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4/5
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Smile
(2022)
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Eddie Harrison
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...Smile is a remarkably well-scripted and played psychological thriller that only lapses into horror cliché in the last ten minutes…
Posted Aug 11, 2024
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2/5
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Trap
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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…while Trap is kind of fun to follow for the first hour, looking sharp on a $20 million budget and delivering lots of crispy tease, the muddled punchline doesn’t get us much further than the trailer does…
Posted Aug 10, 2024
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3/5
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Trust in Love
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a small, genial film that generally entertains…writer/director Jim Petulla portrays himself as an ordinary guy in a world gone mad, and that’s something that most audiences should be able to relate to….
Posted Aug 09, 2024
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3/5
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The Highwaymen
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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...while not exactly box-fresh, there’s lots to enjoy in two big star performances, a strong sense of period detail (as you’d expect from a $50 million production) and a decidedly retro ‘respect the law’ POV….
Posted Aug 07, 2024
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4/5
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So Long, Stooge
(1983)
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Eddie Harrison
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…there’s something bluntly effective about this film, which is more of a sensitive drama than a thriller for the most part, and manages to make a wider point about man’s inhumanity to man that the crowd-pleasing final shoot-outs can’t entirely negate…
Posted Aug 07, 2024
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5/5
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Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
(2023)
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Eddie Harrison
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…this restored version of Caligula is the only one that counts, popping the rating from a one star to a five overnight, and The Ultimate Cut is a remarkable vindication for Malcolm McDowell that finally reveals arguably his best performance…
Posted Aug 06, 2024
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4/5
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Girl You Know It's True
(2023)
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Eddie Harrison
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…rather than leave Milli Vanilli to be an unfortunate footnote in musical history, this entertaining, sympathetic bio-pic creates genuine drama from one of the music industry’s most cautionary tales…
Posted Aug 05, 2024
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2/5
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Timeline
(2003)
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Eddie Harrison
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…utter gibberish…feels like a time-capsule from the past when $90 million could be spent realising an overtly terrible load of old cobblers like this…
Posted Aug 04, 2024
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3/5
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Dumbo
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Tim Burton’s Dumbo may not please its target audience with a feeling for both light and shade, but it provides plenty of evidence of Burton’s genuine acumen and showmanship as a director…
Posted Aug 03, 2024
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4/5
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The Landlord
(1970)
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Eddie Harrison
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...gets into weeds of financial segregation and class-based racism.. a clear-eyed, satirical movie that really hits the spot, not just for Hal Ashby fans; it’s a tight, well-told expose of how racism works, with a genuine, if halting romance at its centre
Posted Aug 03, 2024
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5/5
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Glengarry Glen Ross
(1992)
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Eddie Harrison
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…while Glengarry Glen Ross doesn’t moralise, it smacks of Mamet’s voice of experience, and anyone whose worked at the sharp end of sales will recognise the dehumanising tone of the events that play out here…
Posted Aug 02, 2024
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5/5
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Malcolm X
(1992)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a well-assembled film that reflects the source material with genuine fidelity…Equality can’t just be assumed or declared, it has to be lived, and Malcolm X is a striking depiction of just how unfair American society has been in the not-so distant past.
Posted Aug 02, 2024
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2/5
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The Dead Don't Die
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a whimsical, evasive work from a great director off-form, designed to be annoyingly problematic and not for the horror comedy crowd, despite some gore and a few smart moments…
Posted Aug 01, 2024
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3/5
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A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…half holy-fool, half Jedi-mentor, Fred Rogers is an amusing character whose memory nails this gentle, controlled drama tightly to a heartfelt, feel-good path…
Posted Aug 01, 2024
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3/5
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The She Beast
(1965)
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Eddie Harrison
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..as hokey as the title suggests, but it also a treat for horror groupies; it certainly shows a number of substantial talents at a stage considerably earlier than most genre fans have previously seen them…
Posted Aug 01, 2024
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3/5
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Bodies Bodies Bodies
(2022)
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Eddie Harrison
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…that the final twist redeems this entire film is unusual and admirable; what’s missing here is the engagement and disguise that might have made Bodies Bodies Bodies worth sitting through to appreciate the pay-off…
Posted Jul 30, 2024
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5/5
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Mississippi Mermaid
(1969)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Truffaut’s brilliant study of self-destructive passion in Mississippi Mermaid captures the best and the worst of love in this couple caught up in continual revoltion…
Posted Jul 29, 2024
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4/5
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Emily the Criminal
(2022)
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Eddie Harrison
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‘…what makes this so striking is that crime staples of couch-potato experience, suddenly seem so real, dangerous and anxiety-inducing; if our workplace practices are criminal, we can hardly expect our increasingly exploited workforce to feel any different
Posted Jul 29, 2024
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2/5
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Reptile
(2023)
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Eddie Harrison
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...way overwritten in terms of character traits, and underwritten in terms of meaningful procedural changes; it’s the kind of film which requires warnings for the unwary; despite the sheen, it’s a time-waster where the end doesn’t justify the means...
