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The Machinist is a psychological puzzler which sees Christian Bale playing Trevor Reznick, a factory worker who, due to insomnia and broken concentration, accidentally causes a colleague to lose an arm. This leads him deeper into paranoia and obsession as he tries to identify a mystery man who is seemingly following him around. This film is always going to be known for the fact that Bale lost around 4 stones to play the part of the 120lbs Trevor, but that's massively unfair on the script and the performances. The colour has been drained, and this sets a dark and weary tone throughout. There's a real sense of fatigue and atmosphere about the movie, leaving you totally sympathetic with Trevor. To explain much more would perhaps ruin the twists, although in fairness it's not the most complex movie - the ending wraps up most of the confusion quite easily, although there are a few unanswered questions left. I'd highly recommend it. Possibly the best movie I've seen this year so far.

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I love Sex and the City. From the first time I saw Samantha discuss her new boyfriend's funky spunk over lunch, I was hooked. I was hooked because not only was it deliciously filthy, it was sweet and funny too. So I was a bit apprehensive about the film ruining one of my first loves. One quite scary thing about going to see it isn't just the look on the husbands and boyfriends who had been quite evidently dragged against their will (I suppose this is debatable), but the sheer number of women who had dressed up and were treating an afternoon film as a big night out. Freaky. Anyway, after way too many adverts, it finally started, with a small collage of some of the girls' best bits to cleverly remind you why it was so well loved in the first place. And oh, the shoes! The bags! The adorable little dogs!! I was instantly turned into a squeaking five year old who's found her mothers dress up box. Im particularly in love with Carrie's Eiffel Tower bag. Not so much of the dead...

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The first in a proposed trilogy, chronicalling the rise and fall of Genghis Khan

The ultimate romantic disaster movie

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If you know anything about this film or have read any reviews/interviews/synopses you will probably know that writer and star of the film, Jason Segel, appears naked. Full frontal naked, showing his penis in all it’s glory. The suggestion that a naked man crying having just had the love of his life (who he has been in a relationship for 5 years) leave him at the moment he stands clothe less in front of her as he suggests hot sex as being absolutely hilarious sets the tone for Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Clever this is not. Witty? Not at all. Vulgar humour is where it is at for most of the 2 hours that this films stretches to. Most, because as with far too many Hollywood films emotion, morals and a sense of doing the right thing appears to be what the big studios wants at the moment. Segel plays Peter Bretter: the struggling slob of a musician who, having been unceremoniously dumped by his TV star girlfriend for an English rock star, flies to Hawaii to get over the break up....

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http://www.alternativenation.net/gallery/files/1/6/7/3/thewoodsman.jpgThe Woodsman sees Kevin Bacon both producing and starring in this rather dark and unsettling movie about a convicted paedophile recently released from a 12 year prison sentence. The story follows Walter (Bacon) as he is put into a new flat under the supervision of Sgt Lucas (Mos Def). The flat is rather inconveniently located opposite a school where Walter daily watches the kids from his window, and also watches a sinister looking man he calls "Candy" who also seems to have an interest in the kids who attend. Walter daily fights his demons, and clearly hates who he is, and what he is. There's no comic relief here, and there's no real happy ending. The film is brilliantly acted, and to be honest I was surprisingly impressed by Mos Def's performance. The movie is understandably unsettling in bits, but one scene towards the end on a park bench had the whole cinema slumping into their chairs just wishing it...

Shoot first. Sightsee later

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Exiled to Bruges, Belgium after a hit goes wrong, hitmen Ray and Ken begin to re-evaluate their lives.

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Daniel Craig is now best known as the lastest James Bond, and perhaps this is not exactly the position he wants to be in. OK, so James Bond is fun and frivolous and is a hugely popular franchise. Craig certainly brought a je ne sais quios to the role. Yet actors who take their business seriously rarely want to be known for one role. Craig took on Flashbacks Of A Fool and ran with it. He ploughed money into the film and it is his ambitious belief in this film that has secured a general release. This is not a flashy Hollywood blockbuster. It is not a film for the MTV generation (despite the opening sequences) who desire snappy and sassy scripts with bright lights and (some would argue) vulgarity. It is not quirky or quick and there are no guns, monsters or working girls. Flashbacks Of A Fool is simple in both plot line and performance. Craig plays Joe Scott, a middle aged British actor in Hollywood, whose desire for fast women and a life of drink and drugs (as seen in the...

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For years I’d heard a lot about how George Sluizer’s Spoorloos (The Vanishing) was a classic horror film. Everything I’d heard about it—from its telling of a story through its characters, its sense of forboding, the way it played on your own personal fears—coloured me intrigued. I finally saw it two days ago and enjoyed it, no doubt, but it didn’t strike me as this classic horror film I’d been expecting. El Orfanato (The Orphanage) delivers in spades. So take a little of Don’t Look Now, The Haunting, The Others and Ringu. Mix them up in with other ingredients, like the look of Pan’s Labyrinth and a freaky mask like in Nightbreed, and Juan Antonio Bayona has made a Catalan paella that draws on so many sources it should be a rip off but he makes a stone cold classic. A woman who lived in an orphanage as a girl moves back there as an adult, years after its closing, to live there with her husband and son and open it up again as a home for “special” children (down’s kids by the...

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When there’s a line which says, “Every time I smell turpentine, I’ll think of you,” you know you‘re in for a total cheesefest. The story follows Florentino (Unax Ugalde/Javier Bardem) who falls in love at first sight with Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). The two exchange letters and agree to marry, but Fermina’s rich father sends her away because Florentino is not of a high enough class to marry his daughter. The pair continue to communicate via telegraphs, only for her to return years later to deny his advances. Heartbroken, Florentino embarks upon a series of meaningless affairs in order to take his mind off his broken heart, while Fermina marries a successful doctor (Benjamin Bratt). When Bratt dies 52 years later, Florentino makes his way to Fermina’s house after the funeral to declare his love. The most disappointing thing about this film is that it takes too much time on cheesy romance and not enough of the gritty, interesting aspects of the story - the class struggle...

Plastic, fantastic?

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Ryan Gosling stars as Lars, who has serious people issues. When his colleague shows him 'real girls' on the internet, he orders one, and introduces his "real girl" to his shocked brother, Gus (Paul Schneider) and Gus' pregnant wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) as Bianca, Lars' disabled girlfriend. After seeking advice from the local doctor/psychologist (Patricia Clarkson), they go along with Lars' delusion, and he meets with the doctor weekly when Bianca is 'resting' from treatment. Bianca stays in his brothers house, as Bianca and Lars are both religious, Lars claims. So there's nothing smutty about it. The community is at first shocked by this - he speaks to her like she is real, and puts her into a wheelchair. He takes her to church, and even to a work colleague's party. All the while, work colleague Margo (Kelli Garner) watches from a distance, slowly working her way into Lars' life. The performances in this are fantastic. Ryan Gosling in particular is amazing - he doesn't...