Recent months have been a busy time for Jackie Chan fans, or at least it feels that way around these parts, as we’ve had a slew of the Hong Kong action superstar’s hits released to Blu-ray in the UK (Police Story and Police Story 2, Project A and Project A Part 2, City Hunter). In […]
Horror fans, at their best, are a very open-minded but also fiercely loyal bunch. Make one great movie and we’ll make damn sure to see your next; make a bunch of them and we’ll show up every time. Even more so, put together a cast with a string of genre favourites to their name, and […]
The last few years have been a curious time for mainstream horror. For one, pretty much every time a major new genre entry arrives, people seem to go out of their way to insist that it is not, in fact, a horror movie, primarily because the film in question is intelligent, nuanced and character-based, and […]
When we think of horror films which trap our protagonists in the wilderness far from civilisation, these tend to be backwoods shockers in the Texas Chain Saw/Hills Have Eyes mould, pitting the softer city folk against brutal, frequently inbred country bumpkins. Alternatively, such a setting might see its human cast at the mercy of some […]
Nicolas Cage has to be one of the most divisive actors out there, as well as one of the most hard-working; in fact, these days it’s actually pretty odd for an actor to garner the kinds of mixed feelings which he inspires, but everyone seemingly has an opinion about his extensive body of work. For […]
It’s been quite a year for British fans of Jackie Chan, thanks to the fine folks at Eureka Home Entertainment. Not content with reissuing the screen legend’s breakthrough film Drunken Master on Blu-ray back in April 2017, 2018 has seen the British label give similar treatment to Jackie’s benchmarks Police Story/Police Story 2, plus the […]
The opening scenes of Knife + Heart feel achingly familiar: how many films start with a woman in peril, running alone through the dark? Well, this is a film which doesn’t mind turning things on their head, even if the surprises are momentary. Anne (Vanessa Paradis) isn’t running from an assailant; she’s having a minor […]
Yes, I realise I’m a little late to the party with this one given that at the time of writing David Gordon Green’s Halloween has been in cinemas just over a week, and to the tune of the highest box office takings in franchise history no less. But if we’re speaking in terms of who’s […]
As someone who writes about films, it’s always a telling moment when you find yourself approaching a particular review with trepidation. Given that, at the time of writing, pretty much an entire week has passed since I saw Assassination Nation at Celluloid Screams 2018, there’s no denying that this is one such film I feel […]
Tigers Are Not Afraid spins some uncomfortable truths about life in Mexican border towns into a fantastical yarn. In so doing, it embeds its characters in a fairy tale, inviting the audience to see the tale through to the end, and to look for tropes we all recognise. The besieged princess, the ogre, the magical […]
As has oft been noted, one of the great pleasures of attending film festivals, getting early looks at films which have yet to (or in some cases, never really do) reach a wide audience, is being caught by surprise by material of which you knew little or nothing beforehand. This is particularly the case when […]