Classic Reviews

The Matrix: The Work of Masterminds

Written by Bethan Power Monday, June 10, 2013, 1:00 AM

SPOILERS! ABSOLUTELY RIDDEN WITH SPOILERS!

Take a look at the world around you. Take in everything. The smells, the sights, the stack of washing up you will do tomorrow...every single thing. Think of your job, your family, your friends. Now entertain the thought that none of that is real. That it is simply an elaborate computer mainframe of manipulation, and you are actually lying hairless and marinated plugged in to a central power system—used literally as a human battery. “Woah” doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Read more: The Matrix: The Work of Masterminds

Double Indemnity: Pure, Hard-Boiled Pulp

Written by Sam Moore Friday, May 17, 2013, 12:40 PM

To most, Billy Wilder is best known for his comedies such as Some Like it Hot and The Apartment, but it was his noir film Double Indemnity from 1944 that established him as a director to be reckoned with. The enigma that hooks you and reels you in is the relationship between the two central characters. There's the icy sexual tension and steamy exchanges of words, but they genuinely don't seem to like each other that much.

Read more: Double Indemnity: Pure, Hard-Boiled Pulp

Annie Hall: Dark, Poingnat, and Hilarious

Written by Sam Moore Tuesday, May 14, 2013, 11:24 AM

Annie Hall is thirty-three years old this year and it still contains more grace and wit in its frames than any other comedy released since. Even now, thinking of it as a Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards comes as a surprise—it’s a low-budget, low-grossing romantic-comedy drama that is as daringly morbid as it is sharply hysterical. Many of its wonderfully written lines have entered the popular consciousness even though many have never even heard of the movie. The line “those that can’t do, teach, and those who can’t teach, teach gym” has been immortalised and is more commonly spoken by those who don’t know of the film. It shows that the brilliance of Annie Hall transcends time itself and is an unquestionable classic of American cinema.

Read more: Annie Hall: Dark, Poingnat, and Hilarious

La Haine: French Dissilusionment Gets Violent

Written by Sam Moore Tuesday, May 14, 2013, 10:58 AM

In 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz was a 29 year-old director who's two previous films had examined the alienation and divide within the youth of France. In La Haine, he takes it one step further and blows up the screen with an ensemble of anger, prejudice and social clashes unlike anything seen before or since. When watching La Haine it's impossible not to think of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, another film boiling over in racial and social tension.

Read more: La Haine: French Dissilusionment Gets Violent

To Kill a Mockingbird: Character and Simplicity

Written by Olubunmi Ajiboye Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 12:00 AM

I have often opined that some of the best movies are those adapted from books. There is something about the book-made-to-film kind of movie. Think about all those movies that touched you deeply; evoking different emotions in you that stayed with you and characterised those movies to you. Think about the first time you saw The Help, Gone with the Wind, Forrest Gump, or Bridget Jones’ Diary. How did you feel afterwards?  

Read more: To Kill a Mockingbird: Character and Simplicity

Scent of a Woman: Script + Actor = Quality

Written by Olubunmi Ajiboye Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 3:00 AM

 A teenager and a blind older man under unusual circumstances form a relationship during an eventful thanksgiving weekend. Unusual because the annoying, hot-tempered, lonely, and invective-spewing Lt Col Frank Slade (Al Pacino) a retired US army officer has planned out an exciting weekend which is sure to end in trouble while calm and naïve student Charlie Simms (Chris O’Donnell), Frank’s house-sitter for the weekend who already has troubles of his own, is just looking to raise some money for his air fare back home during Christmas.

Read more: Scent of a Woman: Script + Actor = Quality