Tag Archives: Entertainment

God Save My Shoes | Film Review

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Women love shoes. Not all women, but enough to make the shoe industry in the US worth 40 billion dollars. 60% of which is solely from women. Vogue did a survey of it’s readers and found that they spent $9,000 a year on shoes. $9,000!! Even during the recession women never stopped buying shoes. They still bought expensive designer shoes; just less of them. At around $400 a pop.

This American documentary is incredibly good. Even for those who are not obsessed with shoes . The history is fascinating. Did you know that stiletto means “slender dagger” in Latin? This documentary was three years in the works and it is an impressive achievement.

It has an all-star cast, Kelly Rowland, Dita Von Teese, Manolo Blahnik, Stacey Ferguson, Christian Louboutin to name just a few. The relationship between sex and shoes is explored, as is feminism and the pain of wearing heels. One (obviously male) designer states that women like a little bit of pain when they wear high heels. He is wrong, he should just make more of an effort to make them more comfortable.

This is a good documentary. Worth a watch for men and women alike. A massive accomplishment. Also, with every purchase of this DVD, Caid Productions will donate a pair of shoes to someone in need. Thumbs up all round.

www.godsavemyshoes.com

Pre-Cannes Networking Event | Social Diary

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Frost Magazine proudly sponsored Sheepish PR’s Pre-Cannes Networking Event. Director Howard J Ford, Valeria Bandino, actress, Normski (TV host, DJ), Marc Zammit (actor), Louise Glover (Model of the year and cover model at Playboy), Emma Cony (from Take Me Out), Johny Pach (Sky TV presenter), Robbie Moffat from Palm Tree Entertainment, and Mac Chakaveh, president of the Marbella Film Festival all attended, as did the wonderful Paola Berta.

© S. Dean Photography. Thanks to Paola Berta, Sheepish PR, Beverly Hills UK – Film Society & Events –

Moonrise Kingdom | Film Review

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It’s 1965, and we’re on New Penzance Island off the cost of New England. The turbulence of the nation is far away, there’s a storm on the horizon and young love is in the air which has the adults in a fit. This island is the latest whimsical destination of Wes Anderson, the pin up director of commercially successful American independent cinema who has built a loyal fan base since the late 1990s with one of the most unique and recognisable styles in mainstream cinema today.

On said island Anderson introduces us to young Khaki scout Sam and intelligent yet isolated Suzy (newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Haywood), two twelve year olds who meet by chance and instantly fall for one another. Hated by his fellow scouts, Sam has no hesitation in stealing several camping supplies, quitting the troop and absconding with Suzy who insists on bringing a record player, a Francoise Hardy LP and her collection of science fiction novels. Suzy’s unhappily married parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) are furious and join in the search party led by sad sack Police Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis) and Scout leader Randy Ward (Edward Norton). Time may not be on their side however as the ominous shadows of a hurricane and ‘Social Services’ () bare down upon New Penzance…

From the very opening we clearly are in ‘Wes World’. A gorgeous tracking shot through the elaborate set of Suzy and her family’s home highlights many if not all of Anderson’s directorial flourishes. The very particular framing of the camera and its movement, the positioning of actors and their props, the autumnal colour scheme and frequent overhead shots of hands and key items have defined his style over seven films. I also really admired the incredibly retro titles which even have the traditional serial number beneath the title. His understanding of mise-en-scene (‘what’s in the frame’ for the film buffs) is immediately recognisable and marks him out as one of the few directors working today whom you could instantly recognise from a single frame and Moonrise Kingdom is no exception. His critics accuse him of being to forced in his style and becoming an obstruction to the narrative yet I personally applaud a director who is able to make a film that is clearly their own and can be recognised as a true auteur in the industry.

Anderson is also highly regarded for his skill at marshalling ensemble casts and here he has amassed yet another fine one. Bruce Willis and Edward Norton have a lot of fun subverting their typical ‘dark’ image with fine take on desperate, straight man against the world vibe and it is the former who has the most fun in the role. It could be seen that Willis is deliberately referencing to his back catalogue since he is playing a police officer yet he seems to be playing more to his skills as a comedic actor in the days before Die Hard. The sight of him roaming around the landscape in a beat up station wagon with a bad toupee and Hank Williams crooning away on the soundtrack makes it hard to suppress a chuckle. Previous Anderson stalwarts Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman tackle their material well and prove further to be the perfect foil for the dry, witty humour. I wish the same could be said for the female performers of the story. Frances McDormand is a brilliant actress and always a joy to watch yet here the role of Suzy’s mother she is not given enough material to form a satisfactory character arc; a sub plot involving an extramarital affair is wrapped up with a mere shrug. Also the magnificent Tilda Swinton is introduced a bit too late into the story to create a fully convincing antagonistic force though I couldn’t help but giggle every time she referred to herself in the third person as ‘Social Services’.

