It’s easy to roll your eyes at the endless fairy-tale “re-imaginings” Hollywood thrust upon us each year, but not even the credited authors of many of them, the Brothers Grimm, could claim them as original works. No, stories of lore are but a never-ending game of Chinese whispers, passed down through time from one raconteur to another, each adding their own personal flair to the fable. In Mirror Mirror, the [...]

Twenty-four teenagers enter an arena. Only one comes out. And millions of people watch, enraptured.

The similarities between the fans of The Hunger Games and the fans within The Hunger Games are obvious; the fact that director Gary Ross and his co-writers completely fail to examine this similarity is one of many niggling problems with their otherwise satisfying adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ sensationally popular young-adult novels.  Compared in equal measure to [...]

The Raid – inexplicably subtitled “Redemption” in some Western territories – opens on a watch and weapon. With one shot, director Gareth Evans has told you everything you need to know about the next 101 minutes. Unburdened by the convoluted narratives and romantic B-plots of so many Hollywood blockbusters, this brutal Indonesian martial arts picture is interested in one thing, and one thing only: bone-breaking, neck-snapping, jaw-shattering action. Despite some [...]

Once is a coincidence, twice is an anomaly. Seventeen times is definitely a trend. A troubling tale of teenage naivety, 17 Girls [17 filles] takes its premise from a real life occurrence in a Massachusetts high-school in 2008, where seventeen students conspired amongst themselves to become pregnant. In this fictional French retelling, the trouble begins with queen-bee Camille (Louise Grinberg) reveals that she is up the duff. Seeking the support [...]

A website begins with a name, and back in 2008, that name was Cut Print Review. Why? I have no idea, but I think it had something to do with how a director yells “Cut! Print!” after a good take. Slap on the word “Review”, since that’s my contribution to the process, and voilà! You have this very corner of the internet.

Honestly though, it’s a pretty terrible name for a website; [...]

There are few filmmakers working in the action genre today who demonstrate the same wicked virtuosity as the double act that is Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Credited professionally as Neveldine/Taylor (an unconventional label that suits their unconventional style), the duo behind Gamer and the Crank movies are known for their hands-on approach to filmmaking that has seen them dangled off cliffs and dragged behind motorcycles on rollerblades, all in [...]