In Review: Jack the Giant Slayer

by Adam Vaughan 2 April 2013

“Fee-fi-fo-fum, I’ve just seen a film that’s big and dumb”. Jack the Giant Slayer is the latest in a recent spate of fairytale adventures that re-imagine the well-known classics – usually making them more violent with added lashings of irony. Bryan Singer’s film certainly boasts (albeit 12A-rated) scenes of violence and lots of pyrotechnics, but [...]

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In Review: End of Watch on Blu-ray

by Neil Sheppard 1 April 2013

David Ayer is an odd one. From writing the deliriously over-the-top carsploitation movie The Fast and The Furious (2001) and starting an infamous franchise of dubious quality, he went on, in the same year, to write dark and gritty cop thriller Training Day (2001), which earned critical plaudits and an Oscar for Denzel Washington. Now [...]

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In Review: Last Shop Standing on DVD

by Helen Cox 1 April 2013

With the collapse of HMV 2012′s documentary Last Shop Standing is even more pertinent than it was 8 months ago on release. Based on the book of the same name by Graham Jones, one of the founders of Proper Music Distribution, this modest 50 minute film explores the rise, fall and potential rebirth of the [...]

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In Review: Turn Me On, Goddammit! on DVD

by Matt Turner 29 March 2013

In this provocatively titled coming of age story, a 15 year old girl in a small Norwegian village finds herself ostracised after announcing (truthfully) at a party that a boy she likes “poked her with his dick.” This openness sets a precedent. Arriving quietly from first time feature filmmaker, Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, Turn Me On, [...]

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Issue 10: The Big Question – Win Film Goodies!

by Helen Cox 29 March 2013

Issue 10 of New Empress Magazine will be our time issue and consequently we’ll be looking at various ways in which time is used in film. Each issue we ask contributors and readers a Big Question about the movies. Leave your answer to our Big Question in the comments box below and the cream of [...]

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The Immortals: Rudolph Valentino in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

by Martyn Conterio 28 March 2013

Was Italian-born screen sensation, Rudolph Valentino, the original metrosexual? According to a vehement tabloid attack by Chicago Tribune, in July 1926, Rudy’s appreciation of cosmetics and fashion were tantamount to the fall of masculinity. The report notes masculinity all but ended when dudes quit the straight razor for the new-fangled type with a safety guard. [...]

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Book Review: The Unkindest Cut by Joe Queenan

by Helen Cox 28 March 2013

Unless, like me, you have closely followed the work of Guardian critic Joe Queenan it’s quite possible that you’ve never heard of The Unkindest Cut . Originally published in 1996, the book tells of Queenan’s attempt to follow in the footsteps of Robert Rodriguez who reportedly made his feature debut, El Mariarchi (1992) for $7000. [...]

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In Review: The Inside on DVD

by Vicki Cole 27 March 2013

When five female friends break into an abandoned warehouse to celebrate a birthday, the celebration quickly turns sour when three violent hobos disturb the party, terrifying and violating the women. Unbeknownst to all, there is something even nastier lurking in the warehouse.

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In Review: Frances Ha

by Helen Cox 27 March 2013

Shot in monochrome and set in New York, one might be forgiven for mistaking Frances Ha for a sequel to Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979). While there are definite nods to Allen’s idealised vision of New York this picture is less-concerned with romantic entanglements, something of an obsession for Woody, and instead explores friendship and personal growth.

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In Review: Side Effects

by Adam Vaughan 26 March 2013

Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects begins as a psycho-thriller that craftily mutates as you watch it, turning out to be something quite different.

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Films That Time Forgot: It Could Happen To You (1994)

by Helen Cox 26 March 2013

Just as the National Lottery launched in the UK, and every man, woman, child and dog began heated discussions about how they’d spend their winnings, a sweetly-scripted romance starring Nicholas Cage, Bridget Fonda and Rosie Perez hit the big screen. It Could Happen To You is actually based on a real-life incident that occurred in [...]

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