Fancy owning the David Cronenberg directed film Cosmopolis starring Robert Pattinson, Kevin Durand, Paul Giamatti, Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Mathieu Amalric and Jay Baruchel? Well you can with Filmstalker because I'm giving away free Cosmopolis DVD's, no catch and no hidden marketing. It's a big film for Pattinson moving away...
Quite a bit behind this month with the films to watch but then I was off on a nice hot island away from computers, apart from my Kindle that is! So what's been happening and what films are there to look forward to for the rest of the month? Well...
September is a mixed bag of a month for films and there's something for everyone from the art-house fan to the standard American comedy, there's also a few films you might have just skimmed over and not noticed and this list should help you notice them as well as help...
Lance Armstrong is the winner of the Tour de France for a record seven times. No man in a suit can take that away from him and it will forever be mentioned with regards the epic race. He won it, as well as numerous other accolades, with hundreds and hundreds...
Jodie Foster has been speaking out in defence of Kristen Stewart and the media attention she's been getting, oh and of course the media attention that Robert Pattinson has been getting too I'm sure. Not just them though, of all young actors and the pressures of the media that they...
Following the shooting in Aurora Colorado the media leapt on the fact that the film that was playing at the time was The Dark Knight Rises (Filmstalker review) and the insinuations were flying, the killer was copying and influenced by The Dark Knight Rises, a film he hadn't yet seen....
The month was set to start well with Prometheus, it didn't work out so well though did it? Oh the reviews are polarised but the story was poor. Anyway, more of that later and in the review where I do let lose. The rest of the month is good though...
May, and where's the weather? The day I'm formatting this article for posting its pouring down outside, perfect weather for being inside a cinema watching a film to take you away to somewhere exotic, even if it is just in your head. There's certainly a lot to see this month,...
What a mad month for cinema, well not really but it fits in with the month! There is a good month coming for film though and there's a wide range from blockbuster to foreign film that will keep everyone happy, and if you're a big fan of film like myself,...
So we continue on with the list of films to see this month in the UK cinemas and they start with one I'm really keen to see and have heard great things about, and it follows in the steps of a film that I really love, Unbreakable. This month we...
Now here's a list, and frankly I’m glad it’s finished, this has taken time and plenty of reading, but it’s been worth it. This is the Filmstalker preview for 2012, the films worth going to see from January through to December, well the ones we know about anyway. This isn’t...
Well here we are in 2012, barely days into it but we're here none the less and so far the fact that the Mayans didn't bother to write an extra couple of pages onto their calendar hasn't yet resulted in the end of the world. Phew. That does mean however...
2011 is almost over and it's been a good year for films although I didn't get to see, or write up, all the films I wanted to as my life has been busy this year and meant I've had the least amount of time I've ever had to look after...
How fast has this year gone? Really fast is the answer. I can't believe we're here already, festive time is around the corner and the end of 2011 won't be far behind, then it's another year of fun, laughter and tears, some of which will be had in the cinema....
Wow, it's the end of the year already, well it's the start of the final month, and that means awards season is just around the corner and the next two months are going to be pretty poor on television and in the cinema. Wait though, what's that you say Filmstalker?...
Have you seen the date? We're fast approaching the festive period already, where did the year go? Well we're not quite at that speech yet, there's another two months of cinema ahead, and this month is surprisingly diverse with film. There's plenty of adult drama for us, and I don't...
It's clear to many outside the industry of music and film that they need to move on with technology and the consumer. Rather than fighting, prosecuting, circling the wagons and protecting their old marketplace and revenue model, they should be finding ways to exploit the new marketplace. So it's surprising...
This month promises a bumper of films to talk about. I've not just selected the UK releases that I'd recommend, but there are a few in here that have caught my eye and made me wonder if I might go and see them, and a couple I'd just avoid like...
A story caught my eye a few months back that made me think about which way 3D was heading, news that a major game publisher had decided not to bother with 3D anymore, and then just the other day the news came out about Sony removing the funding for 3D...
There's a real mix of films this month, even in my selections as I range from British thrillers to American comedies, yes I am actually suggesting a couple might be worth looking at this month, and from the intellectually challenging to the sheer straight entertainment. You do have to remember...
Word has been coming out of late that since George Lucas has decided to release Star Wars on Blu-ray that he has been tinkering with things again, adding more CG, changing scenes, altering dialogue and all sorts. It would seem he's never happy with Star Wars as it is. However...
I feel like slapping my forehead and saying "Doh!", but it does seem obvious that Hollywood's desire to milk every last drop of profit out of a latest trend or genre for as little cost as possible has resulted in the latest trend or genre pushing audiences away and a...
July is, surprisingly a quiet month. You'd think that it would be filling up with bigger films but the releases are pretty thin on the ground, however that doesn't mean it's a bad month because as the films thin out so the quality ones rise to the top. There's quality...
Some good films this month and there's a nice selection to be had too, it's not just your usual Hollywood stuff. Mind you it opens with a big Hollywood film and ends with one too, but at the same time neither are what you might expect from their titles, one...
Richard Greenfield of the Wall Street company BTIG has been an open sceptic of 3D in the film industry, and now he's spoken out and said that it is now beginning to hurt the industry, and he has some figures to back up his claim. The most important figure is...