Thankfully it is in its key casting that Moonrise Kingdom truly scores. As the young couple, Gilman and Haywood are simply fantastic and carry the entire film effortlessly. At first their actions appear hopelessly naive yet this is undercut with genuine pathos of young love. There is a deliberate attempt on behalf of the writers to juxtapose the simplicity of their courtship against the dour complexity of the adults of the island. The films setting at a time when this part of America had not yet experienced the turbulent times that would reverberate through the nation’s history is offset with quaint and quiet charm that is genuinely beguiling and in the case of the young love story, quite moving. There is a yearning for a way of American life that simply does not exist today and there is a constant air of slight melancholy running throughout. As the social outcasts discover surprising truths about one another, Anderson focuses on the minuet details of their romance that steadily grow on you and pay off very well indeed.

His critics may complain, but Wes Anderson fans will be on cloud nine with this one and with good reason. With his typically assured style and charm and wit to spare, this easily stands amongst his best work. I personally cannot wait to see what he does next and will always be first in line to enter ‘Wes World’…

Nuno Bernardo Interview; On Collider

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Nuno Bernardo describes Collider as “Lost meets Terminator”. At Frost Magazine we are super excited about this multi-media story. Nuno is very inspirational and, according to BBC, “Nuno Bernardo is a leading world expert in New Media”.We also have the web series exclusively before anyone else does, so keep an eye out for it and check out our interview with the creator.

Catherine Balavage: How did the idea for the project come about?

It came about more than two years ago. We had been doing lots of projects, and the thing that connects all of our projects is that they are multi platform, in digital and online media. They start on the web and they move to television shows, etc. We had made Sofia’s Diary that also used this format of the multi platform We decided we wanted to make a new journal, but [do] something that we hadn’t done before. So we came up with a story that was about six characters that wake up in the future. They never met, they have nothing to connect them, and they need to learn to work together and to overcome the challenges of being in a place that is a possible colloquial world.

We started with hiring some writers from different backgrounds. We had a script writer, we had a comic book writer and we developed a story further. Changes changed and the characters changed, and the universe around the story was evolving . One year ago we were comfortable with the world we were creating and then we moved ahead. Then we started developing the comic book, developed a feature film , started developing some games and then the story started to get in shape.

Do you think in the future all films will become multi-platform? Is it possible for a film to just be a film?

I think it is. If you had asked anybody three or four years ago if a black and white movie [The Artist] could be done commercially everyone would have said no. I think there is always space for nicely told stories. A good, nice story in just one medium. You can also do the same in different mediums. The advantage if you do something in multi-platform is it works for marketing. You get different opportunities and different windows for your story but also at the same time different ways to connect with your audience. No everybody watched or reads the same story in the same way. The multi-platform allow you to create different experience. If someone wants to go and watch the film at the cinema they can just go and buy a ticket and watch the movie. If they want to play a game on a more interactive level, or they can read a novel or a comic book. We don’t want to exclude any medium. It is not saying that any medium doesn’t work alone. We are trying to create experience that are more in-line [with the fact] not everyone reads the same story or watches the same story in the same way.

Was it hard working with all of the different writers?

Yes. Because what was more important for us in the first year of developing the story was trying to get different writers who knew the story well, trying to write for a format, bringing roles of this world, bringing characters, bringing ideas and at this point everyone was working as a stand alone. It was like a big brain storm if you want because what we were looking for was more and more ideas, and some if them would contradict each other, but others were more complementary. After this first year of a chaotic process we somehow said; “okay this makes sense, this can interact, and connect with the other part of the story”. So then we start collaborating and after that moment everyone starts working together based on the same story and the same skeleton.

Have you taken anything from real life and put that into the story to create this fantasy world?

