Letterboxd — Your life in film

It was only a matter of time before Tarantino tackled the Western directly. His career from the very beginning has openly referenced the genre and the great directors that made their name in it. What surprised me most about Django Unchained, his latest epic revenge fantasy, is that whilst it quite clearly references the likes of Leone, Corbucci and Sollima, as well as obscure and forgotten blaxploitation flicks, it is rarely a slave (if you pardon the pun) to the…

I'm pleased to report than this is still just as joyously entertaining at home as it was on the big screen. Considering this is now my third viewing I was sure I'd pick up on the niggling little problems - and I'm sure they are there if you want to look hard enough - but frankly I was having far too much fun to care.

Having sat through thousands upon thousands of films it is easy to become a little…

When Marvel announced they were going to set up their own film studio, not only making individual superhero movies but also set them in the same universe and using the solo outings as a way to build interest in a mega-collaboration with four of the biggest heroes in comic books, it seemed like an ambitious folly that was doomed to fail. When most of the solo films turned out to be merely decent the ambition seemed to be misplaced, even…

After seven years and three films, Nolan’s Batman journey is over. The question is, is The Dark Knight Rises the send off the trilogy deserves? Sadly the answer to that question is a crushing no. Having re-watched both previous films this week I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is the weakest film of the trilogy, and to make things worse, it isn’t even a good film, period.

In many ways the film’s problems existed throughout…

My opinion on the film hasn’t really changed since the first time I watched it so there is little to add during this, my third re-watch. It is still a beautifully paced, stylish as hell and brilliantly shot fairytale thriller. Like Jean-Pierre Melville’s timeless and effortlessly cool, Le Samourai, this is a film where characters are stripped to the bone, yet their lack of obvious development is not a complaint but a blessing. They are men existing on the fringes…

It's not always easy to tell at what point you fall in love with a film, normally it just creeps up on you but on rare occasions you can pinpoint it exactly. Watching Drive that point came with the introduction of the first musical note, a mere minute into the movie. I can't explain why, it wasn't even particularly memorable looking back at it, but it was the moment that I knew I was going to be Nicolas Winding Refn's…

As a Brit it probably isn’t wise to admit that I don’t really care much for the Bond films. They are perfectly adequate action-adventure movies but the vast majority are utterly indistinguishable from one another. Daniel Craig’s tenure as the iconic spy is no different and that includes Casino Royale which is widely considered one of the best Bond films to date. Because of this I was sceptical of the near-unanimous praise that Skyfall has been receiving but for once…

Writer-director Rian Johnson made a splash with his genre mash-up debut, Brick, before struggling with his muddled sophomore effort, The Brothers Bloom. Rather than paring things back Johnson stubbornly ploughed forward with another ambitious, mind bending extravaganza. Although I’ve had to admire his playful blending of genres and styles I’ve never quite bought wholeheartedly into vision - until now.

Looper is still a film that suffers from the director’s familiar problems - too ambitious and too unfocused - but here…

Argo, the true life story you couldn’t make up, was always ripe for the Hollywood treatment and for the most part Affleck and co. do a good job of bringing it to the screen. Most should be familiar with the plot by now but if not it revolves around a CIA operation to get American diplomats out of Iran during the revolution. Their cover is an audacious and implausible recce scouting for film locations for a crappy space opera movie.…

Batman Begins review is here.

The Dark Knight is a film that I like a little less with each new viewing. That is not to say it is not consistently entertaining with some exhilarating set pieces but the issues with the story become more pronounced over time. It is a film on an epic scale. Everything about it feels big and important but along the way this scale has dwarfed the characters. No longer is this a story about Bruce…