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A Simple Plan (15) ***
(Dir: Sam Raimi, 121 mins) Although adapted by Scott B Smith from his own crime novel, the setting, plot and amoral underpinning of Sam Raimi's snowbound, Midwestern noir thriller have much in common with, respectively,…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
S Club: Seeing Double (PG) **
(Dir: Nigel Dick, 91 mins) If nothing else, you have to admire the sheer cheek of a manufactured band making a movie in which they get to tell a manufactured band not to be puppets. Having complained about their…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
S.W.A.T. (12A) **
(Dir: Clark Johnson, 117 mins) Those who are comforted by revisionism will be pleased to find that this two-hour LAPD recruitment video’s worship at the twin altars of cliché and stereotype means it springs no…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
S1m0ne (PG) **
(Dir: Andrew Niccol, 117 mins) The writer of ‘The Truman Show’ and director of ‘Gattaca’ serves up a disappointingly heavy-handed film industry satire which sees Al Pacino lapsing back into scenery-chewing form. Matters…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sabrina (12) ****
That rare commodity - an updated Hollywood classic that gains rather than suffering in the process of modernisation, 'Sabrina' stars Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond in the roles originally taken by Bogart and Hepburn.…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Saddest Music in the World, The (15) ***
(Dir: Guy Maddin, 101 mins) A peculiar semi-musical tale of beer, miserable laments and bizarre love triangles, which is based, improbably enough, on a story by Kazuo Ishiguro. This is a mix that will prove too ripe…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Safe (15) *
Julianne Moore is Carol, a transcendently dreary who visits her doctor complaining that she’s “stressed out”, although the only real stress in her life would appear to result from the delivery of a three-piece suite in…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Safe House (15)
USA 2012 115 mins Dir: Daniel Espinosa Starring: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson One of those thrillers that become progressively less interesting with each successive twist, 'Safe House'…24.02.2012 READ MORE -
Sahara (12A) ***
(Dir: Breck Eisner, 127 mins) An obvious attempt to establish a new Indiana Jones-style franchise based on the Dirk Pitt potboilers hacked out by Clive Cussler, with a decidedly B-list cast playing second fiddle to the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saint, The (12) **
(Dir: Philip Noyce, 118 mins) Paramount attempts to revive another ancient TV franchise, deploying the usual ingredients of camp, action and stupidity to hit that target 18-25 demographic. Val Kilmer is Simon Templar,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saison des Hommes, La (12) ***
(Dir: Moufida Tlati, 124 mins) A slow, contemplative, richly observant exploration of women's roles in a strictly patriarchal Arabic society, which resists polemic in favour of simple human compassion. Stuck on the grim…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Salt (12A) ***
(Dir: Philip Noyce, 2010, 100 mins) Now renowned as the movie Tom Cruise rejected in favour of the atrocious ‘Knight and Day’, the most notable aspect of ‘Salt’ is that, following a gender switch, it offers the…14.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saltwater (15) **
(Dir: Conor McPherson, 97 mins) A not-especially-amusing nor particularly dramatic comedy-drama set in an out-of-season Irish seaside resort, expanded from his own stage play by director Conor McPherson, 'Saltwater'…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Salut Cousin! (15) ***
(Dir: Merzak Allouache, 102 mins) Algerian smuggler Alilo has been sent to Paris by Mr. Big to collect a consignment of contraband. Being useless, however, he’s managed to lose the address of his contact and is obliged…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Samson and Delilah (15) ***
(Dir: Warwick Thornton, 2009, 101 mins) Warwick Thornton’s acclaimed debut feature as director looks terrific thanks to Thornton’s own vibrant cinematography (his initial trade), but those with an aversion to longueurs…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Sanctum (15)
(Dir: Alister Grierson, 2011, 109 mins) His name's on the poster for this 3D cave-diving romp, but James Cameron served only as producer on 'Sanctum', ceding direction to Aussie Alister Grierson, working from a…02.02.2011 READ MORE -
Santa Clause 2, The (U) ***
(Dir: Michael Lembeck, 104 mins) It's eight years since Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) found himself landed with the red suit, white whiskers and big belly after he accidentally killed Santa and went off to live with elves…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, The (U) *
(Dir: Michael Lembeck, 98 mins) Wringing the last drops of audience seasonal goodwill from a lazy yet lucrative franchise, this third instalment conjures up the disturbing image of Santa boffing Mrs. Claus (fear not,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Santa Clause, The (U) ***
Tim Allen (of ‘Home Improvement’ fame) is a divorced toy company executive who’s good at what he does, but hardly overburdened with compassion for his fellow man. All this changes one Christmas when he’s looking after…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sarah's Key (12A)
France 2010 110 mins Subtitles Dir: Gilles Paquet-Brenner Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Niels Arestrup, Melusine Mayance, Frederic Pierrot, Dominique Frot How do you engage today's audiences with a little-known…05.08.2011 READ MORE -
Savage Grace (15) ***
(Dir: Tom Kalin, 2007, 97 mins) Sixteen years on from ‘Swoon’, Tom Kalin takes another notorious period true-life murder and amps up the febrile sexuality (gay, straight, bi and incestuous). Those who find this…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Savages, The (15) ****
(Dir: Tamara Jenkins, 2007, 113 mins) Aside from featuring yet another outstanding Philip Seymour Hoffman performance, Tamara Jenkins’ sophomore outing sounds a resonantly poignant note about the way terminal illness…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Save the Last Dance (12) ***
(Dir: Thomas Carter, 113 mins) An MTV production that aspires to be a teen romance with some cool dancing. After Sara's (Julia Stiles) mom is tragically killed on the way to give support at her daughter's ballet…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saved! (12A) ***
(Dir: Brian Dannelly, 92 mins) It’s such a pleasure to find a mainstream American film taking the piss out of Christian fundamentalism in the current climate that one can just about forgive the formulaic teencom plot…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saving Grace (15) ****
(Dir: Nigel Cole, 94 mins) A superior Britcom that takes the essence of the Ealing spirit - a healthy anti-establishment mischievousness - and allies it to subject matter and attitudes which are very much of the moment.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saving Private Ryan (15) ****
(Dir: Steven Spielberg, 169 mins) Based on a made-up story about a special mission to rescue one almost random private from certain death during the hellacious carnage of the Allied invasion of Europe, the opening of…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saw (18) ****
(Dir: James Wan, 102 mins) A refreshingly raw, visceral, independent horror flick from Australian first-time director James Wan. Two men wake up in an abandoned subterranean toilet, shackled by their legs to the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saw 3D (18) **
(Dir: Kevin Greutert, 2010, 90 mins) The moralising psycho is back, along with his ever-increasing band of previously undisclosed sidekicks and apprentices. As the titles implies, ‘Saw 3D’ – or ‘Saw VII’, if you’re…03.11.2010 READ MORE -
Saw II (18) ***
(Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman, 92 mins) The conundrum facing first-time writer/director Darren Lynn Bousman and his collaborator Leigh Whannell (co-creator and co-star of the original ‘Saw’) was how to get the action back…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saw III (18) **
(Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman, 108 mins) If you missed the two previous Saw films, this is not a good time to join the series. Though two new victims, ER surgeon Lynn (Bahar Soomekh) and burned-out dad Jeff (Angus…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saw IV (18) **
(Dir: Darren Lynn Bousman, 2007, 92 mins) The annual ‘Saw’ faces something of a problem as Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is on the slab getting the full Gunther von Hagens treatment. But what’s this in his stomach? Why it’s…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saw V (18) **
(Dir: David Hackl, 2008, 92 mins) If you’ve not seen any of the previous Saws, this is not a good time to come on board since you’re expected to remember the minutiae of previous films without prompting. This time, the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Saw VI (18) **
(Dir: Kevin Greutert, 2009, 90 mins) It’s death and dismemberment with a social conscience in the Heath Robinson of Torture Porn’s latest annual outing. This time round, Jigsaw is positively Obama-esque in his…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sawako Decides (12A)
Japan 2009 112 mins Subtitles Dir: Yuya Ishii Starring: Hikari Mitsushima, Ryo Iwamatsu, Masashi Endo, Kira Aihara, Kotaro Shiga In her fifth year in Tokyo, country girl Sawako (Mitsushima) is on her fifth job and fifth…15.07.2011 READ MORE -
Say It Isn't So (15) *
(Dir: J.B. Rogers, 88 mins) No need to let the plot detain us for too long here (because, rest assured, it sure as hell didn't detain the film makers). So: lonely boy Chris Klein meets dream woman Heather Graham, falls…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Scanner Darkly, A (15) ****
(Dir: Richard Linklater, 100 mins) In the most faithful Philip K. Dick adaptation to date, Richard Linklater uses the ‘interpolated rotoscoping’ technique he pioneered with ‘Waking Life’ to provide an intriguing visual…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scar (18) *
(Dir: Jed Weintrob, 2008, 90 mins) This 3D horror flick’s raison d’etre is to deliver torrents of blood and severed bits’n’bobs as close to your naked, steaming eyeballs as it’s possible to get without nailing them to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scarlet Tunic, The (12) ***
(Dir: Stuart St. Paul) Based on a short story by Thomas Hardy, this flawed but entertaining independently made period romantic drama has a group of German soldiers drafted into the English army during the early 19th…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scary Movie (18) **
(Dir: Keenen Ivory Wayans, 88 mins) Welcome to BA Corpse High School, where all the seniors are visibly in their late 20s and a masked madman (or two) is on the loose, slaughtering self-involved, pop-culture-obsessed…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scary Movie 2 (18) *
(Dir: Keenen Ivory Wayans, 82 mins) No sequel, they promised at the end of last year's movie. Sure! With Marlon Brando dropping out of his cameo to be replaced by James Woods in the pre-credits 'Exorcist' spoof, this…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scary Movie 3 (15) **
After the fairly lamentable first couple of Scary Movies, director Keenan Ivory Wayans has been dumped in favour of David Zucker, who brings along Leslie Nielsen, presumably in the hope of elevating the franchise to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scary Movie 4 (15) *
(Dir: David Zucker, 83 mins) This dreadful franchise remains the most mystifying success story in present-day cinema. David (‘Airplane!’) Zucker was drafted in for the third one, but hopes that his casting of Leslie…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scenes of a Sexual Nature (15) ***
(Dir: Ed Blum, 92 mins) This no-budget Britcom managed to attract a big-name cast because of its script. It doesn’t quite live up to the hype, and you’ll miss nothing by waiting for the DVD. But despite a certain…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Schizopolis (15) ***
(Dir: Steven Soderbergh, 96 mins) In what would have been classed as a pre-credits sequence if director Steven Soderbergh had bothered to put any credits on the thing at all, he addresses the audience in the manner of a…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
School For Scoundrels (12A) **
(Dir: Todd Phillips, 2006, 101 mins) Inevitably, this US remake of the 1960 Britcom by Todd (‘Road Trip’ ,’Old School’) Phillips takes a cruder approach than its predecessor. It also conflates Alastair Dim’s…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
School of Rock (PG) ****
(Dir: Richard Linklater, 109 mins) It’s wholly predictable, stuffed with caricatures, and enormous fun from start to finish. Jack Black’s first big starring role, written for him by co-star Mike White, succeeds because…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Science of Sleep, The (15) ***
(Dir: Michel Gondry, 2006, 105 mins, partial subtitles) In the absence of regular collaborator Charlie Kaufman’s screenwriting skills, hip pop video director Michel Gondry allows his imagination free rein in this…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (PG) **
(Dir: Raja Gosnell, 91 mins) Even given low expectations, ‘Scooby Doo 2’ manages to disappoint. The idea is workable: Mystery Inc return to their rarely-seen home base of Coolsville, USA, to open a museum dedicated to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scooby-Doo (PG) **
(Dir: Raja Gosnell, 85 mins) Warner Brothers could have taken advantage of decades of stoned student deconstruction to produce a smart, post-modern, adult-oriented ‘Scooby-Doo’. Alas, this is strictly for kids. Which…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Score, The (15) ***
(Dir: Frank Oz, 123 mins) The first onscreen teaming of Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando turns out to be a old-fashioned, ho-hum heist flick. Directed by the bloke who was the voice of Fozzie Bear. Bob's the meticulous…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scorpion King, The (12) ***
(Dir: Chuck Russell, 92 mins) Set 5000 years ago in biblical deserts, this ‘Mummy’ spin-off is the Conan-like tale of warrior Mathayus (American fake wrestler The Rock) who gets swept up in a fight against troublemaking…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (12A) ***
(Dir: Edgar Wright, 2010, 112 mins) Adapted from Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley’s cult graphic novel series, this gives a fantastical makeover to the familiar dweeb jock-trouncing wish-fulfilment theme: a weedy…14.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (12A) **
(Dir: Stephen Kijack, 2006, 95 mins) Intense, miserable, hard-drinking, Camus-quoting, Brel-crooning Scott Walker certainly endeared himself to the narrow music critic demographic, the commercial failure of his alleged…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scouting Book For Boys, The (15) ***
(Dir: Tom Harper, 2010, 93 mins) Scripted by ‘Skins’/‘Shameless’ writer Jack Thorne and directed by Encounters veteran Tom Harper, making his feature debut, this British coming-of-age drama has much to commend it,…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scratch (15) ***
(Dir: Doug Pray, 91 mins) Doug Pray’s evangelical account of the rise of the turntable as an instrument rather than merely a device for playing records permits no dissenting voices and devotes an awful lot of time to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scream (18) ****
(Dir: Wes Craven, 104 mins) A horror flick that deconstructs itself before your very eyes, packed with genre references for nerdy buffs and enough scary moments to satisfy the non-committed, ‘Scream’ is Wes Craven’s…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scream 2 (18) ***
(Dir: Wes Craven, 120 mins) A sequel that cleverly anticipates and neutralises any criticism, this is an obvious cash-in on the success of the first film, attempts to upstage its predecessor by increasing the gore…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scream 3 (18) ***
(Dir: Wes Craven, 116 mins) At the beginning of what is claimed to be the very last film in the 'Scream' series, one of the nerdy protagonists explains that all bets are off in the concluding part of any horror trilogy:…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Scream 4 (15)
USA 2011 111 mins Dir: Wes Craven Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Hayden Panettiere, Emma Roberts Back in the day, distributors used to ship in Wes Craven for packed junkets where earnest young…27.04.2011 READ MORE -
Screamers (18) ***
A low-budget Canadian SF flick with ideas above its abandoned space station, this is based on a Philip K. Dick story, scripted by ‘Alien’ screenwriter Dan O’Bannon. On the isolated mining planet of Sirius 6B in the year…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sea Inside, The (PG) ****
(Dir: Alejandro Amenábar, 125 mins) A film about a paraplegic fighting for the right to a dignified death might sound like a gloomy prospect, but Javier Bardem’s extraordinary, Oscar-nominated performance lights up…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Seabiscuit (PG) ****
(Dir: Gary Ross, 140 mnis) America went nuts for this inspirational true tale of an apparently washed-up 30s racehorse who became the nation's champion. San Francisco automobile industrialist Charles Howard (Jeff…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Season of the Witch (15)
(Dir: Dominic Sera, 2011, 95 mins) There are unintended pleasures to be had from this latest preposterous vehicle for Nic Cage (hairpiece status: shaggy), for whom it seems no project is too daft. Having hacked and…12.01.2011 READ MORE -
