December 2009


Best and Worst 2009 (full round-ups)
Who’s done enough to earn a place in my industry-influencing list of the years best and brightest and who wishes they had done much much more to avoid condemnation for their incompetency? Click the link for the answers everyone is absolutely dying to know.


Sherlock Holmes (full review)
My deduction is that despite disappointing on many levels, Ritchie and Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes will do enough to survive and sequelise another day.
**

Avatar (full review)
What other reaction is there other than wow!?! Avatar is the event film of the decade and not only does it deliver on every single level but it also looks set to shape the future of movies for the next decade and beyond. If this is what we’ve got to look forward to then I, for one, am a happy man.
*****

Where The Wild Things Are (full review)
Lovingly-crafted, beautifully-designed, skilfully-executed but sadly lacking in substance, WTWTA is not as good as I was hoping it would be and not as good as the trailer promised it would be. It is, however, a one-of-a-kind experience that should call out to the inner child of even the most hardened and seasoned grown-ups out-there.
***

Carriers (full review)
Carriers has a simple-but-strong premise that it executes perfectly and without pulling any punches. Recommended-if-unessential genre viewing.
***

The Girlfriend Experience (full review)
The Girlfriend Experience is an individual and interesting time capsule that cleverly captures the era we currently live in through a fascinating character study. Mr. Soderbergh, you continue to make both glossy and art house with equal aplomb.
***

The Descent: Part 2 (full review)
The Descent 2 is an unnecessary but entertaining second dose of horror-inducing claustrophobia and creatures. Let’s leave it here now though, yeah?
***

The Box (full review)
The Box is an updated Twilight Zone morality play mashed with some Lynchian weirdness, the vibe of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the paranoia of David Fincher’s The Game and every bit as confused and confusing as that sounds. An acquired taste to be sure but then all Kelly’s "works" are.
**