Reviews by Scott Macdonald

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  22 Bullets (2010)

  Review preview for 22 Bullets

  Jean Reno is unflappably cool. There's not much more to it.

  Jean Reno stars as a retired gangster out for revenge for a brutal assassination attempt.
• 
  4 (2004)

  Review preview for 4

  It's a far more interesting movie to think about than to watch.

  An enigmatic story of modern Russia, given the flavour of myth.
• 
  About Time (2013)

  Review preview for About Time

  This is complete hand-waving trash - he's an ignorant, privileged cocky arsehole and good things happen to him. Pass the sick bucket.

  A young man who discovers he can travel in time decides to use it to try and get a girlfriend.
• 
  Albert's Speech (2008)

  Review preview for Albert's Speech

  A rather crummy cop-out ending spoils the good-natured laughs

  A look at a best man's plight from the inside out.
• 
  Alien (1979)

  Review preview for Alien

  Scott wrings out every last drop of suspense from the film.

  Ridley Scott's fabulously frightening grimy spaceship classic.
• 
  Aliens (1986)

  Review preview for Aliens

  Blends a premise of high-tech firepower, adventure, excitement, terror and a human story, and makes all the threads gel.

  Ripley is back in another alien-killing spree.
• 
  Alien Vs Predator (2004)

  Review preview for Alien Vs Predator

  Whichever species wins... we lose.

  Alien vs Predator, with man in the middle.
• 
  Almost Famous (2000)

  Review preview for Almost Famous

  An immaculate little prayer for the youth and creators of our time.

  Autobiography of a suburban Californian boy's rites of passage.
• 
  Apocalypto (2006)

  Review preview for Apocalypto

  It has the zing of a sugar-rush from hell.

  A captive, destined for sacrifice, Jaguar Paw is determined to escape and save his wife and child.
• 
  Apollo 13 (1995)

  Review preview for Apollo 13

  Apollo 13 is one of my favourite films, it's one of those films that stirs my sense of discovery, as well as plunder our collective dreams.

  Oscar-winning drama about an ill-fated moon mission.
• 
  Akbulak (2008)

  Review preview for Akbulak

  A pleasant hymn to old-fashioned simple memories

  Eight years after moving from Russia to Germany, 17-year-old Olja spends her summer holidays with her grandmother in a Russian village.
• 
  Alva (2007)

  Review preview for Alva

  Wonderful acting, invisible and empathetic.

  Tragedy strikes a couple expecting their first child. Showing at the EIFF 2007 as part of European Shorts 1.
• 
  Anton Corbijn Inside Out (2012)

  Review preview for Anton Corbijn Inside Out

  Every time the film brings out [...] his photographs, I found myself leaning forward - drinking in their beautiful details.

  Documentary following the work and life of an extraordinary photographer
• 
  Ant & Len (2009)

  Review preview for Ant & Len

  Insubstantial to say the least.

  Short about a vanishing alien.
• 
  Aria (2007)

  Review preview for Aria

  Simple and meditative cinema.

  Road movie about an elderly piano tuner who forms a friendship with an unsettling puppeteer.
• 
  Arsenic (2011)

  Review preview for Arsenic

  Purposefully constructed, and to this point well-made.

  A contemplation of the fallibility of memory, especially as we age.
• 
  Back To The Future Trilogy (2005)

  Review preview for Back To The Future Trilogy

  Each of the films in all their glory.

  Box set release of the time-travel trilogy.
• 
  Baraka (1992)

  Review preview for Baraka

  Exhilirating cinema, simply and purely stated with rich, detailed live action photography.

  A journey of rediscovery across the world.
• 
  Baby (2010)

  Review preview for Baby

  Make no mistake, this is an immensely creepy picture.

  A young woman invites in a stranger who has followed her home.
• 
  Back To The Future (1985)

  Review preview for Back To The Future

  A treat, written and directed to a heartfelt formula of universal appeal.

  A time travel classic of supreme comic invention, involving Marty McFly, a mad scientist and a DeLorean motorcar.
• 
  Batman Begins (2005)

  Review preview for Batman Begins

  The birth of a legend.

  The evolution of mixed up rich kid Bruce Wayne into the Dark Knight of Gotham City.
• 
  The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2004)

  Review preview for The Beat That My Heart Skipped

  Jacques Audiard's film isn't intended as a replacement for Toback's wild-eyed and masterly [Fingers], but rather a deliberately assured take on the same material.

  A young heavy, following in his father's violent footsteps yearns for something more.
• 
  The Black Dog's Progress (2008)

  Review preview for The Black Dog's Progress

  A heartrending animated feature

  Flip books tell the disturbing story of the black dog.
• 
  Blade Runner: The Director's Cut (1982)

  Review preview for Blade Runner: The Director's Cut

  It is among the most unwavering make-believe worlds I have ever seen in cinema... I can only wish the film's story lingered anywhere near as much as it's artistry.

  Rick Deckard is a Blade Runner, an elite cop trained to hunt down and ‘retire’ rogue replicants, android beings designed to be ‘…more human than human’.
• 
  Blank City (2009)

  Review preview for Blank City

  Ultimately, this is your basic talking heads documentary, interspersed with footage that redefines cinematic cool.

  Documentary on the DIY independent film movement that emerged in tandem with punk rock and No Wave in late Seventies downtown New York.
• 
  Blood And Dust (2011)

  Review preview for Blood And Dust

  We see the battlefield medics at work in handheld, single camera setups.

