Lord of the Fans

Exit Through the Gift Shop

This UK made film by paranoid pictures was the gem of this years Sundance film festival and is possibly best described by the man not quite behind the camera Banksy as, “the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed.”

This is the first film by Banksy, who’s graffiti can be seen on the separation barrier of Palestine’s West Bank, to post hurricane New Orleans, to right in your own back yard of Bristol and More

Rome

One of the best TV shows I have seen in recent memory was the BBC and HBO’s collaborative project; Rome. Set during the first Century BC, during the last years of the Roman Republic, the show included such famous protagonists of ancient history such as Julius Caesar, Pompey, Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Octavian, the latter of whom would become the first Emperor of Rome; Augustus Caesar.

This show was not suitable for children and did not shy away from showing More

Control - Film Review.

I have a confession to make. Although I have been quite a big fan of Joy Division for a great many years, I have only just got round to watching, ‘Control’… Why I did not go to see it when it was first released I am not entirely sure; and when it came out on DVD it just became another one of those films that ‘I must get round to watching’.

Well, after finally getting to see ‘Control’ I was More

Great British Comedies

Over the last few decades, there have been some truly great British comedies. The hallmarks of British comedy are much different to those of American comedies in general. Whereas in America, the objective is to get a laugh or a joke in every twenty seconds or so, in Britain, the comedy is far more subtle. Using dry humour and wit are considered the correct things to do, although we do have our fair share of American style sit-coms too.

Some More

Locke On

I’ve never liked seafood, so I was dubious about Crust (2001, directed by Mark Locke). But I needn’t have been, because it shared absolutely nothing negative in common with the prawns I so love to hate. Locke, a little known but well established director from Birmingham, UK, is a comedy genius: someone to watch this year and to come. And the man has experience. He’s behind a slew of ingenious short-films, such as Eat In and Lube and More

Film Review: Notes On A Scandal.

This dark and broody tale of lust, deception and perverse temptation is as faithful an interpretation of the novel by Zoe Heller as is viable for the big screen; a rollocking roller-coaster of a psychological drama with as much bite—or more—as some horror films.

Sheba hart is a late thirties sweet and innocent middle-class school-teacher who gets a job at the same London school as the villainous Barbera (played by an outstanding Judi Dench). Sheba quickly becomes a mysterious presence More

Best Of British: X 3

For a small island, Great Britain more than pulls its weight in terms of making quality films, year after year. While America blows its entire budget on explosions, actresses with more leg than talent and scripts constructed wholly from an MTV auto-cue, English film-makers continue to blaze the trail of progression.

Nothing could be further from American style movie-making than Mark Locke’s debut feature film entitled Crust (2002); made for a modest sum that a Hollywood extra would barely get More

Sean Pegg and Edgar Wright: Doing Great Things

When Shaun Of The Dead–penned by Edgar Wright, starring Sean Pegg and Nick Frost (Spaced)—rose from the grave it made the walking dead main-stream cool again; not that they weren’t cool before 2004, of course, just that after Sean sunk its teeth in, you didn’t have to be at all embarrassed when bringing up the subject of zombies and gore in your local. In fact, talking, singing, or acting like a zombie came to be in More

This Is Cinema!

British cinema has given us many movies with an edgy feel. It seems that our filmmakers are obsessed with dealing in controversial subjects. Hollywood will also tackle similar themes sometimes, but it tends to glamorise everything or to even make it look cool. There is something incredibly gritty about British film which is perfectly suited to handling difficult themes and a great example of this is 2006’s, ‘This is England’.

If you are old enough to remember the eighties then More

Hammer To Fall.

When you look back at British films it is impossible to do so without seeing Hammer. They churned out an amazing amount of movies and when the studio finally closed its doors in the mid 1980s it was a very sad day indeed.

They gave us some wonderfully scary films and some truly great characters. Who can think about Count Dracula without seeing an image of Christopher Lee, or Van Helsing, without remembering the brilliant Peter Cushing?

Today’s horror movies More