Retro Movie Review – Black Swan
I’ve read director Darren Aronofsky sees this as a companion piece to his 2008 film, The Wrestler and it’s easy to see why. Both are an examination on the extremes one will go to for their art. However in this case he ramps things up visually and thematically into a full-scale assault on the senses. This film engenders absolutely no passive feelings.
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The demand Aronofsky places on the audience is a mirror of the demands he placed on his cast members and the ...
Retro Movie Review – 127 Hours
James Franco plays Aron Ralston, a hyper young man who can climb, cycle and navigate with the best of them while sprouting existential dialogue and giving all those around him a running travelogue. Unfortunately for him in this case, his loner characteristics take over and he ventures forth into Robbers Roost, Utah by himself.
The isolated area, once used as a hide out by Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang is filled with huge rock formations and an almost hidden underworld between the ...
Retro Movie Review – American Made
Tom Cruise in one of his strongest roles in years plays Barry Seal, a pilot, government operative, drug runner and so much more. As the number of government agencies he works with add up, so does the level of insanity. The actual sequence of events in Seal’s real life differ quite a bit from the movie’s timeline but why let the truth get in the way of a good story and what a story it is.
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As a period piece, the clothes, hair and music reinforce a time that ...
Tenet Movie Review
It has to do with a kind of time travel, the much is clear from the trailers but how it plays out is quite unexpected. It is largely impenetrable at first and much of the dialogue needs to be almost sensed as there are artistic discretions taken with sound production. The screenplay also lacks the character-driven influence of Nolan’s brother, Jonathan.
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The main protagonist is played by John David Washington, of BlacKkKlansman fame and he has a lot to do. His is ...
Retro Movie Review – The Beguiled
The film is period correct and set during the later part of the American Civil War. It examines the effects of isolation and a group dynamic during a prolonged period of conflict. These circumstances guide the actions of both the innocent and the guilty. It offers this information with little opinion and you are left to follow your our path into the character’s actions.
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The cast is filled with some heavy hitters. Colin Ferrel reprises the Clint Eastwood role ...
Retro Movie Review – Baywatch
Getting the mixture of a cringe comedy just right is not an easy task as one person’s comic meal is another’s awful offal but Baywatch more than tickles the funny bone. It plays out just like bad American television, thin plot, thinner actors and The Rock. Mr Johnson gives good comedy and he and the cast look like they were having a right good time with the material.
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Fans of bad cinema are out there and when you base a bad film comedy on a bad American ...
Retro Movie Review – T2 Trainspotting
The main players that lived through the first film are all back and Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are as dysfunctional as ever. The story set twenty years later borrows heavily from the novels Trainspotting and Porno. Boyle’s technique of injecting scenes from the original work gives T2 a strong and believable link to the past. This continuity does author Irvine Welsh proud.
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The story revolves around Renton (Ewan McGregor) returning to his old stomping ...
Retro Movie Review – Crazy Heart
Bereft of luck and reduced to playing in bowling alleys and coffee shops, Bad Blake is in the twilight of his career and barely holding on. His alcoholic and stubborn ways have prevented him from enjoying the gilded life that many of his contemporaries are enjoying. This includes one of his earlier writing and performing partners, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell).
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The film’s believability is greatly aided by the fact that Jeff Bridges can actually play and sing. The ...
Deerskin Movie Review
It all starts when he pays seven thousand Euros (that's over eleven thousand Australian dollars) to buy a relic from the seventies, a fringed deerskin jacket, that doesn’t fit. The seller gives him a video camera during the transaction and seals Georges’ fate.
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Through lies and happenstance, he meets and befriends Denise (Adèle Haenel) a barmaid with bigger plans. She helps Georges with his obsession by editing the clips that he has recorded while on his ...
Retro Movie Review – Central Intelligence
They get to ply their trade delivering a script that doesn’t have a mean bone in its body. It’s quite refreshing to experience a comedy that doesn’t resort to the usual snide and put down ethos that seem to dominate the current crop of movie comedies.
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The set up is certainly silly. Overweight high school geek returns as super buff superman CIA agent (who loves the film Sixteen Candles) and reunites with the only fellow student that treated him with any ...
