“Shutter Island”: trust no one
Boston Harbour Islands, 1954. Music, dreadful and foreboding, starts up like impending doom. A ferry is lashed by slate grey weather, the opening bars of an orchestral hurricane to come. Puking his...
Author: Mark Farnsworth
Senior Film Writer Mark Farnsworth teaches Film in East London and is currently working on two screenplays, The Mysteries and Fair Access. He also writes the Oh/Cult section for Brokenshark.co.uk.
“Green Zone”: Greengrass & Damon do it again
Iraq 2003. The “shock and awe” party is in full effect, tracer fire lights up the night sky and concussion blasts from “smart” bombs shake gilded masonry into the lap of the movie theatre....
The shame about Corey Haim
Driving home from work this evening, I head the news that Corey Haim was dead. I guessed it was a drug overdose, but I didn’t guess how I would feel. Gutted. Stupid, I know, considering I’ve...
Even Paul Bettany can’t save “Legion”
Isn’t it funny, that when it comes to the end of the world, we’ll buy monsters, zombies and aliens as the harbingers of Apocalypse, but we won't give the man (or woman) upstairs the time of day...
“The Lovely Bones”: flawed, but gorgeous
“My name is Salmon, like the fish. First name Susie. I was fourteen years old when I was murdered on December 16th, 1973. I wasn’t gone. I was alive in my own perfect world. But in my heart, I...
James Purefoy shines in “Solomon Kane”
Believe it or not, there is an upside to mourning “The Sopranos.” Like a heroin addict trying to kick the smack, you look for a methadone replacement amongst the countless DVD box sets. At the...
Gerald Johnson’s “Tony”: sympathetic, terrifying, British
Dalston weirdo Tony Benson is the host with the most. Come and relax in his bachelor pad after a hard day mooching, trying to score smack. Been to the local gay trance night at the “Joiner’s...
Mel Gibson on the “Edge of Darkness”
Director Martin Campbell has twice brought the Bond franchise back from the dead with “Goldeneye” and “Casino Royale,” so who better than the man who saved 007 to resurrect Mel Gibson’s...
Andy Serkis is pure “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”
The opening 20 minutes or so of “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” is like being in a fight on a bouncy castle; exhilarating, exhausting and leaving you with a dickie tum. The biopic of...
“44 Inch Chest”: secondhand embarrassment galore
Watching “44 Inch Chest” is like being stuck in a bad karaoke bar with a pissed up divorcee screeching through “Without You” before breaking down into a crumpled heap on stage. Imagine...