The Manchurian Candidate, 1962. Directed by John Frankenheimer. Starring Laurence Harvey, Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silver and James Gregory. SYNOPSIS: A former Korean War POW is brainwashed by Communists into becoming a political assassin. But another former prisoner may know how to save him. Exploring the extremes of cold war paranoia in a […]
Movie Review – The Duke of Burgundy (2014)
The Duke of Burgundy, 2014. Directed by Peter Strickland. Starring Sidse Babett Knudsen, Chiara D’Anna, Fatma Mohamed, Eugenia Caruso and Monica Swinn. SYNOPSIS: Two lovers engage in a ritualistic passage of behaviour that brings one close to obsession and one looking for a way out… Peter Strickland is without a shadow of a doubt one of the […]
Movie Review – Snow in Paradise (2014)
Snow in Paradise, 2014. Directed by Andrew Hulme. Starring Frederick Schmidt, Martin Askew, David Spinx, Aymen Hamdouchi, Claire-Louise Cordwell, Ashley Chin, Joel Beckett and Clive Brunt. SYNOPSIS: Dave’s a petty criminal living on drugs and violence in East London. When his actions kill his best friend, he’s propelled into feelings of shame and remorse. Discovering […]
Blu-ray Review – The Killing (1956)
The Killing, 1956. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C.Flippen, Elisha Cook Jr, Marie Windsor, Ted de Corsia and Timothy Carey. SYNOPSIS: Seven men are intent on executing the perfect robbery and taking a racetrack for two million dollars. But nothing goes quite as planned… Kubrick’s third feature was […]
Blu-ray Review – Thief (1981)
Thief, 1981. Written and Directed by Michael Mann. Starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, James Belushi, Willie Nelson, Dennis Farina, William Petersen and Robert Prosky. SYNOPSIS: A professional safecracker’s plan for going straight spirals out-of-control when he becomes indebted to a crime boss. The limited Blu-ray slipcase edition of Michael Mann’s theatrical film début Thief (1981) comprises a […]
Blu-ray Review – Stations of the Cross (2014)
Stations of the Cross (Kreuzweg), 2014. Directed by Dietrich Brüggemann. Starring Lea van Acken, Moritz Knapp, Lucie Aron, Florian Stetter, Anna Brüggemann and Franziska Weisz. SYNOPSIS: The fourteen-year-old Maria is part of an extreme Roman Catholic community. Devoted to the idea of becoming as like Jesus as possible, she prescribes herself a spiritual course of action that clashes […]
DVD Review – A Most Wanted Man (2014)
A Most Wanted Man, 2014. Directed by Anton Corbijn. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Daniel Brühl, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Derya Alabora and Nina Hoss. SYNOPSIS: A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught in the international war on terror. With this release Corbijn has once again proven himself to […]
Blu-ray Review – Six Gothic Tales
Robert W Monk reviews Six Gothic Tales, a Blu-ray collection of the Roger Corman directed and produced adaptations of the Edgar Allen Poe stories The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Haunted Palace, The Tomb of Ligeia, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, Peter Lorre, […]
Blu-ray Review – The Killers (1946)
The Killers, 1946. Directed by Robert Siodmak. Starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmund O’Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene and Jack Lamberto SYNOPSIS: A pair of hit-men carry out the murder of an unresisting victim. A partnership of insurance investigator and police detective try to establish the facts surrounding the crime. Taking a classic Ernest Hemingway […]
Movie Review – The Grandmaster (2013)
The Grandmaster, 2013. Directed by Wong Kar Wai. Tony Leung, Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen, Quinxiang Wang, Hye-Kyo Song, Shun Lao, Hoi Pang-Lo, Xiaofei Zhou and Benshan Zhao. SYNOPSIS: The poetically charged biographical story of Ip-Man, the martial arts expert and teacher , who went on to train Bruce Lee… Wong Kar Wai is a film-maker […]
