Reviews

This stunning first German film from Swiss director Baran bo Odar is on the taboo English subject of Paedophiles. The film opens with a rape and murder of an 11 year old girl in a beautiful but deadly cornfield, her body thrown in to a lake.Forward 23 years and the same thing happens in the same place.This is not a who is the child molester film you know or think you do from the start. The ending is just jaw dropping. If you liked the Danish thriller The Killing or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo or the other recent Australian film Snowtown this is the film for you.It is very bleak and in places hard to watch due to the subject but if you can manage that this is a must see. The acting by all the cast of which i knew no one is brilliant.The film looks stunning all of it's 120 mins. There is no let up at all.A must see for those of you with guts of steel.

This turned up on the Horror Channel here in the UK. For over 50 years i have loved monster and Sci-fi movies,but had not heard of this, though made in 2001. No UK film release.It starts really well with a high speed plane loosing all its power due to aliens on an island below. Then the expedition to the island where there are giant mutations galore including Spiders and the cast get whitteld down one by one as is the case with glossy B movies involving somethings not human. It's quite fun as long as your not afraid of spiders etc but looses points from this critic for some of the worst film music i have ever heard over the many years. Some of the acting is a bit ropey but the gore makes up for that.Good fun on a sat night with some cool beers and a girl who grabs you when the monsters appear.

This is one of those rare examples of a funny horror film that actually is funny. Never got a release here in UK which it should have had and so after really good reviews in the DVD mags here, i rented it.What really made it entertaining for me , a lover of films where teens going to meet their end by nasty guys who live in the woods , is that this film turns the whole idea on it's head by having the backwoods guys being caring and really good, and the teens getting the wrong end of the stick by causing all the deaths due to accidents. The two lead performers bounce off each other beautifully with a cracking good script which for a comic send up is so important.The film looks ace and special effects are above standard. This will become a cult film and for all my 60 years of loving slice and dice movies, i can really say this is really worth your time,watch with some beers and enjoy.

I am an Old Time Variety writer,see cine variety on google and may be biased,but to answer Malcolm on this site who does not understand the BFI reasons for making a new fantastic print of this rarely seen UK 50s comedy is very simple.The list of comics to be seen,some of whom can't be seen to their advantage due to films lost and who's TV shows were binned by the BBC and ITV. Cardew Robinson (looking like The X Factor's Johnny Robinson)as Cardew the Cad (Radio show Variety Bandbox) in his only major film role,Fred Emney,Davy Kaye,Claude Hulbert, Stanley Unwin,Peter Butterworth,Gerald Campion,Ronnie Corbett,Melvin Hayes, plus UK Boxer Freddie Mills and 50s pop king Johnny Brandon backed by Francis Langford's Singing Scholars and the lovely Vera Day. So what if the jokes grate and the first half sags, but the second half picks up with the school concert and some good songs. The film was shown for the first time on UK TV by Sky Arts. Thank you to them and the BFI for their work. Loved by this old codger.

Here is a tip top made for TV Sci-Fi movie. The script is clever, the film belies it's budget looking fab with the South African locations and all the cast shine.The creature effects are excellent and the action gallops along with some style.I would of really liked to have seen this on a big cinema screen rather than my TV,big as it is, with the bloody adverts every 10 muns butting in.Another problem with watching films on TV here in the UK is the TV channel logo top right all the way through a film. Someone explain why? I know which station i am on. Anyway can't fault this film so it gets top marks from me mainly due to 60 years of not seeing this plot used before in the Sci-fi genre.Well worth your time or rent it without fear of the cost.

This is totally awful,in fact so bad that Plan 9 from Outer Space becomes a masterpiece. Why Plan 9? The interior of the super plane resembles the flying saucer set of said film.MFI comes to mind. The whole film looks as though it was made for less than 1000 dollars.What has happened to Casper Van Dien? Brilliant in Starship Troopers,here looking old, tired, bored stiff as you will be on looking at this drivel, this once promising actor has lost his way,plus the usual crackpot performance from Brad Dourif.Does he know no other style of acting? As for the rest of the cast, nothing can be said in any ones favour. There is also no excuse now days that a film is made for TV. Many are better than the current load of multiplex crap ie Real Steel,The Three Musketeers and Johnny English 2. Just catch recent TV made Sci Fi movie The Lost Future (2010) to see what i mean.Enough said.

Films with Red in the title tend to be good for some reason. No i am not doing a list, though i will mention top Australian thriller Red Hill. This did not get a UK theatre release. I only know of it as it was given faint praise by Kim Newman in an issue of Empire mag on it's belated DVD release.It turns out to be a handsomely filmed Drama with horror overtones as two youngsters and their friends return to the family home in the badlands of Utah, where a brutal rape causes them to return to try to put it behind them. Not the best idea to say the least, but this manages to carry it off with a good script and decent acting.Think the opposite side of the plot in the excellent Wolf Creek and your nearly there. Well worth a look and there's a dog you would not take down the pub!

