New releases
Nowhere Boy: The script
New contributor, Alex Larman, has significantly improved the script of Sam Taylor-Wood’s directorial debut, Nowhere Boy. And at no extra charge.
By Alex Larman, published on 6 May 2011
The king of Hollywood sci-fi: Philip K. Dick
To coincide with the release this month of The Adjustment Bureau, our very own screenwriter, Dublo, honours the silver screen’s most prolific science fiction writer, Philip K. Dick.
By Dublo, published on 9 March 2011
It’s Oscar time again: Prodigal picks
It’s Oscar time again, folks, and our resident screenwriter, Dublo, has taken the time to share his predictions for the big night. If we were betting men – and we are – we’d have some money on these.
By Dublo, published on 24 February 2011
Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp get accidental in The Tourist
In his first post for The Prodigal Guide, new contributor Dublo talks us through the ultimate disappointment of The Tourist, a film which is simply less than the sum of its parts.
By Dublo, published on 9 February 2011
Merry Christmas
Dear readers, Christmas films don’t come any better than John Landis’ 1983 masterpiece Trading Places. So, on this, the most Holy of days, we’ll leave it to the great Dan Ackroyd as Louis Winthorpe III to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Classic clip after the break.
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 25 December 2009
Slurring on reel: Annie’s Miss Hannigan takes the damned prize
Halfway through the sixth viewing of the film Annie with a group of spellbound kids, something struck us beyond the great score, brilliant casting and choreography: Miss Hannigan. Spectacularly played by the great Carol Burnett, Miss Hannigan goes down as the single greatest movie drunk we’ve ever seen. Well, Lee Marvin runs a close second in [...]
By Straight-Six, published on 23 December 2009
IMDb for the purists: The Auteurs
So look, we’re not exactly snobs when it comes to our movies. We’ve praised classics like The Searchers, loved more modern epics like There Will Be Blood but we’re not above salivating with excitement at the latest Batman or Indiana Jones instalment. That’s just who we are. But if you take your films a little [...]
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 12 October 2009
Edison is no highlight
The Guide sat down and watched Edison – 2005’s police corruption ‘thriller’, written and directed by David J. Burke – last night. How we wish we’d turned off the light and gone to bed instead. Edison aspires to be a gritty, dark urban cop drama in the mould of Serpico or Training Day. But it [...]
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 12 July 2009
The Searchers is as good as it gets
If John Wayne wrote a blog, we know he’d keep it short and to the point. So will we: The Guide is a big fan of the Western and – in our view – Westerns don’t get any better than John Ford’s The Searchers. From the now infamous opening shot (which bookends the film with [...]
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 30 April 2009
There Will Be Blood is astounding
We’d missed There Will be Blood at the cinema last year. What a mistake. This thing is a masterpiece. A beautiful, sprawling epic that is as hard-hitting as it is memorable. Daniel Day-Lewis gets dragged out of retirement once again (the last person to entice him was Martin Scorsese for Gangs of New York) and, [...]
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 21 March 2009
