Movie Review 841 results

The Danish Girl Movie Review

The cast of The Danish Girl also features the outstanding talent of Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) as Gerda Wegener. Gerda is Elbe’s wife, fellow painter and long suffering supporter. Her level of support, selflessness and compassion for her husband is at the heart of the film. With all of the pieces in place for an emotional cinema going experience, why then does the film leave the viewer feeling so detached? It’s shot beautifully, maybe too beautifully and ...

The Revenant Movie Review

The film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman and Babel) tells a story based on a book by Michael Punke called The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge. The book was inspired by the life of a 19th century fur trapper named Hugh Glass. The trapper profession during Glass’ lifetime was highlighted by an existence of extreme hardship from both the harshness of the land and the extremes of the weather. During an excursion collecting fur pelts in the unsettled wilderness of the ...

The Hateful Eight Movie Review

His new film is another period piece (that makes three in a row) and plays out like a longhand love letter to his past. The Western is set almost exclusively in one room and is dialogue heavy to the extreme. That it works so effectively at it’s almost three hour running time is a testament to his skill with words and his utilization of the right mix of actors and actions. The violence is extreme in the few moments that it occurs and gives the film its rightfully earned R rating. Tara...

Sisters Movie Review

After a bit of an uneven first reel, the film finds its comic feet and produces some good laughs. Tina and Amy continue to prove that cringe worthy comedy isn't just the sport of men and they are fearless in their pushing of the envelope. Never let good taste get in the way of going for the big laugh. The film often feels like a love letter to the thirty and forty something’s and urges them to get in touch with their wild sides and prove that their ability for outrageous behaviour ...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Movie Review

The franchise is almost universally regarded as having lost it's way with Lucas' prequels (um, Episodes I, II and III) but the truth is the series began running off the rails from the moment Lucas re-branded the first instalment of Star Wars Episode IV. This set in motion two decades of Lucas dicking with his baby, subjecting his movies to so much plastic surgery as to transform them into some kind of CGI-laden Frankenstein's monster. From simple beginnings Lucas had begun complicating Star ...

Hotel Transylvania 2 Movie Review

It was littered with mildly funny gags referencing classic horror films, blended with a modern yet ironically timeless grrrl power theme about a grown-up daughter, Mavis (Selena Gomez), rebelling against her old fashioned father, Dracula (Adam Sandler), for her right to make her own way in the big bad world. Drac also has to learn to accept Mavis' choice of partner; in this case, a normal human, Jonathan (Andy Samberg). Hotel Transylvania 2 goes one step further in this ethos and this turns ...

In the Heart of the Sea Movie Review

Based on the novel of the same name (author Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2000 non-fiction book), this template in a lesser director’s hands could have lead to a very processional outing. Howard’s film suffers from none of that limitation. The movie is a rousing edge of your seat ride that has a look and feel that takes you right into the heart of the tale of that great white monster, Moby Dick. Chris Hemsworth leaves the fantasy world behind this time and delivers a very powerful perfor...

Carol Competition

Winner Best Actor - Rooney Mara - Cannes Film Festival 2015. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novella The Price of Salt. Set in 1950s New York, two women from very different backgrounds find themselves in the throes of love in Carol. As conventional norms of the time challenge their undeniable attraction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change. A young woman in her 20s, Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), is a clerk working in a Manhattan ...

The Night Before Movie Review

We have a tradition around these parts in putting a concentrated effort into scaring off our guests with warped movie playlists, eggnog with only booze and no nog and a black and yellow Christmas tree (a left over cinema display from Seinfeld’s grand folly, Bee Movie). Every year we add to the Kringle cruel collection but it’s been years since a movie this f&$%ed up has joined the mad menagerie. The Night Before has just about everything to guaranty holiday good cheer, drugs, ...

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 Movie Review

In days past, films like this starred rugged, blood, sweat and guts types like Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Running Man), Sylvester Stallone (Rambo), Rutger Hauer (Wedlock) and, most notably in this case, Takeshi Kitano (Battle Royale). Indeed, the whole teenage cast of Battle Royale were more convincingly unhinged and dangerous than the pretty nubile stars of The Hunger Games who looked like they could never harm anyone. The sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, predictably followed ...