  A short documentary about medical auxiliaries working to save lives on the battlefields of Helmand.
• 
  Beauty And The Beast (1991)

  Review preview for Beauty And The Beast

  The sheer craftsmanship, through script, story, song, and unadulterated uplifting emotion is nearly peerless.

  Modern animated classic based on the famous fable. Will be given a re-release 3D makeover in June 2010.
• 
  Belleville Baby (2013)

  Review preview for Belleville Baby

  A fascinating meta-textual picture.

  The director looks back at her youthful romance in Paris with a small-time criminal.
• 
  A Bittersweet Life (2005)

  Review preview for A Bittersweet Life

  All it does is liberally steal pieces from superior films and cobble them together without realising just why those movies worked.

  A tale of revenge, infidelity and gangland warfare in South Korea.
• 
  Brake (2012)

  Review preview for Brake

  Brake is an undying sequence of storytelling gimmicks.

  A secret service agent wakes up trapped inside a perspex coffin in the boot of a car.
• 
  Bubba Ho-tep (2002)

  Review preview for Bubba Ho-tep

  It's gleefully performed and directed, with enviable zest and energy

  Elvis and JFK survive an undead mummy attack in a Texas retirement home.
• 
  By The Grace Of God (2009)

  Review preview for By The Grace Of God

  This is a tiresome movie, squeezing a 15-minute story into an intolerable 37 minutes.

  A blue-blooded German plots to meet the Queen, leading to a personal crisis.
• 
  California Dreamin' (Endless) (2007)

  Review preview for California Dreamin' (Endless)

  The single greatest problem with California Dreamin', is that it has been released in an unfinished two hour 20 minute assembly - due to the director Cristian Nemescu's untimely death.

  A NATO transport train becomes detained at a rural station.
• 
  Calvet (2011)

  Review preview for Calvet

  An extraordinary achievement - certainly one of the best films of the year.

  The artist discusses his violent and abusive past and his quest for redemption.
• 
  Capturing Space (2008)

  Review preview for Capturing Space

  Capturing Space simply doesn't do what its title suggests.

  A small mood-piece on Kensington's famous landmark - Trellick Tower
• 
  Capturing The Friedmans (2002)

  Review preview for Capturing The Friedmans

  the story remains fascinating and elusive

  A documentary charting the implosion of a family after a child sex scandal.
• 
  Cellular (2004)

  Review preview for Cellular

  The central premise takes a little swallowing, but... Cellular is a lovely modern B-movie, with hi-tech gimmickry.

  Abducted teacher makes contact with outside world through radio waves.
• 
  Champagne (1928)

  Review preview for Champagne

  Neither funny nor particularly dramatic, with a paper thin plot

  The comedic adventures of a rich girl whose father decides to teachher a lesson.
• 
  The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

  Review preview for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

  It is a red-blooded, beautiful and brilliant fantasy film, as quintessentially English as Wallace & Gromit.

  In a magic kingdom beyond the wardrobe four children, with a lion's army, do battle with a white witch.
• 
  Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

  Review preview for Close Encounters Of The Third Kind

  No other director could have pulled this off, such a humane fusion of communication and technology.

  Spielberg's sci-fi extravaganza about first contact with aliens.
• 
  Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)

  Review preview for Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

  It's often imaginative, but the choppy and pedestrian delivery strongly stunts the acidic flavour.

  Extravagant remake of the Roald Dahl story about a boy who wins a Golden Ticket visit to an eccentric millionaire's sweet factory.
• 
  Charlie Casanova (2010)

  Review preview for Charlie Casanova

  The film is aptly photographed, with dingy lighting and somewhat inventive setups.

  A ruling class sociopath kills a working class girl in a hit-and-run then determines his fate with a deck of cards.
• 
  Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005)

  Steve Martin's slide into cash-grabbing continues..
• 
  Confessions Of A Shopaholic (2009)

  Review preview for Confessions Of A Shopaholic

  I can hardly remember a movie more spectacularly ill-timed.

  Ditzy farce about fiscally irresponsible journalist.
• 
  Constructors (2012)

  Review preview for Constructors

  The actors sell it.

  Three bickering siblings are forced to work together to build a house quickly so that their family land won't be confiscated.
• 
  Crescendo (2008)

  Review preview for Crescendo

  An amusing little oddity, with well-sketched characters

  An odd musical troupe for a farmer's wife
• 
  Crossing The Bridge: The Sound Of Istanbul (2005)

  Review preview for Crossing The Bridge: The Sound Of Istanbul

  A superb and impassioned documentary.

  The diverse and surprising scope of modern Turkish music sympathetically explored.
• 
  The Crumblegiant (2007)

  Review preview for The Crumblegiant

  Inquisitive and bright children of all ages will surely love the lusciously produced and imaginative animation.

  Half-remembered charcoal dreams from childhood.
• 
  Crying With Laughter (2009)

  Review preview for Crying With Laughter

  Much of the plot reads as a barely tempered collection of cliches, but in the hands of writer/director Justin Molotnikov, and McCole's runaway success, becomes a highly effective character study and a well-constructed psychological thriller.

  Black comedy about a comedian whose past is unearthed.
• 
  Cycle (2012)

  Review preview for Cycle

  It's a film that's full of visual life, amid the arid, hard surroundings.

  After failing to win a sheep washing competition, a young shepherd considers life in the city.