Movie Reviews

Here you can find all the latest movie reviews of films new to the cinema and out on DVD. IndieMoviesOnline publishes movie reviews in time for US and UK release dates and aims to cover most new films. We always love to hear what you think of films you've watched, so please feel free to post mini-movie reviews of your own in the comments section.

Full list of stories

Skyline
On DVD: Skyline

What better way to while away a couple of hours than settling back at home and watching the latest alien invasion flick, Skyline? Angela Burton reckons there are in fact many preferable activities, including repeatedly slamming her hand in a door, sticking pins in her eyes or swearing over and over she won't be sucked in by the shiny lights again.


You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Is life all about self-determination or putting your trust in the vagaries of fate? That's the question at the heart of You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, finally arrived in UK theatres, ten months on from its Cannes debut. Seeking a definitive answer, Paul Martin dons his best gypsy frock, polishes his crystal balls, and plucks numbered runes from a bag to see what the spirits are saying about Woody's latest.


The Lincoln Lawyer.
The Lincoln Lawyer

The Lincoln Lawyer casts Matthew McConaughey as a lawyer who goes from the backseat of a car to the centre of a complex murder case. But can this Lincoln Lawyer review recast Paul Martin from embittered hack with an unhealthy contempt for McConaughey to evangelical fan of the naked bongo-batterer?


Limitless
Limitless

Garnering much praise and attention from his turns in the ensemble-driven The A-Team and The Hangover, Bradley Cooper steps into the bright spotlight of the starring role. Like the title itself, asks Kimberly Gadette, is Cooper's career potential Limitless?


Battle: Los Angeles
Battle: Los Angeles

It's the feeblest excuse for a blockbuster we've seen in some time. Since the plot is as elderly as as a tortoise's grandmother, prepare for spoilers ahead as Emma Rowley discusses why, if you haven't already contributed to its box office takings, you should save your money.


Let Me In
On DVD: Let Me In

Already a fan of John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel Let The Right One In and its Swedish movie adaptation, Angela Burton goes into Let Me In with a furrowed brow but determinedly open mind. Will Matt Reeves' remake find a niche for itself or is this just another pointless re-do of an already brilliant film?


Fair Game, directed by Doug Liman and starring Naomi Watts.
Fair Game

Doug Liman's latest offering is an adaptation of Valerie Plame's memoir, Fair Game, in which she details from her own perspective the scandal that saw her unmasked before the world as a covert CIA operative. Emma Rowley spies on the spies.


Norwegian Wood, directed by Tran Anh Hung, screening in competition at Venice 2010.
Norwegian Wood

Isn't it good, Norwegian Wood? asked John Lennon in 1965. Well John, responds Paul Martin, if you were making a spookily prescient reference to the new movie which shares a title with your acoustic ditty then the answer is yes. Yes it is.


Ironclad, starring James Purefoy, Brian Cox and Paul Giamatti.
Ironclad

Forsooth, motion pictures advise us King John was veritably a rotten regent. And lo! Now the smelly despot has been given actorly voice and presence by much admir'd thespian from the New World, Paul Giamatti. Another, far more lowly, Paul, he of the family name Martin, voyages back into history, to witness some carnage at the castle.


Unknown, starring Liam Neeson.
Unknown

Liam Neeson wakes from a coma into a nightmare, in which his wife claims not to know him, another man has taken his place, and various ne'er do-wells are out to kill him. No stranger himself to feeling off-colour the morning after the night before, Paul Martin catches up with Neeson's latest attempt to prove that oldsters can kick every bit as much hiney as you youngsters, you.


The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, out now on DVD.
On DVD: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra & Someone's Knocking at the Door

A double helping of low-budget lunacy, in the shape of a pair of movies which hark back to two of the more esoteric chapters in American cinema's past. The transgressive spirit of the '70s horror of Craven and Hooper is summoned by the brutal, bizarre Someone's Knocking at the Door, but first Paul Martin gets to grips with The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra's take on '50s drive-in sci-fi.


The Adjustment Bureau
The Adjustment Bureau

Very loosely based on Philip K Dick's short story 'The Adjustment Team', The Adjustment Bureau is a hybrid film, part science fiction adventure, part romantic thriller. But considering its provenance, says Emma Rowley, the real oddity is that it's only the love story that works.


Rango
Rango

It seemed that director Gore Verbinski landed At World's End with his last Pirates of the Caribbean. But, says Kimberly Gadette, Verbinski explores a whole new world viewed through the tiny pupils of a thespian chameleon named Rango.


