Reviews by David Graham

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  The Seasoning House (2011)

  Review preview for The Seasoning House

  One of the grimmest 'horror' films of the year.

  Girls kidnapped by soldiers in war-torn zones are prostituted to the military.
• 
  The Possession (2012)

  Review preview for The Possession

  This represents a new nadir for an increasingly nose-diving genre.

  An antique box unleashes doom on a young girl.
• 
  I Am Bruce Lee (2012)

  Review preview for I Am Bruce Lee

  Behind the chop-socky onscreen madness there is a bigger story that will probably only be familiar to his most devoted fans.

  The stoy of screen legend Bruce Lee and the people he inspired.
• 
  Searching For Sugar Man (2012)

  Review preview for Searching For Sugar Man

  A delightful experience for musos and the uninitiated alike, Searching For Sugar Man deserves to reach as wide an audience as its underdog hero eventually did himself.

  The true story of a brilliant yet forgotten musician and the revolutionaries he inspired on another continent.
• 
  Ted (2012)

  Review preview for Ted

  In spite of its potty-mouthed shock tactics, Ted is enjoyable fluff, nothing more, nothing less.

  A man's friendship with his childhood toy, brought to life by a wish, comes under strain when his girlfriends gets jealous of their bond.
• 
  Sexual Chronicles Of A French Family (2012)

  Review preview for Sexual Chronicles Of A French Family

  The film will resonate with some because of the believable sense of frustration and helplessness that the narrating Romain conveys.

  Three generations of a French family and their sex lives.
• 
  Magic Mike (2012)

  Review preview for Magic Mike

  Frank, funny and immensely entertaining, Magic Mike is a brilliantly bittersweet cautionary fable.

  A peek inside the world of male strippers.
• 
  The Hunter (2011)

  Review preview for The Hunter

  While the script wraps up its ambiguities a little too neatly in the end, the themes it wrestles with are sensitively handled for the most part and resonate long after the credits have rolled.

  A biotech company hires a hunter to track down the last Tasmanian tiger.
• 
  Isn't Anyone Alive? (2011)

  Review preview for Isn't Anyone Alive?

  A conflicting and frustrating experience, enlivened by enthusiastic performances and some delightfully deadpan moments of tragic hilarity.

  Multiple unexplained deaths inspire absurd comedy.
• 
  Forever Loved (2011)

  Review preview for Forever Loved

  Forever Loved is at its best when it avoids embellishment.

  An examination of the stories of Filipino migrants around the world, and one man's journey to find his missing emigrant wife.
• 
  One.Two.One (2011)

  Review preview for One.Two.One

  A tight script and convincing performances.

  Through a series of episodes, set in locations ranging from a skin-treatment clinic to a fortune-teller’s salon to a prison visiting room, a narrative of love, loss and renewal unfolds, centering on a beautiful woman who has been disfigured in an accident.
• 
  The 99 Unbound (2011)

  Review preview for The 99 Unbound

  The 99 Unbound might just about cut the mustard after school on CBeebies but its low budget and rudimentary design are cinematically embarrassing.

  An animated adaptation of Naif Al-Mutawa's comic strip 'The 99', this is an action packed adventure story, full of intrigue, conflict and diversity.
• 
  Of Skies and Earth (2011)

  Review preview for Of Skies and Earth

  The use of humor becomes poignant given how impoverished these kids are, their indomitable spirit shining through even when the world deals them a bum hand.

  Life is tough for a gang of Filipino street children.
• 
  Storage 24 (2012)

  Review preview for Storage 24

  There's no avoiding the storyline's silly nature, but by the end you'll realise the film-makers wouldn't want you to; their literally explosive climax is a glorious throwback to the absurdity of their Eighties inspirations.

  A group of friends are trapped in a storage bay with a ravenous alien enemy.
• 
  First Position (2011)

  Review preview for First Position

  An immensely involving and engaging experience.

  A documentary following a group of kids through tough ballet training.
• 
  Chernobyl Diaries (2012)

  Review preview for Chernobyl Diaries

  An efficient if inauspicious directorial debut with a horror thriller enlivened by spectacularly oppressive location work but hampered by faddish cliches tailored towards its tech-savvy teen target audience.

  Young holidaymakers get more than they bargain for when they hire an "extreme" tour guide who takes them to the abandoned town where the Chernobyl nuclear reactor employees used to live.
• 
  Attractive Illusion (2012)

  Review preview for Attractive Illusion

  The characters are vivid and full of life in a way that a traditional script might not convey.

