by Cookie N Screen

A Japanese Horror Zombie Musical by Takeshi Miike. 

That is literally all you need to put on the DVD to warn people about how batshit insane this film is. Of course, it has become a bit of a racial stereotype that Japan is lumped in with the “crazy country” description. Japan has supplied us with game shows, music and fashion that have exceeded the sane quota so much so that we are speak about Japan in that tongue in cheek judging way, “only in Japan.” Negating the fact that economically, Japan is raking it in and has also developed some evocative art and mentality that continues to see its success whilst it honours its traditions too.

But no, regardless of all this, Miike’s Happiness of the Katakuris is still the craziest thing you’ll ever watch. 

by Cookie N Screen

When Quentin Tarantino bestows his opinion on your film, it feels like a blessing. You could have come before him or be doing something completely different to his genre tastes but it is solidifying when one of the most acclaimed directors options your movie as one of the best. So despite happening years before Tarantino made his mark with Reservoir Dogs, the lesser known Milano Calibro. 9 shocked, thrilled and enveloped action so poignantly that the Pulp Fiction director heralds it as the greatest Italian film ever made. 

And By Jove, he was absolutely correct. 

by Cookie N Screen

There are some directors out there who have become this adjective in cinema. There are thrillers out there under the tagline of Hitchcockian, where the use of visuals, imagery and tension build up are alluded to the Psycho director. Cronenberg is another one whose body horror escapades are paralleled when someone extrapolates the human spirit with bucket loads of blood and special effects. 

Then whenever you have a sniff of a quirky romantic comedy that has some black vein within it, you are almost always going to be associated with Woody Allen.

 It’s a terrible comment to aim for, too, and almost always, you can tell that’s the bar they were setting themselves. Which, unfortunately, is the case for Vincent Lannoo’s Les Ames De Papier, otherwise known as Paper Souls.

by Cookie N Screen

Imagine this scene – a white sheriff on top of a powerful steed cracking a whip on the back ofa black woman, child or man because someone dared to challenge equality. Your mind would probably be immediately taken back to slavery; brutal owners treating ethnicity like it is property and if you aren’t a racist cunt, then you’ll be shocked at our 1800 arseholes who scooped up bodies from different countries in order to control them but think, “well, the past sucked, glad that’s over.” But what if I told you these are actually scenes from a mere 50 years ago? And before you say “racist grandparents…” this kind of behaviour is still burning around the world today.

So it’s one of the reasons why Selma is not just a brilliant film – but one of the most vital ones.

by Sean Narborough 

The release of Jurassic World not only welcomes a new chapter to the Jurassic Park franchise but it also introduces a new director to the public. Colin Trevorrow is a relatively new director who’s only made shorts and documentaries before, until 2012 when he made his first feature Safety Not Guaranteed. This is the film that got him the Jurassic World gig but is it any good, should you hit play? Very simply, hell freaking yeah.

Safety Not Guaranteed is an offbeat comedy about a magazine writer, Jeff (Jake Johnson) and his two interns, Darius (Audrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni) who travel to a seaside town near Seattle to investigate a newspaper ad that reads “Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.” But when the team reach the town and meet the guy who posted it, Kenneth (Mark Duplass), you begin to realise everything is not what it seems. 

by Kerri Anne McNally 

Coming from Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn, and similarly based on a graphic novel, Kingsman: The Secret Service follows the story of Eggsy, a young lad who has fallen on the wrong side of the tracks of late. When he is approached by Harry Hart, a suave secret agent nicked named Galahad, he is indicted into the trainee league of spies.

As he learns a lot of lessons for the works of espionage and gentlemanliness, a villain named Valentine has a fiendish plot for world domination that has Harry and the rest of the Kingsmen trying to stop him. Can they work together before the fireworks begin? 

If you didn't manage to catch Matthew Vaughan's latest piece of chaos at the cinema, you should definitely buy the DVD. And here's why:

by Cookie N Screen

Thomas Hardy novels have been the source of cinematic goodness since the invention of moving pictures. As it stands, there are roughly four different adaptations of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, one on The Claim, Under the Greenwood Tree and Jude as well as 2013’s under-seen movie triumph What Maisie Knew (which I urge you all now to go see, it will pull your heart down through your ass).

Anyway, another maddening (or maddinging if you’re a pun obsessive) prolific one, alongside Tess, is Far from the Madding Crowd which, since this year's version, will have four adaptations.

But the best version is the incredible John Schlesinger 1967 romp starring Julie Christie and Terence Stamp. A film that also, inexplicably, was critically and commercially panned on first release.