We kept with this, we based our concept, the starting point was the real Hadron collider experiments. and the fact that man, mankind are trying to replicate god or replicate the beginning of the universe. We picked [up] that experiment where they try and replicate the black hole and replicate the actual big bang event. What if all of these experiments are not just experiments and they are putting the world out of balance? Based on this theory we then developed our own story.

What happened in the process was around the same time last year, we were working full time on the project and we hired a film director to start working on the feature film. One or two weeks after we hired him he emailed us and said; ‘You guys are genius”. And on his email he put a link to an article that was published on CNN, and was all around the world, and on news agencies, about this guy that went to CERN and started to protest because he said he was from the future and all of the Hadron collider experiments were very dangerous. The director thought it was marketing genius to create these news stories to create a buzz about the project, but, no, it was just a coincidence that someone went there and protested. There is someone in the world with the opinion that these experiments at CERN may be creating some chaos and some problems to the planet.

Have you cast? Did you cast first or write first?

No. The casting is still ongoing. We cast the web series which will be out at the end of next week. And we cast one of the characters, which is the part of the scientist, Peter, who discovers this big problem, and we cast Ian Robertson the Scottish-English actor to perform the role. We are now at the process…we had a casting session last week in London, we are casting the other five characters of the story and we hope to have the cast finalised by the end of June.

What kind of inspiration have you taken from other Sci-Fi and time travel projects. Did you give the writer any reference points?

In our marketing pitch materials we call this Lost meets Terminator. In the first place dropping six character in an abandoned island, in this case it is not an abandoned island. It is in the future in a place that isn’t known and in a time that isn’t known with no way to control the environment that surrounds them. There are all of these challenges and interactions from a story point of view, and from the other point of view, what six people will do together to overcome their difficulties. So that is the part that you can pick that story and adapt it to other type of movies. We want to adapt six people in an unknown and challenging environment to the sci-fi framework.

Watch Collider Preview here.

How do all of the parts link together?

We have a time line. Our story start in September 2012 and the narrative goes to 2018. So what we have is these two narratives where, through this period through six years, lots of stories, sub-plots and characters will have lives in present times and in the future. What we did was to divide this time in small chunks of story so we have the web series. The web series is an initiative, which starts the story is when Peter is fired from CERN and he tries to alert the world of what is going on and then when nobody listens to him he tries to sabotage the Hadron collider and without knowing it, it creates a time machine that makes him and five other characters jump to the future.

So it is this moment of present time, when all began. and then we have each comic book which tells the background story of each of the characters. Because in the feature film the characters have already been featured but they have a past or a present and things happen to them that have an impact in the future. So this next story where things happen in 2012, 2013 in the comic books so the audience can know a little more about the characters.

Then we have a game. The game is the stuff the characters have to do in the feature film so ahead of the feature film you can get familiar with the character’s , the location, the setting and the mission of the characters and you can do it yourself by playing this game.

Each piece of content tells a little bit more and the big story line which we created over the six years, and all the elements are part of this timeline. Of course you have to be very careful of each element so if you just want to watch the web series you will be able to watch the web series and enjoy it as a stand alone, if you just want the comic series you can read about the beginning, middle and end, and if you just want to watch the movie you can just go to the theatre and buy your ticket. You can watch the movie and you will understand the story. But of course if you pursue all of these pieces of content you will have a better grasp of the story and know the characters much better, and you will be more engaged with the universe that we are creating.

Whereabouts are you filming?

We start shooting mid September and we are shooting the movie in Dublin, Ireland.

Tell me a bit about you

Yes, I started to be active ten years ago and my previous experience was first in the advertising world so I was doing producing ads and then I worked for interact television company where we worked in the late 90’s, early 2000’s. We were trying to do the first interactive television. It was when the internet bubble just exploded so most of these interactive [projects] weren’t done. We see them coming back nowadays with the television being connected with the internet, When this interactive television project ended I based my experience in advertising and because some of our clients at the time started to worry about the internet, and that viewers where not watching the ads on TV anymore they started feeling that the world was changing and just putting ads in traditional media was not enough anymore.

Communities and sub communities were developing. Cable TV was exploding and expanding throughout Europe, so in 2002 we put these two expertise together to create a company that specialised in entertainment that was multi-platform and that was focused in telling stories on different platforms, and benefited from the tools and the relationships that audiences had with different platforms to tell a better story.

How did you get funding?

