Film review archive

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• Lone Wolf And Cub Box Set (2017)

  Review preview for Lone Wolf And Cub Box Set

  With revenge in his heart and an increasing disregard for the morality of the society from which he has been ejected, he's a troubled and troubling hero, but Wakayama is skillful enough to make us bond with him regardless.

  After the rest of his family is killed, a former Shogunate executioner takes his baby son on the road with him and they make a living as assassins while awaiting an opportunity for revenge.
• Lone Wolf And Cub: Sword Of Vengeance (1972)

  Review preview for Lone Wolf And Cub: Sword Of Vengeance

  Misumi employs a vibrant colour palette, making particularly striking use of red, from silk robes to gushing blood.

  A ronin wanders the Japanese countryside with his child, having adventures.
• Lone Wolf And Cub: White Heaven In Hell (1974)

  Review preview for Lone Wolf And Cub: White Heaven In Hell

  All this culminates, as it rightly should, in the series' most spectacular set piece battle.

  Lord Retsudo musters the last of his resources in an attempt to destroy the father and son team once and for all.
• The Longest Night (2009)

  Review preview for The Longest Night

  Kleinert pushes beyond the structural stuff, creating subtle and shifting dynamics between the characters, and introducing a supernatural threat lurking in the woods.

  Six friends on a camping trip are pursued by a gang of skinheads, but an even greater threat lurks in the woods.
• The Longest Ride (2015)

  Review preview for The Longest Ride

  The script stuns you with its verbal observation of regular dullness

  After an automobile crash, the lives of a young couple intertwine with a much older man, as he reflects back on a past love.
• The Longest Yard (2005)

  Review preview for The Longest Yard

  The lack of any subtlety numbs the audience.

  Remake of the Burt Reynolds prison football drama of the Seventies - with jokes?
• Longford (2006)

  Review preview for Longford

  Excellent acting alone can’t stop the nagging suspicion that things are being grossly simplified.

  Docudrama about penal reform campaigner Lord Longford, with particular reference to Moors murderer Myra Hindley.
• Longing (2006)

  Review preview for Longing

  Longing is an interesting film in that it doesn't concern itself so much with the morality of its protagonist's actions as with their practical consequences. It provides a far more effective demonstration of the destructiveness of those actions.

  A volunteer firefighter who witnesses the aftermath of a car crash finds his life turned upside down by an obscure, destructive longing.
• Longing For The Rain (2013)

  Review preview for Longing For The Rain

  A strangely successful hybrid between erotic ghost story and social commentary, it’s one of this year’s more compelling features.

  A lonely housewife embarks on an intense erotic relationship with a ghost.
• The Long Good Friday (1980)

  Review preview for The Long Good Friday

  Nearly 30 years later and John Mackenzie’s classic is still the yard-stick for any new entry into the genre.

  A London kingpin is attempting to broaden his empire... but soon finds his gang are a target.
• Long Live Freedom (2013)

  Review preview for Long Live Freedom

  Part farce, part political commentary, part soul-searching device.

  After an under-pressure politician disappears, his look-alike brother fills the gap... and starts to win popular support.
• Long Live The Republic (1965)

  Review preview for Long Live The Republic

  The film is shot through with dark humour, and in Oldrich's youthful incomprehension Kachyňa finds a way to critically depict the community's baser instincts without being overtly moralistic.

  The German retreat from a Czech village, and the subsequent arrival of the Russian forces, as seen from the point of view of an imaginative small boy.
• The Long Riders (1980)

  Review preview for The Long Riders

  "We played a rough game, and we lost"

  The origins, exploits and the ultimate fate of the Jesse James gang is told in a sympathetic portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of revenge.
• Long Strange Trip (2017)

  Review preview for Long Strange Trip

  One of the strongest documentaries of the past year.

  A documentary about the 30 year career of The Grateful Dead
• Long Time Dead (2001)

  Review preview for Long Time Dead

  Long Time Dead is doubly disadvantaged. It's British and it's imaginative.

