TheRetroCritic

Bit of a late review this one... After all, this gritty movie version of Les Mis is now a full-blown Oscar-winning blockbuster! Which is pretty cool considering it isn't a tongue-in-cheek crowd-pleaser like Chicago and actually tried something different with the musical genre rather than settle for a generic template. Something which Nine soon learned just is not always the way to go. Not that Les Miserables isn't an Oscar-friendly flick, it totally is, it's simply that it manages to be that and more. Having never physically been to see the musical prior to seeing the film and having never read Victor Hugo's novel (I know, being French it's especially shameful of me), I wasn't 100% sure about what to expect. I'd heard most of the songs from the show, though, so I wasn't completely oblivious as to what Les Miserables was about. Recorded singing directly on camera, sometimes in long one-shot scenes, the cast sure had their work cut out. Hugh J

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinema, long after a film like Antichrist , Dream Home comes along. Based on a true story (loosely, I'm guessing), the film explores Hong Kong's exorbitant rise in house prices post 1997 and director Ho-Cheung Pang peppers an otherwise pretty sensible story with some of the most graphic and disturbing serial-killings you'll see in any film. Strangulations, guts pouring out, slashed penises, brains blown off, screwdrivers through the eye...the list goes on. And yet, unlike 99% of horror films out there, the story and its characters actually remain involving and intriguing throughout. Main character Cheung's desperation and her troubled relationship with her father add an extra weight to the story and help make Dream Home more than just another slasher flick. And what a glorious slasher flick it is. With every new death more inventive and unpredictable than the last, Cheung crosses the line from despera