Crisis Movie Review
A trio of tales tells the story. They feature a badass DEA agent (Armie Hammer) who is on the hunt to bring down a Canadian drug lord Mother (Guy Nadon). A recovering addict (Evangeline Lilly) who suffers a personal loss that triggers a revenge plot, and Gary Oldman, a Doctor that gets put under pressure to follow a Big Pharma party line in regards to testing on a new drug. Oldman was also a producer on the project.
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The three provide the bedrock to the film with ...
Retro Movie Review – The Social Network
Jesse Eisenberg has never been better as Mark Zuckerberg, the man/boy who turned and burned most everyone he came in contact with while creating the Internet tsunami that is Facebook. Director David Fincher tones down some of his more overt mannerisms and gets things just right. Even Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker (the creator of Napster) delivers career-defining work.
It’s a sign of the level of film mastery that a subject with so little visual identity could be made into such a ...
Judas and the Black Messiah Movie Review
As the film’s title suggests, it’s the story of the betrayal and ultimate assassination of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) who was involved in the Black Panther Party in Chicago in the late sixties. Kaluuya whose acting style thus far has been one of reductionism expands his range to include a role filled with anger and indignation. He delivers his words with an unbridled sense of outrage.
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At times, the words and emotion are rendered so quickly, it’s hard to ...
Retro Movie Review – Rush
A little knowledge of that period of Formula 1 does however enhance some of the film's emotional impact as the sport at that time was incredibly dangerous and killed its drivers with a gruesome regularity. This knowledge puts what is a sporting event into the realm of a real life or death battle.
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The film’s main protagonists couldn’t have been any different as well. The British playboy driver James Hunt (played with an impressive verve by Chris Hemsworth) was ...
Retro Movie Review – Robocop
Now revisiting Robocop in 2014 is a plan fraught with risks and Brazilian born director/documentarian José Padilha hasn’t really helped matters by choosing some elements within the first version to revisit while casting aside others. His more moralistic take is interesting while his almost complete discarding of some of the eighties version’s most humorous elements (mainly the hilarious TV ads) have taken a lot of the fun out. Original director Paul Verhoeven’s biting social satire ...
Boss Level Movie Review
It’s a groundhog day scenario that is peppered with ever-increasing levels of gratuitous violence that ultimately end with Roy’s very unpleasant demise every time. This is until he figures things out and sets out to right quite a few wrongs that exist in his life. He has to reconnect with his son, save his ex-wife Jemma (Naomi Watts) from her evil boss Col. Clive (Mel Gibson), and then save the world, You know, easy stuff.
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The science-fiction elements of the ...
The Truffle Hunters Movie Review
To them it is more than an occupation, it is a calling and their partners in this way of life are of the four-legged variety. These friendships seem to endure far more regularly than the ones with fellow humans. They are completely content with their dogs, nature, and the hunt.
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There is humour in much of what they do and a hard-headedness that drives them to solitary pursuits. There are also moments that draw parallels between seller and buyer that mimic drug ...
The Little Things Movie Review
Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto head an impressive cast, and the three play to their established strengths. Denzel is the stoic yet intense one, Rami delivers the emotion with a minimalist flair and Leto is his usual super creepy self. One wonders what dead animals he sent to the Big D and Rami this time out.
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The story involves an uncaught serial killer in the Los Angeles area and the victims that have been created amongst the living and the dead. ...
Retro Movie Review – Paul
The two dweebs have rented a huge RV after a visit to Comic Con and are in the midst of a road trip to visit all the cult friendly UFO locations in the western United States. They soon hook up with Paul and the craziness begins (sort of). For a film with such an unconventional premise, it quickly becomes a very conventional road movie.
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This conventionality results is a story that is more human nature than Science Fiction and as such has some obvious lessons to ...
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 ...
