If ever a name was suited to describe a person it was that of Grace Kelly; the actress had a distinctive poise and elegance that charmed cinema-goers, sent a certain director into ‘Frenzy’ and captured the heart of a Prince.

Kelly first came to the attention of Hollywood as the dutiful Quaker wife to Gary Cooper’s valiant sheriff in High Noon (1952) she was a natural beauty with quiet dignity. An Academy award nomination was soon to follow for her role alongside Clark Gable in Mogambo (1953) proving her acting credentials as well as her screen luminosity. However, it was her work with Alfred Hitchcock that cemented her screen icon status and ignited the director’s obsession with the beautiful blonde. Hitchcock reinvented how Kelly was seen, gone was the meek, moral lady, in her place he presented the glacial temptress in Dial M for Murder (1954), who must be punished for her beauty.

Her standout performance came in Rear Window as Lisa Fremont (1954), in which she represented for Hitchcock, and in turn the audience, the ultimate elusive blonde. The first image of Kelly in the film is a close up of her face, it is softly focused, radiant and ethereal, as the injured James Stewart character L.B Jeffries merely watches Lisa, he represents Hitchcock’s immobile feelings towards the actress. For a time he thought he would not need another actress however when Kelly fell for Prince Rainier of Monaco, she became irrevocably unattainable.

In 1956 Kelly married and became Princess of Monaco, retiring from acting at the age of 26, having somewhat of a ‘James Dean effect’ on Hollywood. Making only eleven films in a five year career, her star continued to burn bright, long after her transition into royalty folklore. Her cachet as a screen icon was tragically reinforced when she suffered a fatal car crash in 1982, aged 52; she’d had a minor stroke whilst driving which led to the accident. It was suggested that the crash had happened near one of the locations for the 1955 film To Catch a Thief, which Kelly had starred in with Cary Grant, whether this is fact or not does not dampen Hollywood’s reputation for adding a bittersweet note to a news story.

Grace Kelly is a movie name byword for elegance and sophistication; she represented the glamour of Hollywood and the young girl’s fantasy of one day becoming a Princess. Her style continues to influence fashion, from the Hermes Kelly bag named in her honour, to the modern day royals who look to Kelly for Wedding Day inspiration. She is often referenced in pop songs through the years, remaining in the subconscious, and she is still ranked by the American Film Institute in the top 20 female stars of American Cinema, further cementing her status among the Hollywood greats.

As James Stewart said in his eulogy at Kelly’s funeral on September 18, 1982, ‘Grace brought into my life, as she brought into yours, a soft warm light every time I saw her. God bless you Princess Grace’.

Written and executive produced by Robert Rodriguez, and directed by Eduardo Rodriguez (no relation), Curandero is a Mexican horror cop thriller starring El Mariachi himself, Carlos Gallardo. Sitting on a shelf since 2005, scripted by Robert Rodriguez way back in 1997, and now sent straight to DVD, has it been worth the wait? Yes. Although it feels more like a pilot for a TV show than a film, Curandero has a certain something that has you rooting for it.

A curandero is a faith healer, a guy that’ll come to your house if you’re having spiritual problems. They can also “cleanse” anywhere that has bad ju-ju, like a blood-soaked crime scene full of bodies nailed to the ceiling and piles of cursed animal bones in the corner. Just as well really, as our c urandero, Carlos (Gallardo), is soon up to his nuts in ritualistically ripped to pieces dead folks and all sorts of nasty voodoo gubbins. The leader of a satanic, drug trafficking cult has escaped from custody, and Carlos is recruited by kick ass cop Magdalena to help her track him down.

Exploring Palo Mayombe, “the most feared and powerful form of black magic”, gives the film an inherently slightly scary and unpredictable atmosphere. It’s a shame then that Curandero can’t settle for being a spooky cop thriller, because when it remembers that it also wants to be a horror movie, it does so with some very cheap jump scares and some dodgy looking lumpy demons.

