Retro Movie Review – Micmacs
Jeunet’s films always have a political edge (even if it’s just personal politics) and an opinion about the state of play and in Micmacs; he has the weapons industry firmly in his sights. Our main character Bazil (Dany Boon) has had his life drastically affected by the tools of the arms trade and decides to fight back.
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The humour in this film is of a very psychical nature and a reasonable starting point of description would be the works of Charlie Chaplin. The ...
Retro Movie Review – Morning Glory
The humour comes out most strongly when Becky become desperate to raise the show’s ratings and deal with the old school curmudgeon Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) who as a link to the real news reporting of the past stands firmly in the way of her plans. The reel where those plans come to fruition in the film’s funniest twenty minutes.
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The film has strangely uneven pacing and sometimes lacks direction, so there are times when your interest wanes in the proceedi...
Retro Movie Review – Monsters Vs Aliens
The story revolves around the government’s cover up of actual monsters that inhabit our planet. These monsters are eventually revealed to the public when the earth in invaded by aliens, who of course have ideas of world domination.
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Setting the story in the world of CGI animation gives the filmmakers carte blanch to create and destroy what ever they want and this leads to some outstanding moments of mayhem including the destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
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Retro Movie Review – Precious
The film also provides a platform for some amazing performances. First time actor Gabourey Sidibe delivers a heart wrenching performance as the title character, fact is, the acting is so strong throughout that it transforms your feelings about a number of key characters. Mo'Nique who plays Precious’ mother is so repugnant is the early part of the film that you absolutely hate her, but through a great script and pure acting talent, there is a scene that actually makes you feel sympathy for ...
Retro Movie Review – Mr. Pip
The film based on a novel by Lloyd Jones is set in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea during the civil war there during the early nineties. The story revolves around Matilda (Xzannjah Matsi) and the relationship she has with her mother Dolores (Xzannjah’s real life mother Healsville Joel), Mr. Watts (Hugh Laurie) the only white man in their small village and the novel Great Expectation by Charles Dickens.
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Matilda’s somewhat idyllic life is brought to a crashing ...
Penguin Bloom Movie Review
Things couldn’t be more perfect, until an accident while on vacation in Thailand leaves Sam paralysed from the waist down. She is miserable with her new situation and becomes increasingly detached from her loving family, especially her oldest son Noah (Griffin Murray-Johnston).
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When Noah brings an injured magpie home to help it heal, it starts a chain of events that transforms Sam and leads to her both dealing with her condition and realising her love for her ...
Promising Young Woman Movie Review
Carey Mulligan is amazing as Cassandra, a young woman who has yet to recover from a devastating tragedy, an event that has altered the direction of her life forever. The mastery of understated nuance and comic timing is impeccable. You feel for her and mid-film when you experience the easing of her darkness, you rejoice.
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This only adds to your horror are the vehicle of her release proves to be complicit in the event that set the misery into motion. It is a truly ...
Retro Movie Review – Moneyball
Lewis’ book follows the reinvention of baseball by using computer and statistical analysis to achieve the desired individual results and bypasses the traditional way that teams scouted players and as a topic of a ‘sports movie’ presented quite the challenge. It’s to the filmmaker's credit that a subject that could have resulted in a very dry cinema experience has been turned into such a warm human examination.
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The acting is excellent throughout and Brad ...
Retro Movie Review – Looper
Looper dives into this environment with a very slick look and some very well known actors (one slightly altered by prostheses). It skirts the line between science fiction and thriller status with a quiet confidence and draws you into more of an examination of the characters lives than a study of the raw science. It has to be said that the technology behind the time travel is hardly mentioned.
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It also comments on the emptiness that the day’s technology has ...
Retro Movie Review – It Might Get Loud
For died in the wool fans there are still enough on-screen disclosure to get you through, including a rare visit to Page’s guitar dungeon (with its impressive number of vintage instruments), White’s country estate and cool car and The Edge’s guitar lair, which is the audio equivalent of Frankenstein’s laboratory.
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They are set pieces, some of which are quite silly (like the one when the present age White meets himself as a youth for a lesion on guitar ...
