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David Fincher’s The Social Network a superb film; a modern masterpiece – an excellent drama of well-drawn real life characters, compelling situations and a key event in recent history. The movie sets out to show how a website that is supposed to unite people ultimately destroyed the friendship of its co-creators. It all begins at […]
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I wasn’t very complimentary about The Search for Santa Paws, the 2010 straight-to-disc Christmassy family film about Santa’s puppy that gets lost in the big wide world. It was cheap, silly rubbish, and contained some of the most dire musical numbers that I had ever seen. Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups is, at first […]
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Captivity is a vile film directed by none other than Roland Joffé, the man behind The Killing Fields and The Mission. It’s baffling why he decided to take on this nasty, misogynist trash. Those who expect a quality entry into the torture-porn horror sub-genre will be bitterly disappointed. Having said that, there are some members […]
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Though far from being a masterpiece – or even just good – this independent British thriller is better than the 1 star reputation it has managed to cultivate. The acting is dodgy and the plotting weak, but a claustrophobia-inducing atmosphere and menacing tension is kept strong throughout. Danny Dyer, who became a bit of a […]
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When this controversial French film was released earlier this year, many critics condemned it as torture-porn, criticising its relentlessly brutal nature so strongly, you’d think the devil himself was distributing it. I have sympathy with this view – Martyrs is a shockingly violent ordeal, repulsive and visceral in extreme levels. But it is so much more than […]
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This impressive two-hander, starring Kristen Scott Thomas as a woman who has been abducted, was given a rather lukewarm reception upon its theatrical release earlier this year. In my opinion, it was underrated. In Your Hands is actually an intelligent, superbly acted, quietly intense psychological drama about regret, revenge and desire. Scott Thomas is a […]
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Creep writer/director Christopher Smith gets to exercise his talent for the bizarre and disturbing on a bigger scale with this smart, twisting tale of maternal guilt, deserted ships and hooded shooters. Echoing similar thrillers such as Memento, Groundhog Day and even Donkey Punch, this sees troubled single-mum Jess joining a group of posh yachters who are capsized in a […]
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This is a poisonous concoction of dreadful writing, awful acting, vicious violence and horrible characters. Adam Deacon, who seems to have become weirdly popular of late, plays a premiership footballer desperate to start a relationship with a well-spoken showbiz journalist (Nichola Burley). But our unlikable, arrogant leading man gets involved in funding a gang headed […]
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Those marketing this film have tried their hardest to make it seem as if it is comparable to Se7en. It isn’t. It contains murders and people mention sinning occasionally. Apart from that, it is light-years away from that film in terms of plotting and quality. Ray Liotta and Christian Slater are decent actors in their […]
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Saw VII: The Final Chapter (or, as it was called in the cinemas, Saw 3D) is an example of how an aging, creaking, pathetic mess of a franchise can pick itself for a last gory hurrah. It has taken me two years to get round to seeing it (admittedly in 2D rather than gimmicky 3D), […]
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I am aware I was one of the voices in the shrill chorus of hate that greeted the first part of this two-part Twilight finale. And I do not regret that. It was one of the worst films of 2011. But while Part 2 isn’t exactly one of the best of 2012, it is still […]
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Carey Mulligan always used to seem like an actor teetering on the very brink of stardom, but with this film she finally made it, giving a wonderful performance. She plays a bright eyed young Oxbridge hopeful, who is cramming in as much studying as she can for her big exams. But when she meets smooth talking […]
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Some films really take you by surprise. They creep up on you, seemingly out of nowhere, and defy any expectations you originally had. This is what it was like for me when I first watched director Philip Martin’s utterly brilliant reimagining of one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories – Murder on the Orient Express. […]
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Although I have a wonderfully happy Christmas each year, there are of course those who dread the whole festive season. This nasty little shocker from 2008 should reassure them that, however painful one’s family Christmas can be, it should never get this bad. The people here really are hateful. Two families, one visiting the other, […]