Although the sword-and-sorcery subgenre has experienced something of a revival of late, there is a glaring lack of evidence — aside from HBO’s Game of Thrones — to suggest that this has been a good thing. Days would surely be sunnier had Clash of the Titans, Season of the Witch and Your Highness never existed, but exist they do, [...]

You would be forgiven for expecting a lot of sharp comedy from Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare at Goats. The plot contains an interesting mix of elements that should act as seeds for engaging, thematic humour. Unfortunately, the film restricts itself to a few moments of hilarity, leaving the rest of the story to become ‘quirky’ and rather average. It is by no means bad, of course, but rather a case of what ‘could have been’ that becomes the disappointment in the end.

Defying the sceptic inside all of us, James Cameron’s long-awaited sci-fi epic Avatar does the impossible by actually living up to the lofty expectations set by the director’s own inflated ego and the record-breaking success of his previous endeavour Titanic. Coating classic romanticism with breathtaking 3D visuals, Avatar transports us to another world for 162 minutes of sensory bliss, a place difficult to leave once the credits roll. Every cent of the film’s $300+ million budget can be accounted for, and I’m betting every cent will be recouped in box-office takings before the new year.