I almost made this list a top ten. Jesus Camp, Capturing the Friedmans, Lost in La Mancha, Sicko, Of Time in the City, Overnight and In the Shadow of the Moon are all amazing documentaries worthy of praise. But these are the ones that I liked best.Top Five Documentaries5. Metallica: Some Kind of MonsterWho would have thought that the members of Metallica would...
Torture movies, zombies and vampires came to dominate the horror genre this decade, taking over from the teen slasher films that were in vogue at the end of the 90s. While the zombie trend was pleasing, producing a handful of decent films, the torture movies produced the Saw franchise and a couple of Hostel flicks. These films tried so hard but achieved so...
For better or for worse (mainly for worse), comic book movies came to dominate blockbuster season this decade. Well-known characters and a built-in audience made for ready cash. All the filmmakers had to do was not fuck things up completely and they’d be almost guaranteed a decent yield. However, the transition from page to screen was rarely easy and so for every Dark...
So the decade will be over in a couple of weeks. Well, unless you think that it ends next year because technically the millennium began in 2001. Blah blah blah. Go fuck yourself. As far as I’m concerned, it ends this year. Capiche?With this in mind, I’ve decided to compile a list of the best films of the decade. Originally I was just...
The title font for Orphan provides a not-so subtle hint for what’s about to come. A clean, ordered typeface suddenly changes to some jagged handwriting. Oh, so not everything is as it seems? This orphan is more John Doe than Annie? There must be lots of concerns when you’re a parent. Will my child be healthy? Will my child be smart? Will my...
Detractors of Brüno would say that it’s crude and tasteless and defenders would say that it exposes society’s homophobia. Personally, I don’t think it does a great job of the latter but it excels at the former. That’s not to say that there isn’t homophobia present in Brüno, but it’s mainly from the expected sources (drunk fight fans and rednecks) and Sacha Baron...
‘Ain’t it cool?’ No, not really. Broken Arrow is a dull, embarrassing action film only rendered somewhat watchable by John Travolta hamming his brains out. His performance here is unrestrained and crazy, and all the more entertaining for it. It’s a taste of what was to come in Face/Off. ‘Hush. Hush!’ Easily the best moment in the film is when Deakins (Travolta) kills...
Baz Luhrmann is not a director I hold in high regard. All of his previous films have either annoyed the hell out of me or given me a blistering headache. He’s a director turned up to eleven, a director who believes more is more, a director who is the enemy of good taste. So colour me surprised when I found myself enjoying his...
The Golden Compass is a curious film. Based on a not very good novel, it’s neither faithful to the text nor does it try to drastically reinvent it. Instead the filmmakers just fiddle with the chronology of events here and there, omit key scenes and change a couple of the characters a little bit. I can’t imagine the result is satisfying for anyone....
I can remember watching a Channel 4 documentary a few years back about new age soldiers who would stare at goats and hang weights from their genitals. The staring was supposed to kill the subject they were staring at but I’m not sure what the weights did. Regardless, the documentary was very amusing and had a complete ‘what the fuck?’ aspect to it....
The opening scene of 28 Days Later shows a bunch of animal rights activists breaking into a laboratory. At first the lab seems pretty ordinary. There are caged animals, there’s a weasely scientist and undoubtedly there are some lousy coffee-making facilities. But then we find out that a bunch of chimps are infected with ‘rage’. As is customary for a bunch of sallow,...
Based upon a not-so-great novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife manages to improve upon the source material, but only slightly. This isn’t a Jaws or a Godfather – mediocre novels that were stripped bare and resurrected as cinematic masterpieces by visionary filmmakers. Instead we have an extremely minor improvement – we’re talking fractions.Audrey Niffenegger’s novel was a case of someone’s ambition exceeding their talent....
The opening to Goodfellas – the murder of Billy Batts – shows the beginning of the end of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). Up until that point, despite the thieving and the violence, everything is rather light-hearted. There's a sense of solidarity amongst the criminals. But once Batts is murdered, infighting, greed and addiction take over. The life will get you in the end....
Body of Evidence is about a trollop who likes to fuck rich old men. She shags one in particular who has a weak ticker and who later pops his clogs. As a consequence, she’s put on trial for murder. Is she a killer? Did she screw the man to death? On one side we have Willem Dafoe who thinks it’s no crime to...
