The latest iteration of WWE’s flagship arcade brawler/professional wrestling simulator – the renamed and rebooted WWE 2K14 – sees players able to step back in time and relive thirty years of the greatest and most famous moments in Wrestlemania history. It’s not the only aspect of the franchise that seems to have stepped back in time – but this particular act of recedivism by new publishers 2K Sports may be the most welcome feature of all. I have fond but distant memories of my brother and I tak

The spectacular, supercharged and oily-black opening sequence to David Fincher’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo kicks in, the strains of Immigrant Song given an industrial hard-edge by soundtrack composer Trent Reznor, collocated by Katie O’s ethereal screaming vocals.

More infomercial than informative, The Unbelievers – from first-time director Gus Holwerda – is a self-proclaimed ‘rockumentary’ following atheism’s enfants terribles Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss on tour, taking in lectures, rallies and festivals around the globe; too sycophantic to be of any serious use, the decidedly partisan tact taken by the film-makers nonetheless provides a forceful if blatant rendition of atheism’s greatest hits, which ultimately flatters to deceive. The opening fe

With a hugely dedicated fan base for the decades-old creative construction toys and a slew of recent successes in videogames, retail outlets – even its own theme park(s) – the future looks increasingly bright for LEGO, the Danish toy manufacturer, back from the brink of bankruptcy in the early 2000s and enjoying a renaissance in the worldwide cultural zeitgeist. The myriad of movies bearing the mark of the multiversal brand have never threatened to breach the mainstream, that is, until now… The

Room 237 presents a satisfyingly rousing look at the themes and hidden meanings of seminal horror flick The Shining, weaving film theory with a blood-pumpingly ethereal electronic score (not dissimilar to Drive and just as cool) and idiosyncratically retro visuals. Seemingly underlined by an obsessive want to look deeper into the spiritual sanctums of the late Stanley Kubrick’s cabalistic masterpiece, Room 237 is an interesting splice of subjective film theory and intoxicatingly hybrid delivery…

A dour and dispiriting deconstruction of American matriarchy, August: Osage County charts a few days in the lives of a dilapidated and dysfunctional family, struggling to reconcile the past and the present in the Oklahoma heat and reeling from recent tragedy. The scribe behind two of William Friedkin’s most recent films – Bug (2006) and the devilishly jet-black crime thriller Killer Joe, Tracy Letts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his original play August: Osage County, itself named a

Martin Scorsese’s latest tower of power The Wolf of Wall Street recently opened in cinemas in the UK and is still going strong at the box office; based on Jordan Belfort’s memoirs of the same name, TWoWS chronicles the rise and fall of infamous Wall Street investment-banking firm Stratton Oakmont and its leader, head wanker-banker* himself, Jordan Belfort (Dicaprio). Veering frequently between the ridiculous and the sublime, The Wolf of Wall Street draws a distinctly immoral line underneath the

Michael Haneke’s films have gained both critical acclaim and a certain notoriety; listing Funny Games, The White Ribbon, and Hidden amongst his works, Haneke – it is fair to suggest – does not flinch from his subject nor does he pander to the viewer. In Amour we are pitted against our own attitudes towards death and old age, our assumptions and deepest fears laid out by two remarkably believable characters, framed by Haneke’s bleak, static minimalism. Indeed a lack of score or soundtrack during 

In a Peter Parker-like twist of fate, a snail with dreams of taking the fast-track to stardom via the Indy Car 500 finds himself imbued with superhero speed after a freak accident – we’ve all been there, right? A prefatory comment: I often experience what I may refer to as “Critical Guilt” just before the lights are dimmed in any given auditorium, ready to abide the latest A-list-animation & voiceover spectacular, alongside an audience typically consisting of entranced children, ensconced teena

Known as Cherchez Hortense in the original French, the films’ title does not refer to its protagonist but a minor character introduced later in the film – this particular misdirection is also its most forgivable, yet still characteristic of the flaws found within what is essentially a 100-minute slog around a narrow philosophical cul-de-sac. Starring perennial favourite Kristin Scott Thomas as his long-term partner Iva, the film centres around Damien (Jean-Pierre Bacri), a middle-aged father st

“I believe even the most rational mind can play tricks in the dark…” Very few names in the history of cinema have the same evocative effect as that of Hammer Horror. In the 1950s, Hammer struck gold with a string of major box-office smashes in the horror genre – huge hit films such as the Quatermass Xperiment (1955), The Curse of Frankenstein (1956), Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959) – as the studio made stars (and millions in revenue) out of the likes of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and In

From now til the end of movie history, whenever a boxing movie is made, produced, seen, written, heard of, even suggested: naturally it’s impossible to avoid comparison with the culturally ingrained Rocky franchise, with Sylvester Stallone in the lead – the archetypal kid-dun-good working class hero. That said, there have been plenty of others that went before, and some truly great ones too: Raging Bull (1980), When We Were Kings (1996), Million Dollar Baby (2004), not forgetting Rocky Balboa (