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Certificate: 
Directors: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan (co-director: India)
Release Date: 9 January 2009
Tagline: Love and money… You have mixed them both.
Main Cast:
Dev Patel … Jamal K. Malik
Saurabh Shukla … Sergeant Srinivas
Anil Kapoor … Prem
Freida Pinto … Latika
I’d like to start by mentioning the cast. The above list is really not fair – the children who play the main characters through much of the film are superb and really make the film.
Slumdog Millionaire has been referred to as ‘The feel-good film of the year’. In many ways this is just not true. Yes, the ending is uplifting and leaves you very happy, but the scenes of abject poverty and cruelty are anything but. Yes, Jamal lifts himself out of his awful childhood but most don’t, and it’s very hard to watch knowing that countless children (and adults) live in such conditions. I spent much of the film feeling extreme sadness.
An absolutely unmissable film.
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Director: Sam Raimi
Release Date: 27 May 2009
Tagline: Christine Brown has a good job, a great boyfriend, and a bright future. But in three days, she’s going to Hell.
Main Cast:
Alison Lohman … Christine Brown
Justin Long … Clay Dalton
Lorna Raver … Mrs Ganush
It’s so good to see a Sam Raimi horror back on the big screen! He’s been gone too long (in this genre).
Drag Me To Hell is everything you’d expect from him – over the top “ewww” factor and funny scares. It’s great to see flying eyeballs back where they belong (so to speak).
Despite much of the horror being comedic, there are some genuine scares (not for a seasoned horror pro like me, but going by the squeals of the audience I can tell there was!) I spent much of the film grinning as I really like Raimi’s brand of gross-out horror.
We have, at last, another great Sam Raimi classic!
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Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Release Date: 23 August 2002
Main Cast:
Javier Cámara … Benigno Martin
Darío Grandinetti … Marco Zuluaga
Leonor Watling … Alicia
Rosario Flores … Lydia González
Not at all what I expected from an Almodóvar film, Talk to Her is a quiet tale of devotion and male bonding. It tells the story of two men who are each in love with a woman in a coma and how they both handle it.
I enjoyed it, but it didn’t set my world alight. Part of the problem, I think, is that I just couldn’t like the main characters very much and therefore it didn’t move me as it perhaps ought to have done.
Having said that though, I did enjoy it and if you are looking for a gentle film that is far from the Hollywood norm then you could do worse than to watch this.
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Director: Thomas Alfredson
Release Date: 10 April 2009
Tagline: Eli is 12 years old. She’s been 12 for over 200 years and she just moved in next door.
Main Cast:
Kåre Hedebrant … Oskar
Lina Leandersson … Eli
Per Ragnar … Håkan
Patrik Rydmark … Conny
Let the Right One In, is, in a word, stunning. It’s going to be hard for me to tell you quite why it is, so bear with me. It is a story about love, loneliness and finding your place in the world. It’s a very tender and innocent film despite the fact that it is a film about a vampire. Indeed, to describe it as such is doing it a great disservice. It is so much more than your average vampire film. In fact, it’s not really about that at all. It’s about Oskar and Eli. Two children who are outcasts and share so much in common despite their obvious difference. You could even describe it as a love story.
It’s not like watching a film. Both Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson are so utterly perfect that it feels like you are watching real events. I can’t remember the last time I saw two young actors that are so talented and natural. And their on-screen chemistry is a joy.
It’s beautiful, touching and sad, and it deserved to be shown in more cinemas than it was. I live in a city, but neither of our cinemas (Vue and Odeon) showed it. Doubtless, there is not much money in showing ‘foreign’ films when most cinema goers lap up the Hollywood crap that is churned out at a frightening rate. I shake my head at those who say that they don’t watch a film to read. I bet the same people don’t read books as ‘if it’s any good they’ll turn it into a film’.
Rubbish like Marley and Me plays for weeks, but LTROI wasn’t even given so much as a single screening. I was fortunate enough to be in London during its release and was able to (after some searching) watch it there.
Wonderful.
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Director: Peter Jackson
Release Date: 15 December 2005
Tagline: The eighth wonder of the world.
Main Cast:
Naomi Watts … Ann Darrow
Jack Black … Carl Denham
Adrien Brody … Jack Driscoll
A pointless remake of a faultless classic and utterly tedious as well. Jackson claims to love the original so much that he had to make this film. To think that you could improve on the original is pretty arrogant, I think. Hell, I love Star Wars, but I’d never remake it.
