A quick note from Spling: “I walked into the cinema without any preconceived bias… armed with only TWO facts: the film was called The Bad Lieutenant and starred Nicolas Cage. I’d like to preface this movie review by saying that I am a big fan of Nicolas Cage as an indie and commercial actor and […]

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The Social Network is a timely story about the founders of Facebook and their legal disputes on the back of unprecedented viral Internet growth and accidental billionaires. Whatever your take on the social online platform, The Social Network movie  seems to have everyone hitting ‘Like’…

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Piranha 3D is best described as a blend of Jaws, Girls Gone Wild and Joe’s Apartment and falls into the so-bad-it’s-almost-good category of films. Now depending on your taste in film that could be a fantastic or horrible combination, because there’s no fence-sitting on this one – you’ll either love or hate it.

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Grindhouse, a double bill featuring Deathproof and Planet Terror, was created as a tribute to the lost genre of exploitation films as made famous by single screen theatres across America in the ’70s. Sleaze, porn, slashers and martial arts flicks were the rage back then and this was the era that directors like…

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The Switch is not what you’re expecting. Whenever someone starts sloshing a cup of sperm around, everyone immediately flashes back to There’s Something About Mary with Ben Stiller’s vanishing sperm act and Cameron Diaz’s extra strength “hair gel”. Yes, there is a masturbation scene… and no, you don’t get to see Jason Bateman yanking the […]

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Repo Men is based on the novel with the “fruity title”, The Repossession Mambo by Eric Garcia, who also co-wrote the screenplay for Repo Men. It’s a science fiction exploration of what the world would be like if medical agencies sold manufactured bio-mechanical organs with a severe repayment scheme – think credit card companies.

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The Other Guys, from the same actor/director duo that brought us Step Brothers, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Adam McKay and Will Ferrell sure know how to get a laugh, taking the seemingly ordinary, flipping it on its head and surgically removing the funny. If they […]

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Money, money, money, MONEY… watching Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps may remind you of Donald Trump. That’s because it’s like Donald Trump… full of swagger, big talk, power suits, business tycoons, a young apprentice, a smug look and the stock exchange… it all feeds back to the mantra “Money Never Sleeps” as uttered by Gordon […]

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If Rocky was the ultimate underdog sports movie of the ’70s, The Karate Kid did the same for the ’80s. Both films received nominations for Oscars and both were directed by John G. Avildsen, who obviously took a shine to directing these glory stories – subsequently directing several sequels for each of the popular franchises. […]

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Mr. M. Night Shyamalan has systematically made the wrong decision at every turn in this film adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon anime series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. From controversial casting decisions to a lackluster 3D post-production hack job, The Last Airbender is an incomprehensible, detached and languishing fantasy adventure, which is only buoyed by its […]

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Salt was originally written with the intention of becoming an espionage action-thriller with Tom Cruise as the lead. However, when Cruise backed out of the production… Jolie substituted the big name Mission: Impossible star and the script was rewritten for a female lead. Salt’s loosely modeled on the Bourne series with short, sharp bursts of […]

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Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone ripped off Walt Disney’s Fantasia… well, at least the title of that famous 10-minute symphonic clip of Mickey Mouse and his magic shrooms brooms. Seventy years later we have the live-action The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which has taken revenge on Harry Potter with a knock-off adventure. It’s a vicious cycle […]

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Screw G.I. Joe, The A-Team are the quintessential All-American action heroes from the ’80s… destined to be everyone’s favourite crack commando squad of mercenaries from now until the end of time. I can tell… I had a Murdock action figure (don’t judge me). Action, adventure, comedy and mild peril… The A-Team had it all and […]

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Please Give starts with a series of… boobs, breasts, jugs and “chesticles” of all shapes and sizes. It’s quite an introduction for a smart coming-of-age comedy drama with Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall and Amanda Peet. Now this isn’t a flattering set of boob shots, but more of a flattening one as ordinary breasts […]

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Predators is a sequel to Predator and Predator 2. Since it’s no longer cool to add a number to denote how many times a blockbuster title has been exploited, unless you’re going straight-to-video or you’re a superhero… it gets the imaginative reworking, Predators. Now it’s been a good 23 years since Arnie busted a Predator’s […]

