The Brothers Bloom

It was with high expectations that I slipped Bloom into my DVD player. After all, Rian Johnson had made the excellent Dashiell-Hammet-in-high-school Brick, one of the coolest indie films of the past few years. Would Bloom have the sharp dialogue, excellent... 

Ocean’s Twelve

With big budget, star-studded casts like the one in Ocean’s Twelve (2004), there is always the danger of having them look too smug and self-indulgent instead of having fun along with the audience. Ocean’s Eleven (2001) managed to straddle this line... 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

At first, it seems like rather an odd choice picking the director of the racy, coming-of-age road movie, Y tu mamá también (2001), to direct the latest Harry Potter movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Studios are notoriously protective of their cash... 

Van Helsing: 2 Disc Special Edition

After his financial success with The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, director Stephen Sommers was given free reign by the studios to make anything he wanted. He went off to write a small scale film but came back with the script for Van Helsing which, with... 

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

The best sequels have a way of improving on the original, and Chamber of Secrets succeeds in nearly every respect. It’s darker, funnier, more action-packed and the three leads are actually starting to act (witness Harry’s face/off at the end).... 

From Hell

We question the wisdom of giving Daz a film about Jack the Ripper, someone he has followed and idolised for years. We decided what the hell, let’s treat it as an experiment and see what he does. For some reason I’ve always had an interest... 

Van Helsing

The veritable assault and battery that Universal Pictures marketing department have bestowed in recent weeks is now all abundantly clear. Realising the celluloid travesty they have on their hands the powers that be have invested as much money as possible...