Pan Movie Review
The set up is interesting enough: young orphan, Peter, is abducted to Neverland where he befriends Tiger Lilly, Tinkerbell and a young Hook and together they save Neverland from Blackbeard the pirate. The narrator is unequivocal about the central theme being best friends becoming enemies - a clear reference to the Peter/Hook relationship.
The problem is that by film’s end Peter and (now Captain) Hook are still friends! So the story, as a whole, feels unresolved.
Now, perhaps the ...
Sicario Movie Review
This is a modern day tale of drug running and Mexico/America border politics and it draws you in with bold strokes. It then details the character’s action in such a way as to illustrate the horrors that both the innocent and guilty have to endure during these drug wars.
The screenplay leads you to make certain assumptions about the main protagonists actions and it’s to its satisfying complexity that right up until the end of the last reel there are still surprises left in store.
...
Everest Movie Review
The film is incredible tense and from the first frame you feel the rising level of impending doom. Even for those that have little knowledge of the actual events of the disaster, the film fills you with that dark sense of foreboding. It frames the climbers (accurately or not) as a group of driven people with little regard for their own safety or the tons of rubbish that modern day mountain climbing leaves behind.
The film is big in almost every way, a big cast, a big adventure and a big ...
Pixels Movie Review
Pixels follows on from the likes of Wreck It Ralph and TRON, mashing up the real world with that of the video game. This time around it turns out that a videotape of classic arcade games was sent into space in the early eighties and discovered by aliens who used its contents to model weapons with which to attack us. It all makes perfect sense really. Naturally the best hope for Earth's defence are former classic gamer champions who suitably proceed to kick all kinds of pixelated ass. Yes, ...
Ricki And The Flash Movie Review
Cody's script about an aging Lita Ford-type rocker who fritters her life away in rock'n'roll while neglecting her responsibility to her three children has little going for it. The story has Ricki making a belated attempt to reconnect with her adult children after her daughter suffers a messy, emotionally damaging divorce. The tension that exists between Ricki and her cynical and sardonic children, and her hard working well-to-do ex-husband and his new wife, is excruciating for the most ...
She’s Funny That Way Movie Review
It casts some big names in familiar roles such as Owen Wilson as the goofy good guy, Rhys Ifans as the tinsel town lothario and Debi Mazar as a powerful lady behind the scenes. It also successfully casts some against type such as Jennifer Aniston who is great as the crazy shrink and Cybill Shepherd who is very convincing as a frumpy housewife.
The snappy repartee brings to mind the feel of a Woody Allen film but without the baggage. The cinematography and set design make sure the viewer ...
Hitman: Agent 47 Movie Review
The film starts with a very European feel and then transcends into a fairly typical format of chase scene, hand to hand combat (with only one winner) and bad guys who never hit their target while the good bad guy never misses. The pace is frantic with only the cityscape and country change to provide a temporary respite of the onslaught.
Friend is effective as the experiment in killing machines with the trace of a conscious but it’s hard not to miss Olyphant and his Manson lamps. The ...
Southpaw Movie Review
The film also provides further proof (if any more is actually needed) on how fine an actor Jake Gyllenhaal has become. His take on the lead role, that of boxer Billy Hope is absolutely mesmeric. His time in the gym and time spent training to learn the techniques of boxing have paid real dividends.
Gyllenhaal fills the screen with electricity and menace and he makes the most out of what is a rather pedestrian screenplay. Sutter’s ability to plumb the depths of emotion is slight in this ...
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Movie Review
Thankfully such scepticism is unfounded as Ritchie's rebirth of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is a solid cracker! It shows Ritchie back on key and looking like the kind of director who would be capable of pulling off something as cool and snappy as Lock Stock.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was conceived in the mid sixties as a kind of 007 for TV, indeed Ian Fleming himself was involved in the programme's conception. Its likