Hurt Locker, The (2008)

Never a big fan of the late Stanley Kubrick’s, I went to see Eyes Wide Shut with no very great expectations. As in so many of Kubrick’s films, the cineaste predominates over the dramatist or the moralist. He is one of those directors — Bertolucci is another — whose approach to the movies is what…

Yet another illustration of Hollywood’s failure to learn the lesson that less is more — particularly when it comes to spooky mysteries

The Jackal, directed by Michael Caton-Jones, is a formula blockbuster and a complete artistic void. The only interesting thing about it to me was the chance it afforded to spot the trends as to what ingredients go into the formula this year. For example, the macho man who has an on-screen homosexual kiss looks as…

A fast-moving thriller that is all slick surface and superheroic action with nothing much else to recommend it, apart from its apology for torture

The eighth in the series which has become an unprecedented achievement of the documentarian’s art

Another ghetto morality play, set in New Mexico, urging us to stay out of jail. Jail is very bad for you. Who knew?