Home to the oldest rock paintings and archeological marvels in world, the Chauvet Cave in South France could certainly serve as an interesting focal point for a documentary. Yet if the cave’s custodians genuinely wanted to chronicle the scientific and cultural importance of the site, German filmmaker Werner Herzog probably wasn’t the right choice for the job. The 68-year-old auteur behind feature films such as Fitzcarraldo and Bad Lieutenant: Port [...]

Pixar are, in a word, perfectionists. The animation studio’s trophy cabinet — housing no less than twenty-six Oscars and seven Golden Globes — should be evidence enough. Yet even virtuosos are subject to the occasional lapse in judgment; days when they produce something that doesn’t quite live up to their own impossibly high standard. Something like 2006’s Cars, for example.

Now call me an optimist, but I like to believe that [...]

Back in 2003, when Johnny Depp wearing eyeliner still conjured up images of Edward Scissorhands, Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer teamed up with Disney to turn a tired old Disneyland ride in to one of the most profitable movie franchises in history.

It was, of course, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Cure of the Black Pearl: a fun, funny and invigoratingly fresh film that represented everything a blockbuster movie should be. The [...]

Love it or hate it, the Twilight series has been a massive success that turned its handsome star, Robert Pattinson, into an international pin-up idol overnight. Between instalments and capitalizing on the fever generated by the fanged franchise, here is his latest showcase: Water for Elephants, another tale of doomed love in a setting full of mythical creatures – this time the awe-inspiring beasts of a travelling carnival.

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Russell Brand is one of those comedians you either love or hate. And it seems people pay just as much attention to the sordid details of his private life as to his work – in the films he appears in (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) or lends his instantly identifiable whiny voice to (Hop, [...]

With his distinct, unmistakable English accent and his new found ability to be cast in anything, the rise and rise of British funnyman Russell Brand (Get Him to the Greek) has forced even the most cynical film fans to take notice. As the voice of Hop’s protagonist, E.B, Brand combines his high-pitched Briticisms with kid-friendly gags, bringing life to a character that embodies some of the world’s finest animation blended seamlessly [...]

I suppose such ugly subject matter deserves such an ugly film, but it’s disappointing nonetheless in the case of Snowtown, the unrelentingly grisly first-time feature from Australian director Justin Kurzel that struggles to build an emotional rapport with its audience.

True story or not, screenwriter Shaun Grant’s dramatic retelling of the famed “Body in Barrels” murders is in desperate need of a sympathetic character who can uphold a sense of humanity, [...]

We’ve seen plenty of films about high school shootings (most notoriously Gus Van Sant’s Elephant) and young students sacrificed by their own ruthless chain of command, from Lord of the Flies [1963] to Bully [2001]. In Wasted on the Young, the debut feature from Australian writer/director Ben C. Lucas, we get a modern take on this controversial subject — even the most ruthless of bullies is computer-literate these days.