A surprisingly slavish remake of a film I enjoyed but never mustered any long-term fondness for. This, like its predecessor, fails to do anything useful with the “am I dreaming or is this reality” dilemma that befalls the central Farrell/Schwarzenegger character, arguably wringing even less from it than Verhoeven did. At least his tongue was in his cheek.

The production team admirably apes Blade Runner by way of Minority Report, and there’s plenty of big dumb action set pieces to…

The tech writer John Gruber is fond of a Kubrick quote about the truth of a thing being in the feel of it rather than the think of it, a phrase that for me perfectly explains the appeal of Nicolas Winding Refn’s noirish adaptation of the James Sallis novel. Right from the first hotel room scene, through a near wordless 15-minute opening stanza, the foreboding atmosphere of an after-hours, back-streets Los Angeles takes hold. The ambient, minimal score by Cliff…

Golden boy director, hot off earnest 2011 Oscar winner The King’s Speech, cashes in open-slather offer for next project by committing to film universally adored hit musical about love at first sight and the redemptive power of student uprisings.

Loses drunken bet over which member of the Master and Commander cast will play the pivotal role of Javert, and is forced to cast vocally-challenged Aussie rocker, only to have him murder ‘Stars’ and be thoroughly upstaged by pint-sized unknown Daniel…