Second Skin (18) **
(Dir: Gerado Vera, 100 mins) Nice artist Ariadna Gil suspects her handsome aeronautical engineer hubby Jordi Molla of having an affair. But even though Jordi sports a fine growth of designer stubble that makes him look…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secondhand Lions (PG) ***
(Dir: Tim McCanlies, 111 mins) Another slice of sepia-hued American childhood nostalgia, this is set in 50s Texas where 12-year-old Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is dumped by his flighty mother on a pair of eccentric loner…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret Ballot (U) ***
(Dir: Babak Payami, 105 mins) This ambiguous if beautifully photographed Iranian flick about a female election agent who arrives on an island to collect the locals’ votes has been interpreted variously as a droll comedy…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret Defense (PG) *
(Dir: Jacques Rivette, 170 mins) Nearly three hours of not much happening with no apparent point to people you couldn’t give a toss about, without so much as a sugar-coated camera angle in sight. Unless, of course,…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Secret Garden, The (U) ****
Polish director Agnieszka Holland makes her English-language debut with this intelligent, poignantly filmed version of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 children's classic. Orphaned rich girl Kate Maberly is dispatched to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret in Their Eyes, The (18) *****
(Dir: Juan Jose Campanella, 2009, 129 mins, subtitles) An hour into this superb Argentinean crime thriller, there’s a breathtaking, apparently unbroken shot worthy of DePalma or Scorsese. It’s a bravura scene that’s all…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret Life of Bees, The (12A) **
(Dir: Gina Prince-Blythewood, 2008, 110 mins) Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 bestseller, from which this saccharine chick flick has been adapted, is apparently well-regarded. One can only assume that something went missing as it…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret of Moonacre, The (U) **
(Dir: Gabor Csupo, 2009, 103 mins) A low-watt kid fantasy adapted from Wells-born god-botherer Elizabeth Goudge’s ‘The White Horse’. It’s directed with anonymous competence by Hungarian former animator Gabor Csupo, who…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret of Roan Inish, The (PG) ****
This is the first film indie maverick John Sayles has made specifically for children, although it comes as no surprise to find its ostensibly straightforward retailing of a beguiling Irish myth wreathed in a deeper,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret Window (12A) ***
(Dir: David Koepp, 96 mins) A sub-‘Misery’ Stephen King adaptation with Johnny Depp as Mort Rainey, a blocked writer cultivating an heroic level of dishevelment as he potters around muttering to himself in his remote…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secret, Le (18) ****
(Dir: Virginie Wagon, 107 mins) Virginie Wagon previously co-scripted 'The Dream Life of Angels' with her partner Erick Zonca, who returns the favour for her exceptional first feature, an involving look into the most…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Secretary (18) ****
(Dir: Steven Shainberg, 104 mins) A provocative S&M art movie, adapted from a Mary Gaitskill short story, that will make you laugh out loud - and not in the wrong places. Disturbed, self-harming former mental patient…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secrets and Lies (15)
Mike Leigh returns to familiar bittersweet comic territory with this flawed yet acutely observed tale of ordinary folks with festering secrets and a penchant for that great Leigh speciality: the excruciating social…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Secuestro Express (18) ***
(Dir: Jonathan Jakubowicz, 87 mins) Based on 28-year-old writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s experiences as a kidnap victim, and shot on the mean streets of Caracas, this is the tale of a wealthy couple (arrogant…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
See Spot Run (PG) **
(Dir: Robert Whitesell, 88 mins) Dog-hating postie David Arquette has the hots for sexy single mom Leslie Bibb, but she reckons he’s an irresponsible slob. When she goes away on business, he winds up looking after her…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Select Hotel (18) ***
(Dir: Laurent Bouhnik, 94 mins) There’s nothing remotely select about the eponymous ironically named Parisian flophouse Whose ever-shifting population of beggars, transvestites and junkies are vulnerable twentysomething…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Self-Made Hero, A (15) ****
(Dir: Jacques Audiard, 105 mins) Brought up in a small provincial town by his embittered, widowed mother, fantasist Mathieu Kassovitz pretends to have been a French Resistance hero after falling under the spell of…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Semi‑Pro (15) **
(Dir: Kent Alterman, 2008, 91 mins) Will Ferrell takes yet another opportunity to combine his flair for the fashion and musical disasters of the 1970s with his odd tendency to limit himself to by-the-numbers sport…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Senna (12A)
UK/France/USA 2010 106 mins Dir: Asif Kapadia Hard on the heels of the unexpectedly successful 'TT3D' comes another documentary focusing on a maverick bent on testing the infernal combustion engine to its limits in one…03.06.2011 READ MORE -
Sense and Sensibility (U) ****
Scripted with skill, subtlety and understanding by Emma Thompson, and directed with fastidious perfection by Taiwanese film-maker Ang Lee, this captivating Jane Austen adaptation captures the intensity of human feeling…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sentinel, The (12A) **
(Dir: Clark Johnson, 108 mins) This is one of those thrillers that seem to be constructed by taking bits of other, superior films and welding them inexpertly together, adding only a thoroughly preposterous twist. In…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
September Issue, The (12A) ***
(Dir: R.J. Cutler, 2009, 90 mins) Inevitably dubbed “the real ‘The Devil Wears Prada’”, R.J. Cutler’s documentary is something of a treat for fashionistas but winds up telling us very little indeed about its putative…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Seraphim Falls (15) ***
(Dir: David Von Ancken, 2006, 115 mins) We get few enough westerns these days, so it’s a pleasure to see those lovingly photographed widescreen New Mexico and Oregon vistas up on screen again in US telly veteran David…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Serendipity (12) **
(Dir: Peter Chelsom, 90 mins) Bloomingdales, Christmas 1994. Boy (John Cusack) meets girl (Kate Beckinsale) over gloves they both want. Although they're dating other people there's an obvious mutual attraction. A few…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Serenity (15) ****
(Dir: Joss Whedon, 119 mins) A stand-alone spin-off from Joss Whedon’s cult sci-fi TV series ‘Firefly’, this is what the ‘Star Wars’ prequels could have been - if George Lucas were a gifted purveyor of ultra-smart pop…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Series 7: The Contenders (18) ****
(Dir: Daniel Minahan, 89 mins) In a society where the media and the authorities seem to have absolute power, contestants in popular reality TV gameshow ‘The Contenders’ are chosen by lottery. Six players then compete to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Serious Man, A (15) ****
(Dir: Joel and Ethan Coen, 2009, 105 mins) The Coen brothers’ star-free return to their suburban sixties Jewish roots has been somewhat over-praised by those who disapprove sternly when the siblings set out simply to…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Serpent, The (15) ***
(Dir: Eric Barbier, 2006, 121 mins, subtitles) French director Eric Barbier tackles ‘Plender’, a novel by the late Ted (‘Get Carter’) Lewis, turning out a gripping and stylishly directed if somewhat derivative vengeance…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Set It Off (18) **
(Dir: F. Gary Gray, 120 mins) A quintet of wronged women decide to put one of their number’s inside knowledge of banks to good use by conducting a few heists. Former rap video director F. Gary Gray does his best to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Seul Contre Tous (18) *****
(Dir: Gaspar Noe, 93 mins) Those who take the view that artists have a duty to impose moral judgements upon their subject matter should steer clear of what is surely the grimmest, most intense, and quite possibly the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Seven (18) *****
World-weary detective Morgan Freeman is in his last week on the force when he and his hotshot young replacement Brad Pitt find themselves confronted by a macabre murder in which the victim was forced to eat himself to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Seven Pounds (12A) *
(Dir: Gabriele Muccino, 2008, 125 mins) Will Smith reunites with ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ director Gabriele Muccino for a film that is, astonishingly, even worse: a phoney, ponderous, maudlin, ludicrous, steaming pile…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Seven Swords (15) ***
(Dir: Tsui Hark, 153 mins) This handsome wuxia (that’s ‘martial arts chivalry’ for the uninitiated) epic from Chinese director Tsui Hark avoids the over-use of wirework and CGI in favour of real stunts by an…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Seven Years In Tibet (15) **
(Dir: Jean-Jacques Annaud, 131 mins) The idea of Brad Pitt on a spiritual journey always did seem a bit duff. And for director Jean-Jacques Annaud, who once made a thriller with a cast of bears, it must have been…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Severance (15) ****
(Dir: Christopher Smith, 95 mins) The optimistic tagline might be “‘The Office’ meets ‘Deliverance’”, but this blackly comic homegrown slasher will also have horror geeks thinking of such recent lost in the woods…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (15) ****
(Dir: Mat Whitecross, 2009, 115 mins) First-time director Mat Whitecross’s unconventional, non-linear Ian Dury biopic incorporates animation, live performances and fantasy sequences, and unfolds in three different,…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Sex and Lucia (18) *****
(Dir: Julio Medem, 128 mins) Haunting, uninhibited and genuinely erotic, Basque magical realist Julio Medem's most accomplished film to date boasts all the stylised visual motifs, non-linear storytelling and…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sex and the City (15) ***
(Dir: Michael Patrick King, 2008, 148 mins) For anyone who enjoyed HBO’s groundbreaking TV series about independent single women searching for love and labels in Manhattan, this spin-off is essential viewing. That said,…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sex and The City 2 (15) ***
(Dir: Michael Patrick King, 2010, 146 mins) Despite what you may have heard, this is not the worst film ever made. It’s not even the worst ‘Sex And The City’ film ever made. Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big have…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sex Drive (15) **
(Dir: Sean Anders, 2008, 109 mins) Owing much to the minor Rob Reiner gem ‘The Sure Thing’, this updates the sweet-natured romcom premise to the coarser noughties with plenty of gratuitous male and female nudity plus…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (18) ***
(Dir: Gough Lewis, 86 mins) Meet Annabel Chong, aka former convent girl Grace Quek, who set a world record back in January 1995 when she had sex with 251 men in ten hours. Gough Lewis’s decidedly untitillating…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sexy Beast (18) ****
(Dir: Jonathan Glazer, 88 mins) Much counts against this modest British film, in which an ex-gangster is forced out of retirement on the Costa del Crime for 'one last job': not least the hackneyed scenario and the fact…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sgt. Bilko (PG) **
Jonathan Lynn’s reworking of the classic Phil Silvers TV show illustrates most of modern Hollywood’s failings and few of its strengths. First, the lack of vision: let’s not take any risks on anything new but adapt a…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shadow of the Vampire (15) ****
(Dir: E. Elias Merhege, 91 mins) Little is known about Max Schreck, the cadaverous and genuinely spooky star of F.W. Murnau's classic 1922 vampire flick, 'Nosferatu'. So screenwriter Steven Katz has filled in the gaps…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shadowlands (U) ***
The performances in Dickie Attenborough's weepie about repressed Oxford don C.S. 'Jack' Lewis's (Anthony Hopkins) tragic relationship with American admirer Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) are exemplary. What lets it down is…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shaft (18) **
(Dir: John Singleton, 100 mins) Samuel L. Jackson seems an obvious choice to be re-cast as blaxploitation's greatest hero. Except he isn't, quite, for, in a nice nod to the original film, Richard Roundtree contributes…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shaggy Dog, The (U) ***
(Dir: Brian Robbins, 98 mins) Disney’s 1959 live-action comedy gets a contemporary vivisection laboratory makeover. But it’s not long before the film settles in to those person/pooch transmutation antics craved by the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shakespeare In Love (15) ****
(Dir: John Madden, 121 mins) Beautifully written by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, this British-made film has Joseph Fiennes as jobbing playwright Will Shakespeare, a man who has a cavalier disregard for deadlines and a…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shall We Dance? (PG) ****
(Dir: Masayuki Suo, 117 mins) The winner of 13 homegrown Academy Awards, Masayuki Suo’s subtle, warm-hearted, romantic ballroom dancing comedy should delight hoofers and non-hoofers alike. On his daily journey home,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shall We Dance? (Remake) (12A) **
(Dir: Peter Chelsom, 106 mins) Masayuki Suo’s likeable Japanese light comedy is tweaked as a star vehicle for unappealing screen couple Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. Gere plays a middle-aged lawyer who feels there’s…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shallow Ground (18) **
(Dir: Sheldon Wilson, 97 mins) Horror flick newcomer Sheldon Wilson’s debut certainly distinguishes itself by boasting one of the most laughably overblown scores in a genre not noted for its restraint. And Wilson is…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shallow Hal (12) **
(Dir: Bobby & Peter Farrelly, 113 mins) Hal Larsen (Jack Black) is the kind of insensitive everyman who believes that beauty is only skin deep, eagerly obeying his bubbling hormones at the sight of a well turned calf or…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shame (18)
UK 2011 101 mins Dir: Steve McQueen Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale The familiar lengthy tracking shots are present and correct, and there's another extraordinary performance from Michael…13.01.2012 READ MORE -
Shanghai Knights (12A) ***
(Dir: David Dobkin, 114 mins) ‘Shanghai Noon’ hit upon a winning formula, pairing the frantic, uptight Jackie Chan with Owen Wilson in full-on laidback dude mode for a hugely enjoyable culture-clash comedy western. So…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shanghai Noon (12) ****
(Dir: Tom Dey, 110 mins) A comic western that has everything: Jackie Chan doing absurd stunts with horseshoes and vegetation, Owen Wilson exuding laid-back charm as his unlikely pardner, enough movie references to keep…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shanghai Triad (15) ****
Eight days of jealousy, betrayal and (offscreen) sex and violence surrounding Shanghai's most powerful triad leader as seen through the innocent, often uncomprehending eyes of 14-year-old servant boy Shuisheng, who's…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shank (18) ***
(Dir: Simon Pearce, 2009, 89 mins) For such a low-budget, digital video production, this locally made, sexually explicit gay coming-of-age/gang violence drama is exceptionally technically accomplished and directed with…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shank (2010) (15) **
(Dir: Mo Ali, 2010, 94 mins) Music promo director Mo Ali makes his leap into the world of feature films with this rough-edged tale of tit-for-tat gangland violence that takes place on a London council estate of the near…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Shaolin Soccer (12A) ***
(Dir: Stephen Chow, 87 mins) Pruned of 30 minutes of footage, this version of the most successful locally-made film ever released in Hong Kong remains a bizarre oddity: a comic mutant hybrid of the martial arts flick…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shape of Things, The (15) ***
(Dir: Neil LaBute, 96 mins) After his disappointing adaptation of A.S. Byatt’s ‘Possession’, Neil LaBute returns to what he does best – i.e. misanthropy - with this partial inversion of the themes of his controversial…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shark Night 3D (15)
USA 2011 91 mins Dir: David R. Ellis Starring: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Sinqua Walls With two months to go until brilliantly titled sequel 'Piranha 3DD' is released, opportunistic bottom-feeders are…30.09.2011 READ MORE -
Shark Tale (U) *
(Dir: Vicky Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, Rob Letterman, 90 mins) With only their third computer-animated feature, Dreamworks have blown it. Not in financial terms, of course: the movie took $47 million in its first week at…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sharkwater (PG) ***
