The London Film Festival press screenings start on Monday. I got my press pass yesterday and because I’m incredibly busy at the moment (genre-crossing sci fi tv doesn’t just write itself you know) I was looking for a slightly different way of covering the films this year.

After a quick conversation with Christian and Sol I decided to do a series of pithy film reviews on 12 Seconds. I have no idea yet how I’ll boil down some of the best cinema in the world to only 12 seconds, but I’m looking forward to kicking this off. I will of course be doing more traditional text reviews to accompany the best (and maybe worst) of the festival this year, but with 3 films a day starting next week the short video content should soon add up…

I’ll be embedding the vids here of course, but you can always jump into 12 Seconds and record your own mini reviews. Can you sum up The Breakfast Club, Star Wars or Night of the Living Dead in so short a video? I’d love to find out…

“We’re stuck in the fold of a map in the middle of Romania.”

A wet Monday morning, a 10.30am start and a large turnout for the first press screening of the festival, which is a pleasant change. Sometimes these things are as empty as a church or a training bra.

This morning’s movie is billed as a “Balkan farce” so I was naturally expecting just the usual die hard film nuts, but the place is half full. A lot of industry pass holders I see and not that many press. I assume there’s a certain curiosity to see what this young guy came up with before the taxi he was travelling in was crushed, killing him and his career stone cold dead.

About ten minutes before the lights dim, Tom from Solace in Cinema walks in and takes a seat next to me. We’re both seeing as much of the festival as we possibly can and this will be the first time I’ll have someone whose opinion I trust to bounce ideas off after the screenings. Tom’s site as I keep telling anyone who will listen is the only UK film website worth paying attention to. The guy knows his stuff.

As if to underline this as the film starts we seem to be the only people in the room who are laughing out loud at the scene of a Romanian family being chased down the spiral staircase to a bomb shelter by a clanging, rolling unexploded bomb. As it finally rolls to a halt without killing anyone we see the stamp: MADE IN CALIFORNIA.

It’s a great way to open a movie and I find myself warming to the dead guy immediately. Nemuscu, an obviously talented bastard ,gets taken out in something as stupid as a car accident and Michael Bay who spends a lot of time surrounded by heavy ordnance is still alive. There’s no fucking justice in the world. Continue Reading…