30 Days, 30 Countries Challenge Film #4 - Denmark

Manslaughter isn’t a bad film but it’s not great either. It’s a solid yet unspectacular drama looking at a collage professor’s life spiralling out of control after the former student he is having an affair with becomes a suspect in the death of a police man.

One of the main things that didn’t work for me was the central relationship. The professor, Carsten, has ended his marriage, loses his job and…

30 Days, 30 Countries Challenge Film #3 - India

While looking out for a couple of films to fill out the last places on my list I noticed this was showing on Channel 4 over the weekend and thought “great, that’s another place filled”. Little did I realise what I was in for.

The Music Room is a look at the old India of feudal lords meeting the emerging India of new money and self-made business men; it is also…

I just love everything about this film: the practical effects; the over the top violence; Ronny Cox chewing the scenery like a man possessed, Michael Ironside’s sulky and snarling performance; Sharon Stone looking better than she ever has; Arnie’s super camp run after killing the gang lead by “Harry from verk”; the security guard who doesn’t even wait until he’s out of shot before giving up the chase after Doug Quaid smashes through the X-ray scanner, with a gun. There…

Sam Rockwell gives a stunning performance as Sam Bell, a man coming to the end of a three-year stint working on the Moon supervising automated harvesters as they extract helium-3, alone except for a robot named GERTY. While out trying to repair one of the harvesting machines he’s involved in an accident and wakes up back inside the base, with little memory of the incident. Later he catches GERTY talking with his employers back on Earth and hears them instruct…