There's everything happening this month, from the blockbuster to the classic re-release, from standard American comedy to Japanese Samurai action. It's all coming this month, it's a vast and varied one and well worth heading to the cinema to catch even a few of these. So here's the rundown of...
A group of twenty three producers and directors have signed an open letter to the major studios to stop a new video on demand service that allows films to be streamed into the home just sixty days after their release in the cinema. Reading the open letter I became more...
12 Angry Men. It's almost all that this Closing Credits article needs to say for Sidney Lumet, and yet there's so much more. Sidney Lumet has died aged 86. The writer, producer but most importantly the director, a director who delivered one of the best thrillers of all time, a...
The latest film version of Frank Herbert's Dune has died a death as Paramount have had their four year rights holding lapse before they could actually bring it to the big screen. Richard P. Rubinstein is the current rights holder for the Herbert novels and he announced that the rights...
Studios want all their films to hit the thirteen year old and upwards demographic. Apparently that's where the most money is, where the most cinemagoers are, and that's why they want everything to be PG-13 in America. R rated films just don't work. Not helped by the fact that many...
I've always been concerned about the representation of real life in film, as I brought up in the feature Historical accuracy in films, and there are two projects right now that have reminded me of this issue, and one of them is very alarming and could well be affecting people's...
David O’Russell has been taking a lot of stick for the way he’s been talking about his vision for the film adaptation of the videogame Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and fans, as always, have been getting upset. All credit to him though, he’s sticking to his guns and has come out...
Welcome to the 2011 coverage of the Orange British Academy Film and Television Awards from Filmstalker. This year the coverage will be live from the red carpet and during the live show before it's televised, and as usual there's a live event below to capture everything we, and of course...
I've just missed the start of February, but I'm here with the second of the month by month hits of what's arriving in British cinemas this year. As I said in last month's roundup, I usually do the year ahead but it can be totally out of date a few...
Like the previous years, I was going to write a huge preview of all the films coming in the year as at this point, the very beginning of January, and two things struck me. One is that by the time I've reached the middle of the year dates are vague...
2010 is about to close, the year is almost at an end, and it's a time to look back and reflect on the year. For some it's a time of happiness, and for some a time of sadness - right now my thoughts and love are with one of my...
By now you should have received all your Christmas gifts and had a chance to play with them, if not watch all the DVDs and Blu-rays you’ve been given, after all there’s been a lot on television too, and there’s still more to come, but what have you actually watched,...
I keep having a bit of banter with the two blokes on the Filmstalker Audiocast, Mark and Steven, about Christmas films and what truly makes one. For me Christmas has to be at the core of the film, not just something that appears at the beginning and the end, for...
It's coming to that time of year again that I ask you, the Filmstalker reader, for their Top Ten for the year. This is where you write up a short, or long, article on what your Top Tens have been cinema wise. Now that can be good, bad, actor, film...
The director of the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film and it's two sequels has hit out against the Hollywood remake machine and brings forward a very interesting point about the idea of remaking a film while its shelf life is still very much alive, in fact while...
News came just yesterday that Mel Gibson was to start his return to the big screen in a cameo role in The Hangover 2. It sounded an appropriate return. Then something happened. The cast and crew apparently complained about his appearance in the film and refused to act next to...
We've heard that Jack Ryan was getting a reboot, moving on again, looking for a new actor and a new franchise to kick him off, something that isn't really that much of a surprise as we've seen it happen a number of times before. However reboot doesn't just mean the...
It struck me while I was reading the latest story about Joaquin Pheonix and Casey Affleck's film I'm Still Here, his apparent retirement from acting, and the is it or isn't it question for if the film is fake or not, just what affect this is all having on the...
The other day we learned that Gravity, the film from Alfonso Cuarón that was set to co-star the big name of Robert Downey Jr. but showcase the talents of a leading Hollywood actress, was struggling and might not get made at all. Why so? Was the studio in difficulty? Downey...
Is the superhero genre close to death? It seems that Matthew Vaughn thinks so and that's one of the reasons why he's doing X-Men: First Class it would seem, to get a big budget superhero film made just before the genre dies out. I must admit I can't wholly agree,...
An announcement has been made that marks a big change in the marketplace of film and television shows, UltraViolet is the name, and a universal digital rights management (DRM) system is the idea. Actually it's more of an idea, it's a system that's about to start a beta trial this...
Reading an article the other day about the upcoming M:I:IV or Mission: Impossible IV I gleamed a very strong shift in perception of the franchise, that it was bigger than the star Tom Cruise, and that there was the possibility that Cruise may not star in the lead role. I...
The Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010 has arrived and I've had a thorough, two night review of all the films on offer, and I've created my wish list of what to see. As usual I'm going to share it with you, and if I can see all the films I...
The UK elections have happened, we've had days of politics and no new government, but just the other day we saw the Conservatives and Liberals form a coalition and take power. The first thing they needed to do was to elect their cabinet. What's a cabinet? Well it's the list...
The last year, and even further back than that, the same themes have been coming out of Hollywood, one of those themes has been the franchise. Hollywood just won't let go of them and we're seeing some of the big ones come back to life while others just can't seem...
