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Cinophile: World’s Greatest Dad
As Robin Williams’ shocking death sank in, many theories arose about why he chose to take his own life. Inevitably topics like inner demons and the tears of a clown would surface, leading us to ponder...
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Cinophile: Dr. Strangelove
Feeling overwhelmed by the world? Do you believe we’re always a breath away from a man-made apocalypse? Dr. Strangelove is the tonic. It won’t solve anything, but at least you’ll feel better knowing...
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Cinophile: Ong Bak
“Bottom brick.” Ah, wait, wrong film. But I’ve decided to make that a thing. ‘Bottom Brick’ was that moment when Bloodsport showed the audience it will be an awesome martial arts movie, because Van...
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Cinophile: Brazil
Terry Gilliam is a tricky director to appreciate, usually because he is as good at shooting his career in the foot as making immortal classics. Point in case is his most recent work, The Zero Theorem....
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Cinophile: Castaway On The Moon
Life sucks and sometimes it can become too much. This leads a man called Kim to jump off a bridge. But instead he becomes stranded on an uninhabited island in the Han river running thorough Seoul....
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Cinophile: CAVEMAN
There is a lot of controversy about how long the human race – and everything for that matter – has been around. Are we descended from primates, aliens, divine intervention? And when did that happen?...
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Cinophile: WATERWORLD
In defense of its big flop reputation, Waterworld is not one of the worst movies ever made. It’s one of the most awesome. How does that saying go? Never act with children or animals. But the golden...
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Cinophile: ENTER THE VOID
There is nothing easy about this movie. Even the opening credits risk giving you an epileptic fit. More than once you will wonder why you are even watching this. But Enter The Void is not the kind of...
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Cinophile: ROBOT JOX
Who doesn’t love giant robots? Other than giant aliens, not a lot of people.Though the technical geek in me wants to insists we call them ‘mech suits,’ because they are piloted, ‘giant robot’ just...
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Cinophile: VIRTUOSITY
Sometimes it feels like this feature should be called ‘In Defense Of…’, because some films are by all rights pretty dodge. But luckily this isn’t about good movies, just movies worth watching. In its...
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Cinophile: REAL GENIUS
Oh Val Kilmer, what has become of you? The notoriously difficult actor has certainly fallen from grace in the last decade or so. It is almost hard to believe that in his day Kilmer was one of the...
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Cinophile: DEATH RACE 2000
I’m going to go out on a limb here and argue that when The Hunger Games hit our screens, it wasn’t really a rip-off of Battle Royale. Yes, they have similar themes, but the shared genealogy pretty...
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Cinophile: Memento
Christopher Nolan is again enjoying a moment of glory at the box office, thanks to his gift for taking the obvious and flipping it in its ear. Many point to his grittier tone for the Batman movies,...
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Cinophile: The Ninth Gate
Johnny Depp is knows for marching to his own drum, portraying strange and elaborate characters, but he also has a knack for playing the straight guy. This doesn’t always work – just watch Public...
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Cinophile: THE BARBARIANS
Sometimes you find the right stuff in the worst places. In researching for this edition of Cinophile, I watched a collection of interviews with David and Peter Paul, bodybuilding twins who by early...
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Cinophile: I SAW THE DEVIL
South Korea loves revenge movies, the most famous being Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy and Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance. South Korean films also enjoy exploring themes like crime, corruption and psychopathy....
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Cinophile: THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE
Don’t worry, you don’t need to read subtitles for The Triplets of Belleville, which may be French but is an experience that goes beyond language. You could probably count the lines on dialogue on one...
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Cinophile: CRITTERS
By the mid-Eighties animatronic special effects were good enough to make some impressive monsters. This led to Joe Dante and Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins, a movie that imbued into an entire generation...
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Cinophile: STARSHIP TROOPERS
The author of the book Jarhead makes an interesting point: war movies are generally pro-war, even anti-war ones. It doesn’t matter how anti-war types view such films. People like soldiers tend to see...
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Cinophile: EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY
Interstellar space must be a real drag when you are trying to maintain a good social life. This prompts three literally colourful, hairy aliens to crash on our fair planet in the Eighties, a time when...
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