Tag: film
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For a movie that is based on the premise of middle aged men abusing their status and power to conduct extramarital affairs with their younger…
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2011’s cinematic adaptation of John Le Carré’s 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not the easiest of movies to follow. It might have helped…
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David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises is not the cheeriest of films. Indeed it’s all pretty dark and unpleasant really, dealing with matters such as sex-trafficking, rape and…
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In last’ year’s James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films writer/director Shane Black was responsible for no less than 6 of the films included. Some…
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I first saw The Royal Tenenbaums when it hit cinema screens in 2001. And I hated it. I rarely leave the multiplex angry at a…
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When the opening scene of a film concludes with the brutal killing of two prisoners of war, one might assume that it’s not the most…
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1968’s The Lion in Winter is based on a play and in many ways it does feel more like watching a stage performance rather than…
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On paper The French Connection appears to be a run-of-the-mill crime thriller, with a protagonist, in Detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle (Gene Hackman), who doesn’t play…
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2010’s Red is ostensibly a ‘by-the-numbers’ action flick. Bruce Willis barely needs to get out of second gear in his performance as lead character Frank…
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2015’s The Hateful Eight is the eighth film by Quentin Tarantino and it is not untypical of his oeuvre, containing, as it does, extreme violence,…
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When Jurassic Park hit the big screen in 1993, it was pretty pioneering stuff. For the first time dinosaurs on screen looked like real dinosaurs.…
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Many film franchises that begin with a great first outing often deliver sequels of diminishing returns. But few decline quite so rapidly with each edition…
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1994’s The Ref is not the longest film ever made at 97 minutes. Nonetheless it might well be slightly longer than it really needs to…
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I had relatively high hopes for 2001’s Behind Enemy Lines. On paper it looks like it should be pretty good. A pilot gets shot down…
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On the cover of the DVD case that contains my copy of 1999’s comic crime caper Go, it’s Katie Holmes who appears to be the…
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Objectively I can see that 1991’s Hook is not an especially good film, but I still can’t help but like it. As intriguing as the…
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1989’s When Harry Met Sally is one of the few romantic comedies that I’ll openly admit to liking. It is a romantic comedy in the…
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Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of King Kong is a bit on the long side at 187 minutes. This is an impressive feat given that the…
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The Life of Brian was my introduction to the world of Monty Python, though the first time I watched it, while I found it fairly…
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I had intended to include 2002’s Catch Me If You Can in last year’s ‘Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films’ but alas I was unable to…
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And so December is upon us and The Second Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films is officially underway. But just what is the…
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Last year I spent the build-up to Christmas by reviewing films that had a (sometimes tenuous) link to the festive season. At the time I…
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1996’s Last Man Standing is one of those movies that, on paper, looks like it should be an absolute winner. Bruce Willis plays the nameless…
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Hannibal Lecter is arguably one of the most iconic screen characters of all time. There have been multiple incarnations of Thomas Harris’ man-eating serial killer…
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I saw 1994’s The Specialist in the cinema when it came out. Until recently that was the only time I’d ever seen it, so I…
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It’s Thursday, which in recent months has been the day I have posted an unnecessary review of a film I watched when I was younger.…
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1984’s Romancing The Stone is perhaps as rare an entity as the eponymous gemstone around which much of the movie is centred. Very much a…
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As a teenager there was really only one reason that I, or any of my friends, bothered to watch 1992’s Basic Instinct. In much the…
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Like 1982’s Blade Runner, 1990’s Total Recall is based on a story by acclaimed science fiction writer, Philip K. Dick. However, a dystopian futuristic setting,…
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1990’s Pretty Woman might seem an odd film for me to enjoy given the genre of film that I’ve tended write about in recent weeks.…
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Last week I wrote about 1992’s Under Siege, a film in which Steven Seagal solved the problem of being a mediocre (at best) actor…
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