Where is the horror film at in 2012?
Posted February 19, 2012 7:12 pm
The horror genre on screen seems to be at a crossroads at the start of 2012. Whilst there were individual horror films of interest released in 2011, there seemed to be little coherent sense of unifying trends, and the good films were greatly outnumbered by sequels, remakes, and rehashes that seem to come from the [...]
Digesting A Future for British Film, Lord Smith’s report on the UK film industry
Posted February 2, 2012 3:39 pm
A couple of weeks have now passed since David Cameron’s remarks on the British film industry were met with a collective raised eyebrow by the industry and blogosphere alike. Short version, he recommended making more commercially successful films. I gave a reaction to Cameron’s pronouncements in an earlier blog, in which I expended a lot [...]
Retro review – Reservoir Dogs
Posted January 23, 2012 3:35 pm
Okay, it’s about time for another retro review from sometime back in 1992. This is a big one though, my original review of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs which I took in at it’s screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Not to bore you again with tales of life before the internet, but back in 1992 [...]
And what is the Mainstream anyway? Some thoughts on David Cameron’s ideas to improve the commercial prospects of UK film
Posted January 11, 2012 3:23 pm
Today (the 11th January) the UK’s Prime Minister has outlined some of the coalition governments’ ideas of how to improve the commercial prospects of our small island’s film industry. You may have noticed this already, certainly Twitter and Facebook have been buzzing with comments. Well from the secluded woodland cave in which I dwell (it’s [...]
Retro review – The Nocturnal Demon – Ye mo xian sheng (1990)
Posted January 7, 2012 10:44 pm
Another retro review of a dodgy VHS Hong Kong exploitation number from my early nineties sojourn writing for an Industrial Music zine. This one is especially obscure. What I thought then… Nocturnal Demon File under ‘Weird Shit”. Nobody is gonna claim this is a great film, but I guarantee that you have never seen anything [...]
Retro review – My Heart Is That Eternal Rose – Sha shou hu die meng (1989)
Posted January 3, 2012 2:13 pm
Here we go, another vintage review written sometime in 1992. In the days before specialist DVD labels sprung up to cater to the desires of cult movie fans, foreign language releases were largely given over to what is still regarded as “Art cinema”. In the late eighties the new action cinema of Hong Kong started [...]
Retro review – Meet The Feebles (1989)
Posted December 27, 2011 9:37 pm
Here we go, another retro review clipped from the tattered pages of my complimentary copy of Convulsion fanzine. This movie is still a favorite and ripe for rediscovery. Seriously, there ought to be a three disc Arrow Video Blu Ray special edition of this by now. What I said then Meet the Feebles Dir Peter [...]
Retro review – Highway to Hell (1991)
Posted December 21, 2011 7:10 pm
I have been neglecting you my pretties. Too long has it been since my last retro review culled from a handful of film reviews I did for Industrial Music zine Convulsion back in the early nineties. So far we have had horror with Dust Devil and a road movie come revenge thriller with Gun Crazy, [...]
Glen, I know this was you.
Posted December 19, 2011 7:40 pm
So we decided to do Secret Santa at Chris and Phil Presents, we each chose a movie available on Amazon for under a fiver and Mr. Collier divied them up. So a few days ago I excitedly unwrapped this…. …and I wish I hadn’t. here’s the review. BTW I know this was you Glen. Santa’s [...]
Does anyone actually want to watch some movies?
Posted December 16, 2011 2:54 pm
The relationship between fandom, semi-pro and amateur movie blogs, bloggers and sites and the industry marketing machine is a long and complex one, but over the last year it increasingly seems to be spinning out of control. This is evidenced in the constant drip drip drip of paparazzi set photos, leaked plot details, teaser trailers [...]
Retro review – Gun Crazy (1992)
Posted December 7, 2011 3:10 pm
Here is another retro review, culled from the pages of Convulsion the long-gone music fanzine I used to write for in the early nineties. This is not a review of the 1950 Joseph H. Lewis film, but the 1992 sorta remake by the future director of Britney Spears classic Crossroads. Gun Crazy Dir Tamra Davis [...]
Retro review – Dust Devil
Posted December 2, 2011 2:35 pm
A recent tweet by fellow CnP scribe Glen Chapman asked of his blogger followers what was their first published film review. Of course this got the old nostalgia juices running and had me thinking of my very misspent youth writing reviews and features for an Edinburgh based alternative music fanzine called Convulsion. The magazine was [...]
Review – Take Shelter
Posted November 24, 2011 8:04 pm
TAKE SHELTER – 2011 Directed by Jeff Nichols. Starring Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon. Drama, US, 120 mins, cert 15. Released in the UK on the 25th November Is there anything more annoying than seeing something everyone is telling you is fantastic and being comprehensively underwhelmed? Well that is how [...]
This River Cottage is blood red!
Posted November 8, 2011 5:22 pm
From: Phil Newton To: Stuart Barr Date: 7 Nov 2011 River Cottage Hey Stu, Don’t know if you heard the latest Chris and Phil Presents Podcast but we have really bigged up your upcoming review of River Cottage: Winter is on its Way. We think this will be something our readers will be eager to [...]
