Posted in New releases, Reviews on Apr 8th, 2008 No Comments »
I can’t wait for Oliver Stone’s forthcoming W., his biopic of the 43rd President of the United States.
We’ve already had a Clinton movie, the superb Primary Colors (1998), so I think it’s time the members of the Bush administration took their turn on the silver screen.
Just thinking about W.’s cast makes me excited: Josh Brolin […]
Posted in Horror, New releases, Reviews, Uncategorized on Mar 11th, 2008 No Comments »
I love George Romero and Dario Argento. Together, their work represented some of the best of what pure horror could achieve if it put its mind to it.
Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and its sequels were smart, satirical slow-burning frighteners, suggesting that mankind was doomed long before the dead took to their feet […]
Posted in Gay and Lesbian, New releases, Reviews on Jan 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
Fans of the great William ‘Exorcist’ Friedkin are in for a treat: on 25 February, not one, but two! of his films are due for release on DVD: Bug (2006) and Cruising (1980).
Bug is about a couple who lock themselves in a motel room, convinced that they have been infested with blood-sucking aphids.
Cruising has […]
Posted in Animation, Children's films, Reviews on Jan 9th, 2008 No Comments »
Like many of my generation, Martin Rosen’s Watership Down (1978) remains an indelible part of my formative years, second only to birth and pubescence in terms of its impact on my psyche.
It’s difficult to pin down exactly what elevates a cartoon about rabbits to one of the best children’s films even made, and what must […]
Posted in Animation, Children's films, Reviews on Oct 23rd, 2007 4 Comments »
People often come up to me and ask, “Milo, how is it you have such good taste?”.
Wearing my pinstriped cummerbund and orange jodhpurs, I look down at them through my pink tortoiseshell spectacles and reply,
“It’s a gift”.
One way or another, the Pixar films are all about gifted people, so I identified with them instantly.
Of course, […]
Posted in Blockbusters, High Definition, Reviews on Sep 18th, 2007 3 Comments »
In my last blog, I confessed that I had finally taken sides in the format war that - in a series of whimpers rather than bangs - is raging in seldom-visited corners of the internet.
So yes, I have a Blu-Ray player, and no, it hasn’t caused my hair to become thicker or more luxuriant.
(For that, […]
Posted in Blockbusters, New releases, Reviews on Jul 31st, 2007 3 Comments »
Still reeling from the horrors of Harry Potter, I decided that a bit of sympathetic magic was in order.
If a blockbuster had shaken my faith in movies, I reasoned, then perhaps TWO blockbusters might cure my malaise?
So Saturday morning was The Simpsons Movie (in 2D!). Although I came to the Simpsons late in life - […]
Posted in Adaptations, Children's films, Reviews on Jul 17th, 2007 6 Comments »
If they ever build a statue to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling (which is looking increasingly likely) then I hope that, when I die, they bring me back as a pigeon.
Now, Rowling may be the greatest authoress of the 21st century. I haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books, so I really wouldn’t know.
But […]
Posted in Adaptations, Reviews, Stage on Jul 3rd, 2007 No Comments »
I recently snuck into a preview of the remake of Hairspray through the simple ploy of hiding inside John Travolta’s fat suit and peering out through his hair like a little racoon.
I’ll post my full review in due course, but I can exclusively reveal that it’s quite good, and should appeal to fans of the […]
Posted in Gay and Lesbian, Interview, Politics, Reviews on Jun 5th, 2007 No Comments »
When I first heard about Hedwig and the Angry inch (2001), John Cameron Mitchell’s first feature film, I thought it sounded awful.
The tale of an East German boy who has a botched sex change (hence the Angry Inch…) so he can marry an American soldier and elope to the West, where he tries to make […]