In terms of disc specs, the DVD has the original Spanish audio track in 5.1 with English subtitles, but if subs aren’t your bag, there is also an English dub available. There is little in the way of extras, just an audio commentary featuring the director, and his director of photography, Jaime Reynoso. The pair provide a lively talk along, where they discuss every and anything you could possibly want to know about the film: from the decision to shoot on HD over 35mm to the amount of sweating they both did on location in Mexico City.

Curandero is a bit of a wild card: sometimes skirting with being lost in translation, sometimes a bit messy, sometimes a bit cheap and bodged – but it still has a loco charm and genuinely offers something you won’t have seen before. A could-be cult occult movie that deserves to become a series; Curandero is like a Mexican Constantine – but good.

Alan has awarded Curandero: Dawn of the Demon on DVD three Torches of Truth

Set in the post-War France late 1950s, director and co-writer Régis Roinsard has fashioned a bright and colourful vintage styled Romantic Comedy (note, not a modern day Hollywood rom-com) within the world of competitive speed typewriting.

Rose (Déborah François) dreams of leaving the confines of village life and to become a thoroughly modern, independent young woman as a secretary. Qualified only by her ambition and self-taught typing skills, she applies for a secretarial job at the office of Louis Echard. Successful bachelor Echard quickly sees beyond Rose’s pretty face and poor secretarial skills to her potential as a possible speed typing champion. Proposing to become both her employer and coach, the pair set out on an extensive and gruelling training programme in the hopes of bringing Rose to the very pinnacle of international competitive speed typing.

Along with the beautiful richly crafted art direction and costumes, Roinsard has imbued his comedy with the complex atmosphere of a country that has survived invasion and World War II. Surrounded by fresh thinking in art and design, the war time generation still carry the marks of their experiences while the post-war generation are living in the freedom that has been won for them.

Bérénice Bejo as Marie Taylor is Echard’s childhood friend and she with her American husband Bob (Shaun Benson) are reminders of the depth of character in Echard now encased in smart suits and affluence. The surprising layers to the screenplay are at all times surrounded by the swirl of late 1950s fashion and elegance with François and Duris’ onscreen chemistry being reminiscent of Doris Day and Rock Hudson or Cary Grant’s with basically everybody. Roinsard ratchets up the tension of each speed typing competition to a frenzy of fist-in-the-air joy.

Populaire puts a modern spin on vintage classics and as with its sombre advertising cousin Mad Men, Populaire is chic, well constructed and elegant from beginning to end.

Mairéad has awarded Populaire a resounding five Torches of Truth

Director Steven Sheil [Mum and Dad (2008)] jumps from Brit kitchen sink horror to international jungle japes with Dead Mine; a film with less life in it than its undead monsters.

An asshole American rich-kid explorer teams up with Indonesian army guys, a British hard case and a Japanese historian so breathy that she barely has the lung capacity to utter a single word without taking a breath, to hunt for treasure in the jungle.

When some for-some-reason on-land pirates attack them, the group shelters in a mine that was converted into a military bunker by the Japanese in World War II. The pirates cave the exit in behind them and now the group must try and find another exit while keeping their eyes open for gold and dodging remnants from the long ago Japanese super-secret and decidedly dastardly experiments.

Things start fairly well, with natural dialogue, some likeable characters and plot info on an interest piquing need-to-know basis; you don’t even know what country you’re supposed to be in for a good ten minutes. Once the film plunges into the mines, there’s a few minutes of tense tunnel walking before you start to notice just how unconvincing the fake rockery is and just how little of interest is left to occur.

By the time the underground monster guys start picking people off, you’ll have lost interest,
and the zombie samurai are, unbelievably, too little too late. It’s all far too leisurely, and maddeningly there are far too few snatches of a great sounding score by Charlie Mole that is a disconcertingly odd, plonky, almost 1970s sci-fi sound that deserves to be heard for longer than ten seconds.

The DVD itself is not a particularly inspiring package and suffers at times from poor picture quality. It also suffers from a smattering of pretty dull extras. The interviews with the cast and crew are a curious mix of character over-analysis and very short answers. The B-Roll/Behind the scenes footage consists of a lot of watching people standing around, walking around and, my favourite, sitting around. The final extra is the deleted scenes, which are three minutes of next-to-nothing.