(Dir: Rob Stewart, 2006, 89 mins) Rob Stewart crossed the line from wildlife film-maker to environmental activist when he chanced upon a barbaric and indiscriminate ‘long-line fishing’ operation. The target is the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shattered Glass (12A) ****
(Dir: Billy Ray, 95 mins) Stephen Glass was the star writer among the competitive preppy twentysomethings at the USA’s prestigious New Republic magazine. But after a bit of corner-cutting to secure his amazing scoops,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shaun of the Dead (15) ***
(Dir: Edgar Wright, 100 mins) A self-styled ‘romzomcom’ from the people behind cult TV sitcom ‘Spaced’, this bucks the telly-to-big-screen trend by getting the job done in a scuzzy, low-budget kind of way, with…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
She's All That (12) ***
(Dir: Robert Iscove, 95 mins) Director-choreographer Robert Iscove's feature debut takes 'Pygmalion' to the Prom. Actually, while George Bernard may provide the essential storyline, it's the teen romancers of John…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
She's The Man (12A) ***
(Dir: Andy Fickman, 105 mins) ‘Twelfth Night’ gets the inevitable high school makeover. Hamster-cheeked Amanda Bynes plays Viola, who’s pissed off that her school soccer coach doesn't consider girls good enough to play…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shelter (15) **
(Dir: Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, 2010, 112 mins) Every so often, a horror-thriller comes along which is so demented in its plotting or premise that it delivers far more entertainment than quality. Played dead…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Sherlock Holmes (12A) ***
(Dir: Guy Ritchie, 2009, 128 mins) Dastardly Victorian villain Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) is apprehended just as he is about to sacrifice a maiden in a Masonic ritual under London. He goes to the gallows, but returns…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows (12A)
USA 2011 129 mins Dir: Guy Ritchie Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Stephen Fry, Rachel McAdams, Jared Harris, Kelly Reilly We're a very long way from Arthur Conan Doyle here. But if that doesn't…19.12.2011 READ MORE -
Sherrybaby (15) ***
(Dir: Laurie Collyer, 2006, 96 mins) A TV-sized movie with a big screen performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal, this junkie rehab drama strives for indie cred but struggles with over-familiarity. Feisty bottle blonde Sherry…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
She’s Out of My League (15) ***
(Dir: Jim Field Smith, 2010, 104 mins) This sub-Apatow US teencom attempting to do the sweet/funny/grossout thing serves as a textbook illustration of the law of diminishing returns as it delivers stock characters (the…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
She’s The One (15) **
Fans of independent writer/producer/director/star Edward Burns’s micro-budget debut ‘The Brothers McMullen’ may experience a feeling of deja vu while watching this $3 million follow-up: a comedy that chronicles the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shifty (15) ***
(Dir: Eran Creevy, 2009, 85 mins) Writer/director Eran Creevy successfully dodges most of the pitfalls of the British urban yoof drugs’n’crime drama with his low-budget debut. Set in the fictional London high-rise…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shine (12) ****
(Dir: Scott Hicks, 106 mins) Already acclaimed as one of the best films of 1997, this is the strange but true story of Australian classical pianist and child prodigy David Helfgott, who was disowned by his overbearing…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shine A Light (12A) ***
(Dir: Martin Scorsese, 2008, 122 mins) Scorsese's film of the Rolling Stones’ two 2006 charity benefit nights at New York's Beacon for Bill Clinton’s 60th opens with a grainy black and white preamble that largely…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shipping News, The (15) **
(Dir: Lasse Hallstrom, 117 mins) Veteran treaclemeister Lasse ('The Cider House Rules', 'Chocolat') Hallstrom puts E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel through the feelgood blender, reducing its sparkling…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shirin (PG) *
(Dir: Abbas Kiarostami, 2008, 91 mins, subtitles) In the 12th century Persian folk story, Khosrow and Shirin are two doomed lovers, whose tale involves much wailing and howling. It’s clearly quite moving, if the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shoot ‘Em Up (18) ****
(Dir: Michael Davis, 2007, 86 mins) A homeless hard man (Clive Owen) feels obliged to intervene when a pregnant woman runs past, pursued by a gunman. This leads to a genocidal shoot-out, the delivery of a baby, the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shooter (15) ***
(Dir: Antoine Fuqua, 2007, 126 mins) The baddies in Antoine Fuqua’s thriller are shadowy neo-cons and the hero a disillusioned patriot, but this is a thick-ear action thriller that owes rather more to the Jason Bourne…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shooting Dogs (15) ***
(Dir: Michael Caton-Jones, 115 mins) Like Terry George’s ‘Hotel Rwanda’, Michael Caton-Jones’s BBC-backed ‘Shooting Dogs’ is based on a true story from the Rwandan genocide of 1994. But this one privileges…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shooting Fish (12) ****
(Dir: Stefan Schwartz, 104 mins) On paper, it looks like one of those clumsy ‘60s caper movies as two contrasting con men recruit a beautiful assistant and set about fleecing the complacent rich (fish in a barrel) in…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shopgirl (15) **
(Dir: Ananad Tucker, 104 mins) Adapted by Steve Martin from his own novella, this feels like a calculated attempt to emulate Bill Murray’s transition to serious drama and grab some of the ‘Lost in Translation’/‘Broken…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shopping (18) **
A British city, the near future. Surly ram-raider Jude Law gets out of jail to be met by waifish Sadie Frost and they race off for a spot of "crash and carry" with their feral chums, displeasing rival gang leader Sean…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Short Cuts (18) *****
Robert Altman's ensemble pieces have always featured a polyphony of overlapping conversations, and in 'Short Cuts' there's often so much going on that you'll strain to hear significant snippets, but it's a testament to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shortbus (18) ****
(Dir: John Cameron Mitchell, 101 mins) The pleasant surprise about this latest sexually explicit cause celebre is how funny, tender and warm-hearted it is for a film that includes an energetic sex scene which plays like…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shorts (PG) ***
(Dir: Robert Rodriguez, 2009, 89 mins) Parents might be advised to filter this experience through sunglasses and a couple of valium, but Robert (‘Spy Kids’) Rodriguez’s latest kidflick delivers where it matters for the…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Shotgun Stories (12A) ***
(Dir: Jeff Nichols, 2007, 92 mins) A low-budget directorial debut with big ambitions, 29-year-old Jeff Nichols’ languid, atmospheric slice of southern gothic is shot in glorious widescreen to capture every inch of its…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Show Me Love (15) ***
(Dir: Lukas Moodysson, 89 mins) 30-year-old Lukas Moodysson's directorial debut was one of Sweden's biggest hits of recent years. It's not difficult to see why it struck such a chord in the world's boredom and suicide…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shower (12) ***
(Dir: Zhang Yang, 92 mins) A likeable film festival favourite pitting traditional community values against the onward march of technological progress, 'Shower' centres on Beijing's oldest, crumbliest bathhouse, run by…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Showtime (12) ***
(Dir: Tom Dey, 95 mins) In obligatory post-modern form, Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy send-up their established personas again, the former a humourless no-nonsense LAPD detective who gets saddled with the latter’s…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shrek (U) *****
(Dir: Andrew Adamson/Vicky Jenson, 89 mins) This is a proper fairytale adventure of the variety that Tinseltown hasn't pulled off successfully since 'The Princess Bride'. It's filled with fabulous creatures, boasts an…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shrek 2 (U) ***
(Dir: Andrew Adamson/Kelly Asbury/Conrad Vernon, 93 mins) The sequel to the well-deserved inaugural ‘Best Animated Feature’ Oscar winner has happily married ogres Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) summoned to…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Shrek Forever After (U) ***
(Dir: Mike Mitchell, 2010, 93 mins) After the disastrous ‘Shrek the Third’, DreamWorks attempts an alternate timeline reboot to replay the highlights of the first couple of movies, tweaked slightly so the audience…14.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shrek the Third (U) **
(Dir: Chris Miller & Raman Hui, 2007, 93 mins) Something nasty is happening to the fairytale inhabitants of Far, Far Away. An evil mogul has trapped them inside his big money-making machine, where they’re doomed to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shrooms (18) **
(Dir: Paddy Breathnach, 2007, 84 mins) Cross-breeding the stoner and slasher genres, Irish director Paddy Breathnach’s derivative horror flick has a quintet of American teens flying thousands of miles to wolf down magic…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shut Up and Sing (15) ***
(Dir: Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck, 2006, 93 mins) Fortunately, Oscar-winning documentary film-maker Barbara Kopple and her co-director Cecilia Peck were on hand to capture the moment back in 2003 when…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shutter (15) (Remake) **
(Dir: Masayuki Ochiai, 2008, 85 mins) This crappy US remake of an Asian horror flick comes from the people who gave us those unnecessary Americanised Rings and Grudges, its sole point of interest being that their…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Shutter (15) ***
(Dir: Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom, 2004, 96 mins, subtitles) Photographer Tun and his girlfriend Jane are driving home drunk when they hit a young woman who appears on the road in front of them. With the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Shutter Island (15) ***
(Dir: Martin Scorsese, 2010, 138 mins) A pulptastic exercise in High Preposterousness, Scorsese’s movie buff tip of the hat to his favourite paranoid/gothic psychological horror-thrillers hinges on an easily guessed…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (18) ****
(Dir: Kirby Dick, 90mins) Literally a diseased old perve, Bob Flanagan suffered from the debilitating congenital condition of Cystic Fibrosis. Few victims make it out of their teens; when Flanagan died in 1996, he was…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sicko (12A) ****
(Dir: Michael Moore, 2007, 123 mins) For UK viewers, Michael Moore’s expose of the US healthcare system lacks the impact of his earlier films. That’s mainly because we have to endure Moore painting such a rosy picture…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sidewalks Of New York (15) ***
(Dir: Edward Burns, 107 mins) Edward Burns is, arguably, an heir to Woody Allen's crown as New York's champion. He is, in most respects, quite different from the veteran comedy filmmaker, but they share a passion for…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sideways (15) *****
(Dir: Alexander Payne, 123 mins) Miles (Paul Giamatti) is an unpublished author still struggling to get over his divorce. His real passion is wine. Wolfish Jack (Thomas Haden Church) was in a TV soap once, but now…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Siege, The (15) ***
(Dir: Edward Zwick, 105 mins) How do you respond to terrorist threats when you don't understand what they want in the first place? This is the big dilemma for FBI/NYPD terrorist task force chief Denzel Washington, who's…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Signs (12A) ****
(Dir: M. Night Shyamalan, 120 mins) With his Spielbergian flair for wrapping pop-spiritual ideas in a crowd-pleasing package, ‘Sixth Sense’ director M. Night Shyamalan has created a spine-chilling blockbuster movie that…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Silence of Lorna, The (15) ***
(Dir: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, 2008, 105 mins, subtitles) At first, this looks like a refreshing departure for Belgian brothers grim, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The camerawork is less wobbly and the plot rather…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Silence of the Hams, The (15) *
Maybe it’s the “hilarious” ‘30th Century Wolf’ caption before the opening credits, or the moment Billy Zane (whatever happened to his career?) walks on playing a rookie detective called Jo Dee Fostar, but it quickly…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Silent Hill (15) **
(Dir: Christophe Gans, 125 mins) If nothing else, this finally proves that film adaptations of computer games are a no-win proposition. ‘Silent Hill’ has a rep as the most sophisticated, intelligent and scary game…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Silent House (15)
USA 2012 85 mins Dir: Chris Kentis & Laura Lau Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Shaffer Stevens Desperate for ideas, the Hollywood remake machine continues to scour the globe for material to dumb-down for…04.05.2012 READ MORE -
Silent Light (15) **
(Dir: Carlos Reygadas, 2006, 136 mins, subtitles) Mexican director Carlos Reygadas’s third film comes across like a mix of ‘The Village’ (without the monsters), ‘Witness’ (without the murder) and an episode of ‘The…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Silver City (15) ****
(Dir: John Sayles, 128 mins) John Sayles’s scabrous satire on Republican politics and corporate power boasts a convoluted gumshoe plot that recalls ‘Chinatown’ and a patchwork narrative structure reminiscent of Altman.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Simple Wish, A (U) **
(Dir: Michael Ritchie, 89 mins) Martin Short is Murray, an inept equal opportunities fairy godperson who appears in the bedroom of eight-year-old Anabel, the daughter of widowed New York Central Park carriage driver…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Simply Irresistible (PG) *
(Dir: Mark Tarlow, 95 mins) This curiously insufferable romantic comedy coasts on the thin appeal of personable stars who are stuck here with ill-conceived roles and manage to squander their talents to such an extent…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Simpsons Movie, The (PG) ****
(Dir: David Silverman, 2007, 87 mins) Matt Groening and chums have certainly worked hard to avoid the obvious pitfalls of creating a film that feels like an extended TV show, or three episodes stapled together. The pace…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sin City (18) ****
(Dir: Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller, 126 mins) A circular portmanteau noir flick starring Bruce Willis: could this be Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Pulp Fiction’? Well, his chum Quentin Tarantino certainly had a hand in it, and…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sin Nombre (15) ****
(Dir: Cary Joji Fukanaga, 2009, 95 mins, subtitles) First-time writer/director Cary Joji Fukanaga’s breathless pacing, lean storytelling and eye for a compelling image help his justly lauded drama over some clunky,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (U) ***
(Dir: Tim Johnson/Patrick Gilmore, 85 mins) This latest DreamWorks tilt at the Disney crown mixes CGI (the monsters) and traditional animation (the humans) to impressive eye candy effect. Certainly they had time to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Singer, The (12A) ****
(Dir: Xavier Giannoli, 2006, 112 mins, subtitles) Gerard Depardieu gives his best performance in years as Alain Moreau, a well-preserved fiftysomething professional lounge singer and minor local celebrity who…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sister My Sister (15) ***
The grimmest ironing tragedy in history is recreated in all its claustrophobic intensity in Nancy Meckler’s unsurprisingly static chamber piece, based on a true story from the ‘30s. Joely Richardson and Jodhi May are…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2, The (12A) ***
(Dir: Sanaa Hamri, 2008, 117 mins) Those well-travelled and much-worn girl pants (i.e. trousers) are off on their adventures again. The conceit of Ann Brashares’ popular tweenie novels is that said legwear is FedExed…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, The (PG) ***
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, The (PG) *** (Dir: Ken Kwapis, 119 mins) That is, of course, the US ‘pants’ as in ‘trousers’, and this is pitched at the neglected teen girl market. It certainly can’t be accused of…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sitcom (18) ***
(Dir: Francois Ozon, 80 mins) Feted young French director Francois Ozon attempts a sustained, surrealist attack on bourgeois nuclear family life, which would have had Luis Bunuel reaching for his lawyers had he not died…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Six Days, Seven Nights (12) ***
(Dir: Ivan Reitman, 101 mins) An amiable chalk-and-cheese romance that sizzles under a tropical sun, with Harrison Ford as a bush pilot and Anne Heche as a sophisticated New York magazine editor stranded together on an…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sixteen Years of Alcohol (18) **
