pushing the sky

It’s perhaps worth noting here that, as far as I can tell, this is the second Tarantino-directed movie where Quentin himself doesn’t get in front of the camera at some point, as he’s wont to do in most of his other movies, Kill Bill being the other notable one. But where Kill Bill was brilliant [...]

What Happens in Vegas: Look, I know this is the kind of movie you’re supposed to hate if you’re any sort of movie buff, but I didn’t totally hate this. The plot: Kutcher and Diaz meet in Vegas, get hitched, win $3 million, are forced to wait 6 months for a divorce to split the [...]

Igor: Not Pixar-quality animation, not Shrek quality jokes, but a little endearing no less – Igor is slightly dark, slightly edgy, slightly different – but the problem is that it’s all slightly so. The voice cast is stand-out – John Cusack as the title character , Steve Buscemi as a suicidal immortal rabbit type thing, [...]

In Bruges: Dark-as-pitch comedy about a couple of hitmen (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) who are banished to Bruges, an historic town in Belgium, by their boss (Ralph Finnes) to lay low after a botched hit. A few good laughs and a great performance from Farrell, but there’s little enough redemption for any of the characters. [...]

Slumdog Millionaire: Jamal, a slum kid done good, is just trying to get back with his girl. The universe seems to have other plans for him, and it involves appearing on the Indian Who Wants to be a Millionaire? – where, despite his slum upbringing, he knows a streak of answers. This however makes the [...]

Tropic Thunder: The line between action movie and spoof action flick blurs wildly in this, though it pulls out just ahead in the spoof column. I suppose it’s only a commentary of our times when you wonder whether the product placement in this is intentional or whether it’s there to be parodied. While there aren’t [...]

Kanye follows up Graduation with a brilliant album that you will almost certainly not get on the first listen, if you’re expecting anything like Graduation or Late Registration. Kanye is of course reknowned for his hip-hop, but he takes a turn towards left-field here, experimenting with synth-pop style beats, and heavy on the synth-drums – [...]

Rocknrolla: Superrrrrb. Guy Ritchie at his best since Snatch, which surprisingly was way back in 2000. Weaves a tale of property, money and gangsters in (where else but) London, and does a damned good job of it. While you might only recognise one or two of the faces in here, most of the cast do [...]

Patapon – it’s a reasonably simple idea executed brilliantly: your button keys correspond to different drums, and combos timed to 4-beats-to-the-bar is like issuing a command. Mashing a “rythmn” game with a platformer that has some of the quirkiest characters and storyline you can think of. Unfortunately, it is actually really really hard. It’s deceptively [...]

Burn After Reading: Black-as-pitch comedy spoof of the spy thriller genre from the Coen brothers, starring Pitt, Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and J. K. Simmons – if that’s not a by-line for a winning movie, then I know not what will convince you. I love movies where seemingly simple storylines weave into [...]