The James Marsh film review archive

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USA

  • Spring Breakers

    Still very enjoyable on second viewing, with James Franco in particular continuing to impress as the ridiculously charicatured drug dealer, Alien, who bails out a group of college girls looking… Read More

  • Runaway Train

    Settling in for a solid slice of 80s Cannon Film fare, nothing could have prepared me for the quality, intensity or profundity of Andrei Konchalovsky’s Runaway Train. Jon Voight, in… Read More

  • Harold And Maude

    One of the most eccentric and distinctive voices of the New Hollywood movement, Hal Ashby created some of the most interesting and unique American films of the period. None more… Read More

  • The Wolverine

    Hugh Jackman reprises his signature role yet again, this time employing James Mangold to take Logan to Japan and embrace one of the character’s best-loved comic book story arcs. While… Read More

  • The Guilt Trip

    Looking for something mindless for the flight home I opted for this comedy drama that casts Seth Rogen as the struggling salesman who is cajoled into a cross-country road trip… Read More

  • REVIEW: Gravity

    In what promises to be a new landmark, both in science fiction cinema and the craft of filmmaking itself, Alfonso Cuaron’s deep space survival thriller offers jaw dropping spectacle, nail-chewing… Read More

  • Computer Chess

    Andrew Bujalski’s mostly successful faux documentary spotlights an assembly of awkward boffins duking it out with their unfeasably large computers in the early 80s. It makes some wonderful observations about… Read More

  • White House Down

    White House Down

    The second film this year to see the US President’s official residence fall into enemy hands is a far more bombastic and lively affair than Antoine Fuqua’s brutal and po-faced… Read More

  • Rewind This!

    Not to brag, but Josh Johnson’s nostalgic documentary about the death of the VHS era and many films along with it, is chock full of people I know. This not-so-strange… Read More

  • Cheap Thrills

    One of the best examples of cinematic schadenfraude in recent memory, first-time director E.L. Katz takes two down on their luck losers and pits them against each other – for… Read More

  • The Congress

    The opening film at this year’s PiFan Festival is this incredible blend of live action and animation rom Ari Folman, based on the novel by Solaris author Stanislav Lem. This… Read More

  • The Great Gatsby

    The Great Gatsby

    Few would consider Baz Luhrman an ideal candidate to bring F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece back to the screen, but while his adaptation remains as lurid and bombastic as his… Read More

  • The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

    I caught this on a flight and really that’s the perfect place to see this utterly inconsequential yet mildly diverting comedy. Steve Carell is on autopilot most of the time… Read More

  • The Howling

    While certainly entertaining, I’m baffled that some people hold Joe Dante’s film in the same high regard as John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London, or contend that the make… Read More

  • Pacific Rim

    Guillermo del Toro pits huge metal mech suits against giant creatures from a parallel dimension in his epic science-fiction beat ’em up. But is sheer spectacle enough, when the characters… Read More

  • REVIEW: Pacific Rim

    After months of anticipation, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim arrived in Hong Kong on a wave of muted praise and widespread disappointment. The feverish anticipation for the film had waned… Read More

  • Foxy Brown

    I’m not hugely familiar with blaxploitation films, but I was a little underwhlemed by Jack Hill’s Foxy Brown when I finally cauht up with it. There’s no denying that Pam… Read More

  • Toy Story 3

    I’m not sure you ever need an excuse to revisit what is arguably the crowning achievement from Pixar’s impressive “first run”. Pitch perfect entertainment for children and adults alike, on… Read More