Based on a True Story 
Ip Man 2 (2010): Continuing the Tale(12)
Directed again by Wilson Yip (for the last time in the series) Ip Man 2 continues the tale of Ip Man and his rise to worldwide fame. There have been less complaints about the film makers “frugality” with actual events this time around. Picking up where Ip Man finished, the film takes place in Hong… Read More ›
Ip Man (2008): Donnie Yen’s Masterful Performance
It is not often that a film benefits from having not just one legend, but two associated with it. Ip Man has two. Starring the legendary Donnie Yen in what is quite possibly his best role ever and featuring choreography by the legendary Sammo Hung. (Who when asked how he was going to work with Yen… Read More ›
HAUNTED The Ghosts that Share Our World by John Pinkney
HAUNTED is the type of ghostly chronicle that permeated my teen years. After experiencing several “events” that could not be satisfactorily explained, I became obsessed with reading every ghost tale I could get my hands on. I became a devout fan of the writings of Elliot O’Donnell, Ghost Hunter extraordinaire. Of course years later I… Read More ›
Argo (2012): Ben Affleck Hits a Home Run
I wrote about this film way back when I saw the first trailer and heard about the incredible events that inspired it. That was way back on the 17th of August last year and it was aptly titled Argo (2012): A Truth Stranger than Fiction (just click on the previous link if you missed it the… Read More ›
All Good Things (2010): A Stranger in Disguise
Despite the name change, All Good Things is a fictionalised account of property tycoon Robert Durst who killed his next-door neighbour while he was living incognito as a mute woman. Proving that truth is indeed stranger than fiction, Durst’s wife disappeared mysteriously over 31 years ago and the only other person who might have known… Read More ›
Missing (Sil jong) 2009: Grinding Gore
This South Korean horror/thriller film is based on true events. Between August and September in 2007 a 70-year-old fisherman murdered four women in Bosung South Korea. Notes from the entry of the film in AsianWiki state that the events have been fictionalized. Directed by Sung-Hong Kim (Say Yes 2001) and starring Moon Sung-Geun, Choo Ja-Hyun… Read More ›
White Hunter Black Heart (1990): A Shooting We Will Go
Directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, White Hunter Black Heart is a thinly disguised version of the events that immediately preceded the filming of The African Queen. Adapted from the Peter Viertel novel of the same name, Viertel along with James Bridges and Burt Kennedy wrote the screenplay. The film was based on an amalgamation of… Read More ›
Snowtown (2011): Uncomfortable Viewing
This film came highly recommended. It was said to have the same edginess and bite that other Australian films have. Films that I adore like Long Weekend, Rogue, or even Wolf Creek. It was gritty, edgy, grim, and incredibly hard to watch. Directed by Justin Kurzel (this was his first feature length film) and written by Shaun Grant Snowtown… Read More ›
Tombstone (1993): OK Corral and After
I have tried repeatedly to write a review that would do this beleaguered film justice. Each time I start rapping the keyboard on my laptop I can get no further than three paragraphs. So I sat down today and started researching the film and its subject matter again. I am not a stranger to the town… Read More ›
Argo (2012): A Truth Stranger Than Fiction
Every once in awhile you hear about something that makes you breakout in gooseflesh at the audaciousness of the idea or story. Argo is that gooseflesh inducing item in question. Directed by and starring Ben Affleck, the film is about a time period in the world that changed my path forever. In November 1979 Iranians stormed the US Embassy… Read More ›
