A very interesting polemic against all the scare stories saying (eg) ‘video games make children violent’. Jones’ argument, if I manage to summarise it fairly, is essentially that children require “violent” fantasy in order to process the very real extremes of emotion that modern life puts them through – and that removing fantasy violence makes them more emotionally crippled. I found it a very plausible analysis. Recommended.
Glorious fun, especially the Bill Murray cameo; I hope there’s a sequel. 4/5
Good ghost story, competently done. 3.5/5
This is basically an extremely good horror film with a lot of social criticism comfortably embedded within it. However, for me, it was spoiled by a hateful ending which I found cheap, cynical and gratuitously nihilistic. It is as if Frank Darabont wanted to remake Shawshank, except as a negative. 4/5
Really good, solid, non-stupid supernatural thriller. 4/5
I’m sure I watched this when it first came out, but caught it when I was being a vegetable in front of the TV one evening last week. Holds up quite well really. 3/5
Began well but then faded to mundanity. 3/5
Heart-rending but amazingly good.
4.5/5
Some excellently scary moments but the film as a whole was garbage. I haven’t seen the original (English or Japanese) and I doubt that I now will (I only watched this one because of an accidental set of circumstances, otherwise I’d have made sure I watched them in order).
3/5
