Review: Catfish

Catfish is the kind of movie that you’ll be discussing as soon as the credits start rolling. It is an unexpected and beautifully made film, which will surprise you in ways that you could not predict.

This was a little project which made the rounds at various film festivals and art-house cinemas around the country last year without getting a major release. It’s now available on DVD and this review is to point out the film if it passed you by last year.

Check This Out: A Brief History of Title Design

Review: The Adjustment Bureau

While it doesn’t quite deliver on its intriguing premise, The Adjustment Bureau offers an engaging romance from Damon and Blunt which manifests as a story which is thrilling, entertaining and a little bit different.

The ‘Hollywood pitch’ has been a running joke in the film industry for years. A director or writer selling a project to an impatient and sales-obsessed studio executive as a combination of two popular movies is believed to be common practice, at least satirically. Worryingly though, this is becoming a very real trend in the marketing of films, as if the people are only interested in seeing the force-bred love children of previous blockbusters and classics. This was evidenced most recently on the poster for the latest Philip K. Dick adaption, The Adjustment Bureau, with the quotation “it’s Bourne meets Inception”. I suppose we’re going to have to get used to every film for the next few years which takes a basic philosophical premise and forms it into a narrative device being described, rather brainlessly, as “like that film with the spinning-top and the folding city”. But the use of the equation: Matt Damon + running = Bourne makes this one of the laziest comparisons to date. The first thing you should know about The Adjustment Bureau then is, it is neither of these films.

Review: Rango

A surprisingly bright movie with Depp at his best. Rango stands out from the growing crowd of digital animations with an imaginative take on the Western genre.

Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp reunite for a Western inspired animated feature, Depp playing the titular role and Verbinski directing the latest outing from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM); Rango. Flung from his tank when a car narrowly avoids a road accident, the previously unnamed chameleon arrives head first into the Western world of the Nevada desert, where a whole host of creatures live in the town of Dirt. He fancies himself something of an acting aficionado and moulds himself with a brand new personality, akin to classic ‘man with no name’ characters, even becoming Sheriff of the town. But how long can he keep up his act, or maybe just survive, when he must help the town’s water crisis and become the hero he claims to be?

The Week Ahead: And we're back!

Ok guys, so due to essays, exams and various other dull, uninteresting but ever-so 'necessary' tasks, we haven't been able to update the site in the wake of the Oscars a couple of weeks ago. We're sincerely sorry, and hope you, our faithful and loyal readers, can find it deep in your hearts to forgive us. The good news is that now we're back Willis-style: with a vengeance. And as a mark of intent, here is our first The Week Ahead, to let you know what you can expect over the coming seven days, right here on NotYetRated.co.uk!

Top 5 of 2010: Dom's Picks

It’s always hard to decide your ‘Top 5’ of anything, so as a film fan I had to think long and hard about my five favourite films of last year. It’s been a particularly good year, with films like 127 Hours, Kick-Ass and The Social Network being some standout examples. And as the tyrannical editor (our very own Sam Caveen) wasn’t too keen on a top ten, here it is: my Top 5 of 2010. Hope you enjoy reading, and feel free to comment telling me how right/wrong I’ve got it.

Review: Never Let Me Go

An incredibly unique and moving love story set in a science fiction alternate world, with great central performances from some of Britain’s young rising stars Knightly, Garfield and Mulligan.

Before watching Never Let Me Go I had not read Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel from which the film is adapted; I hadn’t even seen a trailer for it. In fact I’d only really read little snippets about it and had no real idea of what it was going to be about. This is probably the best way to go into the film. All I really knew was that it starred Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightly and Carey Mulligan, most likely Britain’s best young talents currently around, and they did not disappoint. For this review I do have to issue a spoiler warning, as this is a film which is difficult to discuss without revealing a few plot points. So if you’d prefer to see the film completely ignorant of its later story, I’d advise you to stop reading now. That said, these details, while secretive and unexpected, do not form the main basis of the story.