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Charlie's Angels 2000
The quintessential Hollywood product, this action packed comedy features a trio of powerful women being gorgeous, having fun and kicking ass. Though it exploits Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu as sex symbols, dressed in either tight leather or cleavage-exposing tops (occasionally both), the film remains safe and fails to offend. In truth, these three are confident, truly beautiful women; why shouldn’t they be allowed to present this presence on screen?
Great chemistry between the female detectives is apparent…
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The Cabin in the Woods 2012
With all the typical characters - jock, cheerleader, nice guy, nerdy girl and stoner - vacating in a remote Cabin in the Woods as the focal point of the narrative, it would be easy to condemn The Cabin in the Woods as a clichéd rip-off of The Evil Dead. However, its genius creators slowly reveal a meta-narrative full of incredible twists and confusing turns.
The confusion is by no means in terms of poor writing, quite the opposite. The innovative…
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Justin Bieber: Never Say Never 2011
You don’t have to be a fan to understand and appreciate what this young pop idol means to his fan base. His immediate rise to stardom - his debut single ‘My World’ was certified Platinum - and with now an excess of thirty and half million Twitter followers it’s clear that he’s taking music seriously and recognises his status as a celebrity figure. Never Say Never is the biographical documentary that aims to shed some light on the real Bieber…
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The Avengers 2012
The ambitious Avengers project pays off in dividends as each of the fantastic characters assemble from their respective origin stories to create the quintessential comic book movie.
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Lawless 2012
Following the success of The Proposition (2005), Nick Cave turns to director John Hillcoat to bring his equally harrowing tale to the screen. Away from Australian outback and into 1920s America, Lawless follows the true tale of bootlegging brothers. This dark story is more than your simple gangster blockbuster – with Hillcoat reproducing many ideologies that were present in The Proposition; presenting an outlaw hero and toying with very un-Hollywood ultra-violence.
Having already worked with some of the biggest names…
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Melancholia 2011
Lars Von Trier’s acclaimed follow up to Antichrist begins with a gorgeous montage, which sets the tone for this stunning piece of filmmaking. Typically the celebrated director artistically foreshadows the catastrophic events that later arrive in the narrative and establishes the bleak tone from the off. Revealing the film’s conclusion at the beginning immediately sparks a sense of dread towards the ending. This is an “end of the world”, disaster movie like no other. Acting oppositely to similarly premised films,…
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The Vow 2012
Every aspect of this Hollywood romantic drama remains relevant to the narrative; resulting in an incredibly neat script, that is also incredibly safe.
Lead performances from Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams are by no means bad, they're convincing enough, but they really fail to engage with the audience.
In the end this predictable chick flick lacks that spark and charm to bring the audience emotionally into the narrative.
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The Valley of Gwangi 1969
Despite carrying an absurd premise as a bunch of cowboys head into the dinosaur ridden Forbidden Valley, this original hybrid of science fiction and western appealed some fresh fun.
The special effects and creatures ripped straight off the set of One Million Years B.C. are dated, as expected of the film's age. The picture soon becomes overrun by Ray Harryhausen showing off his animation abilities, taking priority over the narrative.
While the narrative and vintage FX can be taken with a pinch of salt, unfortunately the terrible delivery of a dreadfully written script full of nonsensical "jargon" cannot.
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Dredd 2012
In a bid to stay true to its source material, the 2000 AD comic, this high octane and brutal adaptation remains a gruesome gore-fest throughout. The morality of Mega-City One’s violent gangs is of pure evil. The masses of felons that run amok within its walls outnumber the Judges significantly and understand that their crimes can therefore escape judgement. They control the blocks without fear or thought of the consequences of their actions. The dark setting of this story is…
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21 Jump Street 2012
When former high-school enemies, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are reunited during police training they discover that each possess the strengths to compensate for the other’s weaknesses – leading them to pair up and form one of the funniest buddy-cop partnerships in recent memory. Following graduation and enrolment into the police force, the pair is selected to go undercover as high-school students, intent on infiltrating a drug operation – though things don’t go as smoothly as the two…
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The Proposition 2005
Ray Winstone offers one of his best performances yet as Captain Stanley, offering a risky and unorthodox proposition to a notorious outlaw with promise of clearing his name. Guy Pearce stars as the outlaw, Charlie Burns, the brother of his proposed bounty. Motivated to civilize the barren land, even if his methods are not, soon enough a revengeful and protective tone emerges from the captain’s actions.
Australia’s outback features some truly remarkable locations and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme takes full advantage…