Initially we had some venture capital when we started the company and, with our success and the fact that some of our multi-platform shows are being sold around the world, in TV and publishing, and mobile and licensing in different platform that we distributed our content, recently we managed to secure additional funding from Jill Banks in Portugal that allows us to fund and self-fund from the development and the early parts of this project.

So it is web series, comic, games in that order? What is the scheduled time-line?

First release of the projects is the web series, the comic and the game will all be released by June 4th and we have a second game planned in the Fall. We also are shooting a film in September for a 2013 release. We are also working on a follow up to the comic books. So between now and to the end of 2013 we have a schedule, a planning of releasing the different content, sub-plots and characters. So this time-line which is our universe between 2012 and 2018 we are working on a novel so different products will come out based on this project about one character and then two characters or one moment in this journey.

Are the people from CERN involved?

They are not involved but if the story gets popular then they will probably not be very supportive of the story [laughs] It doesn’t portray them in a a bad way but it creates a story which says that what they are doing will probably create problems with the planet. So if I was them I would probably not be happy with the story. So we are not working with them.

Thank you Nuno

Victoria Fox on Temptation Island | Frost Interviews

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Frost magazine has interview author Victoria Fox on her bonk-busting book “Temptation Island”. It is a very fun read and the review is here.

How did you become a writer?

Writing novels was always the dream but one I’d decided not to pursue until later. After university I got a job in publishing, joining as editorial assistant on a women’s fiction list and four years later working as an editor: this taught me a great deal about the business of how books are produced as well as an insight into the market. I realised I was waiting to find a truly exciting, shocking, racy bonkbuster like the ones I’d enjoyed as a teen, a proper brick of a book packed with sex and scandal, but none were quite hitting it for me, so I decided to have a go myself. ‘Write what you know’ is a great piece of advice for aspiring authors – as soon as I sat down to my debut Hollywood Sinners it just sort of all fell out. Curious as to whether I was on to something, I submitted a partial manuscript (about 30,000 words) anonymously to a literary agent
and happily she agreed to represent me. Shortly after I resigned from my job to complete the novel and three months later we had a deal.

Could you ever be anything else?

As a child I saw myself as one of three things: a vet, a gymnast or a writer. The first was out because I’m terrible at science (once I got 4% in a GCSE Chemistry test) and the second because I can’t do gymnastics. The last was the one that never went away. I’d be happy working as lots of things but don’t think I’d ever be cured of the writing bug. Certainly I’d be doing it as a hobby if I weren’t lucky enough to be making a living from it.




Did you base the characters on any real people?

Both Hollywood Sinners and Temptation Island feature sensational celebrity scandals, so I’d be in hot water if I said the characters were based on anyone in real life. Instead they’re inspired by what I see and read about in the papers and online, and often will be a mix of several intrigues that capture my attention. One of the great things about bonkbusters is that their characters can be truly outrageous, so I like to go all out with my players and make them as exciting and memorable as possible. If readers think they identify a real person then that’s great – I used to love trying to spot who was who in Jackie Collins’ novels: it’s part of the fun.

How do you come up with ideas for your books?




I’m afraid I read rather too many celebrity magazines. It’s a guilty pleasure. I love to see who’s dating whom, what so-and-so wore at whatever premiere, where the rich and famous have taken their super-yachts this summer . . . all that kind of stuff. Hollywood Sinners came from an idea I had about an A-list movie couple – it was a germ of a notion but enough to spin a story, and then I had all these power couples coming out of the woodwork with their individual stories and a novel was born. Temptation Island takes that scandal one step further, I suppose. This time I’ve focused on a very controversial theme, and am interested to know what people think!


What is your writing ritual like?

I have to be disciplined and stick to a routine. I’ll get up early because I’m most productive in the mornings, and work through till lunch when I’ll try to go to the gym (if I don’t do this I get really bad mid-afternoon brain slump). The rest of the day is sporadic; I’ll get distracted by emails and Facebook, but will usually produce a thousand more words before my boyfriend gets in from work. For me it’s important to try and keep to ‘normal’ work hours, so nine to five, Monday to Friday. I don’t want to be out of sync with my friends and try to keep my weekends free. However the lovely thing about working for yourself is that if it doesn’t pan out that way, and the creative tap isn’t one you can always turn on, you can make up the word count another time. It’s also wise to sustain a separate office area so you can close the door on work at the end of the day.