(Dir: Richard Jobson, 101 mins) Former Skids frontman Richard Jobson’s debut is based on his own prose-poem and has rather more in common with Terence Davis’s slow and glum meditations on his working class Liverpool…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sixth Day, The (15) ***
(Dir: Roger Spottiswoode, 124 mins) Set in a near future when human cloning is possible but illegal, this standard Schwarzenegger vehicle is yet another deliberate study in misinformation, pretending to address issues…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sixth Sense, The (15) ****
(Dir: M. Night Shyamalan, 114 mins) Bruce Willis is a successful child psychologist hitched to Olivia Williams and traumatised by the dramatic reappearance of a former patient, who shoots him in the chest before…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sixty Six (12A) ***
(Dir: Paul Weiland, 94 mins) Inspired by his own Bar Mitzvah, which was scheduled for World Cup Final day 1966, Paul Weiland’s slight-but-funny and rather sweet Jewish Britcom is a poignant portrait of a father-son…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Skeleton Key, The (15) ****
(Dir: Iain Softley, 104 mins) The set-up of The Skeleton Key has something of a 1970s TV movie feel about it. Caroline (Kate Hudson), a rational Northern nurse transplanted to hoodoo-haunted New Orleans, takes a job way…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sketches of Frank Gehry (12A) ***
(Dir: Sydney Pollack, 2005, 83 mins) As the world’s leading ‘starchitect’, and the only member of his profession to be immortalised on ‘The Simpsons’, Frank Gehry has been approached by film-makers on many occasions.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Skulls, The (15) *
(Dir: Rob Cohen, 106 mins) Poor kid Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson of 'Dawson's Creek') attends the mysteriously unnamed Ivy League university that is home to the eponymous secret society. His best mate is Will Beckford…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (PG) ***
(Dir: Kerry Conran, 106 mins) Mechanoid monsters march in formation through New York City, crushing cars and blasting fleeing citizens. Clean-cut fly-boy Sky Captain (Jude Law) enters the fray, his fighter plane…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sky High (PG) ****
(Dir: Mike Mitchell, 100 mins) Great things are expected of young Will (Michael Angarano), only child of Steve and Josie Stronghold (Kurt Russell & Kelly Preston). They might look like just another suburban American…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Skyline (15) ***
(Dir: the Strause Brothers, 2010, 93 mins) Columns of blue light zap down at Los Angeles. Fixated people gaze into the light and start showing a gnarly black infection that does things to their minds. Huge organic…10.11.2010 READ MORE -
Slackers (15) ***
(Dir: Dewey Nicks, 86 mins) That this grossout comedy flopped like a big old limp dick at the North American box office is perhaps explained by the fact that all the fart, wank, blowjob, bong-chugging, panty-sniffing…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Slam (15) **
(Dir: Marc Levin, 99 mins) Laidback, grass-dealing Washington DC rapper SaulWilliams winds up in the slammer, where writer-in-residence Sonja Sohn inspires him to write down some of his freeform verse. There's no…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Slap Her, She’s French (12A) **
(Dir: Melanie Mayron, 91 mins) It’s all downhill from that fabulous title, alas. The target audience probably won’t recognise this as a loose remake of ‘All About Eve’, but they’re sure to notice that it appears to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
sleep furiously (U) ***
(Dir: Gideon Koppel, 2009, 94 mins) Gideon Koppel’s meandering, contemplative love letter to Trefeurig, the Welsh farming community in which his parents settled after fleeing the Nazis, where, almost by definition,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sleepers (15) ****
(Dir: Barry Levinson, 146 mins) Barry Levinson’s powerful adaptation of Lorenzo Carcaterra’s controversial alleged true story of innocence lost and the tragic consequences of systematic abuse begins as the tale of four…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sleeping Dogs (18) ***
(Dir: Bobcat Goldthwait, 2006, 87 mins) A film that opens with a woman giving her dog a blowjob sounds like a grossout teenflick. But strange as it may seem, this is a romantic comedy exploring the importance - or…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sleepover (PG) *
(Dir: Joe Nussbaum, 97 mins) There’s something fundamentally dodgy about this latest feeble attempt to corner the lucrative tweenie market, which takes the standard-issue US highschool plot and populates it with barely…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sleepy Hollow (15) ****
(Dir: Tim Burton, 105 mins) Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane is an earnest, somewhat squeamish late 18th century constable whose devotion to nascent forensic science and the quaint notion of justice so exasperates a…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sleuth (15) ***
(Dir: Keneth Branagh, 2007, 88 mins) Strictly speaking, this isn’t a remake of the 1972 Joseph Mankiewicz film in which Michael Caine played hairdresser Milo Tindle to Laurence Olivier’s crime novelist Andrew Wyke.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sliding Doors (15) ****
(Dir: Peter Howitt, 99 mins) First-time writer/director Peter Howitt’s refreshingly original, knee-weakeningly romantic film succeeds in following a clever premise through to the bitter(sweet) end. Having been summarily…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sling Blade (15) *****
(Dir: Billy Bob Thornton, 135 mins) The 1996 Oscar winner for Best Adapted Screenplay, this is a compelling, compassionate story of a mentally unstable killer’s attempt to reintegrate into the smalltown society of…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Slither (15) ****
(Dir: James Gunn, 95 mins) Hack writer/director James Gunn seems to have spent the Materialism Decade retreating into the more comfortable world of grossout horror. All those 80s influences are recycled in this jolly…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Slumdog Millionaire (15) ****
(Dir: Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan, 2008, 120 mins) Given the unpromising premise (a drama spun from the Indian version of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’), the surprise about ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is how vivid,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Slums of Beverly Hills (15) ***
(Dir: Tamara Jenkins, 91 mins) A keenly observed memoir of the adolescent angst endured by a teenage girl growing up in an all-male family, Tamara Jenkins' debut film is by turns amusing and discomforting. Vivian…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Small Faces (18) ****
Like a Terence Davies film in which something actually happens, Scottish director Gillies MacKinnon’s long-cherished autobiographical coming of age tale boasts a meticulous sense of time and place, with its miniskirts,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Small Soldiers (PG) ****
(Dir: Joe Dante, 110 mins) When their employer Heartland Play Systems is taken over by weapons conglomerate Globotech, incoming boss Denis Leary pressures the top toy design team to come up with a new moneyspinning…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Small Time (18) ***
(Dir: Shane Meadows, 60 mins) Forget those preconceptions about the ropiness of much no-budget film-making. There’s no expensive set-dressing here, but the sound and picture quality are perfectly acceptable in…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Small Time Crooks (PG) ****
(Dir: Woody Allen, 94 mins) In this tiny but charming picture, Woody Allen underlines his talents as a comic actor (and physical comedian), by casting himself as Ray Winkler, a literally small-time crook. Ray gets…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Smart People (15) ***
(Dir: Noam Murro, 2008, 95 mins) If you were to devise an algorithm to combine the key elements of such upmarket fare as ‘Sideways’, ‘The Squid and the Whale’ and the mysteriously under-appreciated ‘Wonder Boys’,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Smilla’s Feeling For Snow (15) **
(Dir: Bille August, 120 mins) Adapted by Danish director Bille August from countryman Peter Hoeg’s bestselling novel, this flawed intellectual thriller is dominated by Julia Ormond’s uncompromising portrayal of its…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Smoke (15) ***
The winner of 1995’s Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, ‘Smoke’ marks the first collaboration between director Wayne ‘Joy Luck Club’ Wang and author Paul ‘Music of Chance’ Auster. Brooklyn tobacconist…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Smokin’ Aces (18) ***
(Dir: Joe Carnahan, 108 mins) Another of those quirkily cynical, self-aware gangland pictures. You know the drill by now: grunged-up stars doing cameos, set-piece acting exercise speeches, dazzling editing tricks,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snake Eyes (15) ****
(Dir: Brian De Palma, 99 mins) A coldly executed techno-thriller with a bravura 20-minute opening Steadicam sequence, following flamboyant, opportunistic cop Nicolas Cage through the Atlantic City sports arena. A…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snake of June, A (18) ****
(Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto, 77 mins) The kind of film for which the ‘Not For the Easily Offended’ tag was surely invented, this latest controversy-magnet from Shinya Tsukamoto, director of the ‘Tetsuo’ body horror flicks,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snakes on a Plane (15) **
(Dir: David R. Ellis, 105 mins) So, there’s this plane. And it’s got snakes on it. And Motherfuckin’ Samuel L. Motherfuckin’ Jackson isn’t happy. Thanks to the title, this got the sort of pre-release hype money can’t…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snatch (18) ***
(Dir: Guy Ritchie, 102 mins) Another riff on his trademark comic gangster geezerisms set in that familiar milieu of lags and blags, Guy Ritchie’s ‘Lock, Stock . . .’ follow up ducks and dives but never quite floors the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snow Cake (15) **
(Dir: Marc Evans, 112 mins) If your heart sinks at the prospect of another big Hollywood actor doing a showy mental illness turn, opposite Alan Rickman at his most Eeyore-ish in a role that makes his Marvin in…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snow Day (PG) *
(Dir: Chris Koch, 90 mins) The winter chill might look as though it's about to thaw, but the kids at an upstate New York high school have their prayers answered when deep snow drifts mean a bonus day off school.…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snow Dogs (PG) **
(Dir: Brian levant, 99 mins) A lightweight Disney family fish-out-of-water comedy about a Miami dentist who inherits an Alaskan dog sled team, which requires little more of its Oscar-winning leads than endless mugging.…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snow Falling on Cedars (15) ***
(Dir: Scott Hicks, 127 mins) 'Shine' director Scott Hicks adapts David Guterson's bestselling literary whodunnit to become a dreamy arthouse thriller, packed with gorgeous widescreen images. Nine years after Pearl…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snow White: A Tale Of Terror (15) *
(Dir: Michael Cohn, 100 mins) It’s all very well setting out to stick more closely to the Grimm brothers’ story than previous versions, but the problem here is that the film-makers neither ratchet it up into some kind…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Snowtown (18)
Australia 2011 115 mins Dir: Justin Kurzel Starring: Daniel Henshall, Lucas Pittaway, Louise Harris Rather like last year's 'Animal Kingdom', 'Snowtown' puts on screen a true story set in an Australian underclass milieu…18.11.2011 READ MORE -
Solaris (12A) ***
(Dir: Steven Soderbergh, 99 mins) Steven Soderbergh’s remake risks alienating the beard-stroking champions of both Stanislaw Lem’s 1961 novel and Andrei Tarkovsky’s cerebral 1972 arthouse sci-fi flick. Clocking in at an…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Solas (15) ****
(Dir: Benito Zambrano, 98 mins) Superficially yet another of those small and rather glum Euro flicks about the dreary travails of ordinary folks, this proves extraordinarily touching thanks to powerful performances from…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, A (15) ***
(Dir: James Ivory, 130 mins) A refreshingly corset-free Merchant-Ivory, this is a leisurely, mildly engaging, largely ‘70s-set yarn based on an airbrushed autobiographical novel by Kaylie Jones, author of ‘From Here To…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Soloist, The (12A) **
(Dir: Joe Wright, 2009, 117 mins) An unlikely choice for ‘Pride and Prejudice’/‘Atonement’ director Joe Wright, this is one of those solemn, self-important stodgefests dealing with Big Ishoos in an uplifting kinda way…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Solomon Kane (15) ****
(Dir: Michael J Bassett, 2009, 104 mins) Writer-director Michael J Bassett’s dark fantasy adventure featuring the tortured hero of Conan creator Robert E Howard’s ‘Savage Tales of Solomon Kane’ is an action-packed,…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Some Mother’s Son (15) ****
(Dir: Terry George, 112 mins) Former INLA member Terry George’s controversial fictionalised account of the IRA H-block hunger strikes which claimed the lives of 10 young men is told through the eyes of two mothers,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Some Voices (15) **
(Dir: Simon Cellan Jones, 101 mins) Yes, it’s another theatrical hit that someone foolishly decided would translate to the big screen so long as a few portentous visuals are chucked in to disguise its origins. Daniel…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Someone Else (15) ***
(Dir: Col Spector, 2006, 77 mins) A low-key Britflick from “the British Woody Allen”, this is well worth a look thanks to Col Spector’s wry script and an ensemble cast who rise to the occasion. In a role written…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Someone Else’s America (15) **
(Dir: Goran Paskaljevic, 90 mins). This whimsical tale of three generations of multi-ethnic immigrants struggling to get by in New York sat on the shelf for a couple of years, where it should perhaps have lain…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Somers Town (12A) ****
(Dir: Shane Meadows, 2008, 71 mins) Funded, bizarrely enough, by Eurostar, Shane Meadows’ low-key, mostly monochrome follow-up to his breakthrough film ‘This is England’ is set in the eponymous area of London adjacent…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Somersault (15) ****
(Dir: Cate Shortland, 106 mins) There’s nothing in Australian director Cate Shortland’s multiple award-winning, sensual and tactile coming-of-age story that we haven’t seen many times before, but it’s all perfectly…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Something New (PG) **
(Dir: Sanaa Hamri, 100 mins) An actionably titled romcom that’s light on com but lays on the rom with a shovel. Blandly handsome landscape architect Simon Baker worms his way into uptight career woman Sanaa Lathan’s…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Something’s Gotta Give (12A) ***
(Dir: Nancy Meyers, 128 mins) Belatedly, Hollywood seems to have woken up and smelled the demography. So here’s a Saga romcom filled with Viagra and menopause gags, in which Diane Keaton (57) has to beat off suitors…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Somewhere (15)
(Dir: Sofia Coppola, 2010, 98 mins) For her return to 'Lost in Translation' territory, Sofia Coppola immerses her audience in the shallow life of fictional Hollywood movie star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) by obliging…08.12.2010 READ MORE -
Son of Rambow (12A) ****
(Dir: Garth Jennings, 2008, 95 mins) Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a shy, sensitive kid from a strict Plymouth Brethren clan, who’s been deprived of the joys of pop music and TV for all of his ten short years. Lee…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Son of the Bride (15) ***
(Dir: Juan Jose Campanella, 123 mins) This latest hit from Argentina elicits another excellent performance from ‘Nine Queens’ star Ricardo Darin. A subtle and heartfelt mid-life-crisis drama, it casts Darin as a…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Son of the Mask (PG) *
(Dir: Lawrence Guterman, 94 mins) Absurdly misjudged, badly cast and pointless, this belated sequel to the Jim Carrey/Cameron Diaz original arrives a decade too late. In their place we get the club-footed, charisma-free…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Son's Room, The (15) ***
(Dir: Nanni Moretti, 87 mins) Europe's most solipsistic director, Nanni Moretti, plays Giovanni, a mildly pompous and over-analytical middle-class smalltown shrink, with a frightfully nice family: lovely wife Paola,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Songs From the Second Floor (15) ****
(Dir: Roy Andersson, 98 mins) Roy Andersson's four-years-in-the-making Cannes Special Jury Prize-winner is one of the weirdest and most unsettling films you'll ever see. Andersson earns his crust by making Swedish TV…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sophie Scholl (PG) ****
(Dir: Marc Rothemund, 117 mins) The true story of that rarity: a genuine, non-Jewish anti-Nazi German heroine, who was guillotined in February 1943 for producing and distributing leaflets calling for the overthrow of…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sorority Row (15) **
(Dir: Stewart Hendler, 2009, 101 mins) A loose redo of the above-average 1983 slasher ‘House on Sorority Row’. Stewart Hendler, who made the smart little direct-to-DVD ‘Omen’ imitation ‘Whisper’, is in charge of…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Souffle, Le (15) ***
