Coriolanus, 2011. Directed by Ralph Fiennes. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave and Jessica Chastain. SYNOPSIS: After being banished from the city, a military hero returns to Rome in order to extract his revenge. William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus might not be the most famous of his plays, and certainly not, in my opinion, […]

Trevor Hogg chats with Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisor Phil Tippett… “In those days very few people were doing visual effects and it was difficult to find work,” recalls American Visual Effects Supervisor Phil Tippett. “Ray Harryhausen [The Golden Voyage of Sinbad] would do his kind of shows, and every once and a while somebody […]

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die… Unforgiven, 1992. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Starring Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Jaimz Woolvett and Saul Rubinek. Unforgiven is the magnificent and dark story of William Munny (Eastwood) returning to his old ways as a gunslinger […]

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die… The Usual Suspects, 1995. Directed by Bryan Singer. Starring Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite and Kevin Spacey. The Usual Suspects is a stylish little neo-noir with a meager $6 million budget […]

Fright Night, 2011. Directed by Craig Gillespie. Starring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Toni Collette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Imogen Poots and Dave Franco. SYNOPSIS: A high school student comes to suspect that his next-door neighbor is a vampire. Fright Night follows Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), a down-to-earth high schooler who’s just trying to fit in […]

Deadline are reporting that Fox have closed a deal with Matthew Vaughn to return to the director’s chair for a sequel to last year’s superhero prequel X-Men: First Class, with X-Men veteran Bryan Singer also back in a producing capacity and Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, X-Men: The Last Stand, Sherlock Holmes) handling scriptwriting […]

Rolling Thunder, 1977. Directed by John Flynn. Starring William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones and Linda Haynes. SYNOPSIS: A Vietnam veteran seeks revenge after the murder of his wife and child. Part revenge tale, part human drama, part commentary on the Vietnam war, and part study on the human psyche, Rolling Thunder is a great example […]

Yamada: Way of the Samurai (a.k.a. Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya), 2010. Directed by Nopporn Watin. Starring Seigi Ozeki, Kanokkorn Jaicheun, Sorapong Chatree, Thanawut Ketsaro, Winai Kraibutr and Buakhao Paw Pramuk. SYNOPSIS: Betrayed and left for dead, the young Japanese samurai Yamada finds a new home in Siam and soon faces his greatest battle against […]

D.J. Haza presents the next entry in his series of films to watch before you die… Schindler’s List, 1993. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes. Schindler’s List is Steven Spielberg’s multi award winning World War Two film that tells the story of Oskar Schindler, the German businessman who saved […]

Commenting on the critics with Simon Columb… On Friday 27th January, John Dugdale commented on the movie industry’s heavy reliance on literature; writing for The Guardian, he mentions the Best Picture nominees not based on books, noting: “Diehard believers in cinema’s creative autonomy will no doubt point in the Oscars list not only to The […]