DVD REVIEWS

I’m finding is difficult to write a review of Suits, because much of what I want to say about it sounds like an insult, but I don’t really mean it like that.

Okay, imagine you’re one of the contestants on The Apprentice. You know, the ones who think they’re god’s gift to business and that they crap genius – and whose favourite activity is telling everyone else how brilliant they are. [Read more...]

Having found fame in front of the cameras in the likes of X-Men and Goldeneye, Famke Janssen turns writer and director with Bringing Up Bobby. Milla Jovovich gets to take the central role as a Ukrainian immigrant to America Olive, who’s raising a young son called Bobby (Spencer List).

Olive’s idea of parenting isn’t exactly textbook, as she’s a full-on con-woman, happy to say and do whatever she has to in order to get by, whether it’s convincing a salesman to let her go on a test drive so she can steal a car, or pretending she’s raising cash for poor foreigners. [Read more...]

Sometimes you watch an old movie and it’s difficult not to wonder what the filmmakers thought they were producing when they made it. Konga is now seen as a b-movie cult classic of trampy camp. But when director John Lemont was making it, did he think his man in a monkey suit was good and would terrify audiences?  Did he think he was making a sci-fi thriller in the vein of King Kong that would impress people in the same way the 1933 movie did? Or even at the time did he know he was making silly nonsense that would be a guilty pleasure at best (perhaps the fact it’s called Konga suggests he did)? [Read more...]

A group of people head for a secluded clinic to take part in a medical trial, with the promise that if they stay for two weeks, they’ll get £2,000. After being introduced they’re taken off at hourly intervals to be given the drug, Pro9, and are then left to get to know one another.

That night the side-effects turn out to be far more dramatic than expected. The first of the guinea pigs to be given the drug is found doubled-over in pain and is taken off by the medics. Some time later, a second participant starts screaming. It soon becomes clear that the drug has extreme side-effects, which essentially turn people into unconscious psycho-killers, who are more than willing to inflict violence on those who get in the way. As the other patients realise escape is going to be difficult, they also know that everyone who’s been given the drug is potentially going to go off their rocker too, and the only reason more haven’t already turned is due to the hour-long gaps between the administrations of the first dose. [Read more...]

Bait is a movie about the unluckiest people in the history of mankind. An armed robbery is going on in an underground supermarket in Australia when a tsunami hits and completely floods the place. Many people are killed but the few survivors manage to find safety perching on top of the supermarket shelves. That’d be bad enough, but they soon realise they’re not alone, as the tidal wave has washed a man-killing great white shark into the shop with them.

Oh, and there’s also a live electricity wire sparking, which could kill them all if it hits the water. Suffice to say, nobody in this film is having a good day. [Read more...]

Rob Zombie has made his name as a filmmaker manking extremely gory films that seem designed to make the viewer want to constantly wince, such as The Devil’s Rejects and House Of 1000 Corpses. For The Lords Of Salem he sticks with horror but tones down the blood, guts and truly gruesome violence for a film that deliberately harks back to the movies of the 60s and 70s, although still with a modern feel. [Read more...]

I’ve never quite worked out why Comedy Central shows 30 Rock in the way they do in the UK, where we tend to get it in half season chunks (sometimes with the second half of one season and the beginning of another shoved together). It means that while 30 Rock – Season 6 ended in May 2012 in the US, it’s only just come to a conclusion on British TV, and so now we can get the 22 episodes on DVD. [Read more...]

What Richard Did got a healthy dose of publicity a couple of months ago when Michael Bay announced he was casting young Irish actor Jack Reynor in one of the lead roles in Transformers 4 after seeing his performance in Lenny Abrahamson’s movie. Reynor is indeed very good, although the film itself is slightly more problematic.

Richard (Reynor) is a young lad who’s popular, has plenty of friends and has status thanks to playing on the rugby team. He begins a relationship with Lara (Roisin Murphy), although there are some issues with her ex-boyfriend, Conor (Sam Keeley). At a party things come to a head when Conor steps into an argument between Richard and Lara, leading to a moment of violence that could have major repercussions for all involved. [Read more...]

1967′s Accident is the second of three collaborations between director Joseph Losey and playwright Harold Pinter, although less seen than either The Servant or The Go-Between. Among the cognoscenti, many consider it to be the best of their films together, but is that because it really is great, or just because these people like being contrary and sounding like they have rarefied tastes? Well, probably more of the former than the latter, although it’s not without interest. [Read more...]