Reviews by Anton Bitel

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Two Years At Sea (2011)

  Review preview for Two Years At Sea

  If this is a character study, there is little character in it.

  A portrait of Jake, an outsider who lives in the wilderness of his own creation.
• Unleashed (2004)

  Review preview for Unleashed

  There is no subtlety, let alone enigma, to be found in its cartoonish preposterousness.

  A Jet Li martial arts extravaganza, with sensitive side issues and Bob Hoskins in bully mode.
• 
  Untraceable (2008)

  Review preview for Untraceable

  Tries to deal with matters that are far too grave to be dished up as a thrilling genre entertainment (and a derivative, cliché-riddled one to boot).

  A cyber crimes expert hunts a serial killer who posts videos of his murders on the internet.
• 
  Uprise (2008)

  Review preview for Uprise

  Fragmentary, allusive in style, and slipping fluidly from impressionistic flashbacks to scrambled dreams, Uprise is not so much a narrative as a series of suggestions for a number of possible narratives.

  A man meets a pregnant woman in a hospital... but have they met before?
• 
  United 93 (2006)

  Review preview for United 93

  A compelling (if inevitably speculative) version of events.

  A recreation of events surrounding the hijacking of United Airlines flight 93 on the 11th of September, 2001.
• 
  Up (3D) (2009)

  Review preview for Up (3D)

  It is at times meandering and not a little mawkish, but its vivid primary colours conceal a great deal of shaded nuance.

  A grouchy OAP has an action-packed adventure in the rainforest after flying there in his balloon-powered house.
• 
  Urban Explorers (2011)

  Review preview for Urban Explorers

  Edited, directed and shot by Andy Fetscher (Bukarest Fleisch), Urban Explorer offers a cruel lesson in the ugliest aspects of Germany's recent history.

  A warren of tunnels beneath Berlin holds trouble for a group of thrill-seekers.
• 
  Us (2019)

  Review preview for Us

  Us is a deeply subversive film

  A mother and father take their kids to their beach house, expecting to enjoy time with friends, but their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some visitors arrive uninvited.
• 
  Vacancy (2007)

  Review preview for Vacancy

  A solid and unpretentious piece of genre cinema.

  A young couple take a room in a motel only to discover that they've been set up to star in a snuff film.
• 
  Valhalla Rising (2009)

  Review preview for Valhalla Rising

  The difficulty with sustaining intensity for any period of time is that it so easily becomes ridiculous, but there is absolutely nothing in this brutal, at times violent film that will have you laughing.

  Early medieval epic about a mute warrior who escapes his captors with the slave who tends him.
• 
  Vengeance (2009)

  Review preview for Vengeance

  With Vengeance, To gives well-worn tropes of the revenge thriller some mannered tweaks, before ultimately turning them on their head.

  A chef - and former killer - returns to Hong Kong to avenge the deaths of his daughter's family.
• 
  Vengeance Is Mine (1979)

  Review preview for Vengeance Is Mine

  Bold and intense.

  A Japanese serial killer goes on the run.
• 
  Vital (2004)

  Review preview for Vital

  This portrait of loss and fractured memory achieves an aching beauty that is without precedent in the director's previous work.

  A medical student reconstructs his identity after surviving a car crash.
• 
  Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide (2010)

  Review preview for Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide

  A painstakingly curated trailer reel that pays affectionate if sometimes wry tribute to a bygone chapter in the history of genre cinema.

  Collection of trailers to films that fell foul of censorship laws, along with documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape.
• 
  V For Vendetta (2005)

  Review preview for V For Vendetta

  In making V a symbol of vengeance, valiance and victory, V For Vendetta does for a letter of the alphabet what Kill Bill did for the colour yellow.

  In the near future, Britain is a fascist state into which a mysterious, masked terrorist dares to fight fear with flames
• 
  The Wall (2011)

  Review preview for The Wall

  The wall is an undeniable presence, both solidly tangible and, thanks to some stunning sound design, resonantly audible as it redefines and demarcates the Woman's newly cloistered life.

  A woman chronicles her time after becoming separated from the rest of humanity.
• 
  WALL·E (2008)

  Review preview for WALL·E

  A charming pastiche of the whole SF genre.

  A robot - Wall·E, left alone on Earth begins to explore the cosmos with a companion, the sleek and sultry EVE.
• 
  Warrior King (2005)

  Review preview for Warrior King

  The comedy may be hokey, the acting third rate, the characterisation flat and the plotting threadbare, but once the daftly over-the-top action set-pieces get going, your jaw will drop to the floor and stay there.

  Tony Jaa kicks ass for the elephants.
• 
  Wendy And Lucy (2008)

  Review preview for Wendy And Lucy

  This quiet, unfussy film feels more important than a whole host of glossy blockbusters.

  Drama about a young woman's attempts to find her lost dog.
• 
  We Are The Best! (2013)

  Review preview for We Are The Best!

  We Are The Best! is a rebel yell of positivism - with exclamation mark - that brings a fuzzy warmth to all the wintry Stockholm locations.

  Coming of age tale about three teenage girls in Stockholm forming a punk band.
• 
  We Are What We Are (2010)

  Review preview for We Are What We Are

  We Are What We Are deploys some well-defined horror tropes to dramatise much broader humanistic concerns about survival, continuity and love.

  A sinister family face tough times after their "breadwinner" dies.
• 
  What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

  Review preview for What We Do In The Shadows

  In this fish-out-of-water comedy, mundanity is key.

  Vampire mockumentary.
• 
  Whisky (2004)

  Review preview for Whisky

  For all its austerity, Whisky never fails to surprise and intrigue.

