ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER remains D.H. Lawrence’s most notorious novel. It has been filmed countless times but more often than not it’s literary merit has been the modest cloak for soft porn. ‘Lady Chatterley’ restores respect to the work by adapting an earlier version of the novel called ‘John Thomas and […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies THE THIRD and final film in the Bourne series is a textbook example of how to make a spy thriller. The plot is believable, the action is frantic and the slam-bang pace is relentless. There is also brain to match the brawn, with Matt Damon’s amnesiac assassin finally confronted by […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies LONG CONSIDERED box-office poison, the western has become the most unfashionable of genres. ‘3:10 To Yuma’ is no classic. but it has enough style and vigour to remind everyone of what they have been missing in recent years. A stagecoach robbery, an encounter with Apache warriors, shoot-outs and showdowns all […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies WAITRESS is the perfect antidote to a Summer of mindless, big budget blockbusters primarily aimed at youngsters. It is a sweet, warmhearted tale told with immense charm and humanity, and marks a tremendous achievement for actress turned filmmaker Adrienne Shelley, while rendering her awful murder last year all the more […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies Clifford Irving believed that he was destined for greatness. Burdened with delusions of grandeur, he decided that there was no need for trivial matters like truth and ethics to impede his pursuit of glory. The story of his amazing rise and fall is the basis of The Hoax, an engaging, […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies IT MAY HAVE taken twenty years to make the leap from television to the big screen but most fans will consider ‘The Simpsons Movie’ worth the wait. Fast-paced and very funny, it may run out of steam in the second half but it has enough sly wit and clever ideas […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies SIR ALAN AYCKBOURN has written more than seventy plays and is easily Britain’s most popular playwright. No theatre season is complete without one of his works in the programme, as a venue like the Pitlochry Festival Theatre has discovered to its benefit. Veteran French director Alain Resnais has been a […]

JOHN BURNS signed up to take part in the BBC Scotland’s Highland Lives project. In the first of three articles tracing his progress, John wonders exactly what he has gotten himself into …

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies Shakespeare’s Scottish play has inspired some of the most illustrious names in the film world, from Roman Polanski to Orson Welles and Akira Kurosawa. There is no reason that ‘Macbeth’ could not withstand a fresh telling, but a new version from ‘Romper Stomper’ director Geoffrey Wright is an awkward, unpersuasive […]

ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies HOW OFTEN can one man be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Bruce Willis proves that there is no end to the possibilities in ‘Die Hard 4.0’, his belated return to the role of world-weary policeman John McClane. The latest Summer blockbuster is a surprisingly watchable, big budget […]