There are two distinct instances in 2012 ‘s retroactive cinema in which the human torso is decorated with symbols intended to pump war’s glaring hypocrisy from heart to toe, but which glare with such clotted, cluttered symbolism that all meaning begotten, coagulates, and dies.

The third of Allen’s London films, Cassandra’s Dream, much like Match Point is a film within which what we know as “Woody Allen” is completely absent. It is the third London film, and the third consecutive film that deals with a murder plot. This calls into question Allen’s interest in the city as a character, and while Match Point and [...]

Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) a WWII veteran turned drifting vagrant, wakes up on the ocean-liner of Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a writer and self-proclaimed doctor/nuclear physicist/philosopher. The two men, enchanted by each other, form a bond that poses a threat to Dodd’s spiritual organisation “the cause” which has accepted the troubled Freddie as its newest member.

Hail is the first feature effort from Amiel Courtin-Wilson who has gained international recognition for his documentaries Chasing Buddha, Bastardy and his short film Cicada, which introduced us to the dark and enigmatic force that is Daniel P. Jones.

Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch) have it made. Growing/selling large quantities of marijuana, they are supervised by a corrupt FBI agent (John Travolta), sharing a blonde-bombshell girlfriend and living in a beachfront home in Torrance, California.

Two brothers are separated when their parents divorce. Koichi lives with his mother and grandparents in Kagoshima where its active volcano rains ash every day. Younger sibling Ryunosuke lives with dad in Fukuoka in a house his father shares with other struggling musicians.

Taken 2 was bound to suffer in the shadow of Taken as so many cinematic abortions had heeded the success of the 2010 action odyssey, with an unashamed resemblance. These films will be omitted from this discussion in the interests of good taste. For some reason (MONEY!) Luc Besson felt it necessary to produce an authentic (it has the word “taken” [...]

Ex-con Ray Winkler (Woody Allen) convinces his wife, Frenchie (Tracy Ullman), to front a cookie store so that he and his friends can tunnel into and rob an adjacent bank. The store becomes a wildly successful business, and while the robbery attempt fails, the cookie empire – to their surprise – makes them millionaires.

A devastating tsunami – filled with sharks – hits coastal Queensland just as an escalating armed-robbery is taking place at a beachfront supermarket. The water hits, drowning, maiming and trapping the surviving shoppers and staff in two separate fish tanks.

Director Cate Shortland won much appreciation for her superb first feature Somersault. Finally, her long-awaited follow-up, Lore, is a German-language Australian co-production, adapted by Shortland and Robin Mukhurjee from Rachel Seiffert’s British novel The Dark Room.