3D television has arrived in the UK as major stores begin stocking 3D televisions, 3D glasses and 3D enabled Blu-ray players, but not quite yet the 3D PlayStation we've been promised. Manufacturers are ready to roll it out to every consumer, taking over from your standard home cinema, and they're...
Recent news told us that tapes of Orson Welles telling a children's story have been unearthed and are being used to make a new animated film, narrated by the great talent himself, who died in 1985. While that's only set to bring back his voice, it's long been touted that...
The Hurt Locker is facing some difficulties in the race up to the Oscars, difficulties I didn't really think worth mentioning, until the latest round of news today and the announcement that a producer of the film has been banned from the show. Adding to their troubles, the film is...
This year I've been lucky enough to be invited down to the BAFTA event once again by Orange. Last year I was blogging live from the red carpet, something I intend to be doing again this year from this page, starting round about 16:00 GMT on Sunday 21st February. If...
I've been sitting on the list of upcoming films for the year for some time now, I did complete it but I never managed to publish it, until now. Here's the list of films that Filmstalker (that's me) recommends that you should watch this year, and it's a bumper of...
Finally we are here, The Best Film of the Decade has been decided upon by you, the reader. I can fairly say I have not voted once in this entire feature run. Since before Xmas I've been putting features on-line listing what I considered to be the Best Films of...
Since early December we've been voting on the Best Films of 2000 through to 2009, I've been selecting the nominees and you've all been voting for the best. Now the results are in, counted, and presented for your amazement, the Best Films from each of the years from 2000 to...
This is it, the final year in the decade. Next up I'll be revealing the films that won from each year in the decade and letting you vote for the Best Film of the Decade. However we have to get back to 2009 and finish that off first, since the...
I thought this year I'd leave the Top Tens to the Filmstalker readers who are brave enough to step up and let their lists be published for all to see, be it the best films, the worst films, the funniest moments, the best performances, anything at all. So what would...
The penultimate year in the decade is 2008, just one more year and I'll be gathering together your votes for the Best Films of the Decade and then we'll have one big vote on Filmstalker for the single Best Film of the Decade. Hold up though, we have two years...
Well 2007 in the ongoing series of The Best Films of the Decade has been slightly delayed, what with Xmas, guests, and over indulging, 2007 has had to fall to the wayside for a short time. However, it is here, and it marks a year with some great documentaries and...
For those of us who enjoy exchanging presents and the big Xmas day meal, the time is just around the corner, and here in the UK we're even enjoying snow, it is indeed close to the end of the year, and with that we turn to The Best Films of...
Here we are at 2005, rapidly approaching 2009 and giving us enough time to see everything released in the final year, unlike most awards ceremonies. Now the Filmstalker Best Films of the Decade is looking at the year 2005, and while I might be picking what I think are the...
The years are rolling by as we hit 2004, half-way there to the voting for the Best of the Decade, and not long before the final films of 2009 are hitting the cinemas. We're almost there. For now though, let's keep focused on the year in hand, 2004, and it's...
So we've already been voting on the Best Films of 2000, 2001 and 2002, and now it's time to turn our attention onto 2003 in the ongoing quest to find the Best Film of the Decade, well in our eyes anyway. 2003 promises a good year, with films such as...
The films of the decade continue here on Filmstalker with the biweekly updates and we've moved nicely onto 2002. I've actually decided to leave the voting for the previous years open until the voting is closed on 2009, so there's plenty of time to catch up. Remember once we've looked...
One step closer to 2010, and we're just starting the race towards the end of the decade here on Filmstalker. We've already looked at 2000, the first year in the decade we're just about to say goodbye too, and so this time round we're going to look at the year...
Well here we are, rapidly approaching the big number of 2010, a number that would have meant someone would have had their space epiphany by now and we were finding that there was something amazing on a moon of Jupiter. The films have got it wrong. However with the passing...
I was having a discussion online the other day about Paranormal Activity and I was talking about how the film wasn't as good as the hype suggests. Someone countered with the box office takings for that weekend, I'm not sure if it was the opening weekend or not, and used...
Hollywood is facing a financial crisis of the proportion that we've seen, and are still seeing, in the financial industry, and it's the financial industry to blame apparently. Hollywood budgets are heavily funded by money from financial institutions, and as their expenditures are closed off to save on costs and...
This is the second part of the two part Halloween feature, with the previous discussing the most terrifying scenes where I tried to keep you on the track of the psychologically scary scenes, this one is just the complete, horror in your face, gore filled, horrific scenes. Now I've watched...
I've touched on this topic a few times before, mainly in a feature back in 2006, but with it coming up to Halloween I thought we should leap right back into it, and believe me this isn't the last halloween based feature that we're going to have this month. The...
There's a veritable torrent, if I'm still allowed to use that word in public on a film site without fear of persecution, of films based on toys being developed just now, and while initially I thought it was complete rubbish, the more I thought about it the more I saw...
Everything is being rebooted or restarted just now, it seems to be the new remake, but do you actually want to see your franchises restarted? Was there anything wrong with them before? Or should they have just been left alone? Reboot is an easy option for studios and can help...
With the news of Superman's rights being taken away from Warner Brothers and passed back to the original creators, with a new Batman around the corner having to battle hard to match the success of the previous and both Spider-man and Batman facing the last outings under their most successful...