Here is an all star UK, USA cast all at sea with a great fun idea ruined due to the fact that the camera can't keep still and a director who does not rely on a witty script and the good actors she has.The other problem is that films that deal with that days new's forget that very shortly afterwards or in my case 5 years later, it was bought in a boot sale, very few will remember any of the names and news of that time. A subplot of the editor screwing the chairman's wife is fun but does not go anywhere so one is left with very little. This, despite it's star cast, failed to do any box office here in the UK and most of it would be lost on a USA audience. An all round sad flop that could of been really fun.

Sunday shop in Asda Superstore Brighton UK. Always look at new DVD display. Full this week of USA horror and comedy Z movies. This shop also puts new foreign films with subtitles on the display, prices reduced as the lazy Brits still can't be botherd to read a subtitled film. What a lazy bunch some of us are, all though the Norwegion sub titled fun fest that is The Troll Hunter is pulling them in here in Brighton. I digress.I like true history, this film of the heroic defence of the Brest Fortress in June 1941 was something even at my age, 70 I had never heard of.Half way through, it's 138 mins long,I halt it for a cup of tea and said out loud, Hey a real film, no bloody CIC,no American crap heroics,and boy I am looking forward to seeing the rest.In my tea break I find that this fantastic heartbreaking true war film did not even get a UK cinema release. Disgraceful.All the performances are stunning, the film looks great on the wide print. Rent this and learn what barstards the Nazis really were. Highly recommended.

When you get a bad British comedy film , they don't come much worse than this inane rubbish with a great title and that's all. The star was a much loved zany DJ and comedy star who died of HIV far to young.Those of you in USA may know Pamela Stephenson as the wife of Comedian Billy Connerly,but the rest of a decent Brit comedy cast are totally wasted. This was part written by a very respected comedy writer and comedian, Barry Cryer, still making us laugh, seen at the beginning as a policeman getting covered in blood.So what went wrong? It was made at a time when sending things up was considered the done thing. The spoofs all go wrong and the whole mess seems to be mistimed,perhaps bad editing. The saddest sight is seeing Vincent Price trying to make good a bad script by addlibbing his lines. He also does not look too well.Kenny is fine and holds in his usual goofy self.I met him a couple of times, a nicer guy you could not meet. So as his film farewell iv'e been kind giving this 5, but that's for him not the dross.

Reaching 70 years young in a few weeks, I was thinking about some of the films I most enjoyed when young and would I still enjoy them now? The Fireman's Ball seems to be a lost comedy here in the UK. It never pops up on TV and does not appear in film festivals or revival houses.What a loss to those who were not alive in 1967. If your a Brit reading this think Dad's Army and then fireman instead and your nearly there.Its country of origin is Czechoslovakia,with a little help from Italy, a big hit with a best foreign film Oscar, a running time of 73 mins and not one minute wasted.A town's fire department celebrating with a ball to honour it's retired elderly chief, a beauty contest and a large table with raffle prizes that vanish one by one, that's it,but oh boy it is good, totally droll and very funny.The punchline at it's end maybe posted but who cares. If only some of the comedies today knew when to stop. Really pleased that this was one old film I rerented.

Please, a message from elderly British film critic on this site. Someone in USA please tell me who pays for this sort of total junk movie when times are supposed to be tough? Someone called Cody Deal, running around in his mothers woolly long john's or what appears to be a Primark yellow short skirt plus cardboard hammer is somehow jumping back and forwards in time to do what, is not really clear.With him is some actress who needs to stop now and go and learn how to act and most disappointing a good actor Richard Grieco who spends most of the time walking the streets of god knows where.This total waste of any ones TV licence has also some of the worst CGI i have ever seen, plus one scene lifted from another movie.All i can add is the big bucks summer movie Thor was superb.This crap just defies the fact that for 60 years i have loved fantasy movies. Into the trash can with this, hopefully never to get another showing anywhere and be binned forever.

Yes it's total crap,but sometimes total crap can be great fun and this film is.I like Dragons in films, but they have to look like the real deal.I think that most of a low budget went on them and they certainly get full marks.There are alas also some very poor effects of people in obvious fire protection gear being set on fire by said dragons. And then there is the king of low budget romps, the wonderful Mr John Rhys- Davies,playing a king with no food or money and he, just as usual, seems to be having fun. This is not a new film,it played on the teatime slot here in UK on the horror channel august 2011 and i have never heard of it before.Top listed is British actor Maxwell Caulfield who was married to Sir John Mills actress daughter Juliet. He was the star of the awful Grease 2 (1982) and never got any decent parts after that.His wig looks a fright. Script is fun, though to modern for a film set in the 12th century. There is also some Kung Fu for the kids, the film looks OK and the Dragons really are first rate. Harmless fun for the undemanding.

