Chris Bale 23 posts 22 comments

Ambitious in scope, Days of Grace is set in Mexico during three time periods against the backdrop of the World Cup football tournaments of 2002, 2006 and 2010. These are the ‘days of grace’ in question, when both cops and crooks drop their…

The writer/director of this South Korean action thriller, Ryu Seung-wan (who has four previous releases under his belt) admits his plot is a bit complicated; before continuing to say jokingly that it’s not his fault but that of the delicate…

Premiered as part of the EIFF 'Not another teen movie’ thread, We Are The Freaks is director Justin Edgar’s attempt to make a teen movie for England. Growing up a fan of the genre due to films like The Breakfast Club (John Hughes 1985), he…

What happens when a totalitarian state infects its citizens with rampant paranoia through constant surveillance? This is one of the themes explored by satirical, surreal Bulgarian comedy The Color of The Chameleon. Batko Staminov (played by…

This is a feature length fly one the wall documentary, following the work of a Bulgarian ambulance crew in the city of Sofia. Pulling long shifts with sparse resources in a healthcare system stretched beyond breaking point, the three crew…

Iron Man 3 can be summed up in two words: ‘Great fun’. But seeing as this is an in depth review site I’d better flesh that out! We get a new director signing on for the third Iron Man instalment, Shane Black. He had previously worked with…

When the J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek was released in 2009 it did the seemingly impossible and breathed new life into a film franchise that had well and truly run its course. With no new Star Trek series on TV there seemed to be little…

With Hollywood’s unquenchable thirst for remaking/updating/ruining classic horror films it was only a matter of time before The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi, 1981) was targeted. Few titles inspire such a cult following as The Evil Dead, a low…

After The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999) enjoyed huge success, movie makers have been obsessed with the found footage style of filming. At first the idea was effective and entertaining, however that was well…

‘The film which you are about to see is an account of the tragedy which befell a group of five youths, in particular Sally Hardesty and her invalid brother, Franklin. It is all the more tragic in that they were young. But, had they lived…