Film review – Dagny – 21/11/97 The basic premise of this movie, which is reflected in the stunning opening sequence, is that space is so incredibly, unbelievably vast that there must be someone else out there. “If it’s just us”, say several characters in the film, “doesn’t it seem like an awful waste of space?”…
Film review – Conrad – 13/11/97 There should be a warning on the promotional material for this movie that it is likely to induce paranoia and a disconnection from reality. At least that’s how I felt when I came out. This is one of those movies that seems somehow familiar (I was reminded of Scorceses’…
Film review – Dagny – 12/11/97 The ubiquitous Ewan MacGregor you see him here, you see him there, this year you see him everywhere. In A Life Less Ordinary, by the film makers who brought us Shallow Grave, we see our boy Ewan playing yet another engaging loser. Alongside Ewan we have the less ubiquitous…
Film review – Conrad – 23/10/97 “Baby, you’re money, you are money”. So Trent (Vince Vaughn) tries to convince his friend Mike (Jon Favreau, first seen here in New Zealand as Monica’s millionaire boyfriend in ‘Friends’) that he is capable of re-entering the dating scene. Mike’s transition from a love torn loser trying to get…
Film review – Dagny – 23/10/97 Even those who are staunchly opposed to brass band music can find something to appreciate in writer-director Mark Herman’s Brassed Off. Set in the fictional North-England mining town of Grimley, the film tells the story of the Grimley Colliery Brass Band and the effect that the closure of the…
Film review – Dagny – 2/10/97 One of the reasons I went to see this movie was to see how well it would live up to Peter Hoeg’s extraordinary novel, Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow. But having said that, I think it is important that the film be judged not just for how well it…
Film review – Dagny – 4/9/97 I have to say that I think the name of this film is somewhat misleading. I was expecting the title character to be a 4,000 year old South American mummy with a penchant for terrorising museum staff, but this was not the case. It was in fact a genetic…
Film review – Dagny – 19/6/97 Given the recent glut of Shakespearean productions on film, one could be forgiven for feeling a little jaded about going to see yet another one. “Oh no, not yet another exquisitely mannered costume drama starring Helena Bonham Carter’s hair!”, one might well think. Well, pause a moment. Al Pacino…
Film review – Conrad – 21/5/97 French director Luc Besson (The Big Blue, The Professional, Nikita) sets up a classic good and evil scenario complete with an intelligent dark force played by a large all consuming ball of fire in space, and aided by the nasty Zorg played by ubiquitous baddy Gary Oldman (is it…
Film review – Conrad – 1/5/97 David Lynch, director of such movies as Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Eraserhead, and television classic Twin Peaks, is back to his enigmatic best with this one. The film stars Bill Pulman, who has all the right facial expressions for a man who doesn’t have a clue what’s going…
