by Max Bosshart

Max delves once again into the vault of horror..

2008's The Strangers is a horror movie of the home invasion variety.

James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) and Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) arrive at the Hoyt family vacation home after a wedding reception and an evening that didn't go as planned. Soon a stranger appears at their door at four in the morning, sparking the main story of the movie. The couple become increasingly harassed by three masked assailants, played by Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, and Laura Margolis, who seek to do them harm. The film was Bryan Bertino's debut as write, director, and producer.

by Matthew Howe 

General Erwin Rommel was a dick, working for the evilest world leader in history, but that doesn't mean he was stupid. One of his more famous quotations involved the four qualities any soldier could have. Think of it like an old school Chinese restaurant menu:

COLUMN A: A soldier can be STUPID or SMART.

COLUMN B: A soldier can be LAZY or INDUSTRIOUS.

Every soldier had one attribute from column A and one attribute from column B. 

According to Rommel, most soldiers are stupid and lazy. Which is fine. you tell them what to do, they do it. Your basic cannon fodder.

The ones that are smart but lazy rise to the middle ranks of command but never much further.

The ones who are smart and industrious rise to become commanders, generals and great leaders of men.

by Graeme Stirling 

As the new James Bond novel approaches, we probe the many faces of a disputed, immortal character.

Last year saw the release of the smash-hit Skyfall, the twenty-third film of the James Bond franchise and the third starring actor Daniel Craig. It became not only the second-highest grossing film of 2012, but the highest grossing British film of all time, outstripping the other 22 entries that propelled the likes of Sir Sean Connery to global stardom. So, has the Bond formula finally been perfected? According to those involved, it seems not...

This month, the latest Bond novel, Solo, will be released, penned by multi-award winning English novelist William Boyd. Boyd has enjoyed a long career in the literary world and has recently branched out into espionage fiction with novels such as Restless and Waiting for Sunrise. His and Craig’s interpretation of the character, could not be more different, and audiences seem to be equally divided.

By Robbie Jones

Insidious 2 is scaring the box office. But is it worth watching? 

I really didn’t like Insidious. My lovely friend Anna wanted to see this for her birthday and I hadn’t even seen Part One  so I thought I’d pop it on the day before. Yes, I couldn’t stand it; it was boring, not scary and just very slow. I know I’m alone with that opinion, but it did nothing for me. So you can imagine how much I was dreading this one. But you know what? It was pretty damn good.

If you haven’t watched the first movie, there are spoilers. 

By Robbie Jones

Sequels are a tricky subject, sometimes even controversial. They can either win their fans over like they did before or push them away from ever liking the franchise again. Most superhero franchises have that one sequel that no one really likes (X-Men 3, Batman and Robin, Blade Trinity,) but on the whole, it’s rare to find a sequel better received than its original. You can have your Dark Knights and Godfather 2’s but some films just struggle to retain the charm of the original. And sometimes, I just disagree completely.

Before watching any of these sequels (bar one), I knew full well that reviews were bad and the original was much preferred. However, I think these sequels leave number one in the dust

By Graham Osborne 


You guys know the drill by now, so let’s get on with the fixing!

Dumbledore’s arrival at the station at the beginning of the film is, surprising to say the least. Though not that surprising to the other people who happen to using the station at that time of night. Dumbledore is an eccentrically dressed man, even at the most sober of times. It seems strange that he wouldn’t draw a couple of incredulous stares from passers-bys, or possibly a comment from Harry’s waitress as she looks out the window. It would help to reinforce the dissonance between the muggle and wizarding worlds; something that is constantly mentioned, but rarely ever shown.

By Cookie 'N' Screen and Paul Costello


Mystery Men is a superhero movie that came out in 1999. It follows the story of inept superheroes that become the world’s only hope after a super-villain kidnaps the best superhero and holds him hostage. Starring Ben Stiller and Hank Azaria, this comedy came out and was panned. Failing to recoup the budget and slated by all, Mystery Men was said to have squandered the potential it had and still now is met with tuts and scoffs. But is it really a good movie? Does it have a blossoming cult classic?


Cookie and Paul battle it out in this For/Against feature. 

By Hayley Charlesworth

Those Avengers are buggers, aren’t they? Not only are they the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but they can belt out a tune. Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson have both released albums; it’s an absolute travesty that Jeremy Renner hasn’t released an album, judging from clips of him singing on YouTube. Chris Evans showed off his pipes in Not Another Teen Movie, Gwyneth Paltrow had a stint in Glee, Samuel L Jackson likes to sing the blues and Nicki Minaj songs, and Agent Hill is, of course, Robin Sparkles. I have no idea of the vocal abilities of the rest of the cast, but 13 Going On 30 proved that Mark Ruffalo can bust a move or two. And that’s not including actors from other MCU films like Jeff Bridges and Terrence Howard. If Joss Whedon ever decides to write another musical special, maybe for Avengers 3, then he has assembled the perfect cast.

But this post isn’t just about Downey and co. This is an exploration of those annoying, multi-talented actors who decide to also release music. I’ve tried to plump for some of the less mainstream releases here, which unfortunately means there’s quite a lack of female vocalists on the list. I’m not sure what that says for the industry, but it’s probably not positive. I’m also leaving out former soap stars, because I could write an entirely separate article about singers who were in Neighbours.

So here are nine male and one female actors’ offerings. Some of the results are excellent, some are awful. But they’re all very famous.

by Paul Costello 

Paul takes us through the greatest movie monologues;

Jaws. With just one film, Steven Spielberg launched the summer blockbuster and scared the merry hell out of anyone who was planning to go for a swim in the ocean for a good long while. And it was only his second theatrical feature, too. Though infamous as a very troubled production, it’s a classic film littered with superb moments and great scenes. But for me, none of them beat the iconic story of the USS Indianapolis as delivered by mean old sea captain Quint, played by the mighty Robert Shaw.