This is the second week in a row that I have had to begin with the sad news of another death of a film legend. Joan Fontaine, the actress who gained fame for playing threatened wives to possibly dangerous husbands in the early 1940s, passed away at the age of 96 last week.

My plan for this week was to write a review on the Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life, but after the passing of legendary Irish born actor Peter O’Toole, who is best known for his amazing portrayal of T.E. Lawrence in the epic Lawrence of Arabia, I thought it would be fitting to turn my gaze to another darker Christmas movie, the 1968 historical drama The Lion In Winter, directed by Anthony Harvey.

After last week’s action-packed Christmas review of Die Hard, I think it is time to reset our bearings and capture a more Christmas-y feel. The 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually, written and directed by Richard Curtis (Mr. Bean, Bridget Jones’s Diary), fits the bill.

This may seem like an odd combination and strange title, but it is actually the name of a trilogy of British movies (also known as the Cornetto Trilogy – a type of ice-cream in the UK). Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the films pay comedic homage to different genres. You may ask how the three movies connect together – they do not. All three movies have Pegg and Frost playing completely different characters. The only thing the three motion pictures have in common is that there is a lot of ice-cream and blood in them. One of the benefits of the no-connect trilogy is that you can watch them in any order. Today, I am going to review the second film, 2007's Hot Fuzz.

When hearing the name Clouseau, most people automatically think of the bumbling French detective made famous by comedy genius Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther movies, or the uninspired remakes with Steve Martin. Yet I am not referring to that character, instead I am talking about serious film director Henri-Georges Clouzot who directed the horror mystery/thriller Les Diaboliques in 1955.

Too many horror movies today tend to go for cheap thrills, such as jump-scares and graphic violence, rather than focusing on what makes the genre so special – slow-building suspense and a thick and eerie atmosphere. There is nothing wrong with mixing the two together, but too often directors forget about the mood of the film altogether. It is quite rare to find slow-burning and cleverly crafted horror films such as past classics like The Shining or The Changeling. Some of the most recent motion pictures that do capture this more vintage style of horror film are from Spanish speaking countries such as Spain and Mexico. It has been quite impressive to watch the sizeable amount of these style of horror films emerge over the past decade or so. One such film is the 2007 horror flick The Orphanage.