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in-cep-tion [in-sep-shuh n] noun – beginning; start; commencement. When Christopher Nolan releases a film, the world stops and takes notice… The director started making movies when he was just seven-years-old and 33 years down-the-line he’s still doing what he loves with only several feature length films to date. A short filmography by Hollywood standards, but […]

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Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are possibly the coldest on-screen Hollywood couple since Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters, may they rest in peace. Cruise has always been a little distant, giving that looking-into-the-Sun gaze to the point that it’s become more of a glaze. What’s more, he’s embarrassed himself in the media so many times […]

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“One, two, Freddy’s coming for you!” A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the most successful horror franchises ever with more sequels than Rocky… giving Freddy Krueger, the burnt man with a fedora and bladed claw an all-access pass to our dreams for almost three decades! After Freddy’s “colleagues”, Halloween’s Michael Myers and Friday […]

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Jim Carrey is gay. Well, at least in his latest outing, I Love You Phillip Morris in which he portrays the real life story of Steven Jay Russell, a cop, a conman, an inmate and a big fan of musicals. If you desperately want one of those golden statuettes, play someone famous, someone that’s mentally-challenged […]

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Twilight… twilight… TWILIGHT! The word still sends shivers up and down my spine as I think of the young tweens gnashing their teeth like wolverines and vampires at the chance of sinking their teeth into Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner or if they’re not too hungry Kristen Stewart. It’s a good thing they didn’t release Twilight: […]

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“She’s out of my league”… those crushing words have been uttered many times in a variety of awkward social situations ranging from slurred bar speak to side-by-side urinal talk. That phrase may be damning, ego-deflating and self-deprecating, but somehow it still doesn’t stop 10s from locking arms with 5s. Come on be honest… when you […]

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The Box stars Cameron Diaz and while The Botox would have  been a more provocative title, the curiosity of discovering what’s inside the box has been a “priceless” fascination for man, cat and baby since the beginning of time. Writer-director, Richard Kelly has only made one film since the acclaimed Donnie Darko. Unfortunately, Southland Tales […]

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Great actors don’t just impersonate, they embody personalities for a living and you’ve got to wonder how much of their soul dies with each new character they bring to life? When that soul passes… is there a red carpet leading into the fiery depths of Hell, an angel starter pack (halo, harp and wings) waiting […]

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Okay, so I’ve heard about Angels with Dirty Faces and Angels in the Outfield. I never thought I’d live to see the day angels started toting Thor’s hammer and The Punisher’s weapon of choice… until I saw Legion. When God realises that humanity isn’t getting any better he decides to scour mankind from the face […]

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Green Zone is just another better-than-average Iraq war film in the company of Body of Lies, Traitor and The Kingdom. We’ve seen the covert missions, the terrorist agendas and the corrupt officials before and it’s getting a little old now… The film’s main selling point is that it comes straight from the tag team that […]

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Ahhh… 1986, Reagan was still President, Maradona scored the “Goal of the Century” in the FIFA World Cup in Mexico, Chernobyl was still doing plant tours, Mike Tyson won his first world boxing title, Lady Gaga said “ga-ga” for the first time, Voyager 2 had its first encounter with Uranus and Michael J. Fox manned […]

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Apparently, any film starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott can’t go wrong. Having collaborated on Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster and Body of Lies, it’s safe to say they’ve got a winning formula. The film rides on the back of almost a century of Robin Hoods ranging from Robin Hood (1912) to […]

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It’s been a good 8 years since Mel Gibson had to have that chat with the top half of his wife in Signs. Since then he’s been spotted in Papparazzi, The Singing Detective and a TV series called Complete Savages. Speaking of savages, he’s also directed two blood-thirsty yet critically-acclaimed films in The Passion of […]

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Iron Man 2 opens this Friday with sneak previews tomorrow night and you’ve got no idea what to expect. Well, for starters – Iron Man’s in it. The title may have given it away, but you’ll be happy to know he’s back with “the man” (aka Robert Downey Jr.) in fighting form as the Tony […]

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The Kick-Ass comic book to film adaptation was inevitable. Come on, if Catwoman gets one, surely everyone’s entitled to slap on some spandex and snarl? While you daydream about Halle Berry in a cat suit, you should know that her follow-up to that Oscar-whining “performance” in Monster’s Balls is the equivalent of kitty litter and […]

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