Tag: illusion

Flow
(Straume)
(2024)

Director – Gints Zilbalodis – 2024 – Belgium, France, Latvia – Cert. U – 84m ***** A cat must survive rising water levels as they engulf both the countryside and cities – remarkable, dialogue-free, computer animated feature is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD Like his earlier Away (2019), Zilbalodis’ new CG animated […]

Tags 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, 3D animation, Academy Award, Academy Awards, Academy Awards 2024-25, Academy Awards 2025, animals, animation, birds, capybara, cat, cat sculptures, CG, CG animation, city, computer animation, countryside, creatures, cut off, deer, dive-bomb, dog, drawn animation, drifting, engulf, fish, flood, flood waters, flow, ghost city, Gints Zilbalodis, global warming, house, illusion, Latvia, lemur, LFF, LFF 2024, London Film Festival, London Film Festival 2024, oceans rise, Oscar, Oscar nominations, Oscar winners, Oscar winners 2025, Oscars, Oscars 2024-25, Oscars 2025, pack of dogs, photorealism, plasticine animation, PÖFF, PÖFF 2024, PÖFF 28, racing, rising water levels, river, rodent, row boat, sculpture, submerge, survival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2024, town, water level rises, water rise, whale

Features Live Action Movies

The Old Man
and the Land

Director – Nicholas Parish – 2023 – UK – Cert. 15 – 100m ***** As he works on the land, an aging farmer hears his two adult children argue about the future of the family farm – plays UK cinemas from Friday, September 20th 2024, with previews from Monday, September 16th following its premiere in […]

Tags #GFF24, 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, 27th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival: Critics' Picks Competition, advice, alcoholic, answering machine, answering message, bereaved, British, brothers and sisters, childhood, children, conversation, countryside, Critics' Picks Competition, documentary, Emily Beecham, English, everyday, family, farmer, fields, Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow Film Festival 2024, illusion, image and sound, improvisation, inheritance, land, leave message, left home, London, modern world, modernise, mundane, Nicholas Parish, Nico Mensinga, obscenities, parents and children, phone, phone calls, phone turned off, PÖFF, PÖFF 2023, PÖFF 2023: Critics' Picks Competition, PÖFF 27, PÖFF 27: Critics' Picks Competition, PÖFF: Critics' Picks Competition, pub, radical, radio drama, roots, Rory Kinnear, running a farm, rural, siblings, sins of the fathers, solitary, Spain, take over, Tallinn, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2023, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2023: Critics' Picks Competition, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival: Critics' Picks Competition, tractor, UK, unsentimental, urban, viable business, visit, workaday, working life

Animation Art Features Movies

Kubo
and the Two Strings

Director – Travis Knight – 2016 – US – Cert. PG – 101m ***** The following review originally appeared in Funimation UK; republished to coincide with the LAIKA: Frame x Frame exhibition which shows at BFI Southbank from Monday, 12th August to Tuesday 1st October 2024 (free to visit, but booking essential – click here) […]

Tags 3D animation, action, animation, CG, CG animation, Edo, eyes, fairy tale, fairytale, fantasy, folk tale, illusion, Japan, Laika Studios, monsters, mythology, Noh, origami, puppetry, samurai, skeleton, spirits, stop-frame, stop-frame animation, stop-motion, stop-motion animation, US, village, visuals, warrior

Features Live Action Movies

One Cut Of The Dead
(Kamera
Wo Tomeruna!,
カメラ
を止めるな！)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date June 7 2021
No Comments on One Cut Of The Dead
(Kamera
Wo Tomeruna!,
カメラ
を止めるな！)

Director – Shinichiro Ueda – 2017 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 96m The first 37 minutes *****; the rest ***1/2 A zombie film being shot in one long, single take and set in an abandoned warehouse is attacked by zombies… or is it? – on a Hollywood Edition Blu-ray on Monday, May 31st With […]

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Zu Warriors
From The
Magic Mountain
(Shu Shan
– Xin Shu Shan Jian Ke,
新蜀山劍俠)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date February 8 2021
No Comments on Zu Warriors
From The
Magic Mountain
(Shu Shan
– Xin Shu Shan Jian Ke,
新蜀山劍俠)

Director – Tsui Hark – 1983 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12 – 98m ***** One of the greatest special effects action movies ever made, this groundbreaking epic delivers non-stop, near unbelievable, visually entrancing vistas of Chinese mythology – online in the UK as part of Focus Hong Kong 2021 from Tuesday, February 9th to […]

Animation Features Live Action Movies

The Lord
of the Rings:
The Fellowship
of the Ring
(Extended Edition)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date July 17 2020
No Comments on The Lord
of the Rings:
The Fellowship
of the Ring
(Extended Edition)

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Extended Edition) Director – Peter Jackson – 2002 (2001) – New Zealand – Cert. PG – 229m ***** (NB Extended Edition, in cinemas from Monday, July 24th 2020, 227m in cinemas due to extended frame rate = 218m version released on DVD 2004. Original theatrical […]

Tags 3D animation, action, animation, battle, big screen, CG, CG animation, dwarves, elves, epic, fantasy, hobbits, illusion, magic, monsters, mythology, New Zealand, power, quest, ring, special effects, visuals, war, wizards

Animation Features Live Action Movies

The Lord
of the Rings:
The Return
of the King

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date December 17 2003
No Comments on The Lord
of the Rings:
The Return
of the King

Director – Peter Jackson – 2003 – New Zealand – Cert. 12a – 201m (263m) ***** (NB Extended Edition, in cinemas from Monday, August 10th 2020, 263m in cinemas due to extended frame rate = 252m version released on DVD 2004.) This review of the 201m theatrical version was originally published in Third Way. A […]

Tags 3D animation, animation, army, battle, big screen, CG, CG animation, dragon, epic, fantasy, garden gate, hobbits, illusion, magic, mythology, New Zealand, quest, ring, siege machine, special effects, visuals, war

Features Live Action Movies

One Cut Of The Dead
In Hollywood
(Kamera
Wo Tomeruna!,
supin-ofu:
Hariuddo Daisakusen,
カメラ
を止めるな！
スピンオフ
ハリウッド大作戦)

Director – Yuya Nakaizumi – 2019 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 57m The first 16 minutes **1/2; the rest ***1/2 A zombie film being shot in one long, single take and set in a restaurant in Hollywood is attacked by zombies… or is it? – out as an extra on a One Cut Of […]

Features Live Action Movies Music

Stardust

Director – Gabriel Range – 2020 – UK – Cert. 15 – 109m **** In 1971, an unknown David Bowie tours America to promote his new album The Man Who Sold The World – on VoD from Friday, January 15th The late David Bowie remains one of the most significant and iconic musicians, artists or […]

Tags 1971, 2001: A Space Odyssey, actor, alter-ego, carnival, David Bowie, freak, illusion, impersonator, independent, indie, mental health, mirrors, performance, Stanley Kubrick, UK, US

Animation Features Live Action Movies

The Fabulous
Baron Munchausen
(Baron Prášil)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date July 20 2020
No Comments on The Fabulous
Baron Munchausen
(Baron Prášil)

Director – Karel Zeman – 1961 – Czechoslovakia – Cert. U – 85m ***** Available on Blu-ray/DVD and now on BFI Player too. This capsule review originally appeared in Reform in 2017 as part of a wider Watch And Talk review roundup. Using not only live action but also every form of animation you can […]