The Last Vermeer Movie Review
Van Meegeren profited greatly from selling Johannes Vermeer paintings to high-ranking German officials during the war. After hostilities ended he was charged with selling Dutch cultural property to the Nazis and faced a possible death sentence. During the trial, he used the defense that he actually forged the paintings and thus was able to avoid capital punishment.
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Starting as an investigative yarn, the film features Danish actor Claes Bang playing Captain Joseph ...
Godzilla vs. Kong Movie Review
Following Kong: Skull Island in 2017 and Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019, this latest edition in Legendary's MonsterVerse pits the two biggest box office titans against each other while the fate of the world hangs in the balance. The final battlefield this time takes place in Hong Kong and the city comes off very second best. The level of destruction is impressive.
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The filmmakers have relied on the spectacle of the fight scenes to carry the movie as the ...
White Riot Movie Review
The lines were drawn between the Callaghan government and their passive support of the anti-immigrant National Front and the opposition to this status quo by the more forward-thinking youth of the time. This situation found its champions in Red Saunders, Jo Wreford, Pete Bruno, and others. They conceived a one-off concert called Rock Against Racism as a reaction to the racist rhetoric put forth by Eric Clapton, yes that Eric Clapton.
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That concert helped start a ...
Retro Movie Review – Shame
The sex addiction angle is given main focus and this has led to the film being in the crosshairs of both film censors and the more conservative reviewers. The press generated about its raunchy nature is well founded but the end result of so much disconnect sex is just tedium. The more sexual contact Brandon has, the less he feels and the harder it is for the viewer to feel engaged.
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The acting is of a high calibre and seeing Carey Mulligan step outside her usual ...
Retro Movie Review – Robin Hood
Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is an expert archer in King Richard The Lionheart’s army who becomes disillusioned with some of the things he was forced to do while in battle and when the King is killed, he and his cohorts escape France and return to England. The boys soon arrive in Nottingham, where Robin meets Lady Marian (Cate Blanchett) and joins the town’s battles.
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The tale of Robin Hood is one of cinema’s most well used story lines and many films and ...
French Exit Movie Review
Once ensconced in the city of lights, the indifferent members of French society have met their match. Her disdain for being ignored leads to one of the film’s funniest moments when Frances lights a table setting on fire when neglected by a waiter. Watching Pfeiffer chew up scene after scene while never raising her voice beyond a murmur is completely beguiling.
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The story takes great liberties with reality and features several quite absurd moments like Frances ...
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 ...