  British supernatural serial killer horror flick, with demonic overtones.
• Long Way North (2015)

  Review preview for Long Way North

  By simplifying the shapes and the colour palette, textures such as fog and steam have a tactile feel, while specific items, such as a treasured pair of earrings, are lent extra weight.

  A young Russian aristocrat embarks on an adventure to find her lost grandad.
• Long Weekend (1978)

  Review preview for Long Weekend

  A creepy one-off.

  Getting back to nature for a sophisticated Sydney couple upsets the animals.
• Long Weekend (2008)

  Review preview for Long Weekend

  Without question an eerie and ambiguous piece.

  Remake of the cult horror that sees nature turn predator.
• Looking For Cheyenne (2005)

  Review preview for Looking For Cheyenne

  An assured sophomore effort.

  A couple split up and stumble through life whilst still in love with each other.
• Looking For Eric (2009)

  Review preview for Looking For Eric

  A warm-hearted film which moves effortlessly between scenes of suffering and side-splitting comedy, Looking For Eric is a real gem.

  A lonely postman, struggling to cope, turns to his hero Eric Cantona for advice, and the footballer magically appears to inspire him.
• The Lookout (2007)

  Review preview for The Lookout

  Certain scenes feel too glib and stagey, as though they’ve been doused with pop video gloss – particularly the snow, which surely had its own assistant, make-up artist and trailer.

  A young man with head trauma gets involved in a heist.
• Look Back In Anger (1989)

  Review preview for Look Back In Anger

  it's the dialogue that really takes centre stage and here this Look Back In Anger really shines.

  TV version of Osborne's play about a working class man who takes out his frustrations on his upper middle-class wife.
• Look Both Ways (2005)

  Review preview for Look Both Ways

  A real treat.

  Award-winning Aussie indie sees urban lives revolving around a tragic incident. Now out to own on DVD.
• The Look Of Silence (2014)

  Review preview for The Look Of Silence

  Oppenheimer boils down the atrocity to the experience of a single family, leaving us to extrapolate back up.

  Consideration of Indonesian genocide.
• Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)

  Review preview for Looney Tunes: Back In Action

  The plot flushes through your head faster than a pint of shandy.

  Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Brendan Fraser are searching for a big blue diamond.
• Loot (1970)

  Review preview for Loot

  Orton's dialogue is wonderfully pithy as always and provides ample entertainment, but seems to box in some of the actors, who do little to reach beyond it.

  Two young men rob a bank and hide the money in the coffin of one's recently deceased mother, but the police are on their trail.
• Lords Of Dogtown (2005)

  Review preview for Lords Of Dogtown

  The narrative pushes along at a reasonable pace... but only really picks up when the boys start becoming famous, which makes and breaks their future careers.

  A group of talented teenagers from California kick start the skateboarding craze.
• Lords Of Salem (2012)

  Review preview for Lords Of Salem

  Lords Of Salem is probably the director's most (ahem) 'mature' work yet - that being said, maybe next time he should give someone else's script a chance.

  Three radio DJ are drawn into danger after listening to a mysterious record.
• Lord Of The Flies (1963)

  Review preview for Lord Of The Flies

  For all that time has changed the way it fits into the world, Lord Of The Flies remains as important today as it was in 1963.

  A group a schoolboys stranded on an island quickly turn to savagery and fiercely hierarchical behaviour in this adaptation of William Golding's classic tale.
• Lord Of War (2005)

  Review preview for Lord Of War

  Original, explosive and dense with social criticism.

  The cynical dark world of an unscrupulous arms dealer.
• Loser (2000)

  Review preview for Loser

  The potential for good times is wasted.

  Country boy goes to college in the Big Apple and is treated like a hick.
• Lost And Beautiful (2015)

  Review preview for Lost And Beautiful

  Lost And Beautiful is filmed on expired 16mm film stock, in keeping with its themes, and the result is a delicate, watery palette which gives it a unique beauty.

  Documentary and fiction blend in a tale of ancient palaces, devoted shepherds and a young calf contemplating his fate.
• Lost And Found (2010)

  Review preview for Lost And Found

  A quiet, gentle film that encourages reflection.