  In search of a better life, a boatful of Nigerians wash up on the shores of Greece and head for Athens. There they embark on a precarious new life.
• 
  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

  Review preview for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

  A good example of the contents of tins doing exactly what they say.

  The president has a stake in a deadly game.
• 
  Mondomanila, Or: How I Fixed My Hair After A Rather Long Journey (2010)

  Review preview for Mondomanila, Or: How I Fixed My Hair After A Rather Long Journey

  Khavn always remembers to lace his anarchic jamboree with socio-political concern as well as a vibrant affection for his subjects.

  A gang of friends get in and out of trouble in Manila's vibrant and bizarre slums.
• 
  Cosmopolis (2012)

  Review preview for Cosmopolis

  While Pattinson is to be commended for taking on such an un-commercial vehicle - to which he definitely does no disservice - it all seems a bit too calculated, more posturing than penetrating.

  Chance encounters threaten to tear a billionaire's life apart as he travels across Manhattan.
• 
  The Pact (2012)

  Review preview for The Pact

  McCarthy has crafted a dependable chiller that doesn't break any new ground but does get under your skin if you'll forgive its faults.

  A visit to a half remembered childhood home reveals a terrifying secret.
• 
  Prometheus (2012)

  Review preview for Prometheus

  Beneath all the bluster, Prometheus is all too eager to descend into B-movie madness.

  Exploration to the dark reaches of space, to discover the origins of mankind. It doesn't go well.
• 
  Men In Black III (2012)

  Review preview for Men In Black III

  Whether the stars will align for the rejuvenated franchise is unclear, but for now there's a surprising amount of extraterrestrial fun to be had here.

  Time travelling shenanigans with our alien scum protectors
• 
  The Dictator (2012)

  Review preview for The Dictator

  Like the best comedy, it's both wilfully stupid and deceptively clever, pushing buttons you may not expect.

  A Middle Eastern dictator is summoned before the UN Security Council in relation to concerns about his nuclear weapons programme.
• 
  Piranha 3DD (2012)

  Review preview for Piranha 3DD

  Piranha 3DD is a floating turd of a film that deserves to sink without trace.

  A school of bloodthirsty piranha attack a water park.
• 
  Lockout (2012)

  Review preview for Lockout

  An occasionally agreeable whiff of fromage isn't enough to excuse such amateurish film-making.

  A wrongly convicted man is offered his freedom if he can rescue the president's daughter from space prison rioters.
• 
  Wrath Of The Titans (2012)

  Review preview for Wrath Of The Titans

  Worthington is as nebulous a charisma void as ever, sucking all the life out of everyone and everything around him, while Liebesman is reasonably capable with action but proves a total hack when it comes to handling anything remotely resembling drama.

  The quest is on to rescue Zeus from the underworld.
• 
  The Roof (1956)

  Review preview for The Roof

  The film stands as a fascinating time capsule, the ridiculous nature of the period's housing policy imbuing the second half with a gnawing tension that keeps the viewer thoroughly gripped to the very end.

  A newly-wed couple attempt to build themselves a home overnight.
• 
  The Raven (2012)

  Review preview for The Raven

  Camp when it could be creepy, silly where it should be scary, V For Vendetta director James McTeigue's latest offering is fitfully entertaining but tragically turgid and formulaic for the most part.

  Gothic author Edgar Allan Poe becomes implicated in a series of murders that use his stories as inspiration.
• 
  The Devil Inside (2012)

  Review preview for The Devil Inside

  As hackneyed as the plot may be, the film remains engaging if not exactly riveting throughout.

  A woman goes in search of the truth about her mother, who allegedly killed three people during an exorcism 20 years ago.
• 
  Contraband (2012)

  Review preview for Contraband

  What should simply be a diverting no-brainer is made considerably harder to swallow by the script's shallow handling of some unsavoury subject matter.

  Action thriller about a reluctant smuggler.
• 
  The Day (2011)

  Review preview for The Day

  Aarniokoski shows real flair for staging visceral, splattery action.

  Survivors travelling through a post-Apocalypse world take refuge in a remote farmhouse and face a showdown with mutant cannibals.
• 
  Cassadaga (2011)

  Review preview for Cassadaga

  It's refreshing to see a young woman in a horror movie with various potential weaknesses who still emerges as a strong, upbeat individual.

  A deaf art teacher struggling with bereavement seeks refuge in a spiritualist community only to encounter a ghost bent on vengeance.
• 
  Evidence (2011)

  Review preview for Evidence

  Throughout it all, the requisite nausea-inducing camerawork and ear-piercing shrieking will have you wishing this was one found footage flick that had stayed lost.

