Writers

In Review: The Apartment (1960)

by Mairéad Roche 12 June 2012

The 1960 masterpiece The Apartment, directed by Billy Wilder, has been fully digitally restored and will soon be back on the big screen once more. A clear inspiration for HBO’s Mad Men, The Apartment has even been namechecked by the show with Joan realising that her dalliance with men mirrors that of Shirley MacLaine’s Fran.

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In Review: The Plague of the Zombies

by Helen Cox 11 June 2012

Shot back to back with The Reptile and released alongside Dracula: Prince of Darkness as a double feature, Hammer’s The Plague of the Zombies (1966) delivers a gripping mystery and some genuinely creepy moments. Sir James Forbes (André Morell, who also appeared in The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben Hur and Quatermass and the [...]

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In Review: The Innkeepers

by Nigel Floyd 8 June 2012

Ti West is an indie writer-director-editor whose knowledgeable affection for the horror genre is easy to admire. On the other hand, he is also a journeyman film-maker about whom it is hard to get overly excited. This is partly because his old fashioned approach to supernatural scares relies on slow-burning subtleties rather than visceral excesses [...]

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In Review: Passport to Pimlico

by Ben Sheppard 1 June 2012

Between the Jubilee weekend and the opening of the Olympic Games, Studio Canal have arranged a special season of screenings that will see 5 classic British films back on the big screen. The first is 1949’s Passport to Pimlico . Though this film doesn’t match the high points set by pictures such as the Ladykillers, Kind Hearts and Coronets and the Man in the White [...]

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In Review: Prometheus

by Nigel Floyd 1 June 2012

Stoked by publicity over-kill and panting fanboy scribblings, the slavering anticipation generated by Ridley Scott’s prequel to/re-boot of the Alien series reached stratospheric levels. No film, however extraordinary, could have hoped to match these over-inflated expectations. Now Prometheus is here, and all these blue-sky fantasies have crashed, Icarus-like, to Earth. There’s no denying that the [...]

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In Review: Moonrise Kingdom

by Rob Keeling 31 May 2012

There are certain words it’s hard to avoid when reviewing a Wes Anderson movie, such as quirky, eccentric and whimsical. It’s just hard not to use them when he insists on making films that are so gosh darn quirky, eccentric and whimsical.

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In Review: Casa de mi Padre

by Jonathan Hatfull 30 May 2012

The idea of Will Ferrell starring in a Spanish language comedy that riffs on Mexican soap operas could be seen as an interesting attempt to try something different or an act of incredible self-indulgence, depending on your point of view. But when it comes to self-indulgent vanity projects, almost anything can be forgiven if the [...]

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In Review: The Five-Year Engagement

by Helen Cox 29 May 2012

Forgetting Sarah Marshall director (and Muppet Movie writer) Nicholas Stoller is reunited with actor Jason Segel in this genuinely funny, if a little confused, romantic comedy. Jason Segel’s Tom proposes to girlfriend-of-a-year: Violet (Emily Blunt – who also appeared in The Muppets) but before they’ve even had time to pick out a wedding cake Violet [...]

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In Review: Coriolanus on Blu-ray

by Emma Farley 29 May 2012

Shakespeare’s Coriolanus was adapted by Oscar-nominated scriptwriter John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator, Hugo) for a modern audience with a contemporary setting yet retaining the original language. This worked well with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet given the popularity of its young cast and well-known tale of tragic love. Coriolanus, however, is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known [...]

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In Review: Red Tails

by Joe Walsh 28 May 2012

Directed by first-time feature director Anthony Hemmingway and produced by Star Wars director George Lucas, Red Tails is the untold story of a squadron of African- American fighter pilots during World War II. Starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrance Howard and David Oyelowo, the plot centres on a group of maverick pilots relegated to minor missions. [...]

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London comic-con MCM EXPO: Danny DeVito confirms Twins 2

by Lee Cassanell 28 May 2012

A steamy day at the Excel centre in London’s east end yesterday culminated in a sit down with Danny DeVito [Batman Returns, War of the Roses, Romancing the Stone] who was at the event promoting his latest film The Lorax (2012). Devito spoke eloquently about the ecologically friendly Dr Seuss adaptation, but the big news was undoubtedly the rumoured, [...]

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