This hack and slash classy English historical movie set in the year 1215, tells the mostly true story of the vile King John,played with wonderful abandon by the great actor Paul Giamatti with a perfect English accent,who for reasons to many for this review lays siege to Rochester Castle in Kent.The castle looks the real deal, but it was built for the film in the beautiful countryside of Wales.The budget was small in USA terms,£20 million, but the film looks fantastic and belies it's low budget.The main theme music by Paul Brady is beautiful.The cast is the cream of British actors, the likes of James Purefoy,Brian Cox,Derek Jacobi,Charles Dance and Jason Fleming.Mackenzie Crook and new young actor Aneurin Barnard shine in supporting roles along with female lead Kate Mara.It is a very gory movie with proper stunt work rather than reliance on CGI.Here in UK it got a 15 cert.If you like this sort of film, think a smaller version of El Cid, then your in for a treat.For reasons i don't understand this cracking good film sat on a shelf for over a year to get a release.In my view, a must see.

This is one of the worst Aliens vs Earth movies i have ever seen in my 60 odd years of viewing movies.Ed Wood's junk classic Plan Nine from Outer Space beats this by miles. With a viewing time of 116m,i guess there are four minutes total of what the invaders look like. The script stinks, the action bits all look the same and apart from the aliens wanting Earth's water, nothing in this film tells us anything from the aliens point of view. All you get is a lot of Marines led by the totally wooden Aron Eckhart running around firing guns at something that you hardly ever see.Throne into this mess is a subplot of a wife with post-traumatic stress,the usual mix of old rookies and young marines with their macho talk,plus some of the worst acting you have ever seen. Avoid this film. Total rubbish from start to finish.

Part two of a series of straight to DVD Rayne vampire movies, this handsome looking low budget adult Western rides along OK, with all action actress Nataassia Maithe as Rayne the Vampire killer and Zack Ward playing Billy the kid, the Vampire boss who comes to the town Deliverance, waiting for the new railroad to come to town so that he can send his new souls across America. Fun for the late night audience, this gets by on Maithe's charm,looks and fighting abilities and Wards menacing vampire. Don't expect much and you will be pleased. The music score sounds very much like Close Every Door, a song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.This series has quite a following here in the UK.There are also some minor cuts for the TV version here in UK.

Good quality transfer to DVD. This is one of the best in the series, with a cracking script, showing off Arthur Lucan's over the top washerwoman, Old Mother Riley character to it's best. The plot has Lucan getting he sack from the laundry after a quarrel with its owner and perspective candidate for Parliament.Riley finds out that he wishes to pull down their homes and the local pub and decides to stand for Parliament herself.The social points of the haves and the have-nots are as fresh today as it was in the year of release 1939.Riley is appointed Minister of Strange Affairs,(there should be one of those!) and in a stupid ending to a good farce, forces an Emperor of a tin pot country called Rocavia to cough up a dept of £50,000,000 owing to Britain. Very topical you see. This also benefits with Kitty Mcshane, his real wife at the time, being sidelined from much of the plot. Third billed and looking like some 1950s beefcake actor is Brit Torin Thatcher,later to be a brilliant villain in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958).Well worth a look.

Firstly, the sound and print transfer to DVD is excellent.Plot has daughter Kitty becoming engaged (poor fella!)to Joe (Jerry Verno)who gets posted by the hotel company he works for to Paris.Old Mother Riley (Arthur Lucan)wins £250 compensation and along with Kitty (Kitty Mcshane)goes to Paris to find out what Joe is up too. The old standby script of this type of 30s comedy,spies and espionage slots in and in the end, there is nothing exceptional in the plotting.Mild fun. GOOF Both the walls used in the prison scene and the nightclub are the same,look at the drawings.UK fans of much missed TV entertainer Kenny Everett can see who he got the quick crossed legs idea from. More background for Arthur Lucan in my review of Old Mother Riley Headmistress on this website.

Fifty years after his death behind the curtains of the Tivoli Theatre,Kingston upon Hull, whilst waiting to go on stage Arthur Lucan, born Arthur Towle in 1887 is not really remembered today. Along with wife Kitty Mcshane who was 16 when he wed her,Lucan would play Irish harridan washerwoman Old Mother Riley with Kitty as his daughter in 15 B movie comedies starting in 1937 and finishing in 1952 without wife due to separation,(her infidelity and his drinking)in the best film, Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, starring the great Bela Lugosi Lugosi's UK stage tour of Dracula had failed at the box office and along with Lucan who was also broke due to an ill advised venture by Kitty, teamed up with Dora Bryan replacing female interest Kitty, plus a bevy of British comic talent inc Hattie Jacques and Richard Wattis. The DVD copy of this and the lesser Headmistress 1951 is not bad. The other two releases, both again on one disc, Jungle Treasure 1952 and New Venture 1950 are poor in the sound dept. These films packed cinemas as their live act packed theatres all over the world. They topped The Royal Variety Show in 1934.The humour was very broad and perhaps has not traveled very well, but if a new audience can be found with these releases, I for one will be very happy. Bit of Trivia for movie buffs. Vampire was released as surport film to Untamed Frontier starring Joseph Cotten, Shelley Winters and Scott Brady. A really weird double bill.

