Blu-ray

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Anton van Beek  |  Jul 11, 2011  |  0 comments

Battle: Los Angeles desperately wants to be the Hurt Locker of alien invasion movies. Unsurprisingly, it isn’t. Despite all of the attempts at cinema vérité-style naturalism on show here (shaky-cams and crash zooms abound) there’s none of the intelligence of Kathryn Bigelow’s film at work here. Instead what we have is a traditional gung-ho action flick that feels more like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - The Movie, only replacing fictional Middle Eastern-types with equally fictional extra-terrestrial invaders. That’s not to say the film isn’t fun. Behind all of the lazy characterisation and obvious plotting lies 116-minutes of enjoyable action and spectacle – just the thing then for those of you who have got bored of spinning ID4 on Blu-ray over and over again.

Anton van Beek  |  Jul 11, 2011  |  0 comments

Ironclad is rather nicely summed up by its director as being ‘best described as a medieval Magnificent Seven or a medieval Seven Samurai'. A fictionalised retelling of the siege of Rochester Castle by King John’s forces in 1215, the film stars Paul Giamatti as the regal despot, with James Purefoy’s Templar knight and Baron Cox’s baron leading a rag-tag group of warriors holding the castle against him. It’s very silly stuff, but filmed with so much gusto and lashings of gore that it’s hard not to get caught up in the action.

Anton van Beek  |  Jul 04, 2011  |  0 comments

Don’t Look Now has often been called one of the best films in the history of British cinema – and with good reason. Adapted from a short story by Daphne du Maurier, director Nic Roeg’s film is more than a mere horror film – although it’s certainly not short on scares – rather it’s a remarkable psychological study of grief centred on a married couple (played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie) who lose their daughter in a freak accident. And while the story that unfolds is itself gripping, it’s visual elements and symbols that Roeg brings into play that allows the film to transcend the limitations of genre and become something truly special.

Anton van Beek  |  Jul 04, 2011  |  0 comments

Drive Angry is a very, very silly film. But it’s one that fully embraces its inherent stupidity and is probably the closest we’ve come to a modern version of grindhouse cinema. Indeed, it’s much more in keeping with actual examples of that specific film ghetto than anything Tarantino or Rodriguez for their 2007 double-feature.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 27, 2011  |  0 comments

The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy – Extended Edition delivers exactly what its name implies. It takes three of the biggest films in the history of cinema and restores a huge amount of deleted material to each (running from around half an hour in The Fellowship of the Ring to almost an hour in The Return of the King), making them bigger and better than ever.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 13, 2011  |  0 comments

Paul sees Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz co-stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost making the trip across the Atlantic for an amiable sci-fi comedy about two geeky Brits on a road-trip around America’s UFO hotspots who bump into a real-life extra-terrestrial (voiced by Seth Rogen).

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 13, 2011  |  0 comments

True Grit represents another notch on the belt for filmmaking brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, marking a return to the pinnacle of contemporary American filmmakers after the rather sleight Burn After Reading and A Serious Man.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 10, 2011  |  0 comments

Once Upon a Time in the West isn’t just one of the greatest westerns – it’s one of the greatest films ever made. Working with the backing of a major American studio and scripted by two young Italian film critics who would eventually become respected filmmakers in their own right (Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci), Leone’s film felt like the summation of the many themes he had begun exploring in his Dollars Trilogy. What initially appears to be a simple tale of revenge soon transforms into an operatic contemplation of the myth and legend of the Wild West with a cast to die for, spectacular images you could frame and hang in a gallery and Ennio Morricone’s greatest score. Cinema doesn’t get much better than this.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 07, 2011  |  0 comments

The Fighter is the latest in a long line of films that shows just how well cinema and boxing go together. Thanks to the ease with which they bring together three of it’s the industry’s favourite themes - human drama, triumph of the underdog and people being hit in the head repeatedly - Hollywood’s history is lined with hymns to professional pugilists (either fictitious or real) in the form of classics like The Champ, Gentleman Jim, Rocky and Raging Bull.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 06, 2011  |  0 comments

Taxi Driver remains the highpoint of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro many cinematic collaborations. Which is quite something when you consider that this 1976 masterpiece had to beat out Raging Bull and Goodfellas for that particular honour.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 06, 2011  |  0 comments

The Bridge on the River Kwai finds David Lean at his absolute best. Every bit the equal to his latter Lawrence of Arabia, this astonishing World War II epic stars Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson, a no-nonsense army man who obsession with rules clouds his loyalties when he and his fellow POWs are put to work building a bridge for the Japanese in the jungles of Burma. On a collision course with him is William Holden’s Shears, an American who escaped from the camp and has been forced to return with a small team to destroy the bridge.

Anton van Beek  |  Jun 06, 2011  |  0 comments

The Mechanic isn’t a film about the trials and tribulations of a wannabe Kwik-Fit fitter. It’s actually a remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson movie of the same name, with HCC favourite Jason Statham taking over as the burly bloke who makes his living ‘fixing things’ (by killing people). With its undemanding student-teacher story and its predictable twists, the film doesn’t add anything to the genre that you won’t find in numerous straight-to-DVD flicks. But The Mechanic does offer up some great action and the chance to see Statham kicking ass again – which should keep fans happy for a couple of hours.

Anton van Beek  |  May 23, 2011  |  0 comments

Stanley Kubrick: Visionary Filmmaker Collection is quite a lofty title for a Blu-ray boxset. But then again, it’s one that is wholly justified by the career of this methodical and meticulous filmmaker who only completed 13 feature films in his 46-year career.

Anton van Beek  |  May 23, 2011  |  0 comments

True Blood: The Complete Third Season continues the adventures of telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse as she goes hunting for her missing vampire lover Bill following the shocking finale to the last year’s 12-episode run.

Anton van Beek  |  May 16, 2011  |  0 comments

Black Swan might be about ballet, but that doesn’t make it a chick-flick. Mixing together elements from All About Eve, Dostoevsky’s The Double, early Polanski psycho-drama, Cronenbergian body horror and even a splash of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, Darren Aronofsky’s latest finds Natalie Portman giving an award-winning turn as a ballerina who must battle with rivals and her own repressive nature when she wins the lead role in a production of Swan Lake. But the further she goes in trying to get in touch with her dark side for the role of the Black Swan, the more her life spirals out of control.

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