Joking is all well and good, but the surprisingly virulent controversy around Hostel, Part II perhaps deserves some consideration. So check this bit of nastiness out: If we follow the official narrative, you had one of two reactions to that poster: you thought it was depraved, immoral, sickening trash; or you thought it was compelling […]

Ocean’s Thirteen is absolutely not a masterpiece. It’s something far more useful: the first major summer film of 2007 that isn’t a waste of time. Which is ironic, given that it’s essentially just a genial time-waster. As I’ve mentioned several dozen times here and elsewhere, I fully liked 2004’s Ocean’s Twelve. I would come much […]

Historically, there have been three great masters of Japanese cinema: Mizoguchi Kenji, Ozu Yasujiro and Kurosawa Akira. I do hope that the latter two need no introduction – Kurosawa in particular standing alongside Federico Fellini and perhaps Ingmar Bergman as one of the most famous of all non-English language filmmakers. But Mizoguchi – by far […]

Fanboys being fanboys, it can surely come as no surprise that the final shot of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning sent the Jason faithful into apoplectic fits of agony, with its implication that the unstoppable psycho from that point forward might not have the last name “Voorhees.” Which is a stupid thing to worry […]

Although I’d never use such a harsh word as “rip-off,” it’s hard to deny that the shadow of Shaun of the Dead hangs heavily over Severance. More importantly, it’s hard to deny that the new film is not nearly so effective as its predecessor; while Edgar Wright’s 2004 romantic comedy with zombies was one of […]

After a delay of more than a year since its celebrated Sundance debut, Stephanie Daley has finally been granted one of those radar-blip releases that means either: a) the distributor thinks it’s the sort of cheap schlock that will do best on video where the undiscerning can be fooled by good cover art, or: b) […]

A love story that’s not a love story, and a musical that’s not a musical, there’s something about the tiny Irish import Once that makes you want to fall head-over-heels in love with it no matter how slight it seems to be when you get to thinking about it rationally. I think perhaps it’s because […]

I’m going to get the unpleasant bit out of the way first: There’s something colossally worrying about the way that Knocked Up, a film in which a young Los Angeles woman is saddled with an unexpected and (at first) unwanted pregnancy, is absolutely terrified of the word “abortion.” Specifically terrified, mind; there’s a scene in […]

In honor of last week’s closing ceremony of the 60th Cannes Festival (give or take), in which the 52nd Palme d’Or was awarded to the Romanian 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, I have taken it upon myself to consider a previous winner of that most august prize. My first observation about Dancer in […]

It is a good thing for movies to make money, and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter made quite a lot of it. So it should be unsurprising in the extreme that Paramount rather quickly reneged on their pledge that the saga was over, and in March, 1985, a bit less than one year after […]

Eventually we’ll all stop seeing movies in theaters, favoring same-day HD downloads onto our 150″ flat panel TVs, and that thought makes me incredibly sad, for as I and many others have said many times, the communal aspect of filmgoing is really a very special thing. Being in the dark with strangers and absorbing their […]