The Scream franchise is one of the most endearing and well loved horror franchises in the history of cinema. So for Wes Craven to return to the franchise after ten years was, to say the least, risky. Ultimately both Craven’s reputation and the legacy of the franchise were at risk in deciding to make a fourth instalment. Luckily for Craven he had the stars of the original trilogy Courtney Cox, David Arquette return, alongside the titular final girl Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell. Despite the obvious risks for all involved, thankfully, to a large extent, the risk pays off. [click to continue…]
The novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was written by American author Harper Lee in 1960, and was the young author’s debut. The book features a number of characters which are based on, and sometimes named after, people close to Lee herself, the most notable examples are Atticus Finch, who is based on and named after her mother Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Who the character of Arnie Cunningham is also named after. The character of Dill is also based on Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote, and given that as a child Lee was a tomboy, and a precocious reader it is highly probable that the character of Scout is based on the author herself. [click to continue…]
Alien invasion movies are extremely popular at the moment and Battle: Los Angeles is the latest big budget offering in this cycle. Equipped with the obligatory action packed trailer and state of the art special effects the film is purely and simply nothing more than pointless, brainless escapism. [click to continue…]
So it is that time of year again, Oscars season, a time when a dozen or so very good, if a little similar movies are released to the clamour of critics world wide. One of this years entries into the ‘Oscars Genre’ is The King’s Speech. Having watched the trailers and read the plot I was somewhat dubious about the film and it’s potential. However, to a great extent I was wrong. [click to continue…]
Ballet is generally treated quite badly in film. Well warn clichés are wheeled out time after time. Darren Aronofsky however, is not a filmmaker who generally plays by those rules. It would have been very easy for Aronofsky to make the nature of ballet itself the focus of the story and wheel out another generic entry into the genre; but he hasn’t. What he has done is created one of the most intense studies into the fragmentation of the human mind I have ever seen on film. [click to continue…]
