L'instinct de mort aka (2008) "Mesrine: Killer Instinct"

Vincent Cassel inhabits Mesrine with sufficient arrogant swagger and aplomb. Pumping film score, explosions, hot French girls, sex, guns 'n robbing banks. People who overlook foreign language movies because they ''don't do subtitles" are really missing out.

4 stars

Dai si gin (2004) aka "Breaking News"

Quite forward looking in respect to citizen journalism and social media, but that aside nothing really makes this HK action stand out above the norm.

Antichrist (2009)

This generated the Director's desired affect upon me; queasy & uneasy throughout. There is nothing (and I mean nothing) uplifting here; this psychological headfuck unsettles far more than the visual extremes, which are used surprisingly sparingly. That said, this is technically well made, and Charlotte Gainsbourg digs deep for a career defining role. Not for the faint of heart (or body, or soul). Troubling, unsettling, challenging.

3 stars

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Sony prove they can match Pixar with this surprisingly silly and enjoyable animated tale, which is never short of laughs. Unexpected hit.


3.5 stars

Up (2009)

Pixar's latest animation is heavy on emotion, but falls slightly short of the hype. Enjoyable romp, but not as good as some of its predecessors.


3.5 stars

Inglorious Basterds (2009)

Tarantino is back with this wartime offering, complete with lots of decent long scenes with achingly good dialogue. An international ensemble cast combines superbly; with special mention to Christoph Waltz who is Oscar Nominated. Bloody good fun.


4 stars

Che: Part One & Two (2008)

Informative, yet not a particularly gripping screenplay. Del Toro delivers in a way you'd likely expect; and though this is still worth seeing, I'd imagine the personal diaries on which this is based do more justice than the 4 hrs of film. Good, but not revolutionary.


3.5 stars

Away We Go (2009)

Hard to review this one. On one hand, Sam Mendes breaks from his usual genre and tries his hand at an Indie movie. Some nicely constructed scenes are peppered with forced, cliched, 'kooky' characters, however. This is big budget trying very hard to appear charming and low-budget. This is not a bad film; I've just been a bit spoilt having seen better 'real' Indie movies. Mixed feelings.


3 stars

In the Loop (2009)

Very smart and very @!%&£*# funny.

Janck 4 stars (Sept 09)





No better or worse than a feature-length The Thick of It.

Mitch 4 stars

District 9 (2009)

Good to see an action/sci-fi flick that isn't just about big robots and even bigger explosions.. has a bit of thought behind it even if the message seems a bit muddled.

Janck 4 stars (June 2009)




Decent sci-fi; the quasi-doco style gets under your skin.


Mitch 4 stars