Manderlay
BB (out of 5) Lars von Trier’s proposed trilogy of observations of American society starts out strong with Dogville but moves on to a much less interesting second chapter (the third has yet to be… Continue reading
Tag Archive: John Hurt
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Jackie
BBBB (out of 5) Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain makes the film that should have marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy three years earlier, in place of the failed Parkland. Natalie Portman is… Continue reading
Hercules (2014)
BBBB (out of 5) The man of legend, venerated in Greek mythology and the subject of many an animated series, gladiator movie and even a Disney film has returned to the big screen… Continue reading
Snowpiercer
BB.5 (out of 5) It was only a matter of time before Bong Joon-ho would follow excellent films like The Host and his masterful Mother with an English language debut, much like his… Continue reading
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
BB.5 (out of 5) Seven books, eight movies and a whole heck of a lot of merchandising finally come down to a final adventure featuring the plucky young wizard and his best friends… Continue reading
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1
B.5 (out of 5) Films that began as a series of imaginative adventures have descended into self-important, jargon-spouting fan conventions that defy all manner of patience. This adaptation of half of J.K. Rowling’s… Continue reading
Melancholia
BB.5 (out of 5) Lars Von Trier goes for epic grandeur but never quite reaches the limits of his magnificent scope with this science-fiction melodrama. The first half takes place at a wedding… Continue reading
Dogville
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Lars Von Trier has made his most audacious film yet with this powerful drama, whose most extreme moments are so over the top as to actually make them humorous.… Continue reading
Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
BB.5 (out of 5) Tiresome adaptation of the novel by Patrick Suskind, about a young boy born under a table in a fish market and raised by luck and chance into adulthood in… Continue reading
The Oxford Murders
B.5 (out of 5) Elijah Wood shows up at Oxford to study mathematics and, almost within minutes of arriving, finds himself embroiled in a web of murders. While running from victim to victim… Continue reading
The Skeleton Key
BBB (out of 5) Silly, overwrought thriller that is entertaining enough to keep you seated for two hours. Kate Hudson plays a nursing home employee who decides to improve her salary by working… Continue reading
The Field
BBBB (out of 5) Exceptional drama based on the play by John B. Keane, and Jim Sheridan’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning My Left Foot. Richard Harris is superb as “Bull” McCabe, whose family has… Continue reading
Watership Down
BBB.5 (out of 5) This animated film is about a small group of rabbits who have been told by their seer that their warren is under threat of an environmental disaster and will… Continue reading
V For Vendetta
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Stepping out into the London night of a futuristic, Orwellian dystopia, Natalie Portman finds herself being harassed by crooked cops for violating a curfew ordinance and is saved from their… Continue reading
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
BB.5 (out of 5) Simplistic adaptation of Louis De Bernieres’ novel about romance between enemies on an occupied Greek island in World War II, with lives against the backdrop of oppression reduced to… Continue reading
Love and Death on Long Island
BBBB (out of 5) John Hurt plays a snobby, reclusive British academic who refuses to embrace modern technology until one day he decides that the new film adaptation of an E.M. Forster novel is… Continue reading
Owning Mahowny
BBBB (out of 5) Fascinating drama that charts the true story of a Toronto bank executive (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who cooked his client’s books for two years in order to feed his own… Continue reading
Only Lovers Left Alive
BBBB (out of 5) Jim Jarmusch laments the death of high culture with this deliciously funny foray into vampire fiction. Tom Hiddleston is an undead rocker who conceals himself from the fans he detests… Continue reading
The Proposition (2005)
BBB.5 (out of 5) After the rape and murder of a pregnant woman in an 1880s Australian outback town, two of the three brothers accused of the crime are captured by the police… Continue reading
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
BBBB (out of 5) A mere twenty-seven years after he found the Ark of the Covenant and gave Star Wars a run for its money at the box office, cinema’s beloved archaeologist/adventurer is… Continue reading
A Man For All Seasons
BBBB (out of 5) The Best Picture Oscar winner of 1966 is this powerful adaptation of Robert Bolt’s thought-provoking play. It takes place in the court of King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw), who… Continue reading
Alien
BBBBB (out of 5) In space, no one can hear you scream, but since most movie theatres are situated on the planet Earth, feel free to shriek your heart out. Some of the… Continue reading
Contact
BBBB (out of 5) Jodie Foster plays an earnest scientist who spends her whole life searching for extra-terrestrial life and finds vindication when a message is received from outer space. Naturally, it throws the… Continue reading
The Limits Of Control
BBB.5 (out of 5) Jim Jarmusch follows the success of Broken Flowers with a gorgeously photographed triptych into strangeness that doesn’t find the same success with its audience. Isaach De Bankolé is a disaffected… Continue reading
The Elephant Man
BBBB.5 (out of 5) David Lynch’s mainstream breakthrough film captures a nightmarish vision of Victorian London society. Filmed in dreamy black and white, it tells the story of John Merrick (John Hurt), an… Continue reading
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
BB.5 (out of 5) Red Lobster’s least friendly mascot is back in action, this time with an adventure that is louder and more explosive than the last time. Now heavily domestic with his… Continue reading
Hellboy
BBBB (out of 5) More comic-book fun comes to life on the big screen with successful results. Sixty years after a paranormal specialist (John Hurt) prevents the Nazis from opening the gates of… Continue reading
The Hit
BBBB.5 (out of 5) British criminal Terence Stamp goes into witness protection in Spain after ratting on a fellow gangster and his buddies. Now living the high life in seclusion, his idyll is disturbed… Continue reading
Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone)
BBBB (out of 5) Spirited adaptation of the first of J.K. Rowling’s phenomenally successful children’s books is so keen on being faithful to its original source that it loses a bit of its… Continue reading
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
B (out of 5) Incomprehensible adaptation of the Tom Robbins novel is Gus Van Sant’s worst film. Uma Thurman stars as a cowgirl with unusually large thumbs who treks across the country in search of… Continue reading
Heaven’s Gate
B.5 (out of 5) Bleeding heart sentimentality has led many critics to hail this as a misunderstood masterpiece in recent years, but the truth is (and yes, I know better than anyone else)… Continue reading
Rob Roy
BBB.5 (out of 5) 1995 was the year of the kilt epic, what with Mel Gibson’s excellent Braveheart and then this fun biopic of the Scottish hero (played by Irish movie star Liam Neeson)… Continue reading
Spaceballs
BBB.5 (out of 5) Far behind the class of Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles, and yet this Star Wars spoof is still not as graceless as Mel Brooks’ later films (Robin Hood: Men… Continue reading
History Of The World, Part I
B (out of 5) Mel Brooks hits rock bottom with this terrible spoof of ancient epic movies. It incorporates parodies of films like The Robe, Spartacus and The Ten Commandments while also spicing… Continue reading
Lost Souls
BB (out of 5) Typical humdrum spiritual thriller that is a small cut above the embarrassing Bless The Child on the scarefest front but not anywhere near the level of Agnieszka Holland’s The… Continue reading
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
BBB (out of 5) There’s a mole in the Circus and Smiley’s got to find out where it is. Sounds like the description of a Chaplin short, but actually the situation could not… Continue reading