FILM-KNIGHTS

WE'VE MOVED!!

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 11:24:07 -0400

Update your filofax. We’ve moved to Wordpress. Please up date your feeds etc… to make sure you stay up to date.

Goodbye tumblr, it’s been great.

FILM 17

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 05:57:00 -0400

MILLER’S CROSSING - REVIEW 01

I don’t know, I think I may have gone into this with the completely wrong mindset and maybe wanting White Russian’s, cattle guns or a even a young Nicolas Cage, which granted, I was never going to get. It may have 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But this film failed at the box office back in the 90s, bringing in less than half of its original budget and failed for me some 20 years later.

Cross with caution.

RATING - 1/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

FILM 17 - MILLER’S CROSSING was directed by those siblings...

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 14:50:19 -0400

FILM 17 - MILLER’S CROSSING was directed by those siblings Joel and Ethan Coen. The Coen brothers also directed The Big Lebowski, which featured a White Russian drinking, dressing gown wearing character called ‘The Dude’ who would often hit up the bowling alley to knock down a pin or ten. Ten Pin Bowling is the back bone behind the 90s slapstick comedy Kingpin which starred Lin Shaye (the mum from Detroit Rock City) as a rather dirty landlady. This leads us nicely onto our next film, as Lin Shaye pops up in FILM 18 which is INSIDIOUS.

FILM 16 - DRIVE ANGRY 3D stars Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage teamed...

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 14:25:00 -0400

FILM 16 - DRIVE ANGRY 3D stars Nicolas Cage. Nicolas Cage teamed up with the famous Directing duo the Coen brothers in their road movie RAISING ARIZONA back in 1987. So we thought it be fitting that we pick a Coen brothers creation for our next film. FILM 17 is MILLER’S CROSSING, Joel and Ethan Coen’s interesting look into feuding gangsters in the Prohibition era. Reviews and doodles on the way soon.

FILM 16

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:56:03 -0400

DRIVE ANGRY 3D - REVIEW 01

This is one of the best 3D films I have ever seen. Granted I have only actually seen probably 2 others, this to me is what 3D cinema was made for. Grab a bunch of mates, a load of beer, head over the the biggest 3D cinema screen showing this gem and you will not come out disappointed. Why would you, when you have a 3D Nicholas Cage swigging from a bottle of whiskey and killing a bunch of henchmen all whilst having sex with a naked cocktail waitress!! Oh and the coin, the 3D coin is amazing!

RATING - 4/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

So we have been a bit slack on the blogging side of things, but...

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 10:32:00 -0400

So we have been a bit slack on the blogging side of things, but we have been watching a few films of late. From BLACK SWAN with an Oscar winning performance from Natalie Portman, who is apparently know for crying (CLICK IT!). We turn to the one and only Nicholas Cage, who is most definitely know for losing it (CLICK IT!) and his latest gem DRIVE ANGRY 3D is FILM 16.

FILM 14

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:06:00 -0500

DIE HARD - REVIEW 02

Fair play to John McClane: he made it out, albeit with a satisfyingly high body count. But why oh why didn’t he take any of the dead guys’ shoes? Excruciating fun.

BEN JENKINS

FILM 13

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:04:00 -0500

GREMLINS - REVIEW 02

Given that the gremlins threw possibly the best Christmas party I’ve ever seen, I don’t know if I really want to go with this angle. Anyway here it is: best 5 methods of killing a gremlin:

5: Electrocute it
4: Blow it up
3: Melt it
2: Microwave it
1: Blend it

Moral? Kitchen-based deaths are best.

BEN JENKINS

FILM 14

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:14:00 -0500

DIE HARD - REVIEW 01

There is not much that needs to be said, DIE HARD is a classic bit of action packed cinema. FACT. Seeing it at the cinema after Gremlins was like a cinematic wet dream. YIPPIE KI-AY MOTHERFUCKER!

RATING - 4.5/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

FILM 13

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:27:00 -0500

GREMLINS - REVIEW 01

Fantastically dark, festive fur ball filled fun for all the family. Gremlins is a classic. One which I doubt I will ever get tired of seeing, especially when being shown as part of a double bill with another 80s gem Die Hard; at one of my favourite independent cinemas in town; just 5 days before Christmas.

RATING - 4/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

FILM 15

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:27:00 -0500

BLACK SWAN - REVIEW 02

After managing to avoid the Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar hoo-haa surrounding Black Swan, I must say that Natalie Portman has certainly grown up from the little girl we were introduced to back in Lu Besson’s Leon. Anyway, this sexually covered foot pounding ballet psycho freakout melodrama is worth a peek. For me its time to book tickets to the ballet.

RATING - 4/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

FILM 15

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:23:00 -0500

BLACK SWAN - REVIEW 01

Looking back over Aronofsky’s career I can see a recurring theme, destruction of one’s body in the pursuit of something you love: truth (“Pi”), narcotics (“Requiem for a Dream”), adulation (“The Wrestler”) and perfection (“Black Swan”). The parallels to “The Wrestler” are strongest with the director walking a tight rope between respect and gratuity as he shows both the lowest and noblest of these professions. In “Black Swan” this approach descends further into stereotype, but in a series of recent interviews ballerinas who viewed the film conceded these persisted with reason.