Tom Hiddlestone and Christopher Baker in Joanna Hogg's Archipelago, screening in competition at the London Film Festival 2010.
Archipelago

John Donne might have reckoned that no man is an island, but director Joanna Hogg fancies the characters in her new film as a wee cluster of 'em. A bored Paul Martin finds himself hoping they all go the way of Atlantis.


Beastly
Beastly

We've already had a plethora of Beauties and Beasties: Cocteau's 1946 La Belle et la Bête, a Philip Glass opera, a TV series and Disney's 1991 animated feature. If we must revisit, says Kimberly Gadette, then this beast had better be a beaut.


Take Me Home Tonight
Take Me Home Tonight

Looking back isn't always pretty. Or necessary. And in the case of this limp 1988 exercise called Take Me Home Tonight, Kimberly Gadette wouldn't be surprised if '80s rocker Eddie Money called ... wanting his song title back.


The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins.
The Rite

With demonic takeovers on the rise on Rome, it is up to Anthony Hopkins to teach a young priest the tricks of the exorcism trade. Paul Martin crosses himself with holy water and brushes up on his William Friedkin movies in preparation for a Satanic showdown.


Sudden Fury
On DVD: Sudden Fury

No one is going to argue that a film with gratuitous violence as its primary selling point should have Oscar-winning acting or screenwriting. But can 100 minutes of eye gauging and shoot-outs really make up for a non-existent plot? Cara Frost-Sharratt thinks not.


When We Leave
At Portland International Film Festival: When We Leave (Die Fremde)

Austrian actress/writer/director Feo Aladag makes her feature debut with When We Leave, entwining her fictional plotline with an account of the very real crime of honor killing. And with 5,000 reported crimes per year, says Kimberly Gadette, this is a story worth telling.


Hall Pass
Hall Pass

The Farrelly Brothers explore two couples who take a seven-day vacation, a Hall Pass as it were, from monogamous marriage. Given the film's substandard merits, says Kimberly Gadette, how about another hall pass ... from this idiocy altogether?


I Am Number Four
I Am Number Four

Already labelled as Twilight with aliens and adapted from a blockbuster-factory novel, I Am Number Four is primed to be loved by teenage girls. But, wonders Angela Burton, do we need to encourage more brooding teenagers – either on or off-screen?


Glenn Gould
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould

A documentary about the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould demonstrates the pull of the figure of the otherworldly genius in Western culture, says Garan Holcombe.


How I Ended This Summer
At Portland International Film Festival: How I Ended This Summer

It's a two-character psychological thriller that seems all the more spare against the Arctic Circle's vast terrain. Even amidst hungry polar bears and a harsh landscape, says Kimberly Gadette, it's man who poses the deadliest threat.


Primal, directed by Josh Reed and out on UK DVD from 28 February.
On DVD: Primal & The Hunter

Here’s an odd couple pitch for you – put an Australian horror movie together with a slow-burning Iranian drama, and what do you get? Why, none other than a two-pronged DVD review, replies Paul Martin, as he spends some time with The Hunter, but first revisits FrightFest alumnus Primal.


Drive Angry 3D, starring Amber Heard and Nicolas Cage.
Drive Angry 3D

Defying the Dark Lord of the Underworld, breaking out from the fiery pits of Hell, an accursed presence returns to Earth to wreak terrible havoc. But that's plenty about Nicolas Cage's toupee. Paul Martin is more interested in the brand new movie starring Admiral Whackjob himself – Drive Angry 3D!


I Am
I Am

Comic maestro Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty) plays it straight with a documentary that looks at how we've lost our way. His newfound compass, says Kimberly Gadette, points to some fascinating answers.


Paul poster
Paul

After parodying zombie horror and cop buddy dramas with success, can Simon Pegg and Nick Frost do it again with their alien comedy? Or, wonders Angela Burton, will the absence of their usual director/collaborator, Edgar Wright, be too obvious to ignore?


Gnomeo and Juliet poster
Gnomeo and Juliet

Imagine William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet rewritten as a comedy and performed by garden gnomes. Although in his original play, Juliet asks her lover “What's in a name?” Angela Burton still feels that Gnomeo, Gnomeo, wherefore art thou, Gnomeo? just doesn’t have the same ring to it.


Brighton Rock poster
Brighton Rock

Rowan Joffe’s decision to remake a classic of British film noir for his first feature as director suggests that he isn’t the type to be bothered by accusations of a lack of imagination, says Garan Holcombe.


Police, Adjective, out on UK DVD now.
On DVD: Police, Adjective

Police, Adjective wilfully refuses the conventions of the mainstream cop drama. And is all the better for that, says Garan Holcombe.