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 Written by James
There are some novels that cannot, or should not, be filmed – Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World springs to mind, and Tim Burton’s archetypally dark, visually stirring but emotionally hollow adaptation of Lewis Caroll’s journey down the rabbit hole seems to prove that Alice in Wonderland belongs in the same category. Not, it must be quickly added, that Burton has made a complete hash of things – far from it. Continue reading Alice in Wonderland (2010) » Written by Colin
I’ve been off sick for a few days, so have had the pleasure of coughing a bit and having a small bell to ring so The Divine P can bring me food and cool towels. Well, the coughing part is certainly true. I have, however, had the opportunity to whittle down the huge pile of unseen DVDs to a more manageable size, and in the process, have finally got around to seeing Zombie Strippers! (2008). Zombies and strippers? Surely this is a film to beat all films? Well, it is a film, and no mistake. Continue reading Zombie Strippers! (2008) » Written by James
Paul Greengrass has proved himself to be a world leader when it comes to the blending of fact and fiction – he is perhaps cinema’s most adept exponent of the ‘docu-drama’ approach, as he went on to prove with United 93 (2006), which was a far superior account of another day on which the world changed, namely 11 September 2001, than Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center (2006). Only with The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) did Greengrass’s first-person, eye-witness stance fail to work – the slickness of the narrative did not sit well with a gritty, faux-realist take. Continue reading Bloody Sunday (2002) » Written by Emma
This is my all-time favourite feel-good, feel-sad, feel-just-pretty-darn-emotional movie. The cast of characters is so alive, you’ll be whisked away in seconds to Britain at war and find yourself hanging on every twist and turn in the tales of three American soldiers who fall in love with local girls as they train for their grim deployment to war-torn Europe. Richard Gere (An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)) plays Matt Dyson, a GI from Arizona who finds himself dumped in a Lancashire village. He falls for local shop girl Jean Moreton (Lisa Eichhorn) who is inconveniently engaged to her childhood sweetheart Ken, a British soldier away at war. But this looks to be a marriage of comfort and clearly not one of passion. Continue reading Yanks (1979) » Written by Colin
We love zombies here at Picturenose headquarters. From the sublime and groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead (1968), through the witty and respectful Shaun of the Dead (2004) to the contentious Zack Snyder remake of Dawn of the Dead (2004). Why contentious? Because I thought it was crap, that’s why. Running zombies? I don’t think so. Continue reading Zombieland (2009) » Written by Emma
Richard Gere was back in uniform just three years after Yanks (1979) as trainee naval aviator Zack Mayo in this blockbuster about the gritty life of officer training college. Mayonnaise, as his drill sergeant calls him, is determined to pass flight school and head off for a glittering career without a woman in tow after watching his booze-soaked navy skivvy father get his leg over a legion of prostitutes. Continue reading An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) » Written by Gerald
And I’m not talking only about his political ideology, writes Gerald Loftus. Continue reading Vincere (2009) » Written by Emma
Emma Portier Davis returns with her thoughts on one of the chickiest flicks known to humanity. Continue reading Dirty Dancing (1987) » Written by Colin
Following three years of me deriding James and poking him with a big stick on account of his truly average attempts at picking the Oscar winners, he finally snapped and said “if you can do better, please be my guest”. That was the gist of it anyway, but I do remember the sentence being somewhat shorter. James has already put his neck on the line in Picturenose’s regular film feature here on Expatica. So, without further ado, and ahead of the 2010 Academy Awards on 7 March, I give you my predictions in the categories James has chosen. This should separate the bluff, pompous sheep from the canny and highly sexy goats. Continue reading The Oscars 2010 » Written by James
Since his Oscar-winning The Departed (2006), Martin Scorsese, the man who can perhaps lay claim to being America’s greatest living director, has been going a little ‘experimental’, with a documentary on The Rolling Stones, Shine A Light (2008) and a Spanish short, The Key To Reserva (2007) his only cinematic output. Now, for his return to feature-length fiction, he submits his first out-and-out ‘horror-thriller’ since Cape Fear (1991), but the result is unfortunately far inferior to the De Niro-starring rollercoaster. Continue reading Shutter Island (2010) » |
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