Terminator Salvation (2009; dir. McG)
This is the fourth in a series of high-budget, low-expectation films begun by The Terminator (1984; dir. James Cameron). Helmer McG and his creative team …
16 Feb
The Sender (1982; dir. Roger Christian)
The Sender (1982; dir. Roger Christian)
Somewhere inside this antiseptic and neutered thriller, there’s a full-blooded horror film lurking in the shadows, but helmer Christian, responsible for production design on films …
08 Feb
The Lovely Bones (2009; dir. Peter Jackson)
The Lovely Bones (2009; dir. Peter Jackson)
This film is a piece of shit – an over-produced, empty-headed waste of effort for all those involved, which further underlines the intellectual redundancy of …
02 Feb
The Day of the Dolphin (1973; dir. Mike Nichols)
The Day of the Dolphin (1973; dir. Mike Nichols)
This film begins well but degenerates into a conventional, sentimental Hollywood narrative. Nichols and screenwriter Buck Henry gently ease the audience into the world of …
28 Jan
Altered States (1980; dir. Ken Russell)
Altered States (1980; dir. Ken Russell)
This is Russell’s only interesting film, and sees him applying himself to the excesses and longueurs of award-winning author and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky’s direly introspective …
22 Jan
Mysterious Two (1982; dir. Gary Sherman)
Mysterious Two (1982; dir. Gary Sherman)
As a piece of cinema, this is fucking awful. The plot not only exploits then topical fears concerning cults and alternative beliefs – including the …
09 Jan
The Lightship (1986; dir. Jerzy Skolimowski)
The Lightship (1986; dir. Jerzy Skolimowski)
Skolimowski had previously experimented with the properties of sound in the cinema with the moody drama The Shout (1978), so it’s disturbing to see it …
03 Jan
The Black Windmill (1974; dir. Don Siegel)
The Black Windmill (1974; dir. Don Siegel)
Siegel’s distant, relaxed compositions and evenly paced editing style here craft a well-intentioned if predictable thriller. This sense of hyper-realism, where actors are allowed to …
20 Nov
Motel Hell (1980; dir. Kevin O’Connor)
Motel Hell (1980; dir. Kevin O’Connor)
With its surreal and disturbing images of devocalised humans buried up to their necks like rows of hissing, spitting cabbages or carrots, ready to be …
01 Nov
Dark Angel (1990; dir. Craig R. Baxley)
Dark Angel (1990; dir. Craig R. Baxley)
Another variation on the alien-policeman-hunting-quarry-on-Earth hook that also informed The Hidden (1987; dir. Jack Sholder) and TV mini-series Something is Out There (1988; dir. Richard …
Tag: hollywood