(Dir: Damien Odoul, 77 mins) First-time writer/director Damien Odoul drains every last drop of romanticism from the Limousin countryside with this stark, unsentimental, Bressonian tale of one day’s drunkenness, misery…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Soul Food (15) **
(Dir: George Tillman, 115 mins) Big Mama Joe holds everything together with her soul food, cooking from the heart to keep the family strong. But who’s going to take over when the old leg amputation cliffhanger intrudes?…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Soul Plane (18) *
(Dir: Jessy Terrero, 86 mins) Dismissed as “coonery and buffoonery” by Spike Lee, who has also insisted that anyone who goes to see it must be a racist, this has been defended by a minority as a broad comedy in the…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Soul Power (12A) ***
(Dir: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, 2009, 92 mins) Back in 1974, the Ali-Foreman ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Kinsasha, Zaire, was preceded by a three-day music festival which was the brainchild of Hugh Masekela and producer Stewart…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Soul Survivors (12) *
(Dir: Steve Carpenter, 85 mins) Bland Melissa Sagemiller is caught between two chaps: her intense ex Wes Bentley and cute new squeeze Casey Affleck. They've just had a big bust-up at the all-purpose Satanic metal…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
SoulBoy (15) **
(Dir: Shimmy Marcus, 2010, 84 mins) A predictable and formulaic coming-of-age yarn set against the backdrop of the 70s Northern Soul scene. It’s 1974. We know this because every time someone turns on the radio the…13.10.2010 READ MORE -
Sounds Like Teen Spirit (12A) ***
(Dir: Jamie J. Johnson, 2009, 93 mins) This enjoyable self-styled ‘popumentary’ boasts lots of ‘kids say the funniest things’ moments, served up with lashings of empathy and a total absence of cynicism. It’s also…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Source Code (12A)
(Dir: Duncan Jones, 2011, 93 mins) A worthy follow-up to Duncan Jones' similarly far-out debut, 'Moon', 'Source Code' is in that sub-category of timewarping which includes 'Groundhog Day' and 'Déjà Vu'. Colter Stevens…30.03.2011 READ MORE -
South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut (15) *****
(Dir: Trey Parker, 80 mins) The most fiendish mix of childish stupidity and extreme cleverness to come out of Hollywood in years, this expanded version of the cult TV show starring everybody’s favourite foul-mouthed…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
South West Nine (18) **
(Dir: Richard Parry, 92 mins) Skint, fast-talking Essex boy Jake and his best mate Mitch have come up with a plan to "scam the trance bunnies" by taking over a disused Brixton church for a rave at which they'll make a…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Southland Tales (15) ***
(Dir: Richard Kelly, 2007, 144 mins) This sophomore outing from director/writer Richard Kelly (‘Donnie Darko’) feels like those star-studded attempts at counterculture satire Hollywood produced in the 1960s. It also…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Space Chimps (U) **
(Dir: Kirk De Micco, 2008, 81 mins) Monkeys in space is an inherently funny idea, so it’s a shame this computer-animated quickie is so relentlessly annoying. An automatic probe disappears through a wormhole and crashes…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back (U) *
(Dir: John H. Williams, 2010, 75 mins) Whereas the 2D ‘Space Chimps’ was merely annoying, cash-in sequel ‘Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back’ is, by a wide margin, the shoddiest 3D product yet to infest the…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
Space Cowboys (PG) ****
(Dir: Clint Eastwood, 129 mins) Failed astronaut Colonel Clint Eastwood agrees to go into space when a Skylab guidance system he designed turns up in a Cold War relic Soviet satellite whose orbit is decaying, but only…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Space Jam (U) *
(Dir: Joe Pytka, 87 mins) A perfect fusion of money-spinning franchises, uniting America’s most bankable sports star (Michael Jordan) and animated rabbit (Bugs Bunny) for a mutual celebration of the folding stuff.…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Space Truckers (12) **
(Dir: Stuart Gordon, 97 mins) From the man who made ‘Re-Animator’, this low-budget SF action comedy should have been a cheesy hoot. Dennis Hopper plays a grizzled 22nd century freelance intergalactic trucker, joined by…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spagnola, La (15) ***
(Dir: Steve Jacobs, 90 mins) Imagine one of Spain’s fruitiest directors – Bigas Luna, say, or the early Pedro Almodovar – on vacation in a grim Australian industrial town in 1960 and you’ll have some idea of whether…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Spanglish (12A) **
(Dir: James L. Brooks, 130 mins) This latest plodding, middlebrow romcom from the director of ‘Terms of Endearment’ is a culture-clash comedy pitting proud-yet-dirt-poor, no-speaka-da-lingo Mexican immigrant housekeeper…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spanish Prisoner, The (PG) ****
(Dir: David Mamet, 110 mins) Littering red herrings and clues in equal measure from its opening credits, David Mamet’s first PG-rated film returns to the territory of his magnificent directorial debut, ‘House of Games’.…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spanking The Monkey (18) ***
Embarrassed teenager Jeremy Davies is charged with ministering to his bedridden mother Alberta Watson's intimate needs. His sex life is a disaster and whenever he manages to slink off for a wank, the family dog shows up…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spartan (15) ***
(Dir: David Mamet, 106 mins) Writer/director David Mamet reworks in his own idiosyncratic style one of those big, dumb, macho espionage thrillers that so enrich the likes of Tom Clancy, giving Val Kilmer another…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spawn (12) **
(Dir: Mark A.Z. Dippe, 97 mins) Yet another comicbook character to graduate from page to screen, ‘Spawn’ is the nihilistic brainchild of former Marvel comics artist Todd McFarlane. Ace covert soldier Al Simmons is…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Special (15) ***
(Dir: Hal Habermann and Jeremy Passmore, 81 mins) One of those no-budget US indieflicks that riffs on a great idea but doesn’t really know where to take it, this gives perennial supporting player Michael Rapaport a shot…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Species 2 (18) *
(Dir: Peter Medak, 93 mins) A sadly tedious and distasteful sequel to the risibly entertaining ‘Species’. The twist this time is that first man on Mars, Justin Lazard, is the one with the tentacle-sprouting, compulsive…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Speed 2: Cruise Control (PG) *
(Dir: Jan de Bont, 125 mins) Jan de Bont’s waterlogged sequel has Jason Patric replacing oh-so-serious Keanu Reeves as the reckless romantic hero who inadvertently puts Sandra Bullock through the Same Old Shit again. He…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Speed Racer (PG) **
(Dir: The Wachowski Brothers, 2008, 135 mins) ‘Matrix’ creators the Wachowski brothers return with a big movie based on the American dubbed version of a Japanese cartoon TV series set in a candy-coloured fantasy…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spell, The (15) **
(Dir: Owen Carey Jones, 2009, 87 mins) This low-budget Britflick, based on an allegedly true tale of demonic possession, starts out promisingly enough with tastefully photographed buxom naked ladies performing a jolly…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spellbound (U) ****
(Dir: Jeffrey Blitz, 96 mins) It’s the Geek Olympics! No great feats of stamina or strength are required for the US national spelling bee; merely the ability to spell ‘kookaburra’ or ‘logorrhoea’ correctly on live TV.…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sphere (12) **
(Dir: Barry Levinson, 133 mins) Barry Levinson directs a ponderous, episodic adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1987 science fiction novel. Dustin Hoffman is a shrink summoned by the government, working from a contingency…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spider (15) ***
(Dir: David Cronenberg, 98 mins) David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Patrick McGrath’s novel is a classic audience-divider. Some will see an intense portrait of the devastating effects of schizophrenia. Others will see…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spider-Man (12) ***
(Dir: Sam Raimi, 121 mins) Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' hammers another overdue nail into the coffin of the star-led action vehicle. Goofy-looking, sleepy-eyed Tobey Maguire proves an inspired casting choice as school dweeb…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spider-Man 2 (PG) ****
(Dir: Sam Raimi, 127 mins) New villain ahoy as scientist Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) has one of those lab accidents common in Marvel Comics and winds up with evil metal tentacles fused to his spine. In the two years…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spider-Man 3 (12A) ***
(Dir: Sam Raimi, 2007, 156 mins) Peter Parker’s (Tobey Maguire) best friend Harry (James Franco), son of the Green Goblin, goes mad, doses himself on super-serum and sets out on a flying skateboard for revenge. Escaped…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spiderwick Chronicles, The (PG) ***
(Dir: Mark Waters, 2008, 96 mins) We’re reaching a point with these kiddie fantasy flicks where you can’t help but tick off all the borrowings and stock themes on a mental checklist. Mark (‘Mean Girls’) Waters’…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spirit Trap (15) *
(Dir: David Smith, 91 mins) A strikingly awful Britflick, this ineptly directed, poorly scripted and unevenly acted haunted house yarn blunders about unscarily like a bloke with a bedsheet over his head. The only shocks…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spirit, The (12A) *
(Dir: Frank Miller, 2008, 102 mins) Frank Miller’s debut solo outing as director is an adaptation of the 40s comic book series by Will Eisner. Like Miller’s own ‘Sin City’, which he adapted with Robert Rodriguez, it’s a…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (U) **
(Dir: Kelly Asbury, 82 mins) If, as some say, 2D animation will be dead within a decade, this, the latest animated fable from the Dreamworks studio, could well prove to have been a nail in the coffin. Not that the…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spirited Away (PG) ****
(Dir: Hayayo Miyazaki, 124 mins) This Oscar-winning animation from Japan is every bit as good as its reputation suggests, being right up there with the best in imaginative, enthralling fantasy fiction, from its obvious…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spitfire Grill, The (12) **
(Dir: Lee David Zlotoff, 116 mins) One of those old-fashioned weepies they don’t make any more, mainly, one suspects, because nobody wants to watch them, this has Alison Elliot as an ex-con who winds up in a rural…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Splice (15) ***
(Dir: Vincenzo Natali, 2010, 104 mins) An enjoyable creature feature with a semi-Cronenbergy, cutting-edge bio-engineering veneer, ‘Splice’ tackles all kinds of Big Ethical Ishoos, knowingly references plenty of classic…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, The (U) ***
(Dir: Stephen Hillenburg, 87 mins) No idea what a SpongeBob is? Then you clearly don't know any kids and are neither student nor stoner. With little hype, Nickelodeon's animated TV series has become the world's most…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spread (18) **
(Dir: David Mackenzie, 2009, 97 mins) “I don’t want to be arrogant here, but I’m an incredibly attractive man,” announces Ashton Kutcher at the start of this knowingly cast gigolo drama. The first US flick by Brit…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter . . . and Spring (15) ****
(Dir: Ki-duk Kim, 103 mins) South Korean director Ki-duk Kim’s atypically gentle, virtually wordless Buddhist fable must rank as the most ravishingly beautiful spiritual yarn ever to feature sex, murder and…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Springtime in a Small Town (PG) ***
(Dir: Tian Zhuangzhuang, 116 mins) Unprolific fifth generation Chinese film-maker Tian Zhuangzhuang’s remake of a forgotten 1948 film that was once denounced by official Communist Party historians. It’s 1946. The…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spun (18) ***
(Dir: Jonas Akerlund, 101 mins) A former director of cutting-edge promos, such as The Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, Jonas Akerlund brings the same sensibility to ‘Spun’, in which the cream of young Hollywood get to…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spy Game (15) ***
(Dir: Tony Scott, 127 mins) The barrage of visual trickery familiar from Tony Scott's earlier 'Enemy of the State' is deployed here to shore up a rather clumsily plotted and episodic storyline. It's 1991. Robert…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spy Hard (PG) **
More in the tradition of ‘Repossessed’ and ‘Loaded Weapon’, alas, than the inspired scattershot spoofery of ‘Airplane!’ and the ‘Naked Gun’ flicks, this has Leslie Nielsen heading the cast once again, limiting his…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spy Kids (U) ****
(Dir: Robert Rodriguez, 88 mins) Strange but true: director of ultra-violent odysseys 'Desperado' and 'From Dusk Till Dawn' manages to turn out an utterly surreal, action-packed children's film suitable for all ages…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (PG) ***
(Dir: Robert Rodriguez, 100 mins) Like a lot of sequels, this is longer, less focused, stuck with poor CGI effects and trades too much on goodwill towards the original. But it still has an undeniably appealing premise,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (U) **
(Dir: Robert Rodriguez, 84 mins) There is much to admire but a little less to enjoy about Robert Rodriguez's third Spy Kids flick. Having left top secret espionage organisation OSS, Juni Cortez is called back for a…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Square Circle, The (15) ***
(Dir: Amol Palekar, 108 mins) Escaping from a pair of thugs, a would-be brothelkeeper and a trio of rapists, sweet village ingenue Sonali Kulkarni is rescued by hunky travelling transvestite Nirmal Pandey, who lops off…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Squid and the Whale, The (15) *****
(Dir: Noah Baumbach, 81 mins) Short but content-rich, without a single wasted frame, Noah Baumbach’s forensically observed, searingly honest and blackly comic autobiographical tale of divorce Brooklyn…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
St Trinian’s (12A) ***
(Dir: Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson, 2007, 100 mins) Rupert Everett (a dual role as headmistress Camilla Fritton and her rotten brother Carnaby), Russell Brand (as spiv Flash Harry) and Lena Headey might not match…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold (12A) **
(Dir: Oliver Parker, 2009, 106 mins) Former Doctor Who David Tennant bags the pantomime villain role in this laboured revived franchise as the grey-haired millionaire head of an ancient misogynist secret society,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stage Beauty (15) ****
(Dir: Richard Eyre, 110 mins) A highly entertaining, bawdy period romp extrapolating from a handful of known facts about the 17th century London stage. Back then, it was illegal for woman to play male characters,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Standard Operating Procedure (15) ****
(Dir: Errol Morris, 2008, 116 mins) The most technically ambitious, morally complex and politically timely documentary Errol Morris has yet made, this is a forensic deconstruction of the prisoner abuses at Baghdad’s Abu…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stander (15) ****
(Dir: Bronwen Hughes, 112 mins) A riveting crime flick based on an extraordinary true story that blends political thriller with the conventions of the heist movie. Apartheid South Africa, 1976. Traumatised by shooting…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (PG) ***
(Dir: Paul Justman, 109 mins) Back in the days when r’n’b meant rhythm and blues rather than bad dance music, the same poorly paid musicians played on every Motown hit. Known as the Funk Brothers, this loose,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Kid (PG) *
(Dir: Manny Coto, 95 mins) Poor little Spancer’s mum’s dead, dad’s too busy to look after him, and he’s being bullied at school. But while investigating a meteor crash at a nearby junkyard, he comes across a seven foot…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Trek (12A) ****
(Dir: J.J. Abrams, 2009, 127 mins) Clever and funny without being nudge-winky and in-jokey, with convincing backstories for Kirk and Spock, a strong plot with a perfectly serviceable villain, and a well-chosen, largely…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Trek: First Contact (12) ***
(Dir: Jonathan Frakes, 105 mins) The first Trek flick built entirely around the cast of ‘Star Trek: The New Generation’ has the advantage of Patrick Stewart, a leading man who frequently uses subtlety as an acting…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Trek: Insurrection (PG) ***
(Dir: Jonathan Frakes 105 mins) This is Star Trek 9, and is the first of the film series to get away from universe-shaking concerns to concentrate on the sort of story they used to do on television. There's a planet…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Trek: Nemesis (12A) **