  A comedy from Uruguay that tackles the absurdities of solitude and the pretense of a marriage.
• 
  The White Space (2009)

  Review preview for The White Space

  As if the thematic richness and subtlety of The White Space were not enough, it is also directed by Francesca Comencini with style and sensitivity.

  A middle-aged woman copes with unexpected pregnancy and the premature birth of her child.
• 
  Winter Vacation (2010)

  Review preview for Winter Vacation

  Bleak and spare... would be deeply depressing were it not so absurdly funny.

  A deadpan comedy about the last day of the holidays and the first day back at school in Inner Mongolia.
• 
  Wizards (1977)

  Review preview for Wizards

  While having so little money may, paradoxically, have liberated Bakshi from studio interference, this freedom allows him to indulge in ideas that are, metaphorically and otherwise, away with the fairies.

  A post-Apocalyptic Earth is the setting for wizard warfare.
• 
  Wolf Creek (2005)

  Review preview for Wolf Creek

  Australia's finest horror film in years.

  Backpackers go looking for hedonism in the Aussie outback... and find horror.
• 
  Walk The Line (2005)

  Review preview for Walk The Line

  This film, with its slavish obedience to the genre's tropes, risks making Cash seem all too ordinary.

  Johnny Cash biopic that feels the lurve.
• 
  Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit (2005)

  Review preview for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit

  Pure joy from start to finish.

  A vegetable horror comedy for claymation villagers and a dog.
• 
  Watchmen (2009)

  Review preview for Watchmen

  A sprawling epic of our times – and all times.

  An adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel in which self-proclaimed heroes fight for the good of humanity - or for what they interpret as such.
• 
  Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)

  Review preview for Werckmeister Harmonies

  Here cosmos and chaos, action and reaction, hope and despair, love and anger, all bump and grind together in a Satanic tango.

  Cosmos gives way to chaos in Tarr's whale of a tale - 4k reissue.
• 
  Woman Of The Dunes (1964)

  Review preview for Woman Of The Dunes

  A richly evocative masterpiece of domestic claustrophobia, erotic tension and existential crisis.

  Japanese classic explores the bond between a lonely woman and her reluctant guest.
• 
  World Of The Dead: The Zombie Diaries 2 (2011)

  Review preview for World Of The Dead: The Zombie Diaries 2

  Its greatest crime is its utter lack of distinction.

  The military take on the zombie hordes.
• 
  X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

  Review preview for X-Men Origins: Wolverine

  The set-pieces here are spectacular, the dialogue unusually witty, the performances engaging.

  An exploration of the origins of X-men mutant Wolverine.
• 
  Yakuza Weapon (2011)

  Review preview for Yakuza Weapon

  If the film's ambition far outpaces its budget, that only makes it resemble its hero, who is funny precisely for being dumb, hyperviolent, and far too big for his boots.

  Working as a mercenary in South America, Shozo Iwaki cis informed of the death of his gang boss dad... and discovers his No. 1 henchman is involved in a double-cross.
• 
  Yellow (2012)

  Review preview for Yellow

  An astonishing and compelling assemblage of contradictions: it is messy yet controlled; enigmatic and elliptical yet clean and crystal-clear; and it casts a modern eye back on the old school.

  A serial killer makes taunting phone calls.
• 
  Young & Beautiful (2013)

  Review preview for Young & Beautiful

  Keeps holding out a promise of insight into its young protagonist's mentality and makeup, but ends up merely observing her from a cool distance, as if through the binoculars from the opening scene.

  Portrait of a 17-year-old, who sells her body for cash.
• 
  Yah Chayka! (2008)

  Review preview for Yah Chayka!

  It ends up packaging human existence as a photo album of tenuous associations and treacly banalities.

  Poet and musician combine forces in an experimental film comprised of stills and music.
• 
  The Zero Theorem (2013)

  Review preview for The Zero Theorem

  The Zero Theorem is a messy mélange of broad pratfalls, challenged idealism, dark satire, and expansive, indeed cosmic allegory - but it also .cannot escape being seen as a kind of Brazil vers. 2.0.

  A reclusive computer genius, plagued with existential angst, works on a mysterious project aimed at discovering the meaning of life.
• 
  Zombie And The Ghost Train (1991)

  Review preview for Zombie And The Ghost Train

  While it has its share of comic observations and poetic flourishes, it is a relentlessly downbeat tale of alienation, dipsomania and nihilistic ruin.

  Story of a talented bass player on the path to self-destruction.
• 
  The Zombie Diaries (2006)

  Review preview for The Zombie Diaries

  This is horror well and truly updated for the YouTube/reality TV generation.

  Three pieces of 'found' documentary footage detail a zombie outbreak in Britain.
• 
  Zombie Transfusion (2006)

  Review preview for Zombie Transfusion

  Ineptly scripted, amateurishly edited, poorly acted, ugly looking and determinedly adolescent in its focus.

  Three teenagers tackle a zombie outbreak in their town.
• 
  Zombie Undead (2010)

  Review preview for Zombie Undead

  Being low budget and British is no excuse for dire unoriginality.

  A dirty bomb causes a zombie outbreak.
• 
  The Zone (2007)

  Review preview for The Zone

  At once a noirish thriller, a social drama, a morality tale, a coming-of-age story and a compelling allegory of 'fortress' USA.

  Residents of an affluent Mexican city enclave seek vigilante justice.
• 
  Zoo (2007)

  Review preview for Zoo

  Zoo ought to present insurmountable problems to any artist working in a visual medium – but Devor turns every obstacle into a virtue.

  Documentary triggered by a man's death by bestiality.