A sub-The Descent Z movie, Dead Mine is dead boring for the most part, before trying to out undead Axis forces Dead Snow with the rubbish zombie samurai troops. It’s valiant, but Dead Mine has none of the claustrophobic terror of the former, or fun and gore of the latter.

Alan has awarded Dead Mine on DVD two Torches of Truth

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) arrives in 1920s New York having had his head turned by the huge amounts of green suddenly available to anyone who can get into the game and finds himself living next door to the most enigmatic and successful player in the area. Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a legend in his own lifetime and immensely assured when it comes to absolutely everyone.

People come from miles around to enjoy the Gatsby parties night after night without knowing anything more about the man than a few long ago constructed rumours. Gatsby is king of the facade but we soon learn that he has one huge weakness in his armor of rumour and wealth, Nick’s unhappily married cousin Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan).

With The Great Gatsby, director Baz Luhrmann captures the spirit of the glittery 20s in his usual over the top eclectic style, helped by Shawn Carter. Jay Z and Amy Winehouse bring to pre-depression New York what David Bowie and T Rex brought to turn of 20th century Paris and Candi Staton brought to fair Verona. The score is always appropriate to the situation if misplaced in the wrong decade or even the wrong century.

Baz Luhrmann is nothing if not predictable. He favours the tragic love story, preferably with a colourful setting and chooses to make them more colourful and vibrant still. Shame some of the lead characters lacked some of that colour that the settings and Gatsby himself have. DiCaprio plays his part joyfully, only hampered by a clunky vocal tick, a device used by Gatsby in his act of having ‘old money’.

Maguire is cutesy as the trusty and earnest Mr Carraway, eager and willing to worship Gatsby just as everyone else did. But Carraway fancied himself just a little more idealistic than the common be-feathered party goer and as Gatsby reveals bigger and bigger slices of himself to Carraway you could almost believe that the love story of the piece is between the two men and not between Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Carey Mulligan is just a bit insipid as the love of Gatsby’s life and having not read the novel, I couldn’t say whether F.Scott Fitzgerald paints a more illuminating and engaging picture of Mrs Buchanan than we see here.

The ending is sadly also  far too much of a damp squib to provide much of a legacy for this extravaganza of champagne cocktails and interesting cinematography. DiCaprio can hold his head high but I’m not sure anyone else can. Good effort but could try harder.

Maryann has awarded The Great Gatsby (2013) three Torches of Truth

In The Numbers Stations John Cusack plays Emerson a black ops agent on the gun side of numerical codes who, we are told, are what really run the secret missions around the world. With an Irish boss called Grey (Liam Cunningham getting to use his native Dublin accent) the agency Emerson works for is left unconfirmed bar that it is international and orchestrated with the upmost secrecy, with long serving agents unquestioningly carrying out assassinations.When an assignment goes awry, Emerson is reassigned to the UK to take on the easier task of babysitting a code expert Katherine (Malin Akerman) at one of the underground secret Numbers Stations. Emerson is far from verbose and the happy-go-lucky Katherine playfully teases him about his lack of social ease.

As is so often the case, the ‘easy’ assignment becomes anything but when Emerson and Katherine are attacked in their bunker leading to some admirable atmospheric sound editing and the potential of a gritty tense thriller. However, writer F. Scott Frazier’s central theme of codes begins to dog any sense of immediacy as ultimately Akerman has to make the reading out of random (to the audience) numbers to save people we have not been given any meaningful connection to seem interesting and important.

Cusack does, as ever, convince when it comes to the action sequences which include a former Bourne asset. Though director Barfoed’s Danish background arguably informs the pleasingly gritty atmosphere of The Numbers Stations ultimately it is difficult to muster empathy for sanctioned serial killers and those who broadcast their coded orders. Though Cusack is playing a damaged and dejected character, one might begin to wonder if he is engaging with the character particularly well or his own apathy towards the film role is playing out a little too obviously across his face.

