Film Reviews by RW

No not for me this one, though it was always going to be tough making a sequel to the near perfect The Shining. Feeling more like a TV mini series than a film, it is league 1 compared to original's Premiership. Definitely more King than Kubrick this lacks the subtlety of the original and as others have pointed out has more in common with comic book franchises than horror. By all means give it a viewing to satisfy your curiosity but let's be honest no one is going to be still talking about this one in 40 years time.

Though very rough and ready this film is brilliant, a basic but universal story about how traditional lives are being challenged and forced to change for the 21st century is told using a very traditional format (for the medium) to produce a film that outclasses many a film using up to the minute technology.

A beautiful looking very strange comedy / horror film. The design is brilliant, the details are fantastic and the plot is rather odd. It is a bit slow but that is when compared to contemporary fare, put it next to Inferno and it is far less so. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Though not the most original plot and it felt quite low budget at times I thought this was great and took me right back to 94. The rave scene in particular was really well done and was clearly created by people who were there. Ah my long lost youth!

Though I thoroughly enjoyed this film I'm surprised at how little reference in reviews that I have seen have been made to the Shane Meadow's film This Is England. If you swap the location from Nottingham England to LA USA, time period from the early 80s to the title's mid 90s and passion from Skinhead to Skating, plus trim down the plot, you have Mid90s. Still like I've said I really liked this, it did indeed feel like life in the mid 90s and though I was never a skater friends were and I recognised the characters portrayed. Far better than I was expecting.

Whether Francois Truffaut actually said it is impossible to make an anti-war film because in the end you will only glamorise war I do not know but this film is one of the closest I've seen to achieve that. Based on a book published in the 1950s and the third film adaption it is about the battle between Finland and Russia that was part of WWII. After Russia had taken territory from Finland during the Winter War Finland, with backing from Nazi Germany, went on the offensive to recapture this lost ground. The film's portrayal of this is not a happy one. Clearly influenced by Saving Private Ryan there are many tropes you will be familiar with, but as the film goes on you start to get ground down by the pointlessness of it all, the message is clear, what are they really fighting for? Not particularly uplifting but definitely worth a watch.

I would actually give it 2 and a half stars as I don't not like it but don't exactly like it either. There is a lot a good stuff in this film, it follows the film noir themes nicely and the plot slowly revealing itself is actually quite good. Alas Nicole Kidman spoilt this one for me, a wig and some ugly make-up do not make a convincing burnt out cop, some effort in acting would have helped.

Considering that the source material is literary fiction I guess you could call this literary cinema, there isn't that much in the way of plot but what there is is thought provoking and moving. This film deals more in emotions, about the human condition, about survival and struggle. It is a slow paced film but that lets you fully absorb the dialogue, the acting, the technique, the score; all of which leave you mentally rewarded. This is not a Saturday night party film, but it is a beautiful film.

The reanimated dead didn't move fast until the turn of the 21st Century, prior to that they moved slowly whilst groaning or saying stuff like "brains". Totally unrealistic and spoilt the the film.

This is great, not what I was expecting, as another reviewer says stick with it, you will be rewarded.

Who hasn't been to a party where the punch has been spiked with acid and everything has descended into a hellish nightmare? If you are familiar with Noe's back catalogue and liked them you should like this. Slightly looser than his previous work and improvisation heavily used but still very stylised and choreographed with a great soundtrack to boot.

I wasn't sure I'd like this and only wanted to watch it as I enjoyed Tangerine, I'm glad I did though as it is fantastic. There is no major plot to speak of and it is quite clearly heavily improvised, but you get drawn into the lives of these children and the adults that surround them. It is a tragic story and you feel pity, frustration and annoyance with the characters it depicts, but overall it shows the failed flip side to the Mickey Mouse American dream.

This is not a mainstream film, it is way too chaotic for that. It is strange, confusing and at times somewhat ridiculous but I would not call it boring. There is so much going on, the dialogue, direction and sound are all in your face, with the score by Oneohtrix Point Never high in the mix adding to the disorientation. Not everyone will enjoy this, though I did.

I'm not entirely sure what was going but it was done with style and beauty. Visually it looks great and the score by Johnny Greenwood was fantastic. It's not a mainstream film as it deals more in emotions and trauma and with most off the violence hidden away out of shot it's not for those after torture porn kicks. Short but very sweet I think I will have to investigate the novella it was based on.

Though no gore fest or slasher flick this is very much a horror film. It starts off quite dull as others have pointed out but then you notice how much it references Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and realise this is better than you first thought. By the end I was engrossed in foreboding that had taken over and really enjoyed it. It's not mainstream fodder and takes some thinking but definitely a great slice of modern cinema.