Joeblade

Short reviews

  1. Moon Man

    Beautiful luminescent animation from the studio behind The Secret of Kells. Lovely soundtrack as well. Recommended.

  2. Vanishing Waves

    A pompous, tedious Lithuanian sci-fi romance. Awkward and dull.

  3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

    A decent sequel, though didn’t feel like it really went anywhere.

  4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

    Just wonderful. Fantastic soundtrack, beautiful cinematography, great performances. I love it.

  5. Shotgun Stories

    Accomplished drama detailing a pointless feud between two sets of Arkansas brothers. Lazily violent, plus Michael Shannon.

  6. Mars Attacks!

    A joyless, laugh-free slog.

  7. Cold in July

    Stylish & enjoyable hick flick that doesn’t stand up to a moment’s scrutiny. Nothing makes sense, but it’s nicely grizzled.

  8. The Last Samurai

    Not the Dances With Wolves-style white-man-better-native-than-natives tosh I was expecting; actually surprisingly not bad.

  9. The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

    Classic ‘70s Italian thriller. A bit dated & the scares no longer have such bite, but well worth watching

  10. Gallipoli

    WW1 drama which spends so long on the story of two young men enlisting there’s only about 10 minutes of actual war.

  11. Classe Tous Risques

    Grimly absorbing French ‘60s film noir. Stylish without being flashy.

  12. Doom

    Almost offensively banal.

  13. Ivansxtc

    An awkwardly-performed drama really only made watchable by the always-excellent Danny Huston.

  14. The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears

    I have no fucking idea what this film is doing. Not at all.

  15. The Quiet Earth

    Certainly one of the better ‘80s Australian sci-fi lo-fi post-apocalyptic thriller mysteries I’ve seen in my time.

  16. Castle in the Sky

    Standard Ghibli audio/video brilliance but the story feels a little incomplete, maybe better suited to a TV series.

  17. Her

    A nightmarish future vision of a world in which the only place to shop is Urban Outfitters. Chilling.

  18. Nashville

    I love Robert Altman films, but sitting through three hours of country & western music was quite a slog.

  19. Running Scared

    Some nice visuals in this odd action-thriller but it’s baffling, like watching a load of videogame cutscenes stuck together.

  20. I Frankenstein

    Utter crap from start to finish. Not even entertainingly bad, just…shit.

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