At 89 minutes The Numbers Station is prepared to not overstay its welcome though it has run out of ideas by the last 10 minutes.

Mairéad has awarded The Numbers Station two Torches of Truth

Post Fast Five the now-wealthy Brian O’ Conner (Paul Walker) is celebrating the birth of his son. Pal and fellow outlaw Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) advises O’ Conner on the responsibility of fatherhood and states with the seriousness of a Shakespeare-spouting thespian that their old life is behind them.

A giddy cackle bubbles up from the audience, it’s almost possible to hear their hearts shouting “Oh no it isn’t!” and this sets the tone for all that is to come. Watching Fast 6 is a bit like watching a 130 minute pantomime starring The Rock (or Dwayne Johnson if you wish to give him his Sunday name) who returns as DSS agent Luke Hobbs. Odd as this may sound it is not a criticism; unlike the Die Hard franchise, the studio seem to have a firm grasp of what audiences want from a Fast & Furious outing i.e. revving engines, high-speed chases, women who drive fast, punch hard and wear very little and completely unbelievable but visually impressive action set pieces.

The over-arching “plot” is negligible – something about ex-SAS Major Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and a microchip. And if Paul Walker and Vin Diesel don’t drive their cars really, really fast then lots of people will die. The more interesting elements of the script are built around the resurrection of Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) which affords Rodriguez, Diesel and Gina Carano who plays Hobbs’s head girl, Riley some engaging and at times even tense moments. Also well-placed are the scenes in which the two rappers-turned-actors of the cast: Tyrese Gibson and Chris Bridges banter tirelessly with each other, adding a bit of fizz to otherwise flat exposition.

The film is a little long – Paul Walker at one point goes on a twenty minute soul-searching mission to LA that not even Vin Diesel wants to hear about – and the villain is underdeveloped, but the entertainment factor outweighs this unfortunate glitch and director Justin Lin makes the most of the London backdrop. You will spend a lot more time laughing at these characters than with them but as this isn’t a sequel to A Room With A View, this is probably of little consequence.

The set-up for the next, now inevitable instalment is guaranteed to put action fans in a spin.

Helen awarded Fast & Furious 6 Four Torches

In Texas Chainsaw the family that slays together stays together. Based directly on narrative events witnessed in Tobe Hooper’s seminal 1974 shocker, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, John Luessenhop’s 2013 sequel sets out to expand upon the bloody shenanigans of the Sawyer clan in twisted new fashion. At the multiplex, you also got to see it in 3D.

The film has a rather peculiar raison d’être in that it seeks to humanise a demented cannibal killer. The Frankenstein-inspired aspects do not sit well. Texas Chainsaw exclusively feeds on the audience’s thirst for fantasy carnage rather than instil a sense of creeping fear. A debt is owed less to the original and more to the tired horror sequels of the 1980s, where figures such as Freddy and Jason cut a swathe through a photogenic, teenage population.

For the home market release most viewers will see the picture in glorious 2D. (Lionsgate have released a fancy pants 3D Blu-ray version, too.) The HD quality is first-rate and footage from Hooper’s film, shot on grubby 16mm, has been spruced up too. Watching the movie, it’s easy to discern that the use of stereoscope is unimaginative and resorts to countless ‘chainsaw pointed at the audience’ gimmicks. That limp and obvious tact makes for a fitting summary of the entire enterprise, really. It stays within the safe confines of the corny.

The three audio commentaries range from poor to film geek heaven. Luessenhop’s chat track is deathly dull. The second commentary, featuring Tobe Hooper and producer Carl Mazzocone, is an improvement. Lastly, the original surviving cast members of the 1974 classic discuss the remake and their memories of this new production.

