Reviews 1033 results

Retro Movie Review – The Nice Guys

Crowe is unafraid to play a role far removed from his usual on-screen persona and he lets his advancing age and lack of fitness give the role a realistic and well-worn feel. It’s one that is free from the false heroics that mar so many similar roles. Gosling gets the nuance just right between glamour boy idiot and heart of gold father. These two play off each other and the friendship that builds between them is so naturally developed; it’s a real pleasure to behold.   // ...

Retro Movie Review – Terminator Genisys

The story throws a lot your way and it relies quite a bit on the viewer’s past knowledge of the Terminator film series and its liberal take on time travel. Most of the plot twists originate from that ethos and they are at times hard to follow. It also features a progression of special effects as the early reels show simpler CGI while the later reels try their best to blow your mind with what’s now possible with zeros and ones.   //   The new cast play better with ...

Retro Movie Review – Minions

Its timeline starts from the beginning of time and quickly accelerates to the swinging sixties and as such makes for some very funny history lessons. It also rewards those looking for popular culture references with a wide range of improbable moments. The soundtrack is also fantastically period appropriate and the filmmakers spared no expense in securing the original songs by the original artists. The licensing fees must have been through the roof.   //   The core of the ...

Retro Movie Review – Amy

When Winehouse broke out in the early noughties, she really stood out. Here was a jazz singer that wrote incredibly personal lyrics, had great vocal chops and delivered them with a looseness that ran counter to a lot of jazz singer’s rigid professionalism. That she was a hot mess only added to the original appeal.   //   The film was made in the beginning with the family’s full approval but as the final cut came together their disapproval became pronounced and it’s ...

Retro Movie Review – Southpaw

The film also provides further proof (if any more is actually needed) on how fine an actor Jake Gyllenhaal has become. His take on the lead role, that of boxer Billy Hope is absolutely mesmeric. His time in the gym and time spent training to learn the techniques of boxing have paid real dividends.   //   Gyllenhaal fills the screen with electricity and menace and he makes the most out of what is a rather pedestrian screenplay. Sutter’s ability to plumb the depths of ...

The Hunt Movie Review

This tale of what came first, the chicken or the egg is an ideal project for the times. It will create dialogue and opinions and fill a much needed gap in new film releases. Seen as social commentary it is cutting, as entertainment, outrageous and as feminist propaganda, empowering. It does all this and still remains escapist especially in these isolationist times.   //   The idea of hunting humans for sport has been visited many times before on the big screen but never ...

Retro Movie Review – Trainwreck

The story set up is about a woman in the big city not looking for love but finding it anyway. She is comfortable turning around traditional rom-com situations in regards to male and female behaviour for the discomfort of some audience members. She also succeeds in giving the film a big heart amongst all the relationship carnage.   //   The way Schumer resolves the final situation is most unexpected and proves her comic ability to think outside the box. It’s a fantastic ...

Retro Movie Review – Django Unchained

When the rumours of Tarantino tackling the Western genre first surfaced, what a hundred years ago, it provided a number of great movie conservationist’s topics. Could his make cowboys look and sound cool? Could he recharge careers and get superlative performances from his regulars? Could he make an increasingly jaded audience stand up and cheer? In almost all categories the answer is a resounding yes.   //   Few are unaware of the film’s basic synopsis after another ...

Retro Movie Review – Kingsman: The Secret Service

Colin Firth as Kingsman agent Harry Hart is flawlessly cast as our introduction to this world of perfect gentlemanly conduct and deadly killing precision. And in stark contrast to the recent proclivity of the Bond franchise to do away with all those cool spy gadgets, this film is littered with deadly hardware that would have made the old Q more than happy.   //   Underlining the cool technology on display is a story based on character development, honour and paying back ...

Retro Movie Review – Guardians of the Galaxy

And all this for a superhero team that not many people know, and the first Marvel film not to feature one of the Silver Age group of characters created by Stan Lee. The Guardians are a bunch of undesirables who find themselves fighting together to prevent one of the Infinity Stones from reaching Thanos. If that all sounds a little crazy, then welcome to the Marvel Universe (not just Earth, or Asgard, or wherever it is that Agent Coulson buys his suits) where universe destroying gems and ...