Harry Brown (2009)Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 |
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An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend’s murder by doling out his own form of justice. |
Harry Brown (2009)Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 |
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An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend’s murder by doling out his own form of justice. |
Kung Fu Flid (2009)Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 |
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They shot his wife, they kidnapped his daughter. This time they messed with the wrong Flid. |
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 |
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Sidney Young is a disillusioned intellectual who both adores and despises the world of celebrity, fame and glamour. His alternative magazine, Post Modern Review, pokes fun at the media obsessed stars and bucks trends, and so when Young is offered a job at the diametrically opposed conservative New York based Sharps magazine its something of a shock! It seems Sharps editor Clayton Harding is amused by Young’s disruption of a post-BAFTA party with a pig posing as Babe. Thus begins Sidney’s descent into success - his gradual move from derided outsider to confidante of starlet Sophie Maes - and a love affair with colleague Alison Olsen, that will either make him or break him. |
Adulthood (2008)Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 |
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Powerful, disturbing and moving in equal measure, 2005’s acclaimed “Kidulthood” took us deep into London’s unseen underbelly, delivering a raw, hard-hitting reflection of what life is like for 21st century teenagers, where sex is currency, drugs are easy to come by and violence is a way of life. Six years after Sam Peel is released from jail for killing Trife, he soon realises that life is no easier on the outside than it was on the inside and he’s forced to confront the people he hurt the most. Some have moved on, others are stuck with the repercussions of his actions that night, but one thing’s for certain - everyone has been forced to grow up. Through his journey Sam struggles to deal with his sorrow and guilt and something else he didn’t expect - those seeking revenge. As he’s pursued by a new generation of bad boys, Sam sets about trying to get the message across to his pursuers that they should stop the violence, much like Trife tried to tell him all those years ago. Can Sam stop the cycle of violence and make something positive from the destruction he caused or will his journey into Adulthood end here? A positive tale disguised in the bleakness of its environment, Adulthood pushes home the moral lesson that crime doesn’t pay. |
Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The (2007)Monday, May 5th, 2008 |
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Based on a novel by Dick King-Smith, author of The Sheep Pig (from which Babe was adapted), the touching and often spectacular The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep ingeniously presumes to explain the truth behind “Nessie,” i.e., the Loch Ness Monster. The story, told in present day to a couple of American tourists by a kindly gentleman (Brian Cox) in a pub, begins with a lonely boy, Angus (Alex Etel), pining for his father, who is serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. Angus, along with his sister (Priyanka Xi) and mother (Emily Watson), live on an estate that has been billeted by soldiers in the Scottish Highlands, near Loch Ness. The troop’s commander (David Morissey) has an eye for mom, suspicions about a mysterious handyman, Lewis (Ben Chaplin), who is also a war hero, and an absurd contention that the Highlands are the real frontline in the war against Germany. Into this intriguing drama comes a completely different element, a fantastical creature of Celtic mythology that befriends Angus and is, in fact, the sea-beast who will eventually be known as the Loch Ness Monster. Trying to hide the dinosaur-like fellow, nicknamed Crusoe, Angus enlists Lewis to transfer it to the lake, where boy and serpent have extraordinary adventures together until human stupidity threatens Crusoe’s existence. A true family film, there is a lot for adults to like about the grownup story in The Water Horse. Meanwhile, the wistful relationship between Angus and Crusoe—each of whom helps the other move past obstacles toward their individual destinies—will leave children feeling both happy and melancholy in the best possible sense. Directed by Jay Russell (My Dog Skip), The Water Horse is the best of a mini-genre of films about or inspired by old Nessie. |