Film Review: Cuckoo

Making his cinematic debut with 2006’s The Gigolos, a story about relationships in modern Britain told in a uniquely humourous way, director Richard Bracewell returns with a variation on the theme in new film Cuckoo.

Interlude: Pontypool needs you!

A worrying message was issued by Edinburgh’s Cameo cinema today via their Twitter feed, stating that: “It seems the poor reviews have killed Pontypool. A real shame as it’s one of the more original films out there. Creepy and humorous.”

Film Review: Zombieland

Dubbed by some a “spiritual sequel” to 2006’s comedy horror film Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland arrives on UK shores with positive buzz and high expectations from those who still view Shaun as the high watermark of the rom-com-zom genre.

Film Review: Triangle

Now comes the latest attempt to hurt the brains of audiences everywhere, writer and director Christopher Smith concocting in Triangle a story which starts out simple enough but soon evolves into a jigsaw of actions and repercussions which should really come with a man with a flipchart in every screening to jot down who’s doing what to whom and when.

Film Review: Pontypool

*****
As Halloween approaches it’s once more time for the film studios to roll out their Horror offerings, blood, gore and ludicrous goings on in the spirit world par for the course.
Thankfully this year sees a new contender on the block in the shape of Pontypool, a small Canadian film in which Zombies may be central [...]

Audioboo: That Syncing Feeling

I’ve recorded a second Audioboo about the new DVD release of Bill Forsyth’s That Sinking Feeling – please have a listen to the different clips and let me know what you think in the comments section.

Film Review: Filmstalker/itsonitsgone/Cinemablend audiocast – Part 1

Following this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival I was invited to record an audiocast with Richard Brunton from Filmstalker and Stuart Wood from Cinemablend, two esteemed film review websites.
We spoke for well over 90 minutes and discussed many films on offer at the EIFF. Now Richard has edited the mammoth recording into 17(!) mini-reviews, the [...]

Film Review: Mesrine – Public Enemy Number One

Picking up some five years after the close of Killer Instinct, this film’s significant other released just a few weeks ago in the UK, we’re now into the final furlong of Mesrine’s (Vincent Cassel) life, a period which will see him rise through the ranks of the French underworld to become, perhaps unsurprisingly, Public Enemy Number One.

Edinburgh Fringe Review: John Shuttleworth – Southern Softies

Attempting to discover once and for all whether Southerners really are softer than their northern counterparts, John Shuttleworth (aka Graham Fellows) returned to the Fringe for one night only to present the world premiere of his aptly titled new film, Southern Softies.

Terry Gilliam and Movie-Con II

It’s been a bit quiet on here the last few days, mainly because I escaped the madness of Edinburgh over the weekend and took off to London for a double whammy of film-related fun: to hear Terry Gilliam in conversation and attend Empire magazine’s Movie-Con II.
Though I’m not planning to go into detail here about [...]

Reel Time blog

Some readers of this blog may be aware that I write a weekly film column, Reel Time, for the Edinburgh Evening News in which I ramble for 500 words about something cinema-related before the editor cuts me off in my prime.

Film Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The sixth film in the hugely popular Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is out tomorrow in the UK.

Film Review: Mesrine: Killer Instinct

Thankfully style, substance, brains and a healthy dose of brawn flow through the veins of new thriller Mesrine: Killer Instinct, the first of a two-part biopic of French crime legend and one-time folk hero Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel).

Film Review: Adam

The closing film of this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival was rom-com with a difference, Adam, starring Hugh Dancy as Adam and Rose Byrne as love interest Beth.

Film Review: Away We Go

Director Sam Mendes once again turns his spotlight on relationships in new film Away We Go, this time bringing things up-to-date in modern day America rather than the 1950s suburbs of 2008’s Revolutionary Road.

Film Review: Wide Open Spaces

Expectations can be a terrible thing. When I heard that Wide Open Spaces, a new film written by one of the co-creators of TV’s Father Ted and starring Father Dougal himself, was coming to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, it’s fair to say I was looking forward to it. Throw in some clever mockumentary-style teaser clips and I was sold.

Film Review: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

What is it that holds relationships, and in particular marriages, together? Love? Devotion? Routine? For Pippa Lee, the heroine at the centre ofRebecca Miller’s life-affirming new film The Private Lives of Pippa Lee the answer would seem to be “all of the above, with a side helping of luck.”

Film Review: Anything for Her (Pour Elle)

Opening with the sight of Julien (Vincent Lindon) speeding through the streets of an unspecified city, bloodied and bruised from some recent indiscretion, French thriller Anything for Her (Pour Elle) starts to play with the viewers’ expectations early.

Blu-ray Review: Silence of the Lambs

Forget the increasingly pointless sequels (what were you thinking Ridley?): nearly 20 years on from its first appearance on our cinema screens, 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs’ combination of horror, drama and humour is still as potent a mix as it ever was.

Film Review: Blood River

Out of the shadows it came once more, 12 months since its last appearance, facing the assembled denizens in Screen One of Edinburgh’sFilmhouse who had travelled from far and wide to witness its depravity: Dead by Dawn 2009, Scotland’s premier horror film festival, launched once more on Thursday night, unleashing opening film, Blood River (2009), on the world.