Review

The least loved of the space-opera sextet, The Phantom Menace is the first up for the stereoscopic treatment (the rest are on their way at a rate of one per year). So, now George Lucas has gone back to tamper with the film that tampered with your childhood, what’s changed? …

The Beatles’ incantation of “Surrender to the void” sets the seductive tone for Adam Smith’s breathless Chemical Brothers concert film, where flurries of visuals and propulsive sounds offer an exhilaratingly immersive pull. Lacking a frontman, the buoyantly buffeting beats duo mobilise maelstroms of compensations: strafing lasers, trippy backing films (butterflies …

Soulcalibur V isn’t a reboot in name, but as we spent hours diving into its intricate system, it sure feels like one. If Soulcalibur III was a largely-forgotten misstep, and Soulcalibur IV was a good sequel for its time, Soulcalibur V marks a solid improvement. It has some questionable moments …

Ninja jumberjacks. Howling plant-life. Spider-beasts that spray radioactive neon diarrhea. Psychedelic onions that teach you kung-fu when eaten. Scarygirl has it all and much more. Each deliciously bizarre encounter adds to the charm found throughout this dark, fantastic storybook realm. But for a game about a dead little girl with …

Getting better, but is it too late?

Washed up on the shores of a man-made sea in the middle of the desert, Southern California’s refugees live among crumbling buildings and burned-out cars. Filmmaker Alma Har’el’s hybrid docu-musical project is a social portrait daubed with surreal interludes of dance. Scored by electro-folk troupe Beirut, Har’el’s camera waltzes around …

Jeff Wayne has some new competition Thirty-four years on from the original LP, the musical version of The War Of The Worlds is still filling giant arenas. The chances of this indie-band take on the SF rock opera duplicating that success seem slim, but you never know… Over the course …

This languid yet claustrophobic drama is set within the confines of L’Apollonide, a Parisian brothel circa 1900. We’re immersed in the routines and rituals of the female prostitutes, in a world smelling of “sperm and champagne”. Cutting backwards and forwards in time, and making expressive use of anachronistic music (‘Nights …

Charlie Brooker sets his sights on social networking in uncomfortable political drama …

It’s always challenging to breathe new life into a dormant, fan-favorite franchise. The Shinobi series was one of Sega’s pre-Sonic crown jewels, but aside from a brief revamp in the early aughts as a PS2 title (and a fairly awful and rightfully forgotten GBA outing), the series has been relegated …