Reviews 1033 results

Bad Times at the El Royale Movie Review

Set in a run down hotel in the late sixties and featuring a great soundtrack to help get you in the mood, it tells numerous tales that at first have no connection but then dovetail nicely into a powerful ensemble piece. The cast is outstanding and everyone plays their part with generosity. The spot light falls on all.   //   Bad things have happened at the El Royale and the more details that become unearthed, the more tawdry and lethal things become. The violence is so ...

Venom Movie Review

For those unfamiliar with the Venom storyline, Hardy’s character, that of reporter Eddie Brock gets inhabited by an alien creature that not so much combines with his human DNA as forms a full blown bromance. The voices in his head urge him on to feats outside his human abilities.   //   This duality is played mostly for laughs and the film is quite funny in obvious and unintentional ways. It’s also more comfortable with humour than action. Some of the action sequen...

Alpha Movie Review

During the course of this arduous occasion, he gets separated from the group and is left for dead. He recovers and is then joined on his trek by a wolf he calls Alpha. He injures this animal during an attack but subsequently nurses it back to health and they become friends.   //   Their journey runs the gambit of dangers from wild animals to wild weather to lack of food. The film actually glosses over a number of potential dangers and defies believability on the science ...

Night School Movie Review

The film’s most valuable player is Tiffany Haddish, who carries every scene she is in. The woman is just plain funny. The story as slight as it is revolves around Kevin Hart’s character who was a high school dropout that goes back to school to get his GED. Haddish is his teacher and the leader of the misfits that make up the night school class.   //   The comic moments while inconsistent, have a decent strike rate and when they truly deliver, it fills the room with ...

McKellen: Playing the Part Movie Review

Told mostly in taped interviews with the man himself, his early years are illustrated by humble beginnings and then finding his true calling at quite a young age. He is reserved in delivery but there is often a twinkle in the eye that denotes a sense of pride and stature.   //   He also goes into some detail about his work in helping to overturn unfair laws in England in regards to the age of consent between gay couples. He was fearless in a time before enlightenment. He ...

Ladies In Black Movie Review

It was a straight jacketed life for the women who had to follow their man’s lead even if it meant a life spent in the kitchen while the man of the house runs down to the local pub. In the context of the slowly emerging freedom that women would have to work so hard to achieve, the main players here are forbearers of a better time.   //   Foreigner Julia Ormond as Magda is married to Stefan (Vincent Perez) and together they form an unusually equal union. Lisa (Angourie ...

Johnny English Strikes Again Movie Review

The story revolves around technology while actually using very little of it. All the top secret British Intelligence agents have been outed and are now useless so they have to recruit some of the old school spies and put them back into the field. This gives the exiled Johnny English (Atkinson) a way back in. It also leads to a wonderful scene with a surprise trio of classic English acting veterans who unfortunately meet a quick demise as a result of English and his blundering ways. &nb...

19th Lavazza Italian Film Festival Preview Reviews

This year’s festival will feature a fantastic selection of films like the comedies Put Nonna In The Freezer, a dark comedy about an up-tight policeman that changes his ways for love and My Big Gay Italian Wedding, that illustrates the power a loving mother has in garnering acceptance for her gay son with his homophobic father. It also ends with a great song and dance number. And on a more serious side there are films like The Order Of Things that takes a look at the contentious subject ...

Beast Movie Review

Moll (Jessie Buckley) is a girl with a past, one that is never completely explained. Her life is a dull one punctuated by vividly violent nightmares. She soon meets local Pascal (Johnny Flynn) in the small isolated island community they call home and sparks fly.   //   The film is geared to never letting you off the hook and its creepiness aids in both drawing you in and freaking you out. It establishes both these feelings very well. The story revolves around a series of ...

The Predator Movie Review

He has created a Predator movie for current audience members with a voracious appetite for action. He turns everything up to eleven, more carnage, more guns, more explosions and more stupidity. He gleefully disregards the laws of physics and sensibility and tries his best to overwhelm.   //   With this level of overload, you can’t help but have a rollicking good time. The film takes full advantage of giants screens, giant sound systems and giant cravings for pure ...