In visual style it was again closest to his last film, with a washed concrete texture to his shots. In isolation I love this aesthetic and it worked wonderfully before. It certainly helped to modernise the image of ballet, giving it a cold industrial functionality. I would perhaps have preferred it if some of the regal mystique remained though.

I can’t say what I want to about the plot with giving the game away, except that it’s fun guessing which of two ways things will turn after some wonderful horror motifs. My personal favourite being the sound of beating wings on the Subway. Things do get much scarier and gory than that though, culminating in one fantastic feathered flourish.

BEN JENKINS

Bruce Willis put his feet through hell in Film 14, as does...

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:32:54 -0500

Bruce Willis put his feet through hell in Film 14, as does Natalie Portman in FILM 15: BLACK SWAN. We just saw it tonight, reviews up tomorrow in time for the national release. We promise!

FILM 12

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 06:03:03 -0500

THE WRONG MAN - REVIEW 02

Not one of my favorite Hitchcock films, but granted I was partly distracted folding and stapling 100 copies of the first FILM KNIGHTS ZINE which will be available to snap up pretty cheaply online very soon. Anyway, based on actual events, THE WRONG MAN is a good stab at a crime noir drama, worth a watch if Santa delivered you an Alfred Hitchcock box set for Christmas.

RATING - 3/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

FILM 11

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 11:41:00 -0500

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP - REVIEW 02

Mockumentary or not, there is no denying that Exit Through the Gift Shop is a fun film; worth a watch whether you like Banksy or not.

RATING - 3.5/5

GORDON ARMSTRONG

The good people at the Prince Charles are doing our work for us...

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:03:56 -0500

The good people at the Prince Charles are doing our work for us by choosing FILM 14 as the second part of a wonderful festive double bill: GREMLINS then DIE HARD. Hope to see you tonight.

FILM 12 was a look at what happens when police don’t...

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:58:22 -0500

FILM 12 was a look at what happens when police don’t follow procedure: innocent men get harrassed and wifes go mad. FILM 13 studies when pet owners do the same. At the Prince Charles tonight FILM KNIGHTS will be watching Steven Speilberg’s GREMLINS: don’t feed them after midnight!

FILM 12

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:54:00 -0500

THE WRONG MAN - REVIEW 01

Unfortunately the FILM KNIGHTS used the time watching this to hurriedly collate and staple Issue 1 of our zine in time for our launch (details on how to get a copy to follow). As such I have to hold my hands up and confess that I did not give this movie the level of scrutiny I would usually hope to.

Two things I’d like to say though: firstly the anguish, frustration and ultimately suspicion you felt at the predicament of the protagonist could only have been maintained with the knowledge that this was based on real events. If it was made up you would have rejected the whole plot as a half hearted piece of Kafkaesque absurdity. In this sense it reminded me of “The Informant”. Here again, truth was in fact stranger than fiction.

The second point is about some of Hitchcock’s more daring pieces of camera work (I’m thinking specifically of the hand placed on a shoulder in the court room). I think these were attempts to draw the audience into the film. To a film historian, something I certainly am not, I’m sure these are interesting moments of note where the possibilities of film craft are explored. To me however they only served to remind me, rather than make me forget, I was watching a film because of their outlandishness.

My illustration is a piece of found art: an article in a copy of the Evening Standard I picked up on the train home from watching FILM 12.

RATING - ?/5

BEN JENKINS

FILM 11

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:34:00 -0500

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP - REVIEW 01

The disdain from Banksy, his entourage and contemporaries for the protagonist’s* flourish was palpable. I suppose I can understand the instinct to reject copy cats, and even sympathise with any view that this was somehow theft. However I would have to reject as hypocritical those who rebelled against the modus operandi of the mainstream art world only to then take an establishment position in the face of a new antithesis.

Banksy portrayed the worldwide movement of street artists as ideologically driven, democratising art by taking it out of the galleries and onto the streets. While this may have been originally the case their piety lapsed when it turned up on white walls surrounded by celebrities and complimentary drinks.

In my view two broad questions can define art’s value: how much people actually like it, and how much they will pay for it. I think those behind this film were trying to pose that they objected to events on the grounds of the first, when in fact they were angry that someone was playing a bloated industry better than them. Was it a case of the emperor’s new clothes? Or did he really capture the imagination of LA? Does it actually matter? Probably not.

*I can’t bring myself to type his name without cringing.

RATING - ?/5

BEN JENKINS

Film 11 dealt with a case of unknown identity while our Film 12...

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:24:00 -0500

Film 11 dealt with a case of unknown identity while our Film 12 will look at mistaken identity. Come back and see what we thought of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man.

Ben Jenkins