Posted Jul 28, 2024
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3/5
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The Shiny Shrimps
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Cedric Le Gallo and Maxime Govare’s light-hearted French film does a nice job of providing route-one feel-good fare while managing to get a few timely digs i
Posted Jul 27, 2024
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3/5
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Les crevettes pailletées
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Cedric Le Gallo and Maxime Govare’s light-hearted French film does a nice job of providing route-one feel-good fare while managing to get a few timely digs in…
Posted Jul 27, 2024
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3/5
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The Mechanic
(1972)
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Eddie Harrison
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…The Mechanic is a decent (for director Michael Winner) collaboration with Charles Bronson that plays to their strengths rather than their weaknesses, with an impressive 15 minute silent opening…
Posted Jul 27, 2024
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3/5
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Asher
(2018)
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Eddie Harrison
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…the action is short and not particularly distinguished, but there’s just enough meat on the bones to suggest why such a strong cast was attracted to this project…
Posted Jul 26, 2024
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5/5
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Longlegs
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a delicious, delerious nightmare to watch. The detail is persuasive, there’s no off-the-shelf scenes and the unexpected climax feels organic and earned…
Posted Jul 26, 2024
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3/5
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Die, Monster, Die!
(1965)
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Eddie Harrison
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…one of the better Lovecraft adaptations…lands somewhere between traditional horror and that new fangled sci-fi…
Posted Jul 25, 2024
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2/5
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Deadpool & Wolverine
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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...Deadpool & Wolverine at least aims for self-deprecating laughs and easy-going entertainment, but the humour is tiresomely blunt and sour despite a game cast…
Posted Jul 23, 2024
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3/5
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The Yakuza
(1975)
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Eddie Harrison
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‘…aims to submerge Western audiences in a different culture…The Yakuza showcases a sweat-free Mitchum in an unexpectedly deep and thoughtful role…
Posted Jul 23, 2024
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4/5
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Radioactive
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Radioactive is a strong bio-pic which doesn’t go down the conventional route...with Marjane Satrapi offering the kind of fresh takes on life that made Persepolis so engaging, this is the elegant, humanistic re-telling that Marie Curie deserves….
Posted Jul 22, 2024
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3/5
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Cold Blows The Wind
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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…keeps the stakes small and the visuals tight and on point…probably a better Evil Dead film that the last two official entries in the series…full-blooded, committed performances...'
Posted Jul 22, 2024
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3/5
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Mysterious Island
(1961)
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Eddie Harrison
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..while the stop motion is great, the different film stocks, poorly matched studio and location shots, sub-par glass paintings and film-stock deterioration all take a toll, the technical limitations may leave modern audiencest cool to its many charms..
Posted Jul 21, 2024
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4/5
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Bandits of Orgosolo
(1961)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Vittorio DeSeta’s 1961 countryside drama has a low-stakes, survivalist feel…moves towards a predictably downbeat conclusion with methodical attention to detail…
Posted Jul 20, 2024
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4/5
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Kill the Referee
(1984)
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Eddie Harrison
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…engaging, original and unusual cinema… Kill The Referee is a ferocious, urgent, blackly-comic film with more-than-decent action scenes and a caustic, modern story…
Posted Jul 19, 2024
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1/5
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What Planet Are You From?
(2000)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a truly awful comedy…trying to create a sci-fi analogue for men’s inability to understand women, but ends up just embodying the quality it’s supposedly trying to satirise….
