Tag Archives: British

Movie Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service

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“This ain’t The King’s Speech, bro.” Image via Forbes

January and February are typically Hollywood’s dumping ground months. This is the time when studios just want you to see the Oscar leftovers that they released the last week of December. This is the time of Uwe Boll and Kevin Hart to reign. But once awards season ends, there is something refreshing about watching a movie in which nobody dies from a terminal illness. I don’t care what the groundhog said; with Kingsman: The Secret Service, summer has come early.

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Movie Review: The Imitation Game

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“You’re too much of a genius, Alan Turing! We have to throw you in jail!” Logical. Image via Zap2it

As part of Oscar season, it is customary that at least one film is made that is set in or around World War II, and filled with British accents. So if you are going to be the one to make this film, you might as well try to make it good. While The Imitation Game isn’t transcendent, it succeeds at eloquently telling an engrossing life story into under two hours.

On the surface, Alan Turing, played with perfect robotic expression by Benedict Cumberbatch, doesn’t seem like a hero. While he didn’t invent the computer, and his story ends tragically, his life and his story are important, and The Imitation Game does everything it can to highlight that.

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Movie Review: Under the Skin

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Sometimes, you like a movie. Sometimes, you’re not sure if you should like a movie. Sometimes, you only like a movie because you feel like you’re supposed to like that movie. Under the Skin seems to fall under that last category.

Under the Skin is the latest film from British director Jonathan Glazer. I am told by people smarter than me that he is a very good director. Some might call him a visionary. While I haven’t seen Birth or Sexy Beast yet, I can get on board with those claims. The guy knows how to frame a shot and tell an entire three act story using barely any dialogue. This is a pretty big feat considering the fact that most sci-fi movies today are bogged down by exposition.

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Movie Review: The Double

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Image via Time

Whether he’s accidentally taking a stranger’s seat on the train or facing off his doppleganger, Simon is always a little bit out of place.

The Double, based on a book by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, doesn’t necessarily seem like the next logical step forward for a director who was previously known for comedies such as The IT Crowd. However, with just his second feature, Richard Ayoade proves that he has already nailed down his voice and style. He has done with just two films what most people wouldn’t be able to accomplish with many more under their belt.

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Exploring the Movie Posters of London and Paris

divergenteFor about as far back as I can remember, I have always been obsessed with movie posters.

The best posters can be works of art. The worst can completely change how you feel about the film it is representing, even if you haven’t seen that film yet.

I decided to spend a part of my recent trip to Europe looking around at whatever movie posters they had hanging in public places. The truth is, no matter what language they are in, the posters on both sides of the pond are fairly similar. The most interesting part is trying to figure out why some titles changed, and what local posters tell you about that culture.

Look below for the highlights of the movie posters I found while exploring London and Paris:

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Movie Review: Philomena

Philomena2Philomena has just about everything you would expect from a drama that is based on a true story: inspirational moments, photos of the real people in the credits, and British people. More than anything, Philomena is an Oscar movie. 

I wanted to hate Philomena, which probably says more about me than the state of the industry. However I could not bring myself to hate Philomena, because it takes what it has and completely owns it.

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