Homeland (US, 2011)

Although Homeland included some longueurs in its 12 parts, they were more than justified by the gripping feature-length final episode. But what was particularly extraordinary about the programme, co-produced by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation’s Fox 21, is that it actually dramatised why someone might become a terrorist. Whether the character of the conflict-full antagonist, Brody, [...]

Headhunters (Hodejegerne, Norway-Ger, 2011)

This is the second time I’ve been to a multiplex to see a subtitled movie this year; hats off to Showcase again. And there’s absolutely no reason why this film shouldn’t play to a mass audience as it barrels along at a fantastic pace, including a gruesome shit scene and a hilarious ‘dogged impaled on [...]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (US-Swe-UK-Ger, 2011)

It’s inherently irritating that Hollywood insists on remaking commercially successful foreign-language films as it’s due to the fact that the majority of film-goers, in America and UK at least, won’t watch subtitled films. Anyone who has watched a subtitled film knows that after a few minutes they are barely noticeable. Hollywood is only interested in [...]

Cape Fear (US, 1961)

When I first saw the original version of Cape Fear I thoroughly enjoyed it, however in this re-viewing I was struck by Gregory Peck’s woodenness. Indeed, the Christmas tree was giving an Oscar-winning performance in comparison. As a film that dramatises a violent disruption of an all-American patriarchal family, and there doesn’t come many more [...]

Unknown (UK-Ger-Fr-Can-Jap-US)

Spanish director, multi-national cast including an Irish lead, British scriptwriter, Berlin setting; apart from that this a Hollywood film. One of the producers is Kinowelt, now owned by France’s Studio Canal, that pioneered in the 1990s, after the deregulation of the financial markets, investment in Hollywood films such as Dark City (Aus-US, 1998). Despite the [...]

London Boulevard (US-UK, 2010)

I don’t know why this thriller bombed at the box office as I found it mostly gripping and well acted: Keira Knightley in particular as the vulnerable actor hounded by paparazzi. Even Ray Winstone, reprising his gangster role, manages to squeeze even more menace than usual from the scumbag he plays. Colin Farrell is an [...]

Hanna (US-UK-Ger, 2011)

This excellent movie has the feel of a graphic novel (it isn’t) in its playfulness. I like the frail protagonist who’s looking for her origins; so often an Oedipal-narrative for a male. There are numerous set piece action sequences (including a long take steadicam fight that must have CGI in it somewhere), great humour (Jessica [...]

Point Blank (À bout portant, France, 2010)

Gilles Lelouche, as a trainee nurse who has to save his wife (played by the unfeasibly gorgeous Elena Anaya), is virtually constantly on the run in this terrific thriller from Fred Cavayé (who gave us the equally good Anything for Her). There’s no time to stop for the audience either, as the film hurtles from [...]

127 Hours (US-UK, 2010)

At one point Aron Ralston, arm trapped under a rock, muses that since the day he was born the rock had been waiting for him. It’d probably been poised for eons and the chance encounter with Ralston precipitated its, and his, fall. What can you do, other than philosophise, in a film when the central [...]

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Luftslottet som sprängdes, Sweden-Denmark-Ger, 2009)

There’s too much plot in Steig Larsson’s novel to make this a satisfactory film. Even with the judicious filleting of Erika Berger leaving Millennium, there’s still too many threads flying around. This is not to say the film isn’t a pretty satisfying thriller, just that the narrative works far better as a novel; the same [...]