The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Daydream believer.
Behind the clowning he is best known for, Ben Stiller actually seems like quite a serious chap. It’s easy to forget for example, that he appeared in front of and behind the…
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A life in
the pictures.
Films that stay with you.
Writing that looks a little closer.
Explore the collected reviews of Linda O’Brien.
397 REVIEWS · ONE CRITIC’S PERSPECTIVE
The Sense of an Ending
A novel approach.
Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending has had pride of place on my bookshelf since it won the Man Booker Prize in 2011. Despite being relatively short in length, it is…
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The Shallows
A Lively thriller.
Fame is a fickle mistress. Why only a month ago we couldn't get enough of Tom Hiddleston and now all of a sudden he's become rather too much. Guys like Tom can…
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The Smurfs
Something blue.
The Smurfs: little creatures with a song in their hearts and a smile on their lips. Living close with nature, they are teeny-weeny paragons of anti-consumerism. How strange that the film that…
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The Smurfs 2
Sacre bleu!
In the grand tradition of classics like Sex and the City 2, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and of course Deuce Bigalo: European Gigolo, the second Smurfs film takes the show…
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The Social Network
Nerds do well.
Usually people jump at the chance of a free movie but when I scouted around for somebody to accompany me to the preview showing of The Social Network I found it to…
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The Spirit of ’45
Life after wartime.
Though the Labour government that came to power in the United Kingdom just after World War II pioneered some wonderful, groundbreaking initiatives, what really emerges as startling from Ken Loach’s stirring documentary…
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The Sweeney
Daylight robbery.
On paper, The Sweeney sounds like it could be one of two things. Either a hard hitting police drama about how unlimited power can corrupt those who are supposed to be upholding…
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The Switch
Paging Jeremy Kyle!
The Switch really is a strange mix of high and low culture. Its stars, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are both American sitcom alumni but have very different associations; Aniston as a…
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The Transporter Refuelled
Moving in reverse.
This reboot of the Transporter series sees Ed Skrein taking on the role of Frank Martin, a former special ops soldier now working as a set of wheels for hire, using his…
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
The honeymoon is over.
Breaking Dawn begins with an ending of sorts. Finally together in the same place and without too much mortal danger lurking around the perimeter, Edward and Bella get to tie the knot.…
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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
Breaking Bad.
Call me cynical but I think the decision to break the final Twilight book into two films might have been motivated by box office return rather than artistic necessity. If Joe Wright…
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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
All bark, some bite.
What I say here doesn’t make a blind bit of difference. If you’re a fan of the Twilight series you’ll be at the cinema this weekend with ticket in clammy hand. If…
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The Unbeatables
A game of two halves.
The World Cup may have hung up its boots but for anyone feeling the pangs of withdrawal there’s some footie related animation to be taken in at the local cinema. The Unbeatables…
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The Walk
Walk on the mild side.
If you’ve already seen the excellent 2008 documentary Man On Wire, you may be wondering why Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk even exists. Man On Wire was a magnificently constructed heist movie, using…
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The Wolfpack
Family ties.
Documentary filmmaker Crystal Moselle didn’t have to travel to the farthest reaches of the globe to study a self-contained tribe in their natural habitat; as it turns out, there was one living…
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The Woman in Black: Angel of Death
Back in black.
I saw the stage-play of The Woman in Black at an impressionably young age and the deeply atmospheric staging and that final terrifying ghostly image has stuck with me ever since. When…
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The Woman in the Fifth
A fine mess.
It’s surprising to learn that The Woman in the Fifth is based on a novel because narratively it’s all over the place. It almost feels at times as if three different films…
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