Paul Haine | Tales from the city

Paul Haine | Tales from the city

All articles by Paul Haine

  1. Review of Kenneth Branagh’s Thor

    Kenneth Branagh’s Thor always seemed like it would be the hardest comic adaptation to fit convincingly into the shared universe Marvel have been piecing together for a few years now. Despite lacking the same level of public recognition as some of the other heroes, and having a magical background that could have felt out of kilter with the rest of the technology-borne ensemble, Thor has turned out to be one of the more solid and enjoyable Marvel films so far.

  2. Review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes

    The endless slew of remakes, reboots and prequels only gets more complicated with every year. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is, as far as I can tell, a remake of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, a prequel to an as-yet unmade remake of the original Planet of the Apes (or perhaps an as-yet unmade remake of the remake of the original Planet of the Apes) and a reboot of the entire Apes series, all of which was based on a book. We live in confusing times.

  3. Reaper

    I’m thinking of a new policy of only watching TV shows after they’ve been cancelled, so I know the level of commitment expected of me. Lexx, an occasionally-brilliant, mostly-awful show ended after four seasons; easy to get through them despite the rapidly-plummeting quality because the finish line was always visible. Lost, on the other hand, I watched as it was broadcast and I abandoned the show in the third season because with no end in sight it was starting to feel like I was in purgatory.

  4. Review of Captain America

    Captain America: The First Avenger is a mildly enjoyable period romp where some staid action and the tawdry whiff of prequel is just about held together by a decent script and likeable characters. Very much a popcorn film; you might enjoy it at the time but you’re probably not going to reminisce about it later.

  5. The upper deck

    I regularly use the bus to get around London on the grounds that the Tube is a place where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. Tiring recently of the limited seating on the lower deck of the bus and the constant ethical dilemma about whether to stand for the elderly disabled pregnant woman or just keep on sitting like every other cold-hearted bastard Londoner, I risked a trip to the upper deck, a deck previously avoided because of the belief that you only sat upstairs if you wanted to be murdered by schoolchildren.

  6. Trailer for David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

    I’ve no real interest in the books, the original films or David Fincher’s remake, but this is an excellent trailer nonetheless.

  7. Trailer for Ed Gass-Donnelly's Small Town Murder Songs

    Hard to beat a bit of Southern Gothic.

  8. Trailer for Leon Ford's Griff the Invisible

    With Defendor, Kick-Ass and Super the fake superhero genre may already be saturated, but Griff the Invisible, starring True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten, looks like it has some charm.

  9. A Starbucks Experience

    My usual chain coffee establishment of choice is Caffé Nero; the coffee is good enough, they sell those little praline chocolates, the premises are generally clean and the background music tends to be of a pleasing Italian theme. Essentially it’s somewhere I can go to feel like an Italian without being molested by Berlusconi.

  10. Review of X-Men: First Class

    Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class is a welcome return to form for the X-Men franchise after the risible X-Men: Last Stand and the sloppy Wolverine origins story. The ’60s setting allows for a lighter tone than previous instalments but Michael Fassbender’s intensity as Erik Lehnsherr takes the film to some dark places.

  11. Jack Marston is a prick, but that's probably ok

    The character of Jack Marston in Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption doesn’t compare favourably to his father, John Marston, but with a bit of mental squinting I came to the conclusion that this character-hobbling was not only deliberate but desirable as well. Spoilers follow for the ending of Red Dead.

  12. Trailer for The Artist

    I love the look of this: a brand new black and white, French, silent film filmed in EYE-POPPING 2D! Both Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo were in the excellent spy spoof OSS-117: Cairo, Nest of Spies which Michel Hazanavicius directed, so this has a lot of potential.

  13. Review of Little White Lies

    A follow-up to the well-received thriller Tell No One, Little White Lies is unfortunately smug, tedious drivel that overstays its welcome for at least an hour. This review contains spoilers, but if you haven’t seen it then that’s ok because it means you’ll be able to leave the cinema after only 90 minutes instead of the full, gruelling 150.

  14. Trailer for Elijah Wood TV show Wilfred

    This had me giggling like a loon, and I don’t do that lightly.

  15. Trailer for Nick Tomnay's The Perfect Host

    This film looks like it exists purely so that David Hyde Pierce can have fun. Also impossible to watch the trailer without thinking it’s Ray Liotta as the criminal.

  16. Trailer for Mitch Glazer's Passion Play

    Some nice looking film noir here, and I don’t think Bill Murray has ever looked cooler.

  17. Duncan Jones' Source Code

    In Duncan Jones’ Source Code, Air force pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to work out who bombed a train but only has the same eight-minute period to live through each time, a bit like Murder on the Orient Express if Poirot was knifed in the chest at the end of every chapter.

  18. Trailer for Duncan Jones' Source Code

    I really miss Quantum Leap

  19. Trailer for Julia Leigh's Sleeping Beauty

    It’s about prostitution but it’s mysterious and beautiful so it’s art so that’s ok.

  20. Trailer for Matthew Schilling's Avarice

    Looks like No Country for Old Men except instead of a case full of money it’s a box full of science fiction.

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