While the Academy Award judges were being aroused by a selection of politically minded films in 2006 (Munich, Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana) yet not so much with homosexual-sheepherders (Brokeback Mountain); it seemed a fitting time to unleash Alan Moore’s politically contentious V for Vendetta onto the big screen. Yet we can imagine otherwise, as while the Academy enjoyed Munich et al’s mild-mannered subversion, V for Vendetta walks in and roundhouse kicks its agenda upside the audience’s head. But [...]

Guy Ritchie recently admitted that he’s an ideas man. He enjoys being thrust into a whippy concoction of ‘big-thinking’; mysticism, ideology, theology, philosophy… (he opens Revolver with quotes from Machiavelli, Julius Cesar, a Chess Master, and, um… a Banker) and he also admits that he rarely finishes any book he reads. Too caught up in his own imagination to allow himself to follow through with the story. Coincidently, that’s exactly what happens with Revolver. If we look back to 1998, [...]

In the absence of a (decent) feel-good action caper in 2005 – Spielberg turning his efforts to darker pastures, and Batman – although superb – was hardly ‘cheery’ was he? – it seems the mantle of high-octane adventure, comic partnerships, and glib one-liners fell to the shoulders of one man and his dog; i.e. the irrepressible Wallace & Gromit. Not that Wallace & Gromit were new to adventures, see… their previous outings saw them foil an evil criminal (penguin) mastermind; [...]

There’s been a fuck up. It’s 1979; the Vietnam war is over and the Cold War is heating up, and Corporal Rudy Spruance (Jason Biggs) is dropped off in mysterious Military Base in Qangattarsa, Greenland rather than the sun-kissed beaches of Hawaii. There, he is referred to only as ‘Martin Pederson’. Rudy’s attempts to correct this error are quickly shot down as Corporal Lane Woolrap (Jeremy Northam) has plans for ‘Pederson’; to manufacture a propagandist newspaper ‘The Harpoon’, but Rudy [...]

To some people (me particularly) Tim Burton’s other 2005 film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory seemed to say: “Hey! Look everyone! We’ve remade Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory! removing all the things that made the original a classic; the drug-addled psychedelia, Gene Wilder’s spectacularly unhinged performance and the darker, malevolent tone; replacing them with an vacuous Studio lustre, uneventfully ticking off each scene as we went; providing no imagination or investment of our own!”. Thankfully Corpse Bride takes a [...]