Articles by Natalia Romanova

About Natalia Romanova
TMINE's publisher and Official Movie Reviewer in Residence. I've written for numerous magazines, including Death Ray and Filmstar, and I've been a contributor to TMINE since I was at university and first discovered I really wanted to write about movies, oh so many years ago. Sob.
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Theatre reviews

Review: Under the Blue Sky

30 July 2008 Natalia Romanova 4 Comments

Where: Duke of York’s Theatre, St Martin’s Lane, London

When: 7.45pm Mondays-Saturdays, 3pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays. Runs for 10 weeks from the 15th July 2008

How long: One and half hours without interval

How much: £15-£47.50 (includes £1 restoration levy)

Tickets from: 0870 060 6623 (+£3), Ticketmaster (+£3) or www.theambassadors.com (-£1.50/ticket on top three price bands)

Yes, I’m back. It’s me, “Easily swayed into going to the theatre by famous TV casts” woman. How you doing?

This time, I went to see Catherine Tate (Doctor Who, The Catherine Tate Show), Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd) and Francesca Annis (Between The Lines, Dune and Krull – she’s been in better stuff, too, but the last two amused me) in some sort of play or something about teachers behaving badly.

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Film reviews

Review: Leatherheads

16 April 2008 Natalia Romanova Post a comment



There’s a certain amount of false advertising in the trailers for Leatherheads, the new George Clooney/Renée Zellweger movie set in the early days of professional American football. The trailers suggest it’s a rom-com. Yet there’s not much romance and there’s not much comedy.

It has its moments, don’t get me wrong, but ultimately this is a drama, with a touch of comedy and a touch of romance. And it’s a reasonably worthwhile drama, because even if the subject matter isn’t all that interesting, especially for a UK audience, the style of the film and its ‘homage-matter’ will appeal to anyone who’s ever watched an old black and white movie.

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Movies you should own

Movies you should own: The Andromeda Strain (1971)

26 March 2008 Natalia Romanova 19 Comments

I started “Movies You Should Buy” (now called “Movies You Should Own” because I belatedly realise it rhymes with Alex Cox’s old BBC2 film strand, Moviedrome) with The Satan Bug. Lovely “killer virus” movie that – probably the first. 

But there was a bigger and better “killer virus” film to come, one that marked the end of many of the trends The Satan Bug seemed to start – or at least coincide with.

The title of this movie, which you should definitely own, is now used by virus researchers whenever they want to put a name to their worst nightmare: a virus that they can’t cure but is utterly contagious and can kill anything in a frighteningly short space of time. 

It’s The Andromeda Strain (1971) and it’s probably the best, clever-stupid “killer virus” movie ever made.

Here’s the title sequence, complete with scary arse theme tune.

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Movies you should own

Movies you should own: Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel & Laurence

8 March 2008 Natalia Romanova 11 Comments

From the 17th March, Film4 are going to have a new range of budget DVD titles. The RRP is £6.99 and the films being released are:

  • The Yards
  • My Beautiful Launderette
  • She’s All That
  • Bostonians
  • Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel & Laurence
  • Raining Stones
  • Another Country
  • Maurice
  • Monsoon Wedding
  • Life is Sweet
  • Sexy Beast
  • Bread and Roses
  • Dogma
  • Buffalo Soldiers
  • My Name is Joe
  • Riff Raff
  • Heat and Dust
  • Europeans
  • Blue Juice
  • Gangster No. 1

I’ve just checked Amazon and they’re listing them at £15.99 discounted to £11.99, so I’d advise buying them in shops while the initial discount campaign is running at least.

Anyway, since I’m very partial to Monica Potter, Rufus Sewell and Ray Winstone, and don’t mind Tom Hollander (shame about Joseph Fiennes though), I ordered up a nice review copy of Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel & Laurence as a sample of the range.

They sent me 10.

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Movies you should own: The Satan Bug

28 February 2008 Natalia Romanova 9 Comments

One of my favourite genres is the “killer virus” milieu. Let’s face it, there’s nothing quite as scary as a disease that kills lots and lots of people, even if it can be stopped by Dustin Hoffman (Outbreak), immunity among the upper middle classes (Survivors) or talking to it (The Burning Zone).

Just have a think about their close cousin, the zombie movie, even the funny ones (Shaun of the Dead, Zombi Holocaust), and it won’t be long before the idea of some tiny little thing inside you that you can’t do anything to stop from killing you really does start to get upsetting.

So, for this and because it’s going to take me a while to scribble up lots and lots about Manhunter, I’m starting the long-promised “movies you should own” (aka “I’ve got it on DVD and you should to”) feature of this ‘ere blog with a shortish chat about The Satan Bug, probably the first proper entry in the killer virus canon.

Here are the creepy opening titles:

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