Opin Opas

American History X: Brutal Learning Curve

The legacy left behind after the release of controversial Venice Beach skin-head drama American History X is almost as remarkable as that of the controversy surrounding the director of the film, Tony Kaye, and his stance concerning the way it was made and distributed. Appalled and enraged by the final cut of the film (allegedly not the vision he had been working towards), almost as soon as shooting had wrapped he mounted a massive no-holds-barred campaign against the film-makers, financiers More

The Feeling Is Gone

Our pub, The Haymaker, closed down six months ago; nothing unusual, of course—many pubs in England have vanished over the last couple of years. I guess I never really thought our little pub would, though. All those memories gone, as if they never really happened…

And then something happened which I had never dare think about–I heard on the grape vine that the pub had re-opened! Only this time it was called The Druids. At first this came More

Film Review: The Happening

The Happening is just not happening; did you like that? Good. Then we’re on the same page, I think; that suitably terrible pun is a fine way to kick start the review of a thoroughly atrocious shambles of film-making. Haters of M. Night Shayamalan rejoice! There’s enough fodder in this one film to last a full life-time–or two, if you actually dissect all the nightmarish problem, which I suggest you don’t risk–of perpetual mocking. If you found Signs not to More

Film review: District 9

With so many science fiction ideas already explored you can’t really blame directors for sticking to the tried and trusted concepts which are sure to work and coming up with nothing particularly ground-breaking, and nothing particularly offensive, either. Using this philosophy as a yard-stick, District 9 (2009, directed by Neill Blomkamp) shouldn’t be nearly as good a film as it is: it has brutal, hostile aliens—like dozens of other films, of course—and it has a very large space-ship not dissimilar More

Paranormal Activity (or supernatural failure?)

Raging Indy success Paranormal Activity first came to my attention in 2007, amidst a slew of debatable Saw movies and hashed Hollywood remakes; in horror-movie terms the concept—malevolent spirit terrorizes a couple in their own home and is caught committing devious acts on home-video while said couple are asleep—sounded like a winning formula that couldn’t go wrong if it tried. But: I knew better than to take such information at face value! As a horror film lover repeatedly let down More