Reviews 1033 results

Official Secrets Movie Review

The film also does little to stir the blood about the outrage of the unnecessary military action and its human cost. It relies too much on your memory of the actual events of the time. In the written coda at film’s end it doesn’t even mention the fact that after all was said and done, no weapons of mass destruction were even found.   //   Most of the performances are fine and the emotion is delivered in that oh so quaint and subdued British manner. The strength and ...

The Report Movie Review

In The Report, we are informed about the horrific abuses of power that the CIA routinely engaged in with the treatment of its prisoners during their so called war on terrorism. The story is filtered through the actions of Daniel Jones (Adam Driver) who was appointed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) to investigate and compile a report on these abuses.   //   After over five years of investigations, Jones’ report grew to over 6700 pages. It was highly ...

Running With The Devil Movie Review and Competition!

Nic is The Cook, during his day job, a mild mannered chef and a pillar of the community, after hours, a stone cold criminal running drugs across the border. So far so good. International in flavour, the film covers the cocaine trade from cultivation to distribution. It also examines the nuts and bolts of the drug trade from both the criminal and law enforcement side. This sets up multiple storylines that dovetail as the film progresses.   //   Moved along by unsavoury ...

Marriage Story Movie Review

Opening with the high of a verbal reading of lists of each other's best attributes, the film then rips that bandaid of contentment off with the very next scene. Set in a marriage consoler’s office, Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) can barely hide her contempt for husband Charlie (Adam Driver). Theirs is a love that has become venomous. Not taking editorial sides until film’s end, both parts of this union have validity in their opinions. What was once a unified direction has been whittled ...

Charlie’s Angels Movie Review

The film works hard at establishing Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska as the new angels and their varied ethnic backgrounds make for a refreshing change. The three start as somewhat strangers and time is taken to build their friendship through a plethora of unbelievable scenarios. They get beat up, shot at, blow up, drugged and still have perfect hair.   //   Recreating predictable harm in various exotic locations from around the globe helps to keep the ...

Ford v Ferrari Movie Review

Its two leads, Matt Damon as the American good old boy, Carroll Shelby and Christian Bale as the prickly Pom, Ken Miles have great chemistry together. Their story is a bittersweet one and weaves a number of interesting elements together to create a multifaceted storyline.   //   Miles is portrayed as a family man and there are a number of touching scenes with his son Peter played by Noah Jupe and wife Mollie played by Caitriona Balfe, she of Outlander fame. While Shelby ...

Pain & Glory Movie Review

Antonio Banderas is Salvador Mallo, a famous filmmaker who is more enduring life than actually living it. His body is riddled with aliments and his creative muse has escaped him. When he reunites with an actor he worked with many years ago, Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia), they end their estrangement and reconnect.   //   Felling guilty from the years apart. Salvador gives his actor friend a script based on his life story and Alberto turns it into a one man play. This ...

Russian Film Festival – Beanpole Movie Review

Iya Sergueeva (Viktoria Miroshnichenko) and Masha (Vasilisa Perelygina) have returned from the front to a war revenged Leningrad. Iya or Beanpole works in a hospital and suffers from severe PTSD. Masha has entrusted Iya with her baby Pashka (Timofey Glazkov) until she returns from Berlin. Upon arrival in Leningrad she is confronted by the loss of her child. This is the tale of how these two women deal with the after effects of having their lives completely changed and having their hopes ...

Arctic Justice Movie review

Jeremy Renner does the voice of Swifty, an Arctic Fox trying to be a big dog. Those dogs in question pull sleds with the Arctic town’s mail service and are heroes to the small animal population. Swifty’s small stature makes him the underdog, underfox? of the piece.   //   The dialogue is rather simplistic and the situations are not overly complicated. It’s presented as a quant and easily digestible story and there is an absent of the adult innuendo that marks most ...

The Irishman Movie Review

Based on the 2004 book, I Heard You Paint Houses by a former homicide prosecutor, Charles Brandt, it focuses on the life of mob hitman Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran played by Robert De Niro. In a confession given after the book was published, Sheeran claims to have been the hitman behind the murder and disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa who is played by Al Pacino. Spoiler alert, his body is not buried under the turf at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.   //   The film is ...