The East is an uncomfortable little film; it reminded me of the (superior) Martha Marcy Mae Marlene, not quite in the same league, but interesting and creepy nonetheless. Brit Marling (who co-wrote the film) plays Sarah, a private security operative who goes underground to spy on an eco-terror group called The East. These guys live…
Read moreOlympus Has Fallen
I enjoyed Olympus Has Fallen. It’s like Die Hard for the Now Generation, with the White House staring as Nakatomi Towers, and Korean terrorists playing Alan Rickman. Now Gerard Butler ain’t no Bruce Willis, and Radha Mitchell is wasted as Bonnie Bedelia (and she NEVER gets to punch a reporter) but it all goes down…
Read moreShark Night
Remember the perplexing Colombiana and my incredulity at the preposterousness of “murder by shark”? Well, Shark Night is much much worse. It’s like Deliverance meets Scream meets Deep Blue Sea, with hicks setting sharks on co-eds. Oh. Did I just give away the entire plot? Don’t worry, you’ll thank me later. Shark Night filmed in…
Read moreDjango Unchained
LP Hartley’s 1953 novel “The Go-between” was set in north Norfolk, in the secluded country homes and villages where I grew up. Yet, the Victorian landscapes of the novel weren’t really a place I recognised. Understandably. Hartley famously began the novel: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” And this is…
Read morePitch Perfect
I’ll make no secret of it: Pitch Perfect made me laugh like a drain from start to finish. It’s the (formulaic, post-Glee) tale of the world-weary Becca, a musical mash-up college first year, who unwillingly joins an all-girl a capella group as part of a bargain with her Dad. But while the plot my be…
Read moreBeasts of the Southern Wild
From the reviews, and all the Facebook feedback, I’d been really looking forward to seeing Beasts of The Southern Wild, with expectations that it would make for some breath-taking, whimsical, challenging, magic-realistic cinema. First, the business end of the post, beginning with the plot. Well, there isn’t one really. A child is being raised by…
Read moreSecretariat
Secretariat is a little film about a huge (and flippin’ phenomenal) horse. In movies of this ilk, we’re used to a lot more “drama”: the horse has to have a breakdown, the jockey has to break his leg, the central relationship has to divorce because of the principle character’s commitment to his/her equine. In Secretariat,…
Read moreBattle Los Angeles
I am well-known amongst my friends for loving movies where aliens blow shit up. In Battle: Los Angeles, the aliens are more destructive than most. They land off the coast of Santa Monica (and twenty other world cities – shocker!) in preparation for a simultaneous attack. And a small group of soldiers from disparate backgrounds…
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