It’s at least an hour too long, and the scenes of peril on the island are so totally contrived that they quickly become boring. And considering that there are a lot of them, it takes some getting through.
King Kong is nothing more than a huge ego trip for Jackson and he should have left well enough alone.
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Director: John Patrick Shanley
Release Date: 6 February 2009
Main Cast:
Meryl Streep … Sister Aloysius Beauvier
Father Brendan Flynn … Philip Seymour Hoffman
Amy Adams … Sister James
Doubt is an undoubted masterpiece! A truly brilliant performance by Meryl Streep (no surprise there though, as she is one of, if not the best actresses of all time). A (main) cast of three with one setting makes for a very powerful film, and at no point did I find myself anything other than totally engrossed. If only there were more films like this.
Sadly though, Joe Public just doesn’t want to pay good money to see excellence. I went to my local Vue the first Sunday after release and they had relegated it to the back of the cinema in a screen that holds less than 100 people. I had a private screening too – nobody else bothered to go and see it. Shame.
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Director: Joby Harold
Release Date: 4 April 2008
Tagline: Every year, one in 700 people wake up during surgery. When they planned her husband’s murder, they never thought he’d be the one.
Main Cast:
Hayden Christensen … Clay Beresford
Jessica Alba … Sam Lockwood
Terrence Howard … Dr. Jack Harper
Lena Olin … Lilith Beresford
I really enjoyed this. I can’t tell you anything about it though as I don’t want to reveal anything. Another pretty good solid performance from Hayden Christensen, and Jessica Alba is in reasonable form too. I find Christensen brings a certain charm and warmth to his roles, and whilst he’s probably never going to win any Oscars, he’s one of my favourite actors.
Worth watching, definitely.
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Director: Ki-duk Kim
Release Date: 14 May 2004
Main Cast:
Yeong-su Oh … Old Monk (as Young-soo Oh)
Ki-duk Kim … Adult Monk
Jae-kyeong Seo … Boy Monk
Yeo-jin Ha … The Girl
SSAW&S is a pure joy to watch. It’s perfect in its simplicity and is simply perfect! It’s a film of understated beauty both in the visuals and the story, and it’s very hard to put into words just how good it is. It tells the story of a monk from childhood to adulthood and is all about the cycles of life and the journeys we take through it.
It’s visually stunning and so calm and peaceful that it creates a kind of serenity in the viewer (rather like the surface of the lake). There is hardly any dialogue and this just adds to the film’s brilliance.
I can’t even come close to doing justice to the film in this review. It really is an experience and should not be missed.
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Director: Paul Haggis
Release Date: 12 August 2005
Tagline: You think you know who you are. You have no idea.
Main Cast:
Sandra Bullock … Jean Cabot
Don Cheadle … Detective Graham Waters
Matt Dillon … Officer John Ryan
The first thing that struck me about Crash (no pun intended!) was how strikingly similar it is to Magnolia. If you loved that then you’ll love this. Even if you didn’t care much for Magnolia then don’t be put off by it.
Crash follows a series of individuals who are seemingly unconnected. However, as the film goes on, their lives begin to become intertwined. The film is basically about how racism, no matter how overt or subtle it may be, affects not only society as a whole, but us as individuals too. It often makes for uncomfortable viewing, not only for the more reprehensible acts of racism, but also because it makes us think about and question our own prejudices whether they be racially motivated or otherwise.
Crash has a fantastic ensemble cast (just three are listed above) and each and every one is brilliant in their role. A worthy Oscar winning film, and should be regarded as a must see.
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Certificate: Originally rated 
Director: Richard Donner
Release Date: 25 June 1976
Tagline: It is the greatest mystery of all because no human being will ever solve it.
Main Cast:
Robert Thorn … Gregory Peck
Lee Remick … Katherine Thorn
Billie Whitelaw … Mrs Baylock
Harvey Stephens … Damien
A true cinematic classic. It’s one of those rare instances when the film is just as good as the book. Even after all these years and several viewings it still has the power to create a real feeling of unease. The scenes at Windsor Safari Park are especially powerful, as the young Damien is taking delight in seeing the animals, but they are somewhat less than delighted to see him, much to his very real disappointment.
It’s this depiction of innocence together with demonic undertones that makes it a very powerful film. This is going to be one of the more ridiculous sounding sentences that I’ve ever written, but here goes! Damien is not aware that he is the Antichrist, and come the ending where his ‘father’ has to murder him, you can’t help but feel for him.
The Omen is a masterpiece, and should be seen by all!
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