Do you think the recession makes people turn to novels like Temptation Island, and that need for escapism?

Bonkbusters should always provide escapism. They’re gateways into glittering worlds that we’d typically never be able to touch, arenas where everything goes and anything can happen. It stands to reason that during a recession readers reach for this kind of entertainment, but having said that in recent years it’s been crime novels – which offer a grimmer view of life – that have proved wildly popular. Perhaps the recent success of E L James’ Fifty Shades trilogy marks a turning of the tide, and a sign that the women’s market is switching to sex and fantasy for the same fix. I hope so, because bonkbusters have all the great things about erotic fiction and heaps more on top: the glam locations, the juicy storylines and the utterly transporting experience. Recession or not, I think they provide the perfect respite.


If you could go to an island like the characters, what would you take with you?

If I ended up on the one in the book, I’d take a cutthroat hack (or be one myself) so I could blow wide open the biggest Hollywood scandal in the history of the world! On a regular island, like if I were Tom Hanks in Castaway (!), I’d take a box of matches, an encyclopaedia and a pen and paper. That sounds boring, doesn’t it? Hmm. How much can I take? A fridge of chilled champagne would be good, and so would a hot guy who I’d set to work building me a raft without his clothes on.


How long did the book take to write?

Temptation Island took me four months to write and two to edit. If I’m strict about sitting down and writing every day I can normally produce around 15,000 words a week. The key is to keep pressing on and not to get sucked into re-reading what you’ve done – it’ll get changed on a later draft anyway. Once you’ve completed the book, even if you think it’s bad, you have something entire to work with and show other people. That’s when the editing process can begin and you start guiding the manuscript towards the best it can possibly be.

Do you think the bonkbuster is back?

It’s coming (ahem). The glory days were in the eighties and nineties – every girl remembers flicking through Jackie and Jilly at school and giggling over the naughty bits – but since then the genre seems to have gone off the boil. My mission is to bring it back! The vintage classics were magnificent, and today I think it’s about borrowing what was so great about those and combining it with a modern twist. Our present-day obsession with celebrity lends itself perfectly: bonkbusters should have sizzling secrets at their core so it’s all about peeling back the headlines and seeing what lies beneath. Recently I heard they’re remaking Dallas, which flags a return to these amazing multi-character sagas, and Shirley Conran’s superb bonkbuster, the definitive and fabulous Lace, is making a comeback this summer. It feels as if people are ready to embrace the genre again, and for me that isn’t a moment too soon.


What do you think of celebrities now? 



We’re obsessed, and that says more about us than it does them. On the one hand, we worship celebrities. Money and fame are seen as the quick passage to happiness, and anyone who’s achieved that gets a golden ticket to a higher plain – it’s a religion, and a fact of human nature to want what someone else has got. On the other, it’s about bringing these icons down, which is a miserable admission but true. We want to celebrate one day and criticise the next. Who’s had a breakdown? Who’s going through a divorce? Who’s had all that cosmetic surgery but still can’t get a man? Perhaps we like to gossip because it distracts us from our lives; perhaps it makes us feel better about ourselves. I’m all for celebrity when it’s earned, yet these days it’s the reality TV thing that spawns a host of wannabes who seem to be confused about what they want and can’t handle fame when it comes. Riches can reward anyone, but recognition for having achieved something is what we should be striving for.


Who is your favourite, and least favourite, celebrity?

Men I have a crush on are: Leonardo DiCaprio (he haunted my teenage years: that Romeo & Juliet pool scene), James Franco, Ryan Gosling, Chris Hemsworth and I’ve got a thing for Rafa Nadal. I’m also fascinated by untouchable megastars like Tom Cruise. Jack Nicholson is the boss; Robert De Niro close second. Actresses I love are Emma Stone, Amanda Seyfried, and Meryl Streep has bags of class. Also Chloë Sevigny is awesome. I guess my least favourite celeb would be any footballer who can’t keep it in his pants, and rides on the fact he earns an obscene amount of money yet still hasn’t learned to treat women properly.

What’s next for you?

I’m hard at work on my third novel, which is a glamorous, sexy revenge thriller set in the music industry. Watch this space!

You can buy Temptation Island here

Cardinal Burns Video Interview

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Cardinal and Burns, the blokes behind E4 comedy Cardinal Burns, have a chat about, well, E4 comedy Cardinal Burns.

