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4/5
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An Education
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
The 60s period detail is spot on, the script super-knowing. A wonderful surprise of a movie.
Posted Oct 29, 2009
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4/5
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Michael Jackson's This Is It
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
Because none of the footage here was ever intended for public viewing - only for MJ's library - the film has a unique and welcome authenticity.
Posted Oct 29, 2009
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2/5
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Couples Retreat
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
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Three of the four principal guys in this comedy are well over 15 stone - making them clinically obese by their body mass indexes. They need to lose weight not lessons in "couples skills building."
Posted Oct 16, 2009
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2.5/5
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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
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Terry Gilliam is perhaps the only director who could lure in the late Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell AND Jude Law - and still produce a phantasmogoric stinker.
Posted Oct 16, 2009
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2.5/5
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Love Happens
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
Lovers of therapy-speak with its "closures" and "I'm in a good/bad place" will probably warm to this film.
Posted Oct 09, 2009
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5/5
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Up
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
Visually, Up is breathless perfection, a dream ride of vivid colour and wit. It also has emotional depth. Carl's sense of failed purpose is felt: indeed he and Muntz are both, for different reasons, seeking fulfilment.
Posted Oct 09, 2009
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4/5
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Zombieland
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
Zombieland's not the first pic to take the mick of the genre. This one though has a great deal more zest than most.
Posted Oct 09, 2009
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2/5
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Creation
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
Even atheists may smart at the family picnic where a character intones, "All of nature is a battlefield," while neat cucumber sarnies are passed about.
Posted Sep 25, 2009
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4/5
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Fame
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
This may not please MTV fans but will appeal to primetime TV family audiences who've grown to expect the slickness of The X Factor's production values. Loads of talent and plenty of pretty faces. What's not to like?
Posted Sep 25, 2009
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5/5
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(500) Days of Summer
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
Director Marc Webb's debut feature is as far from a Sandra Bullock or Hugh Grant vehicle as you can imagine. What better reason to go see it? From start to end his subtle movie feather-teases your funny spots: it amazes, refreshes and it delights.
Posted Sep 05, 2009
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5/5
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District 9
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
You have to go back to 1979 and the premiere of Alien to find a sci-fi ET movie as thrilling and innovative as director Neill Blomkamp's District 9. His satirical fable on racism delivers all the toys and ploys for the fanboys while teasing and teaching t
Posted Sep 05, 2009
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3/5
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The Hurt Locker
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Set in war-torn Iraq of 2004, the pic's certainly excellent in many ways. But it never asks the question: "What are these American soldiers doing here?"
Posted Aug 31, 2009
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4/5
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Funny People
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
A relatively sophisticated comedy - despite the male insecurity fixations - and one that rings true on the oddballs paid to make us laugh.
Posted Aug 31, 2009
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2/5
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Dance Flick
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Dance Flick is a clod-hopping daddy hoofer of a pic that's arrived about a decade too late.
Posted Aug 20, 2009
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5/5
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Inglourious Basterds
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
The Dirty Dozen it most definitely is not. It's a war movie like no other, a 21st century film nerd's take on the 20th century's most tragic chapter. Cinderella's slipper and Sherlock Holmes' pipe are among the unlikely delights in QT's best film to date.
Posted Aug 20, 2009
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3.5/5
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Coco Before Chanel
(2009)
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Victor Olliver
|
We expect a fashion flick to be bitchy, shiny, brittle and superficial. So Coco Before Chanel may give many fashionistas the needle.
Posted Aug 03, 2009
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1/5
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Land of the Lost
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
There's a docu-drama to be made about movies like this. About how no-one had the courage to tell the star: This ain't funny!
Posted Aug 03, 2009
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3.5/5
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The Taking of Pelham 123
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
This is a post-9/11 city: terrorism is suspected, the cops are over-armed and trigger happy. Why they don't shoot Ryder when they could is unexplained.
Posted Aug 03, 2009
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2/5
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Antichrist
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Troma and porn have flogged this sort of stuff for years - the kind of films that don't get previewed by critics.
Posted Jul 26, 2009
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3.5/5
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The Proposal
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
At the Sandra Bullock Movie Factory, a Hunky Co-Star Assembly Line rivets a new head on a standard male muscular body per SB pic.
Posted Jul 26, 2009
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1/5
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The Informers
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Imagine Absolutely Fabulous without Edina and Patsy, or Dynasty without Alexis, and what have you got? The Informers.
Posted Jul 16, 2009
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2/5
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Moon
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Not even the marvellous Sam Rockwell (all two or more of him) can quite make up for the lack of dramatic impetus. You watch it and you keep thinking: Oh no, I can't cope with all this acting!
Posted Jul 16, 2009
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4/5
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Jim Broadbent's casting is a master stroke. He captures perfectly that blend of scattiness, eccentricity, furtiveness and fear that makes up Slughorn.
Posted Jul 16, 2009
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3.5/5
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Brüno
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
There are sequences of comic genius but you suspect that the huge dollop of cruelty in Cohen has got out of hand - and then the movie wilts.
Posted Jul 09, 2009
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4/5
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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Ice Age 3 is wittier than Kung-Fu Panda, certainly as slick as Toy Story. The Ice Age franchise shows no signs of thawing out. Come on 4!