The ‘Making-of’ featurettes are extensive and cover virtually every aspect of the film. It’s clear this movie was made with passion and genuine love but commercial concerns and a rather naff plot destroy the good intentions. If the age discrepancy regarding lead character Heather drove you nuts when you saw it at the pictures, then several crew members do actually raise the issue. Actress Alexandra Daddario looks about 25, tops, but the 21st century setting puts Heather at around 38-39. The absurdity is never brought up in the movie itself but Carl Mazzocone tells us, entirely straightfaced, that we shouldn’t take 1974 (the original’s year of release) as the year the story was set. Not only is that angle pushing things desperately, it still doesn’t add up.

Texas Chainsaw is a bizarre mixture of love letter tribute, bland accoutrements and delightful gore. It’s mostly not very good but nowhere near deserved the kicking it received on theatrical release.

Martyn has awarded Texas Chainsaw and its bounty of extra features three Torches of Truth

Realising you have the wrong vehicle at a car hire company would be nothing more than a mere inconvenience for the average person. Michael Woods (Paul Walker), however, is in a little bit of a hurry. Having broken parole and flown halfway across the world to South Africa in an attempt to see his estranged wife and fix their broken relationship, he takes what he’s been given. So when he discovers that the car comes not only with a phone and a gun but also a hostage, he is more than a little annoyed and his plan to stay out of trouble soon goes out the window.

Vehicle 19 certainly does have plenty of suspense and action, with most of the story taking place from within the vehicle itself. There are car chases galore and bullets fly at every possible opportunity. Naima McLean, who plays the hostage who has discovered the chief of police’s criminal secret, puts in a solid performance but sadly does not get enough screen time. When she is on screen, she brings out the best in leading man Walker.

Set against the backdrop of Johannesburg, the atmosphere is certainly a dark and sleazy one, with corrupt police and nobody to trust. Vehicle 19′s main downfall, though, is the inevitable comparison with the Fast and the Furious franchise and Cellular. The story itself is actually quite a compelling one. Yet, despite the constant danger for our anti-hero, the adrenaline kick never really arrives. Michael is a rather distant figure and one who takes far too long to ‘do the right thing’, so when he is in imminent danger, it’s hard to care.

Vehicle 19 had the potential to be a solid action film, thanks to its brave location and claustrophobic filming, and a great chance for Walker to show a bit more range. Sadly, it fails on both counts. A tolerable watch, but nothing we haven’t seen before.

Amanda has awarded Vehicle 19 two Torchs of Truth

Robin Hardy’s chilling classic, The Wicker Man, is forty years young. To celebrate the occasion – and to mark the film as one of Britain’s greatest, and oddest, horror pictures – StudioCanal have launched an appeal to help recover lost material.

The Wicker Man was released in the UK with very little publicity and tagged on to a double bill with Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. (Now that is what you’d call a great time at the movies.) Since then the film has grown in reputation and now considered one of the best British films ever made. As the story goes, Hardy’s cut was trimmed for release (to 87 mins) and since then the original negative materials vanished from their home at Shepperton Studios. The Wicker Man myth tells us – according to director Alex Cox – that the reels were buried under pylons that ran along the M4.

The history of the film, and its various releases, is hugely complicated. Since its release in 1973, there have been re-cuts seen in various territories. Roger Corman had a copy of the original 99-minutes version which was used for the US release. Since then, Corman’s copy been lost. A telecine transfer exists, however, from which an ‘Extended Version’ was re-released in 2001. The dream remains to find the lost footage and give a correct digital restoration.

In 2007, during a film festival in Brussels, star Christopher Lee stated: “I still believe it exists somewhere, in cans, with no name. I still believe that. But nobody’s ever seen it since, so we couldn’t re-cut it, re-edit it, which was what I wanted to do. It would have been ten times as good.”

A Facebook page has been set up in order to get the message spread across social media networks. Please visit Facebook/WickerManAppeal .

StudioCanal have the intention of restoring The Wicker Man for its 40th anniversary and perhaps, if any extra material is discovered, the picture could be seen in a cut closer to Hardy’s original intent.

The Wicker Man is the story of a police officer from mainland Scotland visiting Summerisle in search of a missing school girl. What he uncovers is both an affront to his religion (Christianity) and puts him in the greatest peril. In 2006 the film was remade by Hollywood and starred Nicolas Cage.