Epinions Recent Reviews for hankrum

Why it works so well...

Thu, 12 Feb 2004 20:35:13 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - A group of criminals re-group after a botched diamond heist and try to figure out who tipped off the police. That tells you everything about RESERVOIR DOGS, but it also tells you nothing. In order to write a review about Quentin Tarantino's stunning...

When will this one-upmanship end?

Tue, 3 Feb 2004 19:57:30 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - What is it about thrillers these days? Instead of concentrating on a suspenseful, well-told story with good characters, the purveyors of this genre seem to be intent on out-doing each other with increasingly outrageous plot twists. Throughout the past...

A big disappointment

Sun, 25 Jan 2004 19:24:55 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - I wanted to like this film. I really did. I had heard a lot of positive things about it, and I'm a fan of Jean Reno. Also, Mathieu Kassovitz is a talented director and Thierry Arbogast is one of the best cinematographers currently working anywhere. But...

DeNiro and Scorsese at their Peak

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 19:21:16 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - RAGING BULL is the only film I can think of that is consistently referred to as 'the best film of the 80's'. Such labels are always a matter of opinion, but it is certainly one of the best directed films of the modern age. Many may wonder: what is all...

Another May-December romance? Not quite...

Sun, 11 Jan 2004 20:13:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - Sofia Coppola proved with 'The Virgin Suicides' that she had a talent for making an atmospheric mood piece. But there was something other-worldly about that particular film, and at times it was too much. But with 'Lost in Translation' she has surpassed...

What would YOU do?

Sun, 4 Jan 2004 15:38:44 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - The world is due to end in a few hours, and a group of characters go about filling the time in their own unique ways. The trouble with an idea as good as this is that there is so much you could do with it, but director/star Don McKellar has done the...

Well, it's really FOUR KINGS

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 12:22:59 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - There weren't many movies to get excited about as we approached the end of the 1990's. Cinema was going through a truly bad patch. But this gem of a movie was one of the few shining lights of the period. I remember that the trailer for THREE KINGS was...

Good Cop, Bad Cop, Flash Cop

Wed, 24 Dec 2003 13:11:33 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - The single most important thing in any story, be it book or film or play, is to have interesting characters. The audience has to care what happens to the people involved. LA CONFIDENTIAL is a glorious example of getting it right. Sure, it has a...

More like 'No Point in Returning'

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 12:10:02 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - No doubt about it: the 1990's gave us some bad Hollywood remakes of French films (anyone remember 'My father the Hero?'). But no remake I have ever seen has completely lost the whole spirit of the original in such a way as POINT OF NO RETURN. It's a...

A Perfect Film Experience

Mon, 22 Dec 2003 11:13:41 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - There is an endemic snobbery about horror movies. They are simply not taken as seriously as films from other genres. I think it must be the supernatural aspect. When a horror movie is bad, it seems so ludicrous that it's easy to scoff and say 'that's...

As Good a Selection As Any

Mon, 22 Dec 2003 09:52:57 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - This is a strange sort of book. It covers a specific group of films, roughly fifteen or so from each year of the decade, and the first thing you might ask is 'What were the criteria for selecting these particular films? What exactly is represented by...

Another Great 80's Comedy-Horror

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 17:43:42 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - There have been several attempts by film-makers to place a vampire in modern day America, and the results have ranged from very good (Salem's Lot; The Lost Boys) to downright laughable (Return to Salem's Lot; Blacula). Well, FRIGHT NIGHT is certainly one...

Clash of the (Acting) Titans

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 15:51:53 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - This is one of those movies where your expectation is built up beforehand to such an extent that when you actually see it, you are bound to be a little bit disappointed. But then, after a couple of days of thinking about what you saw, you begin to...

It's MY show...MINE!

Fri, 19 Dec 2003 09:29:54 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - When I first watched this film, at the age of 20 or so, I was a lot more naive than I am now and I got off on the whole shock-jock idea: here was this angry guy, ranting at his listeners, saying what he liked, and cutting them off when he felt like it...

An Irish Road Movie - Great Fun

Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:59:18 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - This is a low budget comedy/crime movie from Ireland, and is a breath of fresh air compared to all of the ponderous dramas that have represented the Irish Film Industry for the past couple of decades (I'm Irish, so I can criticise). It's structured...

Boys will be boys

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:38:38 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - What I really loved about this film, and what I think many people didn't get, was the way that it deals with the competitive nature of the male animal. John Cusack thinks he's The Man, until Billy Bob Thornton comes along. During the first half of...

Find it kinda funny, find it kinda sad...

Mon, 15 Dec 2003 17:32:19 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - In general, movies have been pretty bad since the turn of the millenium. But as long as gems like this turn up now and again, I'll retain my love for the cinema. Donnie Darko, as you will probably know by now, is not like any other film you have seen...

Do our very thoughts create reality?

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:39:14 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - Although written over 20 years ago, this book is just as relevant today. Consider this: in the late 1960's Gary Zukav was fighting in the Vietnam War. He was, as he admits himself in his later book 'Soul Stories', a bloodthirsty soldier interested in...

Lolita meets The Killer

Fri, 1 Mar 2002 11:12:47 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - Only someone like Luc Besson could have pulled this off. I remember reading an interview with James Cameron during the making of Terminator 2 and he spoke of how he was making sure never to show Edward Furlong using a gun. Well Besson had no such qualms...

A forgotten gem

Thu, 28 Feb 2002 14:19:24 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - This is a marvellous and melancholic drama/thriller from Louis Malle. Burt Lancaster is brilliant as an ageing petty hood who has nothing left to do but create fanciful stories about his criminal past in a city which is now crumbling and being replaced...

In a word: weak

Thu, 28 Feb 2002 13:41:14 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author hankrum - Shrink Mickey Douglas' daughter is kidnapped by some baddies led by British nasty Sean Bean, and the only way to get her back is by retrieving information from a disturbed and unco-operative young girl (Brittany Murphy).

What is it with...