Here in UK among the swelling amount of potty TV stations , there is one labeled Horror. It is very good at showing missing films from the 60s that are not as yet on DVD. This is not a horror film, waste of great title, just an action crime mystery.18 cert is odd too. A very bored looking Vincent Price along with equally bored all purpose actress Martha Hyer plays a famous magician who calls up pretty girls from the audience on stage to have them disappear completely, as they end up in the White Slave trade in Morocco run by a mystery mastermind.

The best thing by far in this, is lead George Nader, gay beefcake pin up of the 50s. Looking very smart in good suits as the investigator,this actor had moved to West Germany in the 60s.Here he found stardom again in a series of thrillers as Jerry Cotton. He would return to USA,to find he had been left a large money legacy from old friend Rock Hudson.He turned to being a successful author, dying at 80. No I didn't guess the mastermind, but it was so improbable like the rest of this movie. Low brow fun.

Well guys and galls of the USA I only found this totally fun monster flick in the bargain shelves at the local HMV store here in sunny Brighton UK by accident.Nothing like this gets to a cinema here anymore. We have the oldest cinema in the UK here in Brighton. They show mostly the best movies from abroad. The two big chains have so far come a cropper with this summers big releases from the USA. Anything with Green in the title died within a week.Thor which I saw and really liked did OK.Pirates drowned, one sequel two many,X Men failed to sore and Transformers has just opened with crap reviews,and it's 2 and half hours long.The other problem here is 3D. The cost in your wallet is awful plus the quality of projection to site is crap. Thor for instance did not need any gimmick to show a fun and well made summer movie. Its the small stuff that's putting bums on seats here, Bridesmaids a total hoot and the rotten sequel to last years Hangover. Back to Infestation. Laugh out loud movie , cracking good monsters and Twin Peak,s Ray Wise. This should of been in a multiplex near you. The good stuff just doesn't get there anymore.

Nearly every country that makes movies has a classic crime thriller in it's cannon. Some idiot somewhere decides to remake them. Think Psycho (1998)or worse Diabolique (1996). It has nothing to do with the fact that I have lived in Brighton from 1960 or that I have both been a TV and film reviewer for some many years, plus in my old age, written a new book on Cine Variety,this remake just stinks.In 1947 this country made a classic thriller movie, BRIGHTON ROCK.The source was written by Graham Green in 1938. The lead actor was a very young man, now Sir Richard Attenborough.acting his sox off as Pinkie Brown.The film in the USA was called 'YOUNG SCARFACE' Yes I know there is always someone out there who saw the original film and thinks its the best. If you have never seen it, BUY the DVD now..This new film stands up fine as a TV thriller,set in the 60s here in Brighton though much was filmed along the coast in Eastbourne due to Brighton knocking down their historic sites. Just get to watch the original.NOW.

I remember reading Rosemary Sutcliff's novel The Eagle of the Ninth on which this film is based, in 1954. Why it has taken so long to be made in to a movie is amazing? Both the leads are excellent;hardly a woman in sight.It turns the slave becoming the master beautifully, with a class script. The Scottish settings are worth the price of a ticket alone.My one complaint is that the camera is far to intrusive in the many fights. Here in the UK the film was given a 12A cert. It shows. On DVD the cuts are restored. Listed in the credits is the well known actor Douglas Henshall.I have searched with an eagle eye(sorry) to see him, but to no avail. Fans of the film A Prophet will be very happy with another magnetic performance from Tahar Rahim and the posh UK mag Sight and Sound who call Channing Tatum's performance 'Dead Weight' need to get a life.Well worth a look.

I love bad movies as a rule. Hey i have Plan B from Outer Space. Compared to that film which is very funny, River of Darkness should not be mentioned in the same sentence. There is not one member of the cast that can act. Kurt Angle should stick to wrestling. The story lines on TWA are way above the level of this drivel. Was Angle reading his lines of an \idiot board ? There seems to be no one in every time he speaks. The other wrestlers including Kevin Nash have no lines at all and still look like idiots as zombies in crap makeup. At one point a girl is pulled out of a boat. There are two others in this boat, a girl and a guy. The guy just sits there as if nothing has happened. There is no climax to this film. It suddenly just stops.This movie should with out doubt be in the all time worst movies ever made. Do not waste your money on this. Mike Lang. UK Brighton Sussex. 31/4/11.