The speed and severity of the decline in the popularity of the films of Charles Chaplin is one of the more interesting wrinkles in the history of popular perception of films

You know that a film’s viral marketing is working when worries about its content making you feel sick make you avoid watching it!

Hey kids, you liked ‘Shaun of the Dead’ right? A bunch of British comic actors play goofy slackers adrift in the middle of a zombie outbreak and resident in the suburbs and the local pub in a narrative awash with cultural references and geeky self-awareness – great stuff! The makers of ‘FAQ…’ certainly thought so [...]

A risible B movie that is the nadir of this year’s 80s themed cinema…

As with ‘The Hurt Locker’ it is far from trendy to knock ‘Moon’.

The Beatles’ first movie is 46 years old this month and very cheap on DVD. It’s time for an arbitrary celebration.

‘Inception’ is not a film without flaws. It is a spiritual successor to ‘The Matrix’, with all the positives and negatives that implies.

‘Toy Story 3′ is, at its core, a somewhat solemn tale wrapped up in Pixar’s usual computer animation finesse and an above-average script.

‘The Crazies’ is a good example of a modern Hollywood remake of a cult independent movie, in that it’s slicker and more focused than the original, but a lot less interesting.

Sherlock Holmes’ fame and appeal began because of, and fundamentally remains sustained by, the popularity and readability of the stories written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Let’s face facts. There are a lot of TV shows and films where the best bit is the title sequence.

Michael Winterbottom’s ‘The Killer Inside Me’ is too well made to be dismissed as a ‘bad film’, but it is morally repugnant.

…if you have a problem, if no-one else can help and if you can find them…

In case you hadn’t noticed, the 80s are back again, specifically 80s style action adventures.

It’s certainly not a brave or controversial critical move to say that ‘The Hurt Locker’ is a great film. Indeed, to come out with such a statement after this year’s Oscar ceremony is conventional thinking at its most pointlessly facile.

It seems to be an unwritten rule in Hollywood that the second film in a major motion picture franchise has to be the darker, more introspective entry.

You know what you’re going to get with Asylum. Their business model is simple: produce the kind of B-movie fun that kept Amicus, Hammer, Roger Corman and others going.

I’ve written before of the importance of timing to political comedies. ‘The Ghost’ goes to show that the same can hold true of political thrillers.
When published in 2007, Robert Harris’ ‘The Ghost’ still had topical punch. Tony Blair had just stood down after 6 years of Iraq, Afghanistan and post-September 11 intelligence and torture controversies.
Harris’ [...]

With a title like ‘Ninja Assassin’ and a dynamite creative team behind the movie, surely it would be a great action flick?

Surely?

…an excellent day for an exorcism.
With all the other 1970s and 80s horror tropes and films being remade endlessly in the cinema at the moment, the one film/series that has been surprising left alone is the Exorcist saga. With the exception of The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005, this is the first collision of [...]

Jackie Brown-shirt or G-rhine-dhouse?

Orson Welles’ decline amid flashes of brilliance is an integral part of what makes his life story so compelling, albeit frustrating…

Crazy, like.

I have mixed feelings about Terry Gilliam. While I like a lot of his films, and love a couple of them, I can’t help feeling that he’s not quite the artistic martyr his fans make him out to be…

Play is the thing.

‘Taken’ is perhaps the most insidious, reactionary, vile action film of the last 20 years…

The middle of the end?

With ‘Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen’, Bay has thrown realism out of the window in exchange for a fantasy adventure closer to ‘Men In Black’ than ‘Pearl Harbour’, and all for the better…

The ‘Terminator’ series has two prevailing themes. One of them is inevitability, how it is impossible to escape from destiny. Terminator: Salvation dramatises this in quite an unusual way, as a form of concept art…

You’ll have someone’s eye out with that…

The danger with satire is that it can swiftly become out of date…

‘Star Trek’ is a franchise that, instinctively, ought to be strong and vibrant but which had ground to a halt.

Do I review this for the general audience that will, I suspect, flock to this dazzling, exciting blockbuster in droves or do I review it for my fellow long term ‘Star Trek’ fans?

With four days to the new ‘Star Trek’ movie, we take a look at the first.

Bub’ll squabble.

I’d like to say something new about ‘Star Trek II’, but I probably ‘’KHAAAAAAAAAAAN’T’’

With time ticking away until JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel (which we’ve actually seen, yeah, look impressed) we review all ten previous movies.

With time ticking away until JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel, we look at all ten previous movies in reverse order.

With just weeks until JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel, we take a quick look at the ten previous movies. In reverse order, naturally.

With just weeks until JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel, we take a quick look at the ten previous movies. In reverse order, naturally.

With just weeks until JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel, we take a quick look at the ten previous movies. In reverse order, naturally.

I thought I knew what to expect from the ‘Watchmen’ movie, and that it would provoke a strong reaction from me. However… it managed to catch me out, because I came out of it with no idea what my opinion was…

With ten weeks to JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel, we take a quick look at the ten previous movies. In reverse order, naturally.

Zack Snyder’s ”Watchmen” is a thoughtful, uncompromising and sophisticated attempt to take Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ thoughtful, uncompromised and sophisticated ”Watchmen” and put it in on the screen.

With ten weeks to JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel, we take a quick look at the ten previous movies. In reverse order, naturally.

Mmmm, meaty.

With ten weeks to JJ Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ prequel, we take a quick look at the ten previous movies. In reverse order, naturally.

‘Elite Squad’ isn’t always an easy film to watch…

Support the flailing economy: buy more DVDs! This time: ‘Incredible Hulk’, ‘Pushing Daisies’ and ‘There Will Be Blood’…

Few writers have created such a legacy of avid hero-worship and sycophantically fawning sentimentality as Hunter S. Thompson…