Make no mistake, The Hangover was truly one of the funniest films of the last decade. While the crude comedies coming out of Judd Apatow’s camp were being diluted with sentiment, Todd Phillips’ 2009 smash hit embraced absurdism head-on as it careered from one outrageously hilarious situation to another, never once slowing down to get gushy. And fair enough, too; no one goes to Sin City [...]

Naomi Kawase, a Cannes Film Festival darling, won the Camera d’Or in 1997 with her debut feature Moe no suzaku and has since been a regular presence in Official Competition, winning the Grand Prix in 2007 for Mogari no Mori. With that in mind, you would presume there’s strong hope for her latest entry, Hanezu (Hanezu no tsuki). But despite her best intentions, Kawase’s latest falls short of creating a [...]

Popcorn? Check. 3-D glasses? Check. A theatre full of whining, hyperactive kids? Check. Low expectations? Check. Alright, Uncle Walt – show me what you got!

Enter Milo. Like most pre-teens, he has a hard life. He’s forced to take out the garbage, eat broccoli, and do all sorts of unpleasant, demeaning things on a daily basis by an evil suburban dictator: his mother. One night, after a particularly troublesome skirmish, he [...]

There I was, licking my lips at the possibility that Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood was going to be deliriously awful, the kind that sparks internet memes and general merriment whilst intoxicated. You know, like Wicker Man.

But no, Red Riding Hood merely turned out to be moderately awful, the kind that sparks nothing more than a laboured sigh as [...]

Sitting through Jonathan Liebesman’s Battle: Los Angeles is akin to watching your friend hog the controller to Halo for two numbing hours — he has all the fun, while you’re left twiddling your thumbs.

Aliens have invaded Los Angeles, and since Will Smith is on vacation, it’s left up to SSgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart; Rabbit Hole) – who, surprise surprise, is just days from retirement — [...]

I’m beginning to suspect that the Catholic Church has Hollywood producers under some sort of contractual obligation, the particulars stating that they must release one exorcist movie a year in which a doubtful priest reasserts his faith and confirms the existence of demons. Otherwise, I’m at a loss to explain why movies such as Mikael Håfström’s The Rite exist. Here is a film so ponderously pious, I half expected to [...]

Remember back in 2009 when Anne Hathaway, hot on the heels of her Oscar nomination for Rachel Getting Married, starred in the dreadful rom-com Bride Wars? Or what about Sandra Bullock, who was crowned Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her role in The Blind Side not a [...]

At the ripe old age of 80, it’s completely understandable why seminal American director Clint Eastwood (Changeling, Invictus) is pondering about the afterlife. I just hope, for his and our sake, that it’s a hell of a lot more interesting than what he’s depicted Hereafter, a sluggish and surprisingly shallow drama about three melancholic souls and their supernatural brushes with the dead.