  A series of stories are linked by people visiting the lost and found office in a railway station.
• Lost Angels (2010)

  Review preview for Lost Angels

  Napper paints a picture of a place that which may well be the last destination anyone wants to reach but which also, paradoxically, offers a substantial amount of hope for those who find themselves there.

  The plight of those on Los Angeles' Skid Row.
• Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008)

  Review preview for Lost Boys: The Tribe

  As Edgar Frog Feldman is back to his wise-cracking best.

  Vampire sequel, sees a boy try to hunt down the leader of the pack after his sister falls for a local bloodsucker.
• The Lost City (2005)

  Review preview for The Lost City

  By the half way point I was beginning to take back everything I said re Steven Soderbergh's dull-as-ditchwater Che: Part II - even he manages to drum up more tension than this.

  The Cuban revolution as seen from the perspective of a family in Havana.
• The Lost City Of Z (2016)

  Review preview for The Lost City Of Z

  Hunnam gives a compelling performance as a man railing against the bigotry of his time, and yet simultaneously embodying it as a white explorer in a place already well-known to its inhabitants.

  The story of British explorer Percy Fawcett, whose search for a lost city in the Amazon grew into an obsession.
• Lost Embrace (2004)

  A young Jewish man comes to terms with his identity and copes with the trauma of an absent father, helped and hindered by his eccentric family and friends.
• Lost For Life (2013)

  Review preview for Lost For Life

  Rofé's unfussy style creates a sense of intimacy, allowing the viewer's attention to focus entirely on the speakers.

  A documentary about people who were sentenced to life without parole by the US court system for crimes they committed as teenagers.
• Lost In Beijing (2007)

  Review preview for Lost In Beijing

  Li cements her status as a Chinese director to watch

  Sex and consequences in modern Beijing.
• Lost In France (2016)

  Review preview for Lost In France

  This is like finding old photos in the cupboard, being prompted to remember.

  Story of a tour by musicians on the Chemikal Underground Records label.
• Lost In Space (1998)

  Review preview for Lost In Space

  The effects and the action and the creatures are fine. The script dies out.

  Big screen adaptation of the Sixties sci-fis series about a family sent to colonisation new worlds.
• Lost In Space - Season 1 (1965)

  Review preview for Lost In Space - Season 1

  There is something about this super-kitsch Sixties sci-fi show that you can't help but like.

  A guinea pig family, sent into space for an experiment, lose their way and must try to get back.
• Lost Love (2003)

  Review preview for Lost Love

  Battiato's film is certainly a beautiful, thoughtful piece of cinema. It's also fairly dull.

  The life of a Sicilian boy, from an idyllic childhood, through his early adult years in Milan where he discovers the world of music and writing.
• The Lost Lover (1999)

  Review preview for The Lost Lover

  It has beauty... but what it doesn't have is passion.

  Adultery in Tel Aviv.
• Lost River (2014)

  Review preview for Lost River

  The plot quickly runs out of narrative drive, preferring to deluge the senses with symbolic and surrealistic images.

  A single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town.
• Lost: Series 2 Part 1 (2005)

  Review preview for Lost: Series 2 Part 1

  Where Lost really scores is in its mixture of action and romance.

  Plane crash survivors continue their journey of discovery.
• Lost Solace (2016)

  Review preview for Lost Solace

  Lost Solace deftly skewers the conventions of films which pit unfeeling men against one another, undermining the conventional masculine dynamic and moving the goalposts.

  Spence Cutler is a vicious psychopath who stalks his victims relentlessly without emotion, empathy or guilt. But one fateful encounter in a nightclub with a new designer drug is about to give him a dose of way too much reality.
• The Lost Son (1999)

  Review preview for The Lost Son

  There is not much difference between Chris Menges' new movie and any other drugs-related thriller.

  A private eye uncovers a web of peadophiles when he is called in to help find a man's missing son.
• The Lost Weekend (1945)

  Review preview for The Lost Weekend

  Milland is rarely off screen, and his work here is every bit worth that Academy award.

  The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four day drinking bout.