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Angus and Crusoe from the family fantasy film The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep

Film Review - The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep


BASED on the book by Dick King-Smith, The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep recounts a magical friendship between a boy and a wondrous creature in 1940s Scotland. Read

Image from the monster movie, Cloverfield

Film Review: Cloverfield


BUCKING the traditional expensive marketing campaigns, Cloverfield employed a brilliant conceived viral marketing campaign to whip up hype for what is essentially a low- budget monster movie. Read

Actor Christina Ricci from the romantic comedy, Penelope

Film Review: Penelope


IN SHAKESPEARE’S The Merchant Of Venice, Jessica famously declares, "Love is blind and lovers cannot see/The pretty follies that themselves commit . . . " Read

Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter in Tim Burton's film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Film Review - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street


A GHOULISHLY compelling Victorian horror story, and a film director with an unrepentant gothic passion for the macabre may sound like a marriage made in heaven (or hell). But what happens when the issue of that fiendish union is a musical? Read

Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon in the filom drama, In The Valley of Elah

Film Review: In The Valley of Elah


I THOUGHT it was a Biblical epic when I first heard the title, the Valley of Elah being the place where David met Goliath. Read

Keira Knightley and Saoirse Ronan in the film, Atonement

Oscar nominations announced

BRITISH film Atonement has scored seven Oscar nominations, including best picture. Read

Tommy Lee Jones from the film, No Country For Old Men

Film Review: No Country For Old Men


JOEL and Ethan Coen orchestrate an unbearably tense game of cat-and-mouse against the barren Texan borderlands in this frequently bloody thriller, based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. Read

John C. Reilly from the film, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Film Review: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story


IT IS not always easy to laugh at a film comedy when you are the only person in the cinema, as I was for the Liverpool press show of this American satire. Read

Image from the film Atonement, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley

14 Bafta nominations for Atonement

BRITISH film drama, Atonement, has received 14 nominations for the Orange British Academy Film Awards, it has been announced. Read

Image from the film, Charlie Wilson's War, starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts

Film Review: Charlie Wilson's War


ALTHOUGH it stops tantalisingly short of drawing explicit links between American involvement in Afghanistan during the early ’80s and the rise of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, Mike Nichols’s starry political satire draws a trickle of blood with its timely references to conflict in the Middle East. Read

Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche in the film, Dan, In Real Life

Film Review: Dan, in Real Life


THERE is something about American romantic comedies that make me want to reach for the sick bag, like those scenes where a couple kiss and everyone gets up to applaud. Read

Tang Wei and Tony Leung from the film drama, Lust, Caution by Ang Lee

Film Review: Lust, Caution


IN MARCH, 2006, Taiwanese film-maker Ang Lee was embroiled in one of Hollywood’s most shocking robberies. Read

Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler in the romantic film drama, P.S. I Love You

Film Review: P.S. I Love You


WITHIN the first 15 minutes of Richard LaGravenese's tepid romantic comedy, swarthy Irish musician Gerry Kennedy (Gerard Butler) dies, leaving his wife Holly (Hilary Swank) to contemplate a bleak future. Read

Will Smith and 'Sam' in the film, I Am Legend

Film Review: I Am Legend


BASED on Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, which inspired the films, The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man, I Am Legend is a post-apocalyptic thriller about the last remaining survivor of a terrible man-made catastrophe. Read

Zekeria Ebrahimi and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada in the film drama, The Kite Runner

Film Review: The Kite Runner


MARC FORSTER'S magnificent adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's best-seller has been making the headlines for all of the wrong reasons. Read

Image from the fantasy action film, The Golden Compass

Film Review: The Golden Compass


AFTER months of rumour and counter- rumour about a spiralling budget ($150m-$200m) and drastic changes to the screenplay, not to mention calls for a boycott of the film by the Catholic League, The Golden Compass is finally here. Read

Amy Adams in the Disney film, Enchanted

Film Review: Enchanted


I DID not enjoy this movie. So why, you may ask, have I given it four stars? The simple answer is that it was not made for a cynical, old critic like myself. Read

Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix in the film thriller, We Own The Night

Film Review: We Own The Night


“WE OWN the night” was apparently a New York cops slogan in the 1980s as they battled drug barons. Read

Jonas Ball in the film, The Killing of John Lennon

Film Review: The Killing of John Lennon


IT IS best to take an objective attitude towards this film, a drama based on the thoughts of Mark Chapman in the days before he shot John Lennon and the aftermath of his arrest. Read

Vince Vaughn in the film comedy, Fred Claus

Film Review: Fred Claus


CALL ME an old cynic, but I always feel Christmas films with strong moral messages are created just to make money and lots of it. Make a successful one, you see, and you can be assured of an annual income as the movie is shown over and over again. Read