' NEST. First: that while the first part, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, functioned adequately as a standalone novel, HORNETS'...

Posted at 2:46 PM in Reviews

Yes, it's better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. How much better you find it to be will depend on your ability to once again slog through a considerable quantity of Stieg Larsson's observations about trivia that have nothing...

Posted at 11:54 AM in Reviews

I have nothing but admiration for Pixar's Wall-E and its push for realism, and I'll even grudgingly commend the heavily flawed 9 for its attempt to tell a darker, more mature story than we're used to with North American animation,...

Posted at 11:55 PM in Reviews

In its original Swedish, the title of the first part of Stieg Larsson's posthumously-published Millennium trilogy is Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, a literal translation of which is "Men Who Hate Women". It's unclear precisely why the English translation was titled...

Posted at 2:59 PM in Reviews

My first review in aaaages... For better or for worse, the new version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three has to stand on its own feet, if for no other reason than that the bulk of its target...

Posted at 4:00 PM in Reviews

The Likeness by Tana French; Hodder, 2008; 698 pages About ten pages into The Likeness, I realised it was actually a sequel of sorts to a book I hadn't read, In the Woods. I have an unfortunate tendency to start...

Posted at 10:30 AM in Reviews

It's difficult to argue against Braveheart being one of the finest packages assembled on Blu-ray this year. With a transfer that is extremely close to perfection, a rollicking good audio mix and a nice (if slightly incomplete) array of bonus...

Posted at 3:57 PM in Reviews

The Blu-ray format, to me, is supposed to be about experiencing films in a state that is as close to perfection as is realistically possible. Perfection is, of course, an unattainable ideal, but the fact remains that, with regard to...

Posted at 4:24 PM in Reviews

This UK edition of Hannibal is being released by Universal next week. (Universal supplied me with a review copy, which I've had to return.) Alas, those who already own the earlier German release by UFA will have no reason to...

Posted at 11:56 PM in Reviews

There's something impressively gung-ho about Labyrinth. It clearly knows it's nonsense, but doesn't seem to care and simply runs with it, resulting in a movie whose irresistible charm makes up for the fact that the story is held together with...

Posted at 3:30 PM in Reviews

In September 2006, Glasgow businessman Javed Mukhtar was abducted from his house in the middle of the night by armed men, who demanded a ransom of £2.5 million in return for his release. The kidnappers were ultimately apprehended shortly after...

Posted at 1:03 PM in Reviews

The first and by far the best film by Andy and Larry Wachowski, Bound offers up the potent combination of a steamy Sapphic romance and a sharp deconstruction of gangster movie conventions. When it was originally released in 1996, it...

Posted at 4:33 PM in Reviews

If The International was Tom Tykwer's attempt to break into the American mainstream, then he succeeded admirably. The film is as slick and soulless as anything else being put out by the major studios at the moment, and absolutely none...

Posted at 9:40 PM in Reviews

Note: the following is a review of Dario Argento's latest film, Giallo, from its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. This review is also posted at DVD Times. A sadistic killer is terrorising Turin. Posing as a taxi...

Posted at 12:30 PM in Reviews

Despite half-heartedly attempting to be something more than just another generic possession movie by substituting the usual Catholic mumbo-jumbo with mumbo-jumbo of a different denomination, The Unborn is as unimaginative and forgettable as they come. The AV presentation is top-notch,...

Posted at 7:30 PM in Reviews

"Pleasant" is a fitting adjective to describe Vicky Cristina Barcelona. "Insubstantial" is another. When the lights came up at the end of Woody Allen's latest romantic drama - or should that be dramatic romance? - I was very much left...

Posted at 12:30 AM in Reviews

Operating under the assumption that not everyone wants to read a DVD or BD review of several thousand words, and indeed that not every film or disc requires such an essay, DVD Times recently started a series of "capsule reviews"...

Posted at 12:05 PM in Reviews