Reviews

Review: Before I Go To Sleep (2014) – Out now on DVD & BluRay

Posted on by indiemacuser

Pre-release review thanks to distributor StudioCanal.

beforeigotosleep Based on the best-selling novel by S.J. Watson. The film rights were initially acquired by Ridley Scott; who then brought Rowan Joffé on board as Director (he also wrote the screenplay).

Before I Go To Sleep tells the story of Christine (Nicole Kidman); who suffers from anterograde amnesia and wakes every day with no knowledge of her surroundings and how she came to be the way she is. She goes through life haunted by a past she can’t recall and a present she cannot fathom.

She lives with husband Ben (Colin Firth) who helps her to deal with her condition but we discover she has also been secretly seeing Dr. Nasch (Mark Strong) who is helping her to recover her memory through a video log. With his help she begins to piece together the pieces of her life; sometimes contrary to what she has been told. Continue reading →

BluRay Review: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Limited Edition – 2013)

Posted on by indiemacuser

Written by Lewis Mainwaring

This Limited Edition (Nov 2013) release by Arrow Films (10,000 copies) of the 1986 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is the sequel to the 1974 iconic movie The Texas chainsaw Massacre.IMG_2332

Tagged lined ‘The Buzz is Back’ this second installment of the franchise sees the Sawyer clan relocated from their family home and on a killing spree in an abandoned amusement park.

The original film poster is a parody of the 1985 film The Breakfast Club.

Chainsaw-wielding maniac Leatherface (Bill Johnson) is up to his cannibalistic ways once again, along with the rest of his twisted clan, including the equally disturbed Chop-Top (Bill Moseley). This time, the masked serial killer has set his sights on pretty disc jockey Vanita “Stretch” Brock (Caroline Williams), who teams up with Texas law-man Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper) to battle the psychopath and his family deep within their lair.
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Movie Gem of the Week: Death at a Funeral (2007)

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Death at a Funeral (2007) is a classic British farce comedy directed by Frank Oz (Little Shop of Horrors) and written by Dean Craig (A Few Best Men). It features a great comic ensemble cast including Matthew MacFadyen, Kris Marshall, Ewen Bremner, Alan Tudyk Andy Nyman, Peter Dinklage, Rupert Graves and Keeley Hawes. death-at-a-funeral

The film follows the great tradition of british ‘farce’ comedies (i.e. The Ladykillers, Carry On). The story revolves around Daniel (MacFadyen) who is left to deal with the funeral arrangements for his late father. Things are complicated when his fathers ex-lover Peter (Dinklage) turns up at the wake and a hilarious comedy of errors ensues. Continue reading →

Review: The Woman in Black 2 – Angel of Death

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The Womanthe-woman-in-black-angel-of-death_Fotor_Collage in Black 2 – Angel of Death is the sequel to the 2012 film The Woman in Black which starred Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur Kipps a young lawyer who travels to a remote village where he discovers a vengeful ghost of a scorned woman who is terrorizing the locals.

Directed by Tom Harper and written by Jon Croker and Susan Hill this film takes place 40 years after the events of the previous film.

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Blu-Ray Review: Day of the Dead (1985) Steel-book

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Day of the Dead is widely regarded as the third installment in George A. Romero‘s seminal zombie series; following Night of the Living Dead (1968) & Dawn of the Dead (1978).

IMG_1944 IMG_1945This Limited Edition Steel-book release from Arrow Films Video is a re-hash of their 25th Anniversary edition Blu-Ray release; the special features included here are the same.

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Blu-Ray Review: Birth of the Living Dead (2013)

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Birth of the Living Dead is a documentary detailing the production of the George A. Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead which is widely regarded as inventing the modern zombie genre as discussed in the film; directed by Rob Kuhns.

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 – Midnight showing Review

Posted on by indiemacuser

Written by Lewis Mainwaring & Benjamin Gummery

Spoiler Free

Mockingjay, Part 1 is the follow up to the 2013 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and is based on the Suzanne Collins‘ novel, Mockingjay, the third and final instalment in The Hunger Games trilogy.

MockingjayPart1Poster3.jpgDirected by Francis Lawrence (who also directed Catching Fire) the film stars Jennifer Lawrence as the captivating Katniss Everdeen, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. The film also sees the return of Donald Sutherland as President Coriolanus Snow – The tyrannical President of Panem who reigns with a ‘cold fist’ (insert laugh here), Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee and introduces Julianne Moore to the franchise as President Alma Coin.

This film follows on directly from the previous film with Katniss waking up to the realisation that District 12 no longer exists and that she is now at the heart of the new rebellions base located in the ruinsCoin-Katniss_Fotor_Collage of District 13. Continue reading →

Review: The Lookalike (2014)

Posted on by indiemacuser

From director Richard Grey and writer Michele Davis-Gray, The Lookalike is a gritty noir thriller starring Justin Long (also a Producer on the film), Gillian Jacobs, John Corbett & Steven Bauer.

This plays like any other drug deal gone bad, mixed-morals thriller. I did however find the plot baffling and hard to follow at times. The screenplay seems to assume you will figure out the back story as you go along as there are no real exposition scenes at the start of the film. It uses that old device of introducing us gradually to the characters intertwining tales; but this has been done better by others many times before.

Justin Long playslookalike1 Holt, the socially-conscious flatmate of drug dealer Joe who sparks up a romance with junkie Lacey (Gillian Jacobs); but as the story develops we see there is more to this interaction than meets the eye. Long turns in his usual quirky performance. Continue reading →

Blu-Ray Review: Withnail & I (Limited Edition)

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Arrow Films is releasing a new limited edition Blu-Ray set of the British cult comedy Withnail-Iclassic Withnail & I (1987) from Writer/Director Bruce Robinson and starring Richard E. Grant , Paul McGann & Richard Griffiths. This exclusive limited edition set will come packaged as a hardback book and includes new writing on the films, reprints of key press articles, deleted scenes and more over 200 pages and features original production stills.
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Blu-ray Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past – Empire Magazine Edition

Posted on by indiemacuser

Written by Lewis Mainwaring

After seeing this film on opening night way back in May, I had this on pre-order straight away. IMG_1255_Fotor_CollageAvailable exclusively on Amazon.co.uk this limited edition        Blu-ray comes packaged as a hardback book and features the exclusive  promotional tie-in covers from Empire Magazine.

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