The Men Who Stare at Goats
March 22, 2010
George Clooney is one of those versatile actors that can easily go back and forth between big budget studio films like Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and smaller, more personal independent films like Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). One gets the feeling that...
Flags of Our Fathers
February 21, 2007
In 2006, Clint Eastwood took on his most ambitious project yet: depicting the famous battle of Iwo Jima from both the American and Japanese perspectives. He had so much material and wanted to give equal time to both sides that he decided to make two films....
Walk the Line
March 13, 2006
Capitalizing on the popularity of Ray (2004), Walk the Line (2005) also chronicles the turbulent career and life of an iconic musician, applying the same plot structure – their lives have parallel arcs and hit the same dramatic beats. Like Ray Charles,...
Ladder 49
October 22, 2005
The fact that Ladder 49 (2004) celebrates firefighters is admirable in and of itself but it unfortunately portrays them in such a simplistic way that Ron Howard’s Backdraft (1991) seems like the epitome of moral complexity by comparison. You know you’re...
The X-Files Season 9
December 11, 2003
As the last ever series of the unexplained paranormal phenomena draws to a close, will we finally discover the truth? After the decidedly wonky season eight, which saw Duchovny jump ship and replacements Annabeth Gish and Robert Patrick brought in as...
Cop Land: Director’s Cut
December 11, 2003
Cop Land (1997) is a homage to police corruption films like Sidney Lumet’s Serpico (1973) and Prince of the City (1981). In many respects, Cop Land is also a modern western, complete with a High Noon (1952) style showdown. A big deal was made about...
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
August 5, 2003
Since the birth of DVD the format has spread faster than CD audio, due to some hard-core film fanatics, some large scale marketing campaigns and the odd fantastic DVD release. Lethal Weapon 4 showed us what DVD was capable of in the shape of extra features,...
The X-Files Season 8
November 25, 2002
Mulder is AWOL and Scully is partnered with Robert Patrick’s sceptic ex-cop in the penultimate season of The X-Files. Joss Whedon once said that one of the reasons Buffy The Vampire Slayer remained fresh over the years was that the characters were...
