Taking Lives: Unrated Director’s Cut
January 30, 2005
Taking Lives (2004) was released the same year as the Ashley Judd film, Twisted and shares the same dubious honor of being a generic thriller starring an extremely talented actress who should know better. So, what went wrong? The performances by the talented...
The Big Lebowski
December 31, 2004
After the darkly surreal, snow swept landscapes of the Minnesota, depicted in Fargo (1996), the Coen brothers wisely opted for a different locale and tone with bright, comedic vibe of The Big Lebowski (1998). The film was just too odd for mainstream audiences...
The Bourne Identity (Special Edition)
June 6, 2004
We open with a common hook, someone who has lost their memory and doesn’t know who they are. This time it’s Matt Damon as Jason Bourne. He is found floating unconscious in the rough Mediterranean Sea, when picked up by a boat and nursed back to health...
Mystic River
May 18, 2004
Clint Eastwood is a highly regarded actor but under-appreciated as a director. Sure, he received an Academy Award for directing Unforgiven (1992) and deservedly so, but he is conspicuously absent when critics talk about great contemporary directors like...
Gothika
March 17, 2004
Mathieu Kassovitz is probably better known as an actor than a director, and most notably for his performance as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s ‘Amelie’. However, he has an impressive back-catalogue of films under his directorial belt,...
Spartan
December 20, 2003
“Where is the girl?” This oft-repeated line lies at the centre of Spartan (2004), a political thriller from writer-director David Mamet. At the heart of this film is a mystery, one that the central character must solve and, in doing so, discover something...
Dead End
July 21, 2003
A family travelling down a country road become lost and start to die in mysterious circumstances. The rather bonkers brainchild of two French screenwriters who wanted to direct their first film but were told their idea was too ‘un-French’...
From Hell
June 12, 2003
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...
Charade
February 21, 2003
It’s a cliché to say but they really don’t make movies like Charade (1963) anymore. Jonathan Demme’s remake, The Truth About Charlie (2002) only reinforces this notion with its miscasting of the two leads, Mark Wahlberg and Thandie...
The Order
December 1, 2002
The resurgence of religious horror films in the late ‘90s produced a lackluster crop. From End of Days (1999) to Stigmata (1999) this sub-genre has been unpopular with both audiences and critics. End of Days took the Hollywood action film sensibility...
