J. Edgar, 2011. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench and Naomi Watts. SYNOPSIS: The story of J. Edgar Hoover, who was the founder and head of the FBI for almost fifty years. The man with everyone else’s secrets must make sure his own aren’t revealed, otherwise everything he has worked […]

Go to Blazes, 1962. Directed by Michael Truman. Starring Dave King, Robert Morley, Norman Rossington, Daniel Massey, Dennis Price, Maggie Smith and David Lodge. SYNOPSIS: Three robbers plan a heist using a fire engine as a getaway vehicle, but their scheme begins to unravel when they are mistaken for real firemen. British cinema has had […]

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die… Being John Malkovich, 1999. Directed by Spike Jonze. Starring John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener and John Malkovich. Being John Malkovich is a black comedy-fantasy from the mind of Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. The film received […]

Simon Moore reviews the fifth episode of the Napoleon Dynamite animated series… Some things are so smacked-out stone-cold crazy they simply have to be real. No, not The X Factor. I still insist that’s a mass hallucination we can’t wake up from. I refer instead to the Annual Preston Bed Races. This is simply one […]

The Brigand of Kandahar, 1965. Directed by John Gilling. Starring Ronald Lewis, Oliver Reed, Duncan Lamont, Yvonne Romain and Katherine Woodville. SYNOPSIS: A mixed race lieutenant joins the rebel Bengali tribesmen in an offensive against the British forces in India. Afghanistan’s a tough one. Hard to know what to make of it all, whichever way […]

The Scarlet Blade, 1963. Directed by John Gilling. Starring Jack Hedley, Lionel Jeffries, Oliver Reed, June Thorburn and Michael Ripper. SYNOPSIS: The daughter of an anti-royalist loyal to Oliver Cromwell falls for the Scarlet Blade – a dashing Robin Hood figure leading the Royalist rebels. Civil Wars aren’t the most sensible of affairs at the […]

Commenting on the critics with Simon Columb… The Telegraph covered a very strange story when the inevitable anti-The Artist publicity machine began in full swing with Kim Novak, star of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, chiming in: “Novak took out a full-page advert in Variety magazine earlier this week, where she said: ‘The [Artist] could and should have […]

Luke Owen continues on the road to The Avengers, revisiting Thor… Thor, 2011. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba, Ray Stevenson, Rene Russo, Jaimie Alexander, Joshua Dallas, Tadanobu Asano, Colm Feore, Clark Gregg, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson. SYNOPSIS: Stripped of his […]

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die… The Big Lebowski, 1998. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Starring Jeff Bridges, John Godman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Elliott, David Huddleston, David Thewlis and Tara Reid. The Big Lebowski is the […]

Commenting on the critics with Simon Columb… Stuart Heritage writes about Paranormal Activity 4 in The Guardian… with a very pessimistic attitude: “The problem is, the wheels might fall off at any minute. The Paranormal Activity formula is now so slick that the films pretty much write themselves. There is a family. They set up […]