Cardinal Burns is a new comedy sketch show written and performed by Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns. Catch it Tuesdays at 10:30pm on E4. It is brilliant. (Thank God they didn’t call it Cardinal Demri-Burns though).

The Raid | Film Review

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A few years ago, Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans admits he was slipping into docile conformity. Having made a few well received shorts and a self financed feature, he was losing his interest in filmmaking and easing into his 9 to 5 job. His supportive wife passed his name forward to producers in Indonesia who were looking for outside filmmakers to make a documentary about martial arts. Fast forward a few years and a trip to Indonesia and he is now the leading force behind one of the most hyped and critically acclaimed action thrillers of recent years and with good cause. Lean, mean and apocalyptically violent, The Raid has come straight out of Asia’s left field to huge acclaim on the festival circuit and is set to be a genuine international crossover hit.

Rama (Iko Uwais) is a rookie SWAT officer in Jakarta who joins an elite team assigned to launch an assault on a crumbling apartment complex ruled over by ruthless drug lord Tama (Ray Sahetapy). No assertions are made about good/bad guy from the off. Rama is introduced bidding farewell to his pregnant wife promising to return, Tama executing kneeling prisoners with a hammer. The team head into the building to take him out of business for good yet things do not go to plan. Tama has rented out the majority of apartments to the cities vilest thugs, junkies and killers and has them dispatched after the team. Outnumbered and outgunned, it’s up to Rama to lead as many of his teammates to safety as possible. This however cannot be achieved without shooting/hitting/stabbing dozens of bad guys in the face…

Taking place almost entirely within the confines of the complex defined by its rotting, yellowish hue the proceedings are astonishingly claustrophobic throughout the 100 minute duration. There is always the constant threat attack from a corner or any one of the dozen flat doors on each floor. Even in its ‘quiet’ moments there is an underlying level of tension that never truly relents. Many scenes feel like a more pumped up version of John Carpenter’s seminal 70’s siege thriller Assault On Precinct 13. From the opening scene we are thrown right into the situation feet running on the ground. It’s a work of sparse immediacy, knowing exactly what it is and getting it done. Needless to say when the chaos starts the events are unremitting; gunfire echoes become deafening, bad guys come like space invaders sometimes literally bursting from walls, ceilings and floors to be swotted away by our heroes. As the action becomes hand to hand combat, the fight scenes flurry past with such violent ferocity and pace that it becomes overwhelming at many points.

Uwais is an astonishing physical presence; punching, kicking, jumping and smashing his way from floor to floor and doing away with constant foes coming at him like waves of video game enemies before facing down the inevitable ‘boss’ battles. He is proficient in the art of silat, Indonesia’s native martial arts and the experience of seeing it for the first time is breathtaking. The visceral joy of watching Uwais in action reminded me of the first time I saw Thai superstar Tony Jaa in Ong-Bak and his brutal kickboxing fighting style. Barely five minutes pass without bones splintering and the audience wincing in unison (especially during an inspired use for a shard of broken lighting fixture…). Uwais moves are perfectly complemented by Evans deft choreography. In an age of whiplash camera moves and frenetic editing that makes things harder and harder to follow, Evans deserves special credit for keeping the action paced yet never to the point where he loses his players movements. His camera races down hallways with characters and in some bravura moments: follows his characters as they drop through holes in the floor and tumbling down a staircase whilst still trading blows with someone.

Whilst revelling in the chaotic glory of what The Raid delivers, you do have to keep in mind that it is treading ground that has been walked on before. Evans has happily admitted his influences in press for the film and his execution is what truly makes it stand out. Yet the clichés of the genre are impossible to ignore and when they begin to tip into melodrama it does regrettably stall the film. Without giving anything away, there is a subplot involving one of Tama’s henchmen (Donny Alamsyah) that upon its revealing does just not ring and does briefly threaten to bring all proceedings to a shuddering halt. It feels almost unfair to try and criticise a film for attempting some form of character development yet here it falls flat and feels forced. In its defence, it may be setting up for the planned sequel and it does lead to the films brutal, brilliant final confrontation with Rama’s right hand man played by Yayan Ruhian, also one of the films fight chorographer, who truly gives Uwais a run for his money. There’s no satisfying pay off for Rama’s subplot itself. There is much dialogue alluding to police corruption and ties between them and the drug lord yet if anything it just fuels stock cliché dialogue between the many fight scenes. The final climactic set-piece can’t help but feel frustratingly ant-climatic.

