Well. I don’t want to write another downer review, but I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed with Casino Royale. Actually I was a lot disappointed. The opening sequence (before the titles) is normally one of the highs of the film, but this was a bit of a damp squid. I plan […]

What an interesting and compelling film this was – absolutely hilarious most of the way through, but a very downbeat last 20 minutes or so, and ends really on a bit of a downer. The story follows Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) as two social outcasts who have just graduated from high school, […]

After three reviews on the trot that were – franky – downers, finally a film to get excited out! American Beauty was fab. It gripped me from the opening sequence through to the end credits. It set up a fantastic tension in the opening voice-over that was resolved in the final 5 minutes, but kept […]

Extremely disappointed in this film. It had everything going for it – vampires vs. werewolves in a guns’n’bombs age (great concept), Kate Beckinsale in black leather (for those who like that sort of thing), gothic mansions, an at least half-intelligent story, … So what went wrong? Well, nothing in the film was probably explained – […]

I was hugely looking forward to Serenity, and this probably resulted in my mild disappointment in the film. I guess I really should have watched Firefly first to clue me in, but I didn’t so there we go. There was nothing really wrong with it – in fact there was an awful lot right with […]

This is another of these trendy films in the vein of Lost in Translation, where not very much happens, no real reason is given for the whole film, and nothing is resolved at the end. It’s not a style of film-making I’m particularly fond of, although I did quite enjoy both Lost and this one. […]

Comme Une Image (altogether unsatisfactorily ‘translated’ to Look at me) follows the life and times of Lolita, her family, and random other people along the way. It’s a study of hero-worship really, and how people’s attitudes and attention vary enormously based on whether or not they are considering their hero. Young Lolita lives under her […]

What an unexpected delight. Failing to read the cover properly, and assuming that because it had Nicole Kidman in it was going to be another Holywood number (itself a strange assumption given the awesome Dogville), I was amazed when it opened with John (Ben Chaplin) recording his pitch for a Russian bride in St Albans […]

Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counselling, Howard Clinebell, SCM Press, 1984. A very interesting and helpful book – quite daunting in many ways, but very illuminating as to the particular pastoral role that clergy have, and the crisis points that we all face in life. This is clearly a book that needs proper study […]

To be honest, not all that. I’d be the first to concede this might be in part due to the watching conditions, which weren’t very good – but I failed to be absorbed. It’s hard to put my finger on why. So much of the book had been left out or changed (which I suppose […]