Posted Jul 04, 2009
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2/5
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Public Enemies
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Public Enemies is like a Bugsy Malone for fashionistas - the actors look like models on a GQ shoot, posing about in dapper suits and toting fake shooters. The brilliant jail sets and Chicago recreations only add to a sense of mannequin perfection for styl
Posted Jul 04, 2009
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2/5
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Public Enemies
(1995)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Public Enemies is like a Bugsy Malone for fashionistas - the actors look like models on a GQ shoot, posing about in dapper suits and toting fake shooters. The brilliant jail sets and Chicago recreations only add to a sense of mannequin perfection for styl
Posted Jul 04, 2009
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4/5
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My Sister's Keeper
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Tears will be shed as the promised courtroom drama is displaced by other developments - Joan Cusack almost steals the pic as the lachrymose judge who has lost a young daughter herself.
Posted Jun 27, 2009
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3.5/5
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Sunshine Cleaning
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Sunshine Cleaning is not perverse for the sake of it: its eccentricities arise from characters whose lives fall outside the life guide manuals.
Posted Jun 27, 2009
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2/10
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Year One
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
This is every bit as disastrous as that other jungle-based comedy - when Peter met Katie on I'm A Celebrity.
Posted Jun 27, 2009
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4/10
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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Maxing the sci-fi elements, Bay brings in 50-odd different robots including two that win my Jah Jah Binks Film Award for comic ethnic stereotyping. Shellshock soon locks in as yet another monster twists out of carnage. Then you stifle the yawns.
Posted Jun 21, 2009
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7/10
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Telstar
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Against expectation, Nick Moran's stylised biopic of 60s pop producer Joe Meek is a surprising success - even if it's the great cast that saves the day.
Posted Jun 18, 2009
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7/10
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Red Cliff
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
As a lavish spectacle, this historical epic takes us back to the great days of King Vidor or Joseph L Mankiewicz, when sets were framed by incidental stars.
Posted Jun 11, 2009
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4/10
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Looking for Eric
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Beneath the raw surfaces of this movie there's a sentimentalism that doesn't strike true. Do adult mates put themselves out the way they do here?
Posted Jun 11, 2009
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7/10
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The Last House on the Left
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
This remake by Dennis Iliadis cost a great deal more than Craven's $100k and in many respects is an upgrade. What it lacks in the shock-of-the-new it makes up for with a more rounded storyline.
Posted Jun 11, 2009
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4/10
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Terminator Salvation
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Bale's dark mood is infectious - this fourth Terminator is a grim stew of alpha-male theatrics down to the two-day-old coyote dish prepared by a post-apocalyptic answer to Gordon Ramsay.
Posted Jun 04, 2009
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4/10
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Last Chance Harvey
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
The False Note might have been a more appropriate title. For director/writer Joel Hopkins's tale of second chances doesn't ring true from start to end.
Posted Jun 04, 2009
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4/10
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Fireflies in the Garden
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
A movie tomb in which zombiedom is confused with - what's the phrase? - "nuanced performances". Fireflies may be a douche to freshen up the thesp skills of A-listers, but why do we have to suffer for their art?
Posted May 28, 2009
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10/10
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Drag Me to Hell
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Crafted sadism is not held back - it's a movie Satan himself might have made if he'd got the funding. Raimi's story weds modern careerism to pagan demonology. The result is a fright-fest with satirical undertones.
Posted May 28, 2009
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9/10
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Awaydays
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Awaydays is a wonderful example of nostalgie de la boue - the "yearning for the mud". The pic wallows in Mersey misery evoked by its music heroes.
Posted May 21, 2009
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7/10
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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Ben Stiller's comic setpiece interludes provide the best laughs - his encounter with a goofy, officious security guard called Brandon is particularly good.
Posted May 21, 2009
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5/5
|
Hannah Montana: The Movie
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Kevin Irwin - As cynical exercises in teen marketing go, it's all relatively painless and, whisper it, great fun at times.
Posted May 20, 2009
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6/10
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Kevin Irwin - Stepping out of the shadows of his X-Men pals, Hugh Jackman's feral mutant gets his own back story - minus a true explanation of his glorious sideburns. It's a knowing foundation for franchise glory.
Posted May 20, 2009
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8/10
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Star Trek
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
By Kevin Irwin - Star Trek, the final frontier in nostalgia, a crass ploy for box office kerching or a celebration of sci-fi's most iconic forefather? Well, a touch of all three as it turns out.
Posted May 20, 2009
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8/10
|
French Film
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Director Oudney's great skill is to play a touch on national stereotypes (that's comedy for you) before delving into the heart of her characters.
Posted May 20, 2009
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4/10
|
Angels & Demons
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Angels & Demons is a film for pilgrim sightseers - marvel at the Vatican's lovely paintings as another corpse turns up.
Posted May 20, 2009
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4/10
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Good
(2008)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Viggo Mortensen stars as Prof John Halder - far too handsome for such a part: in life, the bookish are usually ugly as sin, let's face facts.
Posted Apr 16, 2009
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4/10
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Not Easily Broken
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
The film so goes against the grain of seculist and feminist thought that you just have to shrug your shoulders and ask: Hell, is it any good as a movie? Not really.
Posted Apr 16, 2009
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7/10
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I Love You, Man
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
It's hard to believe that two grown men would be discussing masturbation habits on their second man-date - even so, Segel is credible as a plain-speaking man-boy. And Rudd persuades as a man seeking a boyhood he never had until now.
Posted Apr 16, 2009
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10/10
|
In the Loop
(2009)
|
Victor Olliver
|
Not even Nancy Reagan's famed astrologer could have timed it better - the release date of Armando Iannucci's brilliant farce.
Posted Apr 16, 2009
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