(Dir: Stuart Baird, 116 mins) Perhaps reassuringly for some, the tenth Trek is just like its immediate predecessors, serving up the usual plot with even less panache or enthusiasm than ever before. The Earth is under…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Wars (U) ****
(Dir: George Lucas, 126 mins) The box office-conquering, digitally reworked 20th anniversary edition of George Lucas’s celebrated space opera, about which any further comment is superfluous. You’ll either thrill to the…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (U) ***
(Dir: George Lucas, 132 mins) The money-spinning mixture as before, with several embarrassing streaks that threaten to scupper the whole enterprise. Mistake Number One is putting so much of the dramatic weight on the…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (PG) ***
(Dir: George Lucas, 143 mins) In any attempt to bring suspense to the first three parts of his Star Wars sextet, George Lucas is struggling with the biggest spoiler in movie history. Here, a convoluted story that…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (12A) ***
(Dir: George Lucas, 140 mins) Once again, George Lucas’s dreadful dialogue defeats a cadre of the best stage and screen actors ever gussied up in robes and space-armour. This episode, which has to join up to the…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (PG) **
(Dir: Dave Filoni, 2008, 98 mins) With the Star Wars prequel trilogy out of the way, George Lucas opts to flog the dead horse with this CGI feature, a set up for a Clone Wars series designed to fit between Japanese toy…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stardust (PG) **
(Dir: Matthew Vaughn, 2007, 130 mins) This Neil Gaiman fantasy adaptation boasts expensive effects, a big-name cast, and Matthew (‘Layer Cake’) Vaughn behind the camera. Vaughn seems to be trying to ape the tone of ‘The…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Starmaker, The (18) ***
(Dir: Giuseppe Tornatore, 107 mins) Like Tornatore’s ‘Cinema Paradiso’, ‘Starmaker’ mixes the movies and early post-War Sicily, but this time dreams are exploited and there’s no happy ending. Sergio Castellito plays a…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Starship Troopers (15) ****
(Dir: Paul Verhoeven, 129 mins) The first half of Paul Verhoeven’s latest SF flick, adapted from Robert Heinlein’s controversial pulp SF classic, lulls you into a false sense of security by resembling an episode of a…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Starsky & Hutch (15) ***
(Dir: Todd Phillips, 101 mins) If casting is half the challenge, then Todd Phillips’ Starsky and Hutch movie enjoys an enormous head start. The anal, uptight, by-the-book, dark-haired cop? Why, that’s Ben Stiller,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Starter For Ten (12A) ****
(Dir: Tom Vaughan, 96 mins) You don’t need to have been an undergraduate at Bristol University during the 80s to enjoy David Nicholls’ cannily scripted adaptation of his bestselling, semi-autobiographical novel, which…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Startup.com (15) ****
(Dir: Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim, 103 mins) When Jehane Noujaim picked up a digital camera to follow her Harvard roommate Kaleil Isaza Tuzman back in May 1999, neither of them could have predicted the dramatic…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
State and Main (15) ****
(Dir: David Mamet, 102 mins) There's an air of comfortable familiarity about David Mamet's atypically sweet-natured Tinseltown satire. Since there's nothing Hollywood enjoys quite as much as making movies about itself,…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
State of Play (12A) ***
(Dir: Kevin Macdonald, 2009, 127 mins) Though directed by the British Kevin Macdonald, this film adaptation of the BBC serial deftly relocates its intrigues from Whitehall to Washington, recalling the conspiracy…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Station Agent, The (15) ****
(Dir: Tom McCarthy, 88mins) Tom McCarthy’s charming, character-driven audience-pleaser is a comedy-drama whose premise sounds like the opening line of a joke or a pitch for an Ealing comedy: there’s this dwarf who…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stay (15) **
(Dir: Marc Forster, 98 mins) This serious-minded psychological thriller from ‘Finding Neverland’ director Marc Forster is, in effect, M Night Shyamalan-lite. Like ‘The Sixth Sense’, it relies heavily on its - in this…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stay Alive (15) *
(Dir: William Brent Bell, 85 mins) An entirely witless, wholly unoriginal blend of – groan! – the computer game flick and ‘Jumanji’/‘Zathura’, garnished with a five-years-too-late rip-off of the ‘Ring’ theme, this teen…07.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stealing Beauty (15) ****
(Dir: Bernado Bertolucci, 118 mins) Liv Tyler’s a strapping 19-year-old American spending a long, hot summer in the boho Tuscan expatriate artistic community populated by her late mother’s friends, where she intends to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stealing Harvard (12A) *
Dir: Bruce McCulloch, 82 mins) Little did we realise when we chuckled at Tom Green’s goofy turn in ‘Road Trip’ that we were encouraging the creation of a monster. In this 12A-rated comedy, the transcendently annoying…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stealth (12A) **
(Dir: Rob Cohen, 121 mins) Rob 'xXx' Cohen's latest wannabe blockbuster hits full flight-simulator mode to pursue the war on terror over the skies of Tajikistan and Myanmar. Elite flyers Josh Lucas (concerned maverick),…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Step Brothers (15) ***
(Dir: Adam McKay, 2008, 98 mins) It’s easy to pick apart the many faults of this latest Judd Apatow-produced comedy. The plot is episodic and obvious, Will Ferrell does his familiar man-child schtick yet again, and…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Step Up (PG) *
(Dir: Anne Fletcher, 98 mins) A virtual recycling of writer Duane Adler’s “hoofin’ in da ‘hood” drama ‘Save the Last Dance’, directed by former choreographer Anne Fletcher. Down in the PG-rated Baltimore ‘hood, surly…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Step Up 2 The Streets (PG) *
(Dir: Jon Chu, 2008, 98 mins) There’s a whole mini-genre of these lame US teen dance flicks, which generally slip in and out of UK multiplexes without anyone noticing. Fashions and hoofing styles may have changed but…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Step Up 3D (12A) **
(Dir: Jon M. Chu, 2010, 107 mins) Whether 3D is or isn’t the future of cinema, it has found a playmate in street dance. The skill and energy of the kids in Step Up franchise are exhilarating; if only there were more…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stepfather, The (15) **
(Dir: Nelson McCormick, 2009, 101 mins) Skilfully scripted by Donald Westlake, the original 18-rated ‘Stepfather’ (1987) had at its heart a dark satire about the discontinuity between Norman Rockwell fantasy and the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stepford Wives, The (12A) ***
(Dir: Frank Oz, 93 mins) Frank Oz reworks Bryan Forbes’ 1975 adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel as a camp, sledgehammer comedy. Played by Nicole Kidman like an older, even more hard-nosed version of her character in ‘To…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stepmom (12) *
(Dir: Chris Columbus, 124 mins) Julia Roberts, terminal cancer, the director of 'Home Alone' . . . it's a fearsome combination and one that doesn't fail to disappoint with a triple-sickbag weepie of maximum pungency.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stick It (PG) **
(Dir: Jessica Bendinger, 103 mins) It’s teen rebellion, Disney style! Following some minor daredevil naughtiness on a building site, PG-rated young tearaway Haley Graham (wholesome Missy Peregrym) is sentenced by a…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stiff Upper Lips (15) **
(Dir: Gary Sinyor, 93 mins) This long-overdue send-up of the Merchant-Ivory industry is hardly cutting-edge humour, but there are enough intermittent laughs to make it one of the more enjoyable recent comedies.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stigmata (18) **
(Dir: Rupert Wainwright, 102 mins) Though at heart a rewrite of 'The Exorcist', this dresses up its theological confusions with an excess of style as if the director wanted to create an entire film on the model of the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Still Crazy (15)
(Dir: Brian Gibson, 95 mins) A Dick Clement/Ian La Frenais-scripted rock spoof that wisely steers clear of Spinal Tap territory as it charts the reformation of fictional ‘70s rockers Strange Fruit after 20 years,…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Still Life (PG) ***
(Dir: Jia Zhangke, 2006, 111 mins, subtitles) Feted Chinese director Jia Zhangke now seems to have added some rather jarring magical realist flourishes to his somewhat plodding visual palette. That ‘Still Life’ won the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Still Walking (U) ****
(Dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2008, 114 mins, subtitles) Unprolific Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda invites comparison to the master of family drama, Yasujiro Ozu, with this finely calibrated, beautifully observed and…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Stir of Echoes (15) ***
(Dir: David Koepp, 99 mins) A gripping, slightly old-fashioned ghostie story with a solid basis in reality. Kevin Bacon, in one of those great aw-shucks everyman roles at which he excels, plays a blue collar guy who’s…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator (15) ***
(Dir: Helen Stickler, 80 mins) Picking up where ‘Dogtown and Z-Boys’ left off, Helen Stickler’s documentary charts 80s skateboarder Mark ‘Gator’ Rogowski’s brief moment of glory and rapid descent into hell. According to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stolen Children, The (15) ****
A brilliantly observed drama, directed in neo-realist style by Gianni Amelio, this is both a powerful portrait of pre-teens robbed of their childhood and an unhectoring indictment of the society that allows it to…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stomp the Yard (12A) *
(Dir: Sylvain White, 2007, 109 mins) For a movie, this makes a moderately entertaining music video, albeit an exceptionally long one. A confused 10 minute opening sequence introduces us to the energetic brand of street…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stone of Destiny (PG) **
(Dir: Charles Martin Smith, 2006, 96 mins) Based lightly on a true story, this is a Canadian production starring an Englishman (Charlie Cox) as a true-life Scottish hero, with an American actress (Kate Mara) as his…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stoned (15) ***
(Dir: Stephen Woolley, 102 mins) Who killed Brian Jones? Nobody knows for sure. But given his 12 years of obsessive research, it’s more than likely that Stephen Woolley’s version of events is pretty close to the truth.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stonewall (15) ***
New York, 1969. Homosexuality is still illegal and straight-looking new kid in town Erick Weller winds up in Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn, where he’s befriended by outwardly bitchy but vulnerable drag queen…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stop-Loss (15) **
(Dir: Kimberly Peirce, 2008, 112 mins) Kimberly Peirce’s fence-sitting war in I-rak flick didn’t appeal to US punters. And if the folks back home can’t be persuaded to watch a film that works so hard to unite…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Storm (15) ***
(Dir: Hans-Christian Schmid, 2009, 103 mins) This intelligent, forensic legal thriller is most definitely not for those who expect car chases and grisly flashbacks from the genre. International Criminal Court prosecutor…08.07.2010 READ MORE -
Stormbreaker (PG) ***
(Dir: Geoffrey Sax, 93 mins) Anthony Horowitz’s popular Alex Rider series of ‘young adult’ novels, from which this is adapted, are built around the wish-fulfilment conceit of a schoolboy who gets to be James Bond. Alex…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Story of the Weeping Camel, The (U) ****
(Dir: Byabasuren Davaa & Luigi Falorni, 90 mins) This Oscar-nominated “narrative documentary” (i.e. part-staged) has the whiff of a New Agey variation on the traditional National Geographic ethnographic documentary.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Story of Us, The (15) **
(Dir: Rob reiner, 95 mins) One of those dreadful movies that attempt to flatter their ‘mature’ middlebrow audience with "that's so like us" observations about modern relationships. Except that no one has a sitcom…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Storytelling (18) ***
(Dir: Todd Solondz, 83 mins) In 'Fiction', creative writing student Blair breaks up with cerebral-palsied fellow student boyfriend Fitzpatrick when he tells her he thinks the kinkiness has gone from their sex life. She…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Straightheads (18) *
(Dir: Dan Reed, 2007, 79 mins) Another unsavoury vengeance movie starring geezer’s geezer Danny Dyer? They spoil us. The best one can say about Dan Reed’s anorexic ‘Straightheads’ it that it avoids the muddled politics…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Strange Days (18) ****
New Year’s Eve, 1999. Sleazy ex-cop Ralph Fiennes offers illicit digital palliatives for millennial tension in the form of “clips” - human experiences ripped direct from the cerebral cortex. Then a friend winds up dead…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Strange Wilderness (15) **
(Dir: Fred Wolf, 2008, 85 mins) There’s a great satirical comedy just itching to be made about the low-rent end of the wildlife documentary game. So it’s bitterly disappointing to report that this effort from Adam…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stranger Than Fiction (15) ****
(Dir: Marc Forster, 113 mins) Part ‘Adaptation’, part ‘Truman Show’, and with a touch of ‘Being John Malkovich’ for good measure, this marks a lighter mood for Marc Forster after ‘Monster's Ball’, ‘Finding Neverland’…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Strangers, The (15) ***
(Dir: Bryan Bertino, 2008, 85 mins) Here’s one of a slew of English-language knock-offs of the imaginative 2006 French home invasion thriller ‘Them’. Initially, the mounting dread works rather well, but the jolts and…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Strawberry and Chocolate (18) **
The first gay flick to emerge from macho Cuba deserves at least one hearty cheer for its brave mix of Castro-bashing and homoeroticism. Shame it couldn't have been just a teensy bit more engrossing. Jilted by his…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stray Dogs (12A) **
(Dir: Marzieh Meshkini, 93 mins) A decidedly odd film from Marzieh Meshkini, a member of Iran’s Makhmalbaf film-making dynasty. Imagine a conflation of the notionally incompatible cute pooch and suffering peasant…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Street Kings (15) ***
(Dir: David Ayer, 2008, 109 mins) Adapted from his own story by James Ellroy, and directed by David (‘Training Day’) Ayer, ‘Street Kings’ has Keanu Reeves back in uniform, which often gets the best out of inconsistent…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
StreetDance 3D (PG) ***
(Dir: Max Giwa & Dania Pasquini, 2010, 98 mins) Nipping smartly into cinemas before the wheels come off the 3D movie bandwagon, this teen musical is the UK’s first home grown live-action 3D film: a brash, bouncy,…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
Strings (PG) ***
(Dir: Anders Ronnow-Klarlund, 88 mins) Despite boasting the most wooden acting you’ll ever see, and a ripe plot melding sword’n’sorcery fantasy with Shakespearian intrigue, this bizarre oddity from Denmark certainly…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Striptease (15) ***
The movie for which Demi Moore got her kit off for $12.5 million is likely to disappoint both the raincoat brigade and lovers of hard-boiled American crime thrillers drawn to it by Carl Hiaasen’s inspirational novel.…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Stuart Little (U) ***
(Dir: Rob Minkoff, 84 mins) All-American apple pie fantasy parents the Littles (Hugh Laurie, Geena Davis), who live in a dinky little house nestled comfortably between the tallest tower blocks on New York's Fifth…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stuart Little 2 (U) ***
(Dir: Rob Minkoff, 78 mins) Cinema's second favourite mouse returns with another instalment of folksy, family fun. And it effortlessly serves up the same ingredients as before - a strong moral message delivered in a…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stuck (15) ****
(Dir: Stuart Gordon, 2007, 85 mins) Something of a return to form by horror veteran Stuart (‘Reanimator’) Gordon, this dramatic reworking of an astonishing true story as pitch black comedy casts Mena Suvari as newly…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stuck On You (12A) ***
(Dir: Bobby and Peter Farr, 118 mins) The Farrelly brothers’ singular trick has been to ride the publicity generated by the predictable outrage of lobby groups at their temerity in deriving vulgar amusement from…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Stupids, The (PG) ***
Taken from a series of popular children’s books, this engaging family film is a broadly exaggerated pantomime pitching the blissfully innocent, unbelievably naïve Stupid Family against the forces of evil in the form of…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Submarine (15)
(Dir: Richard Ayoade, 2011, 97 mins) Adapted from Joe Dunthorne's cult novel, 'Mighty Boosh'/'IT Crowd' writer/star/director Richard Ayoade's feature debut operates in very familiar coming-of-age territory, being the…16.03.2011 READ MORE -
Suburban Mayhem (15) ***