It is a clumsy title, but it's a difficult concept to get across in a few words, not so difficult when you simply ask, if you could have anything from the world of film to become a reality for you, what would it be? Imagine that you had one wish,...
Actors come and actors go, and some do that within their own career. Of late the most notable example has been Mickey Rourke, he's come back with a vengeance, and it began before The Wrestler, but that's the film that's seen as cementing his return. However he's not the only...
In a little nod to the passing of Michael Jackson this week I thought that we could have a look at singers who have turned to acting, since this site is all about film it seemed the most sensible topic for a feature. While Michael Jackson shouldn't really make it...
I can't remember who mentioned it, and they can let us know in the comments, but someone mentioned the idea for a feature of scenes in films that really do go against the norm for Hollywood. What they and I mean by that are when you expect one thing in...
When those who comment on film talk about the film adaptations of video games they always do so with a little bit of negativity, in fact most will claim that all video game adaptations are rubbish, forgetting that they deserve to be rated against film, not lumped into one unique...
Franchises have been on my mind a lot of late. We've had the big names of Star Trek and Indiana Jones return to our cinemas and to quite a mixed response, and we're awaiting the return of the Terminator franchise, and that too is starting to come under some heavy...
With the arrival of a new baby in the family, born less than a day ago, I thought it a nice tribute to Mylah to look at the best films that are about babies, or at least feature babies as the leading characters. There are some that spring to mind...
Having just watched Star Trek (Filmstalker review) I got to thinking where it lies in the order of the series, not in terms of order of production, we know it's the newest, but in terms of quality and enjoyment compared to the others. That led me into conversations about what...
With Fast & Furious out in the cinema this weekend and the rest of the series playing out on television at the moment, repeated who knows how many times, I began thinking about cars and films. Now I've already written a feature on The best car crashes in films, but...
I was going to start another feature on a different subject today but as I was looking through the previous stories of the last few weeks something struck me, there are a number of trilogies being talked about being restarted and that led me to think which trilogies, or franchises,...
Following on from the feature The Best Trilogies, which was to celebrate the third birthday of Filmstalker, I thought we could segway nicely into the worst trilogies. Now we'd already hit a stumbling block in the first feature about what really does constitute a trilogy, but let's go with the...
Today it is officially Filmstalker's third birthday, and what a three years it's been. This is officially the fourth year and in terms of yearage, the trilogy is over, but the franchise continues, just without the box office takings! So with the end of the trilogy it got me thinking,...
I make no secret of it but I hate 3D films, partly because of the need to throw things at the camera and utilise the 3D effects at every opportunity, and partly because of the need for coloured glasses, hindering the usual view of a film on a big screen...
So we have the final part of Filmstalker's look at the films in 2009 to come but that's been delayed by the BAFTA's and Valentines day, and it's the latter that we're visiting here. It's the day that companies round the world have raised their prices for and tell us...
On Sunday February the 8th the 2009 British Academy of Film and Television Awards takes place in London, and Filmstalker will be there to cover the event live. I will be, technically beside, the red carpet and attempting to blog live and trying not to wet myself at the excitement...
While we race on with 2009, Filmstalker's selection of films coming up in 2009 continues with the third part in the 2009 release review covering July to September. There are some big releases, a much anticipated sequel, a definitely not needed remake, and some smaller more interesting films too. Of...
The celebration of films coming up in 2009 continues with the second part in the 2009 release review by Filmstalker, and I'm now looking at April to June. Now we're still looking at some more intelligent releases during this period, but we're also into blockbuster and sequel territory too. While...
Welcome to the first in four articles about the coming year in film. The films to look out for in 2009 by Filmstalker. The year ahead looks an interesting one, and although it may not be as filled with blockbusters as last year was, it does seem to have a...
I've been struggling for a feature for Xmas this year, mainly because I'm really not in that Xmas feeling, and that sparked a thought, what is that Xmas feeling? For me it's about being nice to others without any selfish thought. Like yesterday I had a parking permit with thirty...
I've been thinking a lot about remakes recently - haven't we all been forced to lately with release upon release of remake? - and lately, while writing about the remake of Akira and Oldboy, I wondered at what point does a remake become something different, does it begin to offer...
Well it's coming up to the American Presidential elections and rather than ask that age old question, “who are the best fictional U.S. Presidents in film?” I thought I'd open it up to the rest of the world and ask, who have given the best portrayals of World Leaders in...
I was thinking what to write for the Halloween feature that would be due, and I instantly turned to horror films wondering what we hadn't done before, and it came to be, the best real life horror films, or the best horror films based on true events. Now this is...
Right now the world is plunging headlong towards financial crisis, or so the people in charge keep telling us. Rather than trying to calm the situation we hear people like the IMF telling us that we're all doomed. Great. So in times of trouble, well in film anyway, people rally...
I can't really remember what sparked this thought off in my head, but I was watching television about something and into my head popped a quote from a film. Then, when I thought about it for a bit I wondered just how many film quotes I used in real, everday...
Tom Cruise is like Marmite - you love him or hate him, well perhaps a little too strong, you either like him or don't, and that don't seems to leap into hate in some cases, usually when people start considering his personal life. As an actor he has a mixed...
