Waltz With Bashir - One Sentence Review

Waltz with Bashir is less about the massacre which occurred during the 1982 conflict between Israel and Lebanon and more about the elusive and ever changing nature of memory; Waltz with Bashir is subtly evocative and utterly compelling despite it's only flaw which is a sometimes rigid human animation, one of 2008's best films.

4.5/5

'Frost/Nixon' One Sentence Review

With excellent performances from it's leads, notably Frank Langella's Nixon which will forever be the watermark, this enjoyable film adaptation of the successful stage play stumbles by way of the insertion of a 'faux' documentary which unforgivably distracts from Ron Howard's best film since Apollo 13.

3.5/5

Rachel Getting Married - One Sentence Review

Though, admirably and stylishly realised with a genuine sense of atmosphere, whilst managing to point out that the cultural and familial identity of an American wedding is fluid and not fixed, this is a deeply unsatisfying film, featuring extremely unlikable characters with almost no redeeming features, who fail to even manage to be compelling in their unpleasantness and ultimately, this utterly charmless movie cops out and leads an interesting set-up into an unfulfilling dead end full of artificial and un-earned hints at redemption.

2.5/5 (The extra half is for style and atmosphere)

The Reader - One Sentence Review

Whilst this may look like the same old, sombre, Nazi drearathon, from oh-so-worthy director Steven Daldry, it's actually an affecting and better-than-expected tale of guilt, what if anything we can learn from it and how story telling can help, though some (not us) may view the deliberate withholding of catharsis as disappointing.
4/5

One Sentence Review: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

Danny Boyle has fashioned a ripping escapist yarn out of the bleakest of settings, harnessing wonderful performances and using the camera like it’s a bullwhip yet, oddly, it’s the slickness and lightening pace of the opening ten minutes that may be one of ‘Millionaire’s fundamental flaws which left this viewer slightly apathetic to our central character’s quest.

3.5/5

One Sentence Review: ‘Defiance’

This well produced true life story of three brothers who defy the Nazi’s, by not dying, gets off to an enjoyable start but quickly gets stuck in its own mud by, surprisingly, lacking enough tension within the compound scenes and whose bland characters feel like they were written by Edward Zwick to be in an Edward Zwick film, which they were.
2.5/5

One Sentence Film Review: Role Models

With a funny-as-hell trailer, Rodel Models has little more to offer once you watch the movie; relying too heavily on comedic improvisation and the novelty of a swearing ten year old, this weak scripted film enters yawn territory thirty minutes in.
2/5