Posted on February 9th, 2011 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Fighter – David O Russell Stop Press: Amy Adams can say f*** and flash her boobs. Forgive the crudity of my language and coarseness of thought: but welcome to the tone and ethos of this astonishingly over-rated meretricious, unpleasant, really bad film. To be clear: I have absolutely no moral objections to ‘bad’ […]
Filed under: 0 stars, Action, David O Russell, Drama, General, Hollywood | No Comments »
Posted on November 13th, 2010 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Skyline – Colin and Greg Stausse Sci-Fa not Sci-Fi: science farce not science fiction. Final score: Latex 10 – Literacy 0. Graphic designers Colin and Greg Strausse (Avatar, Iron Man2, 2012 etc) should have stuck to their day job. As directors, well where should one start? Everything in this movie is derivative and deeply […]
Filed under: 1 star, Action, Colin Strausse, General, Greg Strausse, Humorous, Sci-Fi | No Comments »
Posted on February 4th, 2010 by Zettel Film Reviewer
TweetFilm, performance, screenplay, art Technical, Effects, Art direction Avatar – James Cameron Avatar sucks: the bambification of an aboriginal narrative. A sentimentalised pastiche of a Native American stereotype. The Na’vi sound like Hollywindians and worship an Earth-mother who looks like a fibre-optic willow tree spiritually reified by tinsellated dandelion-seed-like Christmas tree baubles that slo-mo around […]
Filed under: 1 star, Action, Drama, Fantasy, General, Hollywood, Humorous, Sci-Fi | No Comments »
Posted on September 24th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet District 9 – Neill Blomkamp The science is risible: the fiction banal. District 9 is a good B movie with pretensions; and like all good B movies, it rattles along at a pace fast enough for you to almost forgive the cheap n’ cheerful costumes, make-up, special effects and frequently clunky dialogue. A docu-drama, […]
Filed under: 3 star, Action, Extended essay, Fantasy, Philosophical, Sci-Fi | No Comments »
Posted on August 17th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Inglourious Basterds – Quentin Tarantino The penny finally dropped: Quentin Tarantino simply has no imagination. He can’t create characters so he borrows bits from characters in films he’s seen. He can’t create a believable setting or narrative, so he echoes, parodies, de-constructs those of others. He is either passive or unaffected by reality or […]
Filed under: 2 star, Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, General, Historical, Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino, War | No Comments »
Posted on May 24th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Il Divo – Paolo Sorrentino (2008) Shakespearean in content, operatic in tone, writer director Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo (the extraordinary life of Giulio Andreotti) is a masterly work. Richly textured and at times demanding, Sorrentino’s film is a profound study of power, and its irresistible affects on men who possess it and those drawn […]
Filed under: 5 stars, Action, Drama, Europe/World cinema, Extended essay, Film Essay, Historical, Humorous, Paolo Sorrentino, Philosophical, Political, Thriller | No Comments »
Posted on April 21st, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet State of Play – Ken MacDonald Question: you have a cleverly plotted, superbly crafted, well written movie with first class actors on top of their form: these ingredients are drawn together with assurance and style by an excellent Director and edited to a heart-beat – at times racing with the breakneck pace of events; […]
Filed under: 4 stars, Action, Hollywood, Political, Thriller | No Comments »
Posted on December 23rd, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Gommora – Matteo Garrone Thomas Hobbes, 16th Century English philosopher once described human life without government, state authority, as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Garrone’s award-winning film occupies a Hobbesian world: neither his Direction nor Maurizio Braucchi’s screenplay, based upon Roberto Saviano’s whistle-blowing book Gomorra (2006), make any attempt at a coherent narrative […]
Filed under: 4 stars, Action, Drama, Europe/World cinema, Gangster, General, Matteo Garrone, Philosophical, Political | No Comments »
Posted on December 14th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Day The Earth Stood Still – Scott Derrickson Keanu Reeves is an Alien: it’s not often you get to write a sentence with three different meanings that is true whichever of them you apply. As a description of Keanu’s role in this re-make of the 50’s Sci-Fi classic it is factually true; as […]
Filed under: 2 star, Action, Hollywood, Humorous, Sci-Fi, Scott Derrickson | No Comments »
Posted on November 8th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Pride And Glory – Gavin O’Connor Barack Obama’s election to the Presidency is likely to influence American society in profound but as yet unpredictable ways. It will be fascinating to see how Hollywood embraces the new New World. Which director in which film with whose screenplay will be the first to portray deep racial […]
Filed under: 3 star, Action, Detective, Drama, Extended essay, Gangster, Gavin O'Connor, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Political | No Comments »
