From the 1950s through to the late 1970s, Walt Disney Pictures worked a hugely successful formula for generating a regular stream of family-oriented adventure and fantasy movies. Rather than follow the director-centric model of other American studios, it continued to … Continue reading REVIEW: The Island at the Top of the World (1974)
Nothing burns through ideas faster than a film industry: in a constant battle to find pre-existing intellectual property to adapt for cinema, Disney once hit upon the idea of turning their Disneyland rides into blockbuster movies. It was, all in … Continue reading REVIEW: Jungle Cruise (2021)
While not a necessary element of horror cinema, social commentary is such a solid match for the genre that the better films usually find room for it somewhere. Ready or Not, a campy exercise in which a bride is hunted for … Continue reading REVIEW: Ready or Not (2019)
Once again, let us discuss ‘torture porn’. This is the car that I shall always be chasing. This is the hill upon which I have chosen to die. The term is, of course, an utter nonsense; referring to horror films … Continue reading REVIEW: The Farm (2018)
Among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pantheon of 1980s action characters, Russian police detective Ivan Danko is undoubtedly one of the more obscure. Paired up with James Belushi’s jaded American cop Art Ridzik in Walter Hill’s Red Heat (1988), he did not resonate with … Continue reading REVIEW: Red Heat (1988)
The 1980s was a decade dominated by popular high concept action films, heavy on muscular stars who were short on refined talent but huge on screen presence. More than anything it was the decade of Sylvester Stallone versus Arnold Schwarzenegger, … Continue reading REVIEW: Commando (1985)
It seems that, by the release of Furious Six in 2013, the Fast and the Furious saga had slipped into a rather comfortable routine: a new film every two years, pushing forward the increasingly soap opera-like narrative each time and also pushing the franchise … Continue reading REVIEW: Furious Six (2013)
Two despondent siblings reunite under the shadow of supernatural goings-on in Bryan Bertino’s tremendously effective and atmospheric horror film The Dark and the Wicked. It is often difficult to find a point of difference that can enable this sort of demonic … Continue reading REVIEW: The Dark and the Wicked (2020)
There is a persistent rumour that Walt Disney Studios forced a name change on their 2012 science fiction epic John Carter of Mars to simply John Carter because they believed audiences were not interested in films about Mars. The supposed proof? The failure of … Continue reading REVIEW: Mission to Mars (2000)
I was late to the relaunched Fast & Furious franchise, which seemed to die with 2006’s Tokyo Drift before unexpectedly coming back to life with the much-improved Fast & Furious three years later. Fast Five was released in 2011; with the benefit of hindsight it probably … Continue reading REVIEW: Fast Five (2011)