There are a couple of big things happening in the world today, and one of them is the U.S. Presidential elections, and while we'll come to election films and best Presidents, etc. right now let's look at the best Presidential film. The criteria for this one is pretty much anything...
It's getting beyond a joke, a film is made, upsets some group or individual, and the next thing is it's being pulled from release, re-dited, or hopefully at the very least, delayed until it all blows over. It seems you just have to complain about a film upsetting someone and...
One of the Filmstalker readers, Mitch Mack, has written a feature for the site entitled What happened to the franchise?. He was the only reader to enter an article into the Filmstalker Feature competition, something I was very surprised about. So, he won a prize (which will be with him...
The British Government has finalised a deal between the British film and music industries and the Internet Service Providers (ISP's) to start hitting back at those who the industries believe are downloading and sharing illegal files. The deal ensures that both the copyright holders and the ISP's will work together...
You know the more and more I hear about this talk of Heath Ledger being in the running for an Oscar for his role as Joker in The Dark Knight, before anyone has really seen the film, the more I'm getting uncomfortable about the whole situation. What's making it worse...
I'm doing something a little different with this feature, and that's to create one to help out an important charity, Macmillan Cancer Support to be exact. Let me tell you about the feature first and then we'll talk about why. This feature is going to talk about films you remember...
I've been growing more and more tired of trailers, and indeed all marketing materials of late, particularly trailers though as they seem to be giving away more and more of the main feature. There seems to have been a real drop in the intelligence of the creation of trailers, and...
I was just watching the BBC news - a station that I once believed fought for non-sensationalised news but of late has been heading further and further towards the tabloid news style - and I heard the upcoming news bullet point where they ask if Juno is to blame for...
Restarted, rebooted, remade, reimagined. Whatever you like to say the question is can franchises that have already had their shot really be restarted? We've seen number of franchises revisited this year with Die Hard, Rocky and Rambo, but these have really been a continuation albeit with a fair passage of...
It's pretty much par of the course that unless the baddie in a film is a well off, middle class, white American, the group of people that they're representing will no doubt want to complain about the way they are portrayed, after all the film can only show them in...
On behalf of my wife and I, I'd like to write up another Honeymoon feature, and this one is about films that are located in our honeymoon destinations. You see we were going through a shop in San Francisco and it was filled with posters of films that were based...
Well we're on honeymoon in California, San Francisco at the moment, but we still have time to think about a feature. While we were planning our wedding we were thinking what to name the tables, and we decided on films related to marriage, and in particular our marriage. One we...
Uwe Boll is in effect killing any chance he has of a career, and he's doing it without the aide of an online petition. You see to be someone successful you need to be liked to some degree and your work enjoyed, you even need to win over critics and...
The Filmstalker Hotdog Awards 2008 are entering the nominations stages...finally. Now that a few regulars have voted for the categories that they would like to see in the Filmstalker Hotdog Awards 2008, they are being opened up for voting, and it's pretty easy to have your say. We're in the...
Filmstalker is two years old today, can you believe it? I can't, it actually feels much longer, especially considering the size that the site has grown to. So what's happened in the last year and what do you think of Filmstalker now it's two years old, and what's in line...
We've not tried a awards list here on Filmstalker yet, and with every site doing them and the awards I worked hard on for the last site I was at being unceremoniously dropped, I thought it about time we kicked ours off. So introducing the Filmstalker Hotdog Awards. Awards that...
I was chatting with Louise (friend, reader and helper on Filmstalker) and we started discussing the best character deaths in film. Now I can't remember why we went on the topic, just that we ended up there and as soon as she mentioned it my mind was off and racing....
Is being an actor good for you, indeed, is stardom good for you, and not just your health either, but is it good for your life and those around it? Friends, family and close relationships? With the passing of Heath Ledger who was undoubtedly going to reach much greater things...
I thought this might be a perfect time to discuss the marketing of films, how you feel about pre-film hype and if you've ever been duped by the marketing of a film into believing it was something else...like good. There are two films just recently that have brothered me in...
Now the third and final in the series where I've been looking at the upcoming films of 2008. We've already had a look at the films that have release dates for 2008, as well as the list of films due for release in 2008 without a date as yet, well...
So you've already read the list of films that Filmstalker recommends that have concrete UK release dates, but what about those that don't have definite release dates? Well you'd be surprised at just how many of those there are, and I've hand picked them all out for you here. You'll...
Well here we are at 2008, the year has just flown by. In the first of three articles I'm going to take you through the films for 2008. Not all of them, but the better ones. This first article lists the releases that currently have a UK release date. The...
While we just talked about the genre defining films of Christmas, or Xmas if you prefer, there's another side to films at this time of year that is utterly horrible and terrifying, the bad Christmas film. While there are plenty of classic and rightly superb films at this time of...
Call them holidays, Christmas, Xmas, whatever, the season is upon us and that means a run of seasonally inclined films. From Santa to sleigh bells, and loving one another, the Christmas films are here. So I thought before we enter the big Christmas feature we'd explore the films that really...
The morning after a games night is usually devoid of anything interesting due to hangovers and sleep deprivation, however this time my friend Dave came up with a rather interesting point of discussion. What films have been diluted by their sequels, and conversely, what films haven't been affected by their...
