The James Marsh film review archive

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USA

  • REVIEW: The Man With The Iron Fists

    Rapper-turned-filmmaker RZA writes, directs and stars as the titular hero of this passionate love letter to old school Chinese martial arts movies. It is widely known that the founder of… Read More

  • Robot & Frank

    This unlikely buddy movie about an elderly ex-con and his robotic domestic helper works fantastically well, thanks to a wonderfully nuanced performance from Frank Langella and deft handling of the… Read More

  • REVIEW: Robot & Frank

    I had heard nothing but great things about this movie, and was still kicking myself for missing a press screening back in December. Fernando had it on his Best of… Read More

  • The Notebook

    This Valentine’s Day I picked a notoriously slushy romance for the girlfriend and I to watch, one that neither of us had seen but I had a copy of lying… Read More

  • Dark Star

    After watching Prince of Darkness last night, my girlfriend demanded I show her more John Carpenter. Fortunately she has seen most of the director’s better films like Halloween, The Thing… Read More

  • Die Hard 2: Die Harder

    When reviewing A Good Day to Die Hard last week I stated that I had never understood the hate for Die Hard 2 and that it remained my favourite of… Read More

  • Prince of Darkness

    John Carpenter had a fantastic run of form, from his debut Dark Star in 1974, up until They Live in 1988. Just before that sci-fi action classic he made this… Read More

  • The Grey

    Liam Neeson gives one his best performances in recent years as a toughened, grizzled hunter working in Alaska as a security guard for a team of roughnecks. When their plane… Read More

  • A Good Day to Die Hard

    Bruce Willis returns as NYC cop John McClane for a fifth time, this time heading to Moscow to team up with his CIA agent son (Jai Courtney) to take on… Read More

  • Zero Dark Thirty

    Jessica Chastain is terrific as the single-minded, obsessive CIA agent who spearheads the decade-long search for Osama Bin Laden in Kathryn Bigelow’s rivetting thriller. From the secret torture camps to… Read More

  • Warm Bodies

    Hugely entertaining adaptation of Isaac Marion’s novel about a lovestruck zombie called R (Nicholas Hoult) who falls for Julie (Teresa Palmer), a beautiful girl, whose father is leading the human… Read More

  • REVIEW: Warm Bodies

    Writer-director Jonathan Levine (50/50, The Wackness) does a pretty excellent job of adapting Isaac Marion’s novel, Warm Bodies, for the big screen. Nicholas Hoult (best remembered as the young lad… Read More

  • Flight

    Denzel Washington is great playing a commercial pilot who’s got what it takes to fly a broken plane upside down, but can’t keep his drink and drug habit under control.… Read More

  • REVIEW: Flight

    Robert Zemeckis, the Oscar-winning director of Forrest Gump and Back To The Future, returns to live action for the first time in more than a decade, directing his first R… Read More

  • Once Upon a Time in the West

    After completing his “Dollars Trilogy”, Sergio Leone was done with the Western, until Paramount offered him a huge budget and the opportunity to work with his favourite actor, Henry Fonda.… Read More

  • A Foreign Affair

    Screening at the Hong Kong Film Archive as part of mini retrospective showcasing the collaborations between Billy Wilder and Marlene Dietrich, I went into this with no other information and… Read More

  • The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

    Sergio Leone’s third and final chapter in his loose “dollars trilogy” with Clint Eastwood is also the first of two back-to-back masterpieces of the genre from the king of the… Read More

  • Seven Psychopaths

    Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh follows up his hugely entertaining debut, In Bruges, by moving to Hollywood and attempting a larger, more ambitiously plotted tale of hit men, dog ‘nappers and… Read More