Blu-ray

George Lucas' space opera is arguably the defining event in modern cinema - one that reshaped Hollywood the films it produces. As such, it's pretty much unthinkable that anybody visiting this website isn't already incredibly familiar with the films (albeit, maybe not the fan-baiting, re-tweaked versions Lucas has prepared for this release). As such, it seems like there's very little point in going over them in any great depth. So let's quickly breeze through this bit, before getting stuck into the really juicy stuff about this Blu-ray boxset...

If the 1980s were truly the decade of excess, then no film better encapsulates that than Scarface. With a script by Oliver Stone, direction by Brian De Palma and a barnstorming central performance by Al Pacino, this loose remake of Howard Hawks’ acclaimed 1930s gangster film is anything but subtle as it plays out the almost Shakespearean tragedy of Tony Montana, a small-time hood from Cuba who arrives in Florida with dreams of making it big, only to end up self-destructing under the weight of his ego, a mountain of cocaine and some rather odd feelings for his sister. Great stuff.

Marketed as a straightforward action-thriller, Hanna is anything but your typical Hollywood flick. True, the storyline about a sixteen year-old girl (Saoirse Ronan) who, having spent her entire life being trained to survive and kill, goes on the run from a vindictive CIA chief (Cate Blanchett) sounds like standard blockbuster material. But director Joe (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) Wright takes its in a completely unexpected direction, using it as the springboard for a modern fairytale that seems as much in debt to the grotesquery of David Lynch or The Brothers Grimm as it does to the traditions and conventions of action genre it continually toys with. It’s the kind of brave, inventive filmmaking that is sure to divide audiences right down the middle.

Joel and Ethan Coen’s ‘handsome film about men in hats’ (as cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld once described it) has never been one of the most widely acclaimed of the filmmaking siblings’ movies. And yet, following a quick office poll, this beautifully shot and often wickedly funny mix of gangster and film noir tropes ranks up with the Coens’ very best work among the HCC team.

There are not many filmmakers who can say that they beat Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez at their own game. But debut director Jason Eisener is one of them.

There’s a world of difference between an ‘adult cartoon’ and a ‘cartoon for adults’. Director/co-writer Gore Verbinski’s Rango is a superb example of the latter – a cartoon aimed at an adult audience who will understand its in-jokes and satirical approach to the Western genre, but one that can still be enjoyed by folk of all ages. Playing out for large parts like a reworking of Once Upon a Time in the West enacted by anthropomorphised animals, the film stars Johnny Depp as the titular would-be gunslinger, a pampered pet chameleon lost in the wild, whose lies lead to him becoming sheriff of a town called Dirt. 

Conan the Barbarian may not be particularly faithful to Robert E Howard’s original pulp writing, but this 1982 flick is a rollicking piece of fantasy filmmaking that almost single-handedly made Arnold Schwarzenegger a Hollywood superstar and heralded a renaissance in the swords n sorcery genre. Written by Oliver Stone and directed by John Milius, it’s a suitably bleak and macho piece of filmmaking where men are muscular, women are barely dressed and camels exist only to be punched in the face. In other words, it’s bloody brilliant.