However these are minor quibbles against a film that knows where its strengths lie and what its audience have come to see. It’s brutal, fast, and hits you like a blast of fresh air in the face. Evans and his team have managed to come out of nowhere and outdo the majority of Western action films of recent years. Of course an English language remake has already been green lit but I severely doubt it can come close to hitting the sheer adrenalin rush of the genuine article. Savour this one while you can, and take a deep breath first.

100 Films That Have Stood The Test of Time.

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Films stand the test of time for a reason. Most of the films that do have a brilliant script and superb acting. So get some popcorn, here is my top 100 films. Disagree? Let us know what films you would choose.

girl-interrupted

1. Citizen Kane (1941) (Obvious but brilliant)
2. All About Eve (1950)
3. The Godfather (1972)
4. The Godfather II (1974)
5. Shawshank Redemption (1994)
6. 12 Angry Men (1957)
7. Ben Hur (1959)
8. The Lion King (1994)
9. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs. (1937)
10. The Breakfast Club (1985)
11. Jaws (1975)
12. Die Hard (1988)
13. Casablanca (1952)
14. The Jungle Book. (1967)
15. Dr Strangelove, Or How I learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb. (1964)
16. Caddyshack (1980)
17. Lawrence Of Arabia. (1962) This is Steven Spielberg’s favourite film, and for good reason.
18. The Life of Brian (1979)
19. Flight of The Phoenix (1965)
20. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
21. The Searchers. (1958)
22. Wizard of Oz (1939)
23. West Side Story (1961)
24. Girl Interrupted (1999)
25. On The Waterfront (1954)
26. Toy Story. (1995)
27. Dirty Dancing (1987)
28. Cleo From 5 to 7. (1962)
29. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
30. The Elephant Man (1980)
31. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
32. Annie Hall (1977)
33. Top Gun (1986)
34. The Big Sleep (1946)
35. Grease (1978)
36. Stand By Me (1986)
37. Rocky (1976)
38. Psycho (1960)
39. Goodfellas (1990)
40. The Omen (1976)
41. Raider’s of the Lost Ark. (1981)
42. Don’t Look Now (1973)
43. E.T. (1982)
44. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
45. To Kill a Mocking Bird. (1962)
46. Star Wars (1977)
47. American Beauty. (1999)
48. A Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
49. Rear Window (1954)
50. High Society (1956)
51. North By Northwest (1959)
52. Oliver (1968)
53. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
54. Mary Poppins (1964)
55. True Grit (1969)
56. The Sound of Music (1965)
57. A Bridge Over the River Kwai. (1957)
58. Alien (1979)
59. The Longest Day. (1962)
60. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (1958)
61. Brief Encounter (1945)
62. Pretty Women (1990)
63. Some Like It Hot. (1959)
64. The Great Escape (1963)
65. Rebecca (1940)
66. Gone With The Wind (1939)
67. Sullivan’s Travels. (1941)
68. The Apartment. (1960)
69. The Philadelphia Story. (1940)
70. Home Alone (1990)
71. The African Queen. (1951)
72. To Catch a Thief (1955)
73. Double Indemnity (1944)
74. Badlands (1973)
75. A Room with a View (1985)
76. Back to the Future (1985)
77. Karate Kid. (1984)
78. Reservoir Dogs(1992)
79. East of Eden (1955)
80. Mystic River (2003)
81. Pulp Fiction (1994)
82. Saving Private Ryan (1994)
83. Ghostbusters (1984)
84. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
85. Sleepless In Seattle (1993)
86. The Goonies (1985)
87. One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest (1975)
88. Halloween (1978)
89. Blade Runner (1982)
90. Thelma and Louise (1991)
91. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
92. Schindler’s List (1993)
93. La Dolce Vita (1961)
94. Leon (1994)
95. His Girl Friday (1940)
96. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
97. My Fair Lady (1964)
98. The Unforgiven (1992) “It’s a hell of a thing to kill a man, you take everything he’s got, and everything he’ll ever have.”
99. Shenandoah (1965)
100. Apocalypse Now (1979) “I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one.”