Movie Reviews
Victims and executioners
Paul Byrnes A filmmaker points an accusing finger at the American way of justice.
Slave to love
Sandra Hall Trivia triumphs over tragedy in a makeover of Tolstoy's classic novel Anna Karenina.
Pushing buttons
Amour
Jake Wilson The film's title demands to be taken as a question: is this truly what love looks like?
Safe Haven
Reviewed by Jake Wilson Will there ever be a good movie based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks?
Oscar contender woos with tough tale about love
Reviewed by Paul Byrnes Michael Haneke's last two films, this one and The White Ribbon, have both won the top prize at Cannes.
Sparks throws fireworks at formula, but bland leads fail to ignite passion
Reviewed by Sandra Hall A part in a Nicholas Sparks flicks has become a rite of passage for Hollywood's up-and-coming romantic leads.
Anna Karenina review
Main tragedy in this Anna is that it was made at all
Jake Wilson I have to wonder what the late Chilean director Raul Ruiz would have made of this new British version of Anna Karenina, which has something of the baroquely zany approach Ruiz brought to his own...
Faulty salute to Jack of one trade
Ed Gibbs Political correctness and police procedures have been allowed to run riot in The Sweeney.
Film review
Movie 43
Craig Mathieson Unfortunately, like most hyped movies – albeit in reverse – Movie 43 is not as bad as initially reported.
Sketchy comedy
Craig Mathieson A who's who of Hollywood A- and B-listers can't save Peter Farrelly's gross-out anthology.
What wickedness is this?
Heavy weapons and cartoonish stunts turn Hansel & Gretel into a blood fest.
Test of endurance
Test of endurance: Movie 43 defecates out gross short-films
Philippa Hawker Hugh Jackman with a pair of testes on his neck, a feature he seems sublimely unaware of; in fact Kate Winslet, on a date with him at a restaurant, is the only one who seems to notice.
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
Jake Wilson This dopey action-comedy imagines that Hansel and Gretel grew up into bounty hunters on a quest to exterminate every witch in Europe, an idea that sounds clever for about two seconds.
London brawling: criminal remake of a classic police drama
Paul Byrnes LEAVE it out. If you're going to revisit a classic British television series of the 1970s, one that brought a touch of panache and realism to the genre, you might at least come equipped with a story.
Elles
Jake Wilson Sex work fascinates many filmmakers, but the Polish director Malgoska Szumowska tackles the theme from a bold, individual point of view.
Star-powered gross-out fails to raise a laugh
Sandra Hall With Movie 43, gross-out artist Peter Farrelly is out to see just how much the market will bear.
Barely bearable gross-out act
Philippa Hawker This isn't the low point of Western civilisation that some US reviews seem to be suggesting; but it really doesn't have much going for it.
DVD Review
Safety Not Guaranteed
Giles Hardie Hotel Transylvania Rated PG, 91 minutes (Sony) 7/10 Despite the deluge of Adam Sandler films for which the adjectives ''adult'' and ''comedy'' vie to be the least-accurate descriptor, remember that...
Film review
Lincoln
Ed Gibbs This grand (and very long) drama is easily Steven Spielberg's best picture since Schindler's List.