Posted Jul 18, 2024
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4/5
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Remembrance
(1983)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Remembrance isn’t the most polished film, but it does reflect grim early 80’s Britain with an accuracy that few films do…
Posted Jul 18, 2024
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4/5
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Scrap
(2022)
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Eddie Harrison
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...an accessible, easy watch, uniformly well-acted, and lacking in sentiment or melodrama…getting your act together is a universal theme, and the positive, realistic nature of the empathetic recovery story portrayed should find a forever home on streaming
Posted Jul 17, 2024
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4/5
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Twisters
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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…In today’s cod-mathematical formula, Twisters> Twister; it’s an upbeat, involving summer-blockbuster that showcases a slam-bang mix of smoking hot stars and improved special effects, making it something of a breeze to watch…
Posted Jul 16, 2024
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4/5
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Rumble Fish
(1983)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a bold experiment, one which evokes a thoughtful, lyrical, adult attitude rarely seen in cinema…
Posted Jul 15, 2024
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4/5
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Sweet Song
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a character study, not a thriller; we don’t have or needs cats leaping through shattering glass windows for cheap jump scares here…an excellent film, well worth Viard’s César nomination for best actress…
Posted Jul 14, 2024
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4/5
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The Day Shall Come
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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‘…intelligent, trenchant comedy. Our geopolitical system is shown as less under attack from within, by those who seek to profit from curating conflict. Depicting this tradition makes for a laudable, modern polemic from satirist Chris Morris...'
Posted Jul 14, 2024
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3/5
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The Wolfman
(2010)
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Eddie Harrison
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…better than a dire reputation suggests; it’s clearly a loving attempt to revise a classic story, with top talent all on message, and a few neat moments for genre fans to enjoy, even if the final wolf-on-wolf fight is risible…
Posted Jul 13, 2024
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3/5
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The Good Liar
(2019)
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Eddie Harrison
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…The Good Liar aims to keep us guessing, and just about makes it to the conclusion without any let-up in tension…a smart, well performed drama with a couple of vintage performances from the most respected of actors...
Posted Jul 12, 2024
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3/5
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Despicable Me 4
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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...Despicable Me 4 doesn’t muster much satire of suburban mores, but it’s got enough pizzazz about its central and sub-plots to make sure it’s not a drag when the minions aren’t doing their thing from the side-lines...
Posted Jul 12, 2024
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3/5
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Phil Spector
(2013)
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Eddie Harrison
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…only David Mamet would be so deliberately obtuse as to make a feature-length film about a famous trial and halt the action before the trial even starts…Pacino is on top form, matched every inch of the way by Helen Mirren as attorney Linda Kenney Baden…
Posted Jul 11, 2024
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5/5
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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
(1970)
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Eddie Harrison
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…one of the most unusual horror/fantasy films ever…a visually stunning folk tale…
Posted Jul 10, 2024
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1/5
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Caligula
(1979)
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Eddie Harrison
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…it doesn’t take a lot of tinkering to ruin a film, and the much-tinkered with 1980 version of Caligula is a mess, with the guts of Vidal’s script removed, replaced by irrelevant sex, then having the sex removed, rendering the result utterly pointless…
Posted Jul 09, 2024
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4/5
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Litan
(1981)
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Eddie Harrison
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…Litan is another wild and entertaining film from the strange Jean-Pierre Mocky, and one that would appeal to anyone who enjoys the mysteries of Lynch, Lost and secret, hidden worlds…
Posted Jul 08, 2024
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3/5
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Brats
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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…flawed by missing out on key interviews, Brats comes to some kind of cathartic conclusion for Andrew McCarthy; it’s not the media, the movies or the music, it’s nostalgia that makes audiences recall the Brat Pack as ‘avatars of their youth...
Posted Jul 07, 2024
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2/5
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A Family Affair
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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...A Family Affair plays like a rom-com/sitcom without laughs, providing a splash of wine-o-clock fantasy that’s as wet and sticky as it is tiresome to clean up afterwards…
Posted Jul 06, 2024
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4/5
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The Secret Art of Human Flight
(2023)
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Eddie Harrison
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…a thoughtful little film that asks some interesting questions about how much our lives are sustained by belief…well-acted and realised with some visual flair, director HP Mendoza offers an effective metaphor for recovery, and a twisty-turny story too..
Posted Jul 05, 2024
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3/5
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Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
(2024)
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Eddie Harrison
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…forty years on, there was never any real chance that Axel F would recapture the genuine magic of the first Beverly Hills Cop, but as a belated re-tread, Murphy's comic efforts and some decent action create a bearable entertainment for couch potatoes…
Posted Jul 04, 2024
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