I was wondering what category I was going to tackle next and while chatting at work I thought thrillers, but then the thriller genre is really quite wide, and then it hit me. The big thing just now is the political thriller. So this feature will cover the political thriller,...
This really should have been last week as there was a mountain of sport to be had, Rugby World Cup and Formula 1 World Championships being the most prominent, but that weekend of sport made me think of the next topic for our Genre Defining series at Filmstalker, Sports. So...
Brian De Palma has been very vocal about his film Redacted and how censorship has hit the film, and once again he's been speaking out about the controversial photographs that have been edited from the film by the studio for fear of legal recourse. De Palma isn't happy at that...
While actresses over forty complain that Hollywood don't want them any more, black actresses who feel they can speak out still talk of racism, and allegations abound that Warner Brothers doesn't want any more films with female leads, it's beginning to look like there's a big problem in Hollywood. Are...
Welcome to the start of a new series of features which we'll step in and out of called "Genre Defining" where we'll explore what we think are the definitive films for whichever genre we're discussing. In other words if I say “westerns”, what comes to mind first and why. Of...
The Fast and the Furious 4 has been confirmed with a 2009 release date and Justin Lin as Director, anything else you may have heard is rumour and speculation, but the film is definitely going into pre-production and will hopefully be filmed pre strike. So with it definitely going ahead...
Ben Affleck is apparently considering whether or not to release his film Gone Baby Gone in the UK because of the real life case of the missing, presumed kidnapped, child Madeleine McCann. Madeleine McCann's parents claim that she was kidnapped from their holiday home while they were having dinner with...
Following on from the feature last week about films that relate to food, I'm going to try another food feature this time it's going to be the best film scenes involving food. It seems that everyone was itching to get into this in the last feature, so let's just start...
I can't remember why but I was thinking about food in films, possibly because I was cramming a pizza in my mouth at the time, but I started to think, just how many films are there with food in them? As I started coming up with film titles I realised...
Can television series make good films even after they've had their run on television? Are the two mediums compatible? Is television actually running ahead of the cinema and producing higher quality content that doesn't need a film adaptation? These are the questions that started spinning around my head when I...
I've just had a great holiday up in the Highlands of Scotland, admiring the wonderful scenery, eating great local food, and drinking some of the best whiskies in the world. So rather than return to a serious feature I thought it would be fun to find out how many Scottish...
Not only is the excellent The Flying Scotsman (Filmstalker review) out this week in the UK but there are a few different Sammy Davis Jr. biographical films in development, the Edith Piaf film on release, Che Guevara biographical films in production, and there are many more on the way. That...
There are more and more films coming to life that represented something of our childhood past, films like Transformers, Nancy Drew, Battle of the Planets and so on. Hollywood is turning to the books, television and videogames to plunder our youth for ideas. Yet even with the wealth of films...
With Zodiac on general release I was thinking about what scares me so much about serial killers. Is it the fact that they repeat the crimes, is it that they can sometimes go undetected for so long, or is there something else? There's then the question of just who is...
I’ve just watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Filmstalker review) and although it isn’t the worst in the series it sill isn’t nearly as good as the first film. The second in the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Filmstalker review) was undoubtedly the worst. It...
We're going to take a little light hearted break from some of the more in depth and serious discussions we've been having and we're going to look at film heroes. Who are the film characters that you think of as the most heroic, whether they be true heroes, anti-heroes, or...
So the studio has decided that the failure of Grindhouse has been found, and it's all down to the fact that the film is just too long for the audience. This I find surprising. Having just sat through an entire weekend of horror films almost back to back, with a...
A little while ago the horror remakes trickled in, now there are a string of remakes in various stages of production, with the Hollywood machine fixing its eye firmly on 80's horror films. At the same time there are a number of Zombie films being made, and a few horror...
Well Friday the 13th was last week and while it's very much a superstition, people still hold the date at arms length, scared of what might go wrong. I was thinking about Friday the 13th and how to tie this into a feature. My first thought was to discuss slasher...
Politicians know best, after all they are moral guardians always doing right, and know everything about anything inside out. They never cover things up, lie or cheat, oh no. So when the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, declared that films are causing violence in our society I immediately burned all...
I was thinking about social taboos and how everyone has different taboos in life, boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, etc. I was thinking about how mine are remarkably open compared to most people I know, and how some subjects can't be discussed without upsetting someone or making them feel uncomfortable....
There's a part of the cinema experience that is often overlooked, a part that we may complain about whenever we head to see a film, and yet can often provide an interesting, entertaining and insightful moment before the film. I am of course talking about the adverts, or commercials if...
300 (Filmstalker review) is kicking up a storm, and not just in cinemas with audiences staring wide eyed at the amazing action playing on the big screen and the testosterone flooding the cinema, but also outside, in the discussion boards of the Internet as a growing voice speaks up about...
It's a year today that Filmstalker began. A whole year, and it's flown by. When I first started this site all on my own, I was wanting to fill a void that had been created. I wanted to keep doing something I was so enjoying, writing and watching films and...
Having just seen Hot Fuzz (Filmstalker review) and enjoyed all the references to other police films out there, I thought it would be a good idea to find out what you all think are the best police films out there. Now these aren't just in the realm of comedy or...
British film is definitely raising it's head in the cinemas of the world once again, and it is certainly proving a success with such films such as Shaun of the Dead, The Queen, Last King of Scotland and Hot Fuzz. We're starting to see strong British films coming forward, and...
So the Oscars are only hours away, and you have probably noticed from the coverage on the site, I'm just not interested this year, but that's not because of lack of quality films to favour, or because the quality films aren't getting recognition, actually they are. So what's the problem?...
Valentines Day is here again, the day of the year that we are told that it is now time to tell loved ones that you love them, the day that prices for chocolates, flowers and cards raise two fold, and the day that helps shops bridge the gap to the...
There's a lot to come for British Film this year, not only appearances at worldwide festivals and the superb UK based festivals, but there's the British films themselves, of which there are many. Thanks to the BBC Film Network I present to you a list of some of the most...
These past few weeks we've seen a lot of controversy raging about Dakota Fanning and her role in Hounddog, most of it is complete hysteria and fabrication as she is an actress acting in a role and she was acting scared and distressed, something she has done time and time...
This is a feature suggested by Simone, your favourite film soundtracks. Now that got me thinking, there were a few top lists on television over the holidays about favourite soundtracks and they were featuring one song, not the soundtrack. To me a soundtrack is a collection of all the songs...
Well we're a few days into 2007, and to finish off the trilogy of articles on the passing of the year film wise, here's the last in the series, the blockbuster completion if you will. Here are the films that I will be looking out for in 2007, and there's...
In the first part of this three part series I wrote about the films I was looking forward to at the beginning of 2006 and what I thought now I had seen them (if I had) at the end of the year. Well now I'm going to look at the...
Last year I wrote about the films to watch in 2006, and we watched them, well most of them. So in this first part of a three part feature, I'm going to look back on what I said would be worth watching and why, then I'll look back at what...
It's come around again incredibly fast, Christmas is here. If you celebrate the consumerised holiday or not, you're still subjected to the same television as the rest of us, and that means the traditional Christmas films. Usually you're guaranteed to see The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, Miracle...
For the most part of this year we, the film audience, have been plagued with something truly terrible, the remake. Call it what you will, remake, re-imagination, whatever word you want, it's taking a story that has already seen a film audience and doing it again, and what's the reason?...
If you love a particular film chances are you know a quotation or two from it, and even if you don't love a film that much you're bound to know and have said a few quotations from films before in your life. Surely you've said "Luke, I am your Father"...
Bond is much like Doctor Who, in that you usually love the actor who played the character as you grew up. For me Doctor Who is Tom Baker, and with Bond it's Sean Connery. Yet there's something slightly different with Bond, I have more than one favourite. It's because Bond...
To commemorate my fiancé crashing her car this weekend, in quite spectacular style, we're going to spend this feature looking at the best car crashes in films. From impressive single car crashes, to multiple car pile ups. Which car accidents have hit you the hardest? Which look the most real?...
We're fast approaching Halloween and with a name like Filmstalker we just have to mark the occasion with a scarily themed feature. We've already looked at The most haunting film scenes, now though it's the turn of the scariest characters on film. What film characters do you think are by...
Following on from the most haunting scenes in films that we talked about last week I had a few ideas already sketched out, and then I caught a few moments of Four Weddings and a Funeral on TV last night while I was waiting for another film to come on....
Recently there was a survey carried out to find the most haunting scenes in cinema. The idea was to discover which scenes were ingrained in the mind of the audience after a scary film, images which would come back into their minds again and again and freak them out. For...
There's no doubt that trailers and teasers are an effective medium for selling tickets. They have over ninety minutes of footage to chose from to make a few minutes of exciting and intriguing teaser that will hook the viewer into the story. The audience get to see and hear the...
Over the last few years we've seen the trend grow for the marketing people attached to movies look towards the Internet. They've raced ahead with Snakes on a Plane and proven that marketing does not make a sellable movie, you need a good film to go along with it, but...
Amazon has just released their film download service and it has, quite obviously, been followed by some strong negative comments. One article has been emailed through to me and it carries quite a few negative comments. Now, I am right there standing with everyone else against the restrictions of download...
This is a feature dedicated to Lee, his fab wife, and their son who has just joined their lives - Many congratulations! You can read about their journey over at Alders Tone, where they are exploring parenthood for the first time ever. With that in mind, this feature is about...
What's your ideal cast for a film? Who would be your favourite director or writer? Who, if you could make such decisions, would you choose for your ideal film and therefore create your dream cast? I've been working on this feature for a long time, pulling together my idea of...
I just caught the tail end of Lake Placid on TV, and something hit me smack in the face. That gorgeous beaming smile, the biting lip, the soft hair across her face, none other than Bridget Fonda, and it occurred to me, where has she gone from our cinema screens?...
Since I just proposed to my girlfriend I thought that a feature about films on all things marriage related would be wise. So this week we're going to look at films that are around the topic of marriage, engagements and love in general. What films do you most associate with...
I thought this might just be a two feature connection, but it's stretching to a third. On the same theme as movies we're embarrassed to have seen and those we haven't, what are the films we really should watch? Now I'm not talking about the top 250 on IMDB, or...
Confessional time part deux…So we talked about the movies that you are embarrassed that you've seen or that you own, but what about those you haven't seen? Are there any films that you've missed that you're embarrassed to say? Are there some films hailed as classics, or films that you...
Okay, this is confessional time part one. In this feature we're going to openly discuss, without fear of retribution (well, apart from some gentle ribbing) the films that we are embarrassed to tell people we own or like. I'll start this session and open up to you all with three...
Lately there's been a move by Hollywood to bypass the film critics and release their movies direct to the public without any press screenings. The critics and press are up in arms about this and strangely every film that is released without screenings turns out to receive negative reviews. It...
Well with Father's Day just passing us by Dads everywhere will be getting back into the swing of things after enjoying a day of pampering, or at least hiding in the garage. Dads are strange, they seem to have an unusual taste in jumpers, socks, music and movies. Even stranger...
I have some beefs with Sean Connery, but none of them preclude from celebrating the talent of his film career. So it is with a proud Scottish heart that I congratulate his recent American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement award. Well done Sean. It made me think though, what would you...
Cinema attendance is dropping we're led to believe, and the fault is firmly placed at the door of piracy by Hollywood. People are more likely to download a movie for free and watch it on their PC than go out for the evening and enjoy a movie at the cinema....
I used to be a big DVD buyer. Any film I really liked would be bought and any film I just liked that was packed with extras would fall on my buying list too. That meant I ended up with a huge collection of DVD's and a distinct lack of...
There's been particular focus on this topic of late as Mission Impossible III (review) faces delay and possible cuts in China, more noticeably The Da Vinci Code (review) is banned in some Middle Eastern countries, and now the American army are pushing for cuts on the film Baghdad ER, and...
We were talking about the new trailer for Lady in the Water when the discussion turned to M. Night Shyamalan and his writing and directing capabilities. Out of that came a number of quite interesting comments. "Another pointless cameo" and the one I've seen repeated elsewhere, "One trick pony". The...
With the build up to the movie release of Mission Impossible III (review) there's been press saturation galore on Tom Cruise, but not so much for the film itself. We've heard about his girlfriend, their baby, his scientology beliefs, and a million and one other things about his personal life....
A previous discussion about the first 9/11 movie, United 93, brought up a number of quite relevant points. First we discussed if it was too early, and we turned to the example of films coming out from World War II, and that turned us to talk about modern War films...
After a discussion about how Star Trek could ever work again I began to think about which films did work and why, and that sparked that age old debate, which Star Trek film is the best, and why? I think it's an age thing, so my Dad will tell you...
Here's an interesting question I received from a reader who is currently writing a paper for their course about how Internet sites that talk about TV shows and upcoming episodes affect peoples viewing choices. It's an interesting question, and if you think back to before you read film and TV...
It's that time of year where some of us get a long weekend off work, some sit back and eat ourselves full of chocolate, and some will be rolling eggs down hills, for others it will be a period of worship, but for all hopefully family fun. What better way...
I don't recall ever having said, you have to see the film before you read the book, it would always be a recommendation to read the book before the film, but is that right? Should a film stand on its own and be watched without instant comparison to the book...
The story about the lack of extras on the new Munich DVD showed that there are huge differences of opinion about what should be amongst DVD Extras, and what you actually want to watch. DVD's come with all sorts of additional extras, from the lowest animated menus, all the way...
Here's an interesting question that's always asked but I never feel really addressed. Which sequels that have been made are actually better than their originals? I'm sure you'd be happy to admit that in most cases the original is never beaten, and it's quite rare to see the sequel do...
I came across a nice little list of Film Clichés, i.e. things that only ever happen in films and not in real life. It's an odd list because there's a lot of them that just aren't true or not funny, but there are a couple of gems in there. For...
There's a reason that I haven't posted the new trailer for Demi Moore's latest film Half Light, and that's because it's potentially full of spoilers, and it's a growing trend. You can see how difficult it can be. A trailer has to capture the audience above any others being shown...
The news is out today that the sequel for Casino Royale is underway. Barbara Broccoli is hard at work on an original script and Daniel Craig is already signed up and locked into his second Bond role. Meanwhile hardcore Bond fans are finding it incredibly hard to accept that Craig...
I was talking to one of the marketing people over at Ocean Vue Cinemas a while ago about the profits of running a Cinema, and I was genuinely surprised at how little is made in profit by the Cinema on your ticket. We're talking shockingly small amounts, and much as...
There was a superb programme on Channel 4 the other night called, and this was a small boast, The Worlds Greatest Actor. It was one of the series of Top Lists that they often produce, and they're usually really good at it, however this one had a twist. Instead of...
The sexiest moments in film have been voted on by a 120,000 strong survey of film fans, and the results are somewhat interesting with spanking proving very popular. Here's the rundown of the top ten: 1. 'Secretary' - Spanking scene 2. 'Brokeback Mountain' - Gyllenhaal and Ledger kiss 3. 'Out...
Well here we are on the grand opening of Filmstalker, thanks for coming and if you know me from my previous movie writing incarnation, then welcome back. If you don't then I hope that this is going to be an enjoyable experience for us both! If you didn't know, this...
I started writing a top five list of the films due out in 2006 that I really thought would be worth seeing, and as I worked through the release schedules I found more and more being added on. When I looked at the huge list I realised I was going...
Audiocasts on iTunes