  A found-footage film about a group of young people making documentary in the Los Angeles canyons and encountering something primitive and terrible.
• 
  Wang's Arrival (2011)

  Review preview for Wang's Arrival

  The film displays a healthy awareness of its own absurdity, never sensationalising or exploiting the situation it portrays.

  A bored subtitler is unexpectedly asked to translate the interrogation of a Chinese-speaking visitor from another world, with dramatic consequences.
• 
  Frankenhooker (1990)

  Review preview for Frankenhooker

  It's all so lovingly trashy that it's impossible not to go along with the anything-goes vibe.

  After his girlfriend is decapitated, a former medical student aims to build her a new body from pieces of streetwalkers.
• 
  Big Miracle (2012)

  Review preview for Big Miracle

  Big Miracle isn't going to win any awards for originality or become anyone over 12's favorite film, but it serves its purpose sincerely and does what it does extremely well.

  A group of volunteers race to save three whales trapped by ice.
• 
  Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance In 3D (2011)

  Review preview for Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance In 3D

  Cage here continues the recent return to his legendary loony best.

  Johnny Blaze returns as the Ghost Rider, who must stop the devil taking human form on earth.
• 
  The Cat O' Nine Tails (1971)

  Review preview for The Cat O' Nine Tails

  Never quite stands out or comes together the way some of the director's best work does.

  A newspaper reporter and a blind puzzle expert team up to try and solve a string of murders.
• 
  Chronicle (2012)

  Review preview for Chronicle

  Manages to impress through nifty direction on a relatively low budget, slow-burning performances from promising newcomers and a thoughtful, perceptive script.

  Gaining superpowers exposes three friends to dangerous temptations.
• 
  Villain (2010)

  Review preview for Villain

  Satoshi Tsumabuki gives a suitably oblique central performance but the script's machinations sadly work against his character's credibility.

  A man's life becomes increasingly complicated and dagerous after he murders a young woman.
• 
  The Grey (2012)

  Review preview for The Grey

  The Grey is essentially a Boy's Own film for adults, but its air of genuine menace transcends the sort of schtick that often sinks the genre

  Following a plane crash in the remote Arctic, the survivors must face off against a pack of wolves.
• 
  Deadly Blessing (1981)

  Review preview for Deadly Blessing

  For all its flaws though, old-school horror fans should get a kick out of Craven's employment of classic slasher tropes in an unusual setting, not to mention a genuinely spooky James Horner score.

  A woman finds herself a victim of superstition after her husband dies in an accident.
• 
  Hugo (2011)

  Review preview for Hugo

  referential re-enactments of everything from Harold Lloyd to Fritz Lang will massage the ego of the informed but like most modern remakes, these scenes lack the heart and soul of their inspirations, and aren't imaginative or exciting enough out of context

  Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
• 
  50/50 (2011)

  Review preview for 50/50

  Like several genre-splicing and convention-lampooning comedies of late, the film tries to have its cake and eat it, but this can leave both sides of the recipe feeling half-baked.

  An original story of friendship, love and survival - and finding humour in the most unlikely places.
• 
  The Thing (2011)

  Review preview for The Thing

  Van Heijningen Jr tragically fails to exploit our fear of the unknown and the potential tension of the paranoia-stoking premise.

  At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson.
• 
  The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011)

  Review preview for The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)

  Six's meta-sequel seems calibrated to make those torture porn devotees let Sadly, neither Six's ideas or execution are enough to make the climactic orgy of suffering anything other than boring and unbelievable.

  Inspired by the fictional Dr. Heiter, disturbed loner Martin dreams of creating a 12-person centipede and sets out to realize his sick fantasy.
• 
  Snowtown (2011)

  Review preview for Snowtown

  Astonishing acting is key to the film's ferocious power, with Daniel Henshall electrifying as the magnetic madman dealing death.

  A vulnerable boy is drawn into the crimes of a charismatic serial killer. Based on a true story.
• 
  Immortals (2011)

  Review preview for Immortals

  Immortals could and should have been so much more.

  Theseus is a mortal man chosen by Zeus to lead the fight against the ruthless King Hyperion, who is on a rampage across Greece to obtain a weapon that can destroy humanity.
• 
  Anonymous (2011)

  Review preview for Anonymous

  If Emmerich doesn't quite hit all his targets dead-on, he should at least be commended for trying to take his career and chosen genre down a less obvious route while remaining crowd-pleasing.

  A star-studded British cast graces Roland Emmerich's exploration of the contested authorship of Shakespeare's works.