Andreas Heinemann

Judging by the buzz, this is the first piece of Oscar bait being dangled in front of Academy voters and us lesser viewers for next year’s ceremony. But, despite being a solid film, The Soloist is never remotely spectacular. Downey’s role is the meatiest and most prestigious of his career and he pulls it off, without […]

There are no delusions of grandeur here; [REC] knows it’s nothing more than a simple genre film. Instead of resulting in lazy, derivative filmmaking, this has allowed the creators to focus on conjuring and almost flawlessly executing moments of genuine terror. Even the most predictable events have you gripping the armrests in white knuckled fear. […]

Writer/director Faith Akin had a whole lot to live up to with The Edge of Heaven. His previous work, Head On, cut a swathe through awards ceremonies and critics lists all over Europe, catapulting him to wunderkind status in the world of foreign language cinema and unofficial poet laureate of the cross-cultural immigrant experience. Fortunately […]

A homage and love letter to the screwball comedies of the 1930s, Miss Pettigrew tells the tale of Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand), a stuffy, jobless nanny on the breadline who worms her way into a job interview with Delyssia (Amy Adams), a ditzy good times girl with showbiz aspirations. Delyssia takes her on as a […]

I had high hopes for this movie. On the surface, it seemed like it was moving away from the mainstream trend for high school comedies to be extended exercises in gross out humour for stereotyped characters. It appeared to be taking its cues more from Rushmore than American Pie, plus it had Robert Downey Jr. […]

Closing The Ring is a period drama that attempts to tell a love of a lifetime story in the vein of romantic epics like Titanic. Jumping between the 1940s and 1990s, a dying American soldier entrusts a Belfast local with the duty of returning the title’s piece of jewellery to his girlfriend back in his […]

The Love Guru has really limped into its release. In its first month in American cinemas, the film was met with disappointing box office results and lashings from every critic going. I won’t waste your time – the Americans were spot on with this one. Pitka (Mike Myers) is a relationship expert enlisted by the […]

After leaving the screening of the Wachowski brothers’ (The Matrix, V for Vendetta) latest feature Speed Racer, my brain hurt. This is intended as both complimentary and critical of the film as it’s much like the little girl with the little curl – When its good, its very, very good, but when its bad it […]

The Vietnam War has provided the subject material for an extensive list of movies, many of which occupy pride of place amongst the canon of classic American cinema. Up until this point though, scant attention has been paid to the stories of the Vietnamese people themselves who suffered through the conflict and became ‘boat people’, […]

The Jammed is the Aussie film du jour, a bleak, gritty look into the lives of internationally trafficked sex slaves in Melbourne. After a long list of rejections from funding agencies, the completed film has been praised by critics across the ditch and is expected to be a big contender at the AFI’s, Australia’s home […]

In the Valley of Elah sees acclaimed screenwriter Paul Haggis, the man responsible for penning Oscar winners Crash and Million Dollar Baby in consecutive years, undertake his most high profile and big budget directorial effort to date. His topic is the current conflict in the Middle East and how it has affected members of the […]

The true story of MIT whiz kids who developed a system to take Las Vegas blackjack tables for all they were worth gets the big screen make over in 21. Under the tutelage of college professor and former card counter extraordinaire Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), five college kids battle not only the mathematical odds, but […]

The most recent offering from our local film industry is a warm hearted romantic comedy set on the Kapiti coast. It centres on the impending marriage of Cheryl Rose to her sweet heart Stew. What should be the happiest day of Cheryl’s life is complicated by her mother Jill’s compulsion for hunting down bargains. She […]

The musical bio-pic is experiencing a resurgence as of late. Ray, Walk the Line and La Vie En Rose have all collected Oscars for their principle cast members, while the first two grossed heavily at the box office. The next film of this ilk to emerge is I’m Not There, maybe the most eagerly awaited […]

For his directorial debut, Ben Affleck returns to his native Boston to present a crime thriller about child abduction, paedophilia and ultimately the ambiguity of moral values and the human conscience. Clearly intended to be viewed as a dark human drama as much as a crime thriller, the genre from which many of the film’s […]

Dennis (Simon Pegg of Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz fame) is just your average guy, slightly overweight and romantically inept. He’s also a bit of a bastard, having left his pregnant fiancée Libby (Thandie Newton) at the altar five years ago. Poor form Dennis. It is only when she becomes involved with a […]

Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) is a successful, hedonistic club owner in 80’s Brooklyn, a position that allows him intimate contact with the drug peddling Russian underworld. This stands in stark contrast to his brother Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) and father (Robert Duvall) who are high profile members of the New York City Police department’s war on drugs. […]