(Dir: Paul Goldman, 89 mins) John Skinner is dead. Everyone knows who killed him, even though there’s insufficient evidence for an arrest. There she is now: his scheming, over-indulged, 19-year-old single-parent slut of…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
subUrbia ****
(Dir: Richard Linklater, 121 mins) Waiting for Pony, an old pal turned MTV rock god, a bunch of suburban ‘90s slackers hang out in the strip-mall parking lot they like to call home. What sets this apart from previous…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Such a Long Journey (15) ***
(Dir: Sturla Gunnarsson, 108 mins) An adaptation of Rohinton Mistry's sprawling Booker-shortlisted novel, with the great Om Puri and Roshan Seth, this was never going to be anything less than a Rolls-Royce production.…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sucker Punch (12A)
(Dir: Zack Snyder, 2011, 110 mins) Dragons, zeppelins, one or other World Wars with German zombie soldiers, giant samurai, seriously hot chicks in abbreviated manga schoolgirl outfits or fetish uniforms swinging swords,…30.03.2011 READ MORE -
Sudden Death (18) ***
There’s a bad guy (the deliciously evil Powers Boothe) threatening to blow up an entire sports stadium and all the people in it unless he gets a multi-million dollar ransom. But the plan starts to falter when he kidnaps…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sugar (15) ****
(Dir: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, 2008, 114 mins) Superficially yet another off-putting US sports movie, ‘Half Nelson’ directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s ‘Sugar’ turns out to be another involving, character-driven…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sugarhouse (15) ***
(Dir: Gary Love, 2007, 90 mins) ‘Soldier Soldier’ star Gary Love’s directorial debut is a three-hander that draws together a trio of wildly disparate characters: a middle class white guy seemingly lost in a rough East…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sum of All Fears, The (12) ***
(Dir: Phil Alden Robinson, 124 mins) Any film about a terrorist attack on America is now guaranteed a post-Sept 11 resonance. Strip away the nuking of Baltimore, however, and this is a standard-issue Tom Clancy…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Summer (15) ***
(Dir: Kenny Glenaan, 2008, 83 mins) A minor slice of Britmisery powered by a typically strong performance from Robert Carlyle, this feels rather like a Ken Loach movie stripped of overt politics. Although no surprises…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Summer Hours (12A) **
(Dir: Olivier Assayas, 2008, 103 mins, subtitles) Olivier Assayas’s very French, exceedingly middle class talky probate drama has a diverse trio of siblings struggling with the dilemma of what to do with the family…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Summer of Sam (18) ****
(Dir: Spike Lee, 142 mins) Spike Lee's most accomplished film since 'Do the Right Thing' also unfolds during a long, hot summer which constantly threatens to explode into violence. While the tensions aren't racial, the…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Summer Things (15) ****
(Dir: Michel Blanc, 103 mins) In the hands of actor/writer/occasional director Michel Blanc, Joseph Connolly’s eponymous English comic novel becomes a broad, highly enjoyable, typically Gallic sex farce. Ever-elegant…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sun, The (PG) **
(Dir: Aleksandr Sokurov, 114 mins) The temptation is to treat this as a companion piece to Oliver Hirschbiegel’s brilliant ‘Downfall’. After all, here’s another WWII leader coming to terms with certain defeat in his…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sunshine (15) ***
(Dir: Istvan Szabo, 179 mins) Three stiffly suffering Ralph Fienneses for the price of one, anybody? If you enjoy watching Period Man looking repressed, persecuted and miserable in meticulously recreated historical…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sunshine (2007) (15) ***
(Dir: Danny Boyle, 2007, 98 mins) More ‘Solaris’ than ‘Armageddon’, this science fiction flick from the ‘Beach’/‘28 Days Later’ writer/director team of Alex Garland and Danny Boyle will inevitably remind buffs of a…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sunshine Cleaning (15) ***
(Dir: Christine Jeffs, 2009, 91 mins) This promising crime-scene clean-up flick quickly snaps into an indie-by-numbers Sundance Sunshiney oddball family vibe which would be more than usually irritating were it not for…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Sunshine State (15) ****
(Dir:John Sayles, 140 mins) As ‘Matewan’, ‘City of Hope’, ‘Lone Star’ and ‘Limbo’ testify, John Sayles is fond of dissecting communities facing political, social, economic and ethnic problems. ‘Sunshine State’ takes him…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
Super 8 (12A)
USA 2011 111 mins Dir: JJ Abrams Starring: Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Zach Mills, Riley Griffiths, Gabriel Basso, Ron Eldard It's not hard to see what appealed to producer Steven Spielberg about…05.08.2011 READ MORE -
Super Size Me (12A) ****
(Dir: Morgan Spurlock, 96 mins) It’s easy to see why ‘Super Size Me’ has become such a hit and made McDonalds so rattled. Although clearly a stunt, Morgan Spurlock’s experiment, in which he ate exclusively at McDonalds…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Super Troopers (15) **
(Dir: Jay Chandrasekhar, 103 mins) Written and performed by a former college comedy troupe, who toured it round US campuses rather than taking the traditional publicity route, ‘Super Troopers’ is the kind of film you…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Superbad (15) ****
(Dir: Greg Mottola, 2007, 113 mins) This fabulously crude, Judd Apatow-produced teen sex comedy is co-written by ‘Knocked Up’ star Seth Rogan and has a character who looks like a younger version of himself. Inevitably…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Superhero Movie (12A) *
(Dir: Craig Mazin, 2008, 86 mins) When short of inspiration, wheel on the increasingly craggy Leslie Nielsen for a necrophilia gag and give him some lines about ‘bitches’. Oh, and recycle a bunch of visual gags from the…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Superman Returns (12A) ****
(Dir: Bryan Singer, 154 mins) Confidently abandoning all the revisions of the franchise attempted in comics and TV series, Bryan Singer’s reboot brings Superman (Brandon Routh) back to a recognisably 21st Century Earth…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Surf’s Up (PG) ***
(Dir: Ash Brannon and Chris Buck, 2007, 85 mins) Aardman’s new pals at Sony have helped themselves to the ‘Creature Comforts’ format for this long-form mockumentary. If that wasn’t heart-sinking enough, ‘Surf’s Up’ is…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Surrogates (12A) ***
(Dir: Jonathan Mostow, 2009, 88 mins) Taking the popular dystopian view that humanity is about to degenerate into a race of plugged-in fatties who sit around in their pants experiencing pansexual pleasure vicariously,…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Surveillance (18) *
(Dir: Jennifer Chambers Lynch, 2008, 97 mins) David Lynch’s daughter returns after 15 years in the wilderness with a film that turns out to be just as bloody awful as its predecessor, the feminist-bating ‘Boxing…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Surviving Christmas (12A) *
(Dir: Mike Mitchell, 90 mins) This excruciating comedy sees Ben Affleck playing an obscenely rich Chicago advertising exec with loneliness issues who offers blue collar stiff Tom Valco (James Gandolfini), frazzled wife…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Surviving Life (15)
Czech Republic 2010 109 mins Subtitles Dir: Jan Svankmajer Starring: Vaclav Helsus, Klara Issova, Zuzana Kronerova, Daniela Bakerova, Emilia Dosekova Five years on from 'Lunacy', his fabulous "infantile tribute" to…16.12.2011 READ MORE -
Surviving Picasso (15) **
(Dir: James Ivory, 122 mins) Told partly in flashback from the viewpoint of Francoise Girot (Natascha McElhone), who fell for the “Come up and see my etchings” line at the age of 23 when priapic Pablo (Anthony Hopkins)…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Suzhou River (12) ***
(Dir: Lou Ye, 83 mins) Chinese director Lou Ye's elegiac 'Suzhou River' may take its cue from 'Vertigo', but admirers of the dreamy visuals of Wong Kar-Wai will find most to enjoy here. The turbid, polluted, man-made…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swan Princess, The (U) **
An animated variation on 'Swan Lake' directed by Richard Rich, an emigre from the Disney organisation who co-directed 'The Fox and the Hound' and 'The Black Cauldron' in the Studio's hiatus between Walt's death and the…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swann (15) **
(Dir: Anna Benson Gyles, 95 mins) A BBC-backed, audience-flattering mystery yarn with literary pretensions, based on a novel by Booker Prize-shortlisted Carol Shields, and boasting the solid BritThesp duo of Miranda…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (18) ****
(Dir: Tim Burton, 2008, 116 mins) You’d struggle to find a better match for Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ than Tim Burton, who brings impressive torrents of blood and splendidly gothic production design to his…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sweet and Lowdown (15) ****
(Dir: Woody Allen, 95 mins) Woody Allen coaxes a magnificent performance from Sean Penn as feckless, fictional jazz-era guitarist Emmet Ray in this delightful mockmentary. Comprising a series of vignettes in the life of…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sweet Hereafter, The (15) ****
(Dir; Atom Egoyan, 110 mins) Up in the snowy outback of British Columbia, tragedy strikes when a school bus veers of the road and plunges into a frozen river, with only the driver and teenage Nicole surviving – the…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sweet Home Alabama (12A) ***
(Dir: Andy Tennant, 109 mins) This lazily scripted and cliché-packed yet perversely enjoyable feelgood confection made a ridiculous amount of money in the US, but it’s one of talented Reese Witherspoon’s least…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sweet Sixteen (15) **
(Dir: Ken Loach, 106 mins) Ken Loach’s latest grinding povertyfest, set in the decimated shipbuilding wastelands of Scotland’s Greenock area, has provoked criticism from local dignitaries that he’s ignored recent…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sweetest Thing, The (15) ***
(Dir: Roger Kumble, 84 mins) Why should blokes have all the fun? That seems to be the thinking behind this female-oriented grossout romcom, scripted by ‘South Park’ writer Nancy M. Pimental, which matches the Farrelly…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swimfan (12A) **
(Dir: John Polson, 85 mins) High school kid Jesse Bradford seems to have it made. He’s got a promising swimming career and a nice, wholesome, if somewhat horse-faced girlfriend named by his side. But while Jesse may be…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swimming Pool (15) ****
(Dir: Francois Ozon, 103 mins) Veteran English actress Charlotte Rampling and young French director Francois Ozon team up again after ‘Under the Sand’ for a Hitchcockian psychological thriller. Rampling is cast…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swimming With Sharks (15) ***
Based upon the real-life experiences of first-time writer/director George Huang and others, this somewhat heavy-handed, intermittently hilarious film industry satire fatally handicaps itself with a stupid revenge motif…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swing (15) ****
(Dir: Nick Mead, 97 mins) A post-‘Monty’ Britflick starring that film’s well-endowed Hugo Speer, 'Swing' invites obvious comparisons but very quickly establishes its own identity. This is helped by the music it…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swing Vote (12A) ***
(Dir: Joshua Michael Stern, 2008, 120 mins) This good-natured and mildly satirical political comedy stars Kevin Costner as a loveable loser named Bud Johnson, a boozy slacker who lives with his precocious 12-year-old…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swingers (15) *****
(Dir: Doug Liman, 96 mins) Imagine ‘Diner’ rewritten by Quentin Tarantino, but cut out the violence and pump it full of Woody Allen one-liners. Cast a group of unknown but fiendishly charismatic young actors, shoot…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Switch, The (12A) *
(Dir: Josh Gordon and Will Speck, 2010, 102 mins) Let’s just explore the premise of this latest appalling Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy for a moment. A man (Jason Bateman) is denied a sexual relationship by a woman…16.09.2010 READ MORE -
Switchblade Romance (18) ***
(Dir: Alexandre Aja, 91 mins) Bickering college pals Marie (Cecile De France) and Alex (Maiwenn Le Besco) drive through the French countryside to Alex’s parents’ remote farmhouse for revision and relaxation. Later that…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Swordfish (15) **
(Dir: Dominic Sena, 97 mins) "The problem with Hollywood is that they make shit ..." Thus spouts the lardular John Travolta in the opening sequence of 'Swordfish' before triggering a bone-shaking explosion which blows…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sydney White (12A) **
(Dir: Joe Nussbaum, 2007, 108 mins) Yet another mediocre vehicle for perky, blank-faced tweenie B-lister Amanda Bynes, who’s way more likeable and talented than her more successful rivals Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan,…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Sylvia (15) **
(Dir: Christine Jeffs, 114 mins) The entrenched opponents in the great Ted Hughes/Sylvia Plath battle were never likely to be satisfied with this film. The Plath Industry, in particular, will accept nothing less than…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Syndromes and a Century (15) **
(Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006, 106 mins, subtitles) A tad less alienating than Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s previous film, ‘Tropical Malady’, ‘Syndromes and a Century’ sets out to speculate on how…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Synecdoche, New York (15) ***
(Dir: Charlie Kaufman, 2009, 124 mins) Unsurprisingly, without the talents of his previous creative partners Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut turns out to be dense, clever and allusive…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
Syriana (15) ****
(Dir: Stephen Gaghan, 126 mins) The pieces of this patchwork narrative from ‘Traffic’ scriptwriter Stephen Gaghan coalesce slowly, and assumptions are made about the viewer’s ability to follow multiple convergent…30.08.2010 READ MORE -
The Salt of Life (12A)
Italy 2010 89 mins Subtitles Dir: Gianni Di Gregorio Starring: Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis, Alfonso Santagata, Elisabetta Piccolomini, Aylin Prandi, Teresa Di Gregorio, Kristina Cepraga, Valeria Cavalli …12.08.2011 READ MORE -
The Secret Agent Club (PG) *
Nerdy toyshop owner and widower Hulk Hogan is a great source of embarrassment to his 12-year-old son, who also resents the old duffer for never having been around when his mom was alive. But - hey! - Hulk just happens…02.08.2010 READ MORE -
The Secret of Kells (PG) ****
(Dir: Tomm Moore, 2010, 79 mins) This slightly over-praised Irish animation was a surprise Oscar nominee. Clearly unable to compete with Hollywood in the 3D/performance capture/stellar voice cast arena, director Tomm…10.11.2010 READ MORE -
The September Issue (12A) ***
(Dir: R.J. Cutler, 2009, 90 mins) Inevitably dubbed “the real ‘The Devil Wears Prada’”, R.J. Cutler’s documentary is something of a treat for fashionistas but winds up telling us very little indeed about its putative…02.09.2010 READ MORE -
The Skin I Live In (15)
Spain 2011 120 mins Dir: Pedro Almodovar Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Blanca Suarez, Marisa Paredes A deliciously dark melodrama with a twist of Cronenberg-esque body horror and a nod in the direction of…26.08.2011 READ MORE -
The Social Network (12A) ****
(Dir: David Fincher, 2010, 120 mins) On paper, this shouldn’t work. Another entry in the uncinematic cycle of films depicting young men tapping away on keyboards, in which women are relegated to the status of decoration…13.10.2010 READ MORE -
The Source (15)
Belgium/Italy/France 2011 125 mins Subtitles Dir: Radu Mihaileanu Starring: Leila Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi, Biyouna, Sabrina Ouazani, Saleh Bakri, Hiam Abbass A glossy, calculated liberal arthouse crowd-pleaser that…18.05.2012 READ MORE
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Film Reviews
The Source (15)
Belgium/Italy/France 2011 125 mins Subtitles Dir: Radu Mihaileanu Starring: Leila Bekhti, Hafsia…
Released 18.05.12
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Café de Flore (TBA)
Canada/France 2011 120 mins Subtitles Dir: Jean-Marc Vallee Starring: Vanessa Paradis, Kevin…
Released 11.05.12
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Beloved (TBA)
France/UK/Czech Republic 2011 135 mins Subtitles Dir: Christophe Honore Starring: Catherine…
Released 11.05.12
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American Pie: Reunion (15)
USA 2012 113 mins Dir: Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg Starring: Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth,…
Released 04.05.12
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Silent House (15)
USA 2012 85 mins Dir: Chris Kentis & Laura Lau Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Shaffer…
Released 04.05.12
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Goodbye First Love (15)
France/Germany 2011 111 mins Subtitles Dir: Mia Hansen-Love Starring: Lola Creton, Sebastian…
Released 04.05.12
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Two Years at Sea (TBA)
UK 2011 90 mins Dir: Ben Rivers A hairy-beardy chap trudges through the snow towards his rundown,…
Released 04.05.12
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African Cats (U)
USA 2011 89 mins Dir: Alastair Fothergill & Keith Scholey The best in Bristol-based wildlife…
Released 27.04.12
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Damsels in Distress (12A)
USA 2011 99 mins Dir: Whit Stillman Starring: Greta Gerwig, Carrie MacLemore, Megalyn Echikunwoke,…
Released 27.04.12
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Marvel Avengers Assemble (12A)
USA 2012 143 mins Dir: Joss Whedon Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett…
Released 27.04.12
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Marley (15)
USA/UK 2012 145 mins Dir: Kevin Macdonald "There's nothing Jamaicans like more than a man who's…
Released 20.04.12
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Breathing (15)
Austria 2011 94 mins Subtitles Dir: Karl Markovics Starring: Thomas Schubert, Karin Lishka, Gerhard…
Released 20.04.12
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Mozart's Sister (12A)
France 2010 120 mins Subtitles Dir: Rene Feret Starring: Marie Feret, Marc Barbe, Delphine…
Released 13.04.12
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Hadewijch (12A)
France 2009 105 mins Subtitles Dir: Bruno Dumont Starring: Julie Sokolowski, Karl Sarafidis,…
Released 13.04.12
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Delicacy (12A)
France 2011 109 mins Subtitles Dir: David & Stephane Foenkinos Starring: Audrey Tautou, Francois…
Released 13.04.12
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Le Havre (PG)
Finland/France/Germany 2011 93 mins Subtitles Dir: Aki Kaurismaki Starring: Andre Wilms, Kati…
Released 06.04.12
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Headhunters (15)
Norway/Germany 2011 100 mins Subtitles Dir: Morten Tyldum Starring: Aksel Hennie, Synnove Macody…
Released 06.04.12
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A Cat in Paris (PG)
France 2010 62 mins Dir: Jean-Loup Felicioli & Alain Gagnol Starring (voices): Sara Vertongen, Mark…
Released 06.04.12
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Mirror Mirror (PG)
USA 2012 106 mins Dir: Tarsem Singh Starring: Julia Roberts, Sean Bean, Lily Collins, Armie…
Released 02.04.12
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Tiny Furniture (15)
USA 2010 98 mins Dir: Lena Dunham Starring: Lena Dunham, Grace Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Laurie Simmons…
Released 30.03.12
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Bonsai (15)
Chile/Argentina/Portugal/France 2011 96 mins Subtitles Dir: Cristian Jiminez Starring: Nathalia…
Released 30.03.12
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This Is Not a Film (U)
Iran 2010 75 mins Subtitles Dir: Mojtaba Mirtahmasb & Jafar Panahi There was much nose-thumbing…
Released 30.03.12
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Into the Abyss (12A)
Germany/Canada 2011 107 mins Dir: Werner Herzog Fun-loving German director Werner Herzog has spent…
Released 30.03.12
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The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (U)
UK 2012 90 mins Dir: Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt Starring (voices): Hugh Grant, Lenny Henry, Brendan…
Released 28.03.12
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The Kid with a Bike (12A)
Belgium/France/Italy 2011 87 mins Subtitles Dir: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Starring: Thomas Doret,…
Released 20.03.12
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The Devil Inside (15)
USA 2012 83 mins Dir: William Brent Bell Starring: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quartermain, Evan…
Released 16.03.12
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Contraband (15)
USA 2012 110 mins Dir: Baltasar Kormakur Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster,…
Released 16.03.12
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We Bought a Zoo (PG)
USA 2011 124 mins Dir: Cameron Crowe Starring: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church,…
Released 16.03.12
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In Darkness (15)
Poland/Germany/France/Canada 2011 144 mins Subtitles Dir: Agnieszka Holland Starring: Robert…
Released 16.03.12
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Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (15)
Turkey/Bosnia & Herzegovina 2011 158 mins Subtitles Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan Starring: Muhammet…
Released 16.03.12
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Trishna (15)
UK 2011 113 mins Dir: Michael Winterbottom Starring: Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed, Roshan Seth If…
Released 09.03.12
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Michael (18)
Austria 2011 96 mins Subtitles Dir: Markus Schleinzer Starring: Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger…
Released 02.03.12
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Carancho (TBA)
Argentina/Chile/France 2010 107 mins Subtitles Dir: Pablo Trapero Starring: Ricardo Darin, Martina…
Released 02.03.12
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Rampart (15)
USA 2011 108 mins Dir: Oren Moverman Starring: Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi,…
Released 24.02.12
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Red Dog (PG)
Australia 2011 92 min Dir: Kriv Stenders Starring: Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Keisha…
Released 24.02.12
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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (12A)
UK 2011 123 mins Dir: John Madden Starring: Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson,…
Released 24.02.12
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Blood Car (18)
USA 2007 76 mins Dir: Alex Orr Starring: Anna Chlumsky, Mike Brune, Katie Rowlett Anyone remember…
Released 24.02.12
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Safe House (15)
USA 2012 115 mins Dir: Daniel Espinosa Starring: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Vera Farmiga,…
Released 24.02.12
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (12A)
USA 2011 129 mins Dir: Stephen Daldry Starring: Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, John…
Released 17.02.12
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The Woman in the Fifth (15)
France/Poland/UK 2011 84 mins Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Ethan Hawke,…
Released 17.02.12
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Bombay Beach (TBA)
USA 2011 80 mins Dir: Alma Har'el The opening crackly vintage newsreel footage informs us that the…
Released 17.02.12
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A Dangerous Method (15)
UK/Germany/Canada/Switzerland 2011 100 mins Dir: David Cronenberg Starring: Keira Knightley, Viggo…
Released 10.02.12
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The Muppets (U)
USA 2011 110 mins Dir: James Bobin Starring: The Muppets, Amy Adams, Jason Segel, Chris Cooper,…
Released 10.02.12
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Carnage (15)
France/Germany/Poland/Spain 2011 80 mins Dir: Roman Polanski Starring: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet,…
Released 03.02.12
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Jack and Jill (PG)
USA 2011 91 mins Dir: Denis Dugan Starring: Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Katie Holmes What could be…
Released 03.02.12
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Man on a Ledge (12A)
USA 2012 102 mins Dir: Asger Leth Starring: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Jamie Bell, Ed…
Released 03.02.12
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Young Adult (15)
USA 2011 94 mins Dir: Jason Reitman Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt,…
Released 03.02.12
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Martha Marcy May Marlene (15)
USA 2011 102 mins Dir: Sean Durkin Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy, John…
Released 03.02.12
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Black Pond (15)
UK 2011 82 mins Dir: Tom Kingsley & Will Sharpe Starring: Chris Langham, Anna O'Grady, Simon…
Released 30.01.12
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The Descendants (15)
USA 2011 115 mins Dir: Alexander Payne Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller,…
Released 27.01.12
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House of Tolerance (18)
France 2011 126 mins Subtitles Dir: Bertrand Bernello Starring: Hafsia Herzi, Celine Sallette,…
Released 27.01.12
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Like Crazy (12A)
USA 2011 90 mins Dir: Drake Doremus Starring: Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence,…
Released 27.01.12
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Haywire (15)
USA 2011 93 mins Dir: Steven Soderbergh Starring: Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender,…
Released 20.01.12
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J. Edgar (15)
USA 2011 137 mins Dir: Clint Eastwood Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi…
Released 20.01.12
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Coriolanus (15)
UK 2011 123 mins Dir: Ralph Fiennes Starring: Gerard Butler, Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain,…
Released 20.01.12
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Shame (18)
UK 2011 101 mins Dir: Steve McQueen Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale…
Released 13.01.12
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War Horse (12A)
USA 2011 146 mins Dir: Steven Spielberg Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan,…
Released 13.01.12
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Tatsumi (15)
Singapore 2011 96 mins Subtitles Dir: Eric Khoo Starring (voices): Tetsuya Bessho, Motoko Gollent,…
Released 13.01.12
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Margin Call (15)
USA 2011 107 mins Dir: J.C. Chandor Starring: Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Stanley…
Released 13.01.12
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The Artist (PG)
France 2011 100 mins Dir: Michel Hazanavicius Starring: Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman,…
Released 06.01.12
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The Iron Lady (12A)
UK 2011 105 mins Dir: Phyllida Lloyd Starring: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant,…
Released 06.01.12
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Dreams of a Life (12A)
UK 2011 95 mins Dir: Carol Morley Starring: Zawe Ashton, Alix Luka-Cain It takes 15 minutes until…
Released 30.12.11
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Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows (12A)
USA 2011 129 mins Dir: Guy Ritchie Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Stephen…
Released 19.12.11
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Surviving Life (15)
Czech Republic 2010 109 mins Subtitles Dir: Jan Svankmajer Starring: Vaclav Helsus, Klara Issova,…
Released 16.12.11
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Another Earth (12A)
USA 2011 92 mins Dir: Mike Cahill Starring: Brit Marling, William Mapother Things the movies tell…
Released 09.12.11
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Las Acacias (12A)
Argentina/Spain 2011 86 mins Subtitles Dir: Pablo Giorgelli Starring: German de Silva, Hebe Durate…
Released 09.12.11
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Puss In Boots (U)
USA 2011 90 mins Dir: Chris Miller Starring (voices): Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach…
Released 09.12.11
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Mysteries of Lisbon (PG)
Portugal/France 2010 266 mins Subtitles Dir: Raoul Ruiz Starring: Adriano Luz, Maria Joao Bastos,…
Released 09.12.11
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (12A)
USA 2011 117mins Dir: Bill Condon Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner As we…
Released 07.12.11
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The Thing (15)
USA 2011 103 mins Dir: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton,…
Released 02.12.11
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Romantics Anonymous (12A)
France/Belgium 2010 78 mins Subtitles Dir: Jean-Pierre Ameris Starring: Benoit Poelvoorde, Isabelle…
Released 02.12.11
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We Have a Pope (PG)
Italy/France 2011 104 mins Subtitles Dir: Nanni Moretti Starring: Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Stuhr,…
Released 02.12.11
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The Deep Blue Sea (12A)
UK 2011 98 mins Dir: Terence Davies Starring: Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale…
Released 25.11.11
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Dream House (15)
USA 2011 92 mins Dir: Jim Sheridan Starring: Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Marton Csokas…
Released 25.11.11
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Take Shelter (15)
USA 2011 121 mins Dir: Jeff Nicholls Starring: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain Imagine the first…
Released 25.11.11
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The British Guide to Showing Off (15)
UK 2011 97 mins Dir: Jes Benstock If you've a high tolerance of exceedingly camp middle-aged men…
Released 20.11.11
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Snowtown (18)
Australia 2011 115 mins Dir: Justin Kurzel Starring: Daniel Henshall, Lucas Pittaway, Louise Harris…
Released 18.11.11
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Arthur Christmas (U)
UK/USA 2011 Dir: Sarah Smith Starring (voices): James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim…
Released 11.11.11
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Tabloid (15)
USA 2010 87 mins Dir: Errol Morris Best known for heavy-duty documentaries such as the…
Released 11.11.11
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Trespass (15)
USA 2011 91 mins Dir: Joel Schumacher Starring: Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Cam Gigandet, Ben…
Released 11.11.11
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The Awakening (15)
UK 2011 107 mins Dir: Nick Murphy Starring: Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Imelda Staunton It'll never…
Released 11.11.11
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Weekend (18)
UK 2011 97 mins Dir: Andrew Haigh Starring: Tom Cullen, Chris New Imagine that Richard Linklater…
Released 04.11.11
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The Future (12A)
USA 2011 91 mins Dir: Miranda July Starring: Miranda July, Hamish Linklater, David Warshofsky,…
Released 04.11.11
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The Ides of March (15)
USA 2011 101 mins Dir: George Clooney Starring: George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour…
Released 31.10.11
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The Help (12A)
USA 2011 146 mins Dir: Tate Taylor Starring: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia…
Released 28.10.11
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Miss Bala (15)
Mexico 2011 113 mins Subtitles Dir: Gerardo Naranjo Starring: Stephanie Sigman, James Russo, Noe…
Released 28.10.11
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Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn
USA 2011 107 mins Dir: Steven Spielberg Starring: Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost,…
Released 25.10.11
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Monte Carlo (PG)
USA 2011 109 mins Dir: Thomas Bezucha Starring: Selena Gomez, Leighton Meester, Katie Cassidy,…
Released 21.10.11
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We Need to Talk About Kevin (15)
UK/USA 2011 112 mins Dir: Lynne Ramsay Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper…
Released 21.10.11
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Contagion (12A)
USA 2011 106 mins Dir: Steven Soderbergh Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Marion…
Released 21.10.11
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The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (12A)
Sweden 2011 96 mins Dir: Goran Hugo Olsson A necessarily rather scrappy documentary whose natural…
Released 21.10.11
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Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (12A)
USA 2011 87 mins Dir: Morgan Spurlock If there's one thing more depressing in modern documentary…
Released 14.10.11
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Midnight in Paris (12A)
USA 2011 94 mins Dir: Woody Allen Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Carla…
Released 07.10.11
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Tyrannosaur (18)
UK 2011 92 mins Dir: Paddy Considine Starring: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan How do you…
Released 07.10.11
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The Debt (15)
USA 2011 113 mins Dir: John Madden Starring: Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Ciaran Hinds, Sam…
Released 30.09.11
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Guilty of Romance (18)
Japan 2011 113 mins Subtitles Dir: Sion Sono Starring: Megumi Kagurazaka, Miki Mizuno, Makato…
Released 30.09.11
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Melancholia (15)
Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany 2011 135 mins Dir: Lars Von Trier Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte…
Released 30.09.11
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Red State (18)
USA 2011 88 mins Dir: Kevin Smith Starring: Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman Apparently…
Released 30.09.11
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Shark Night 3D (15)
USA 2011 91 mins Dir: David R. Ellis Starring: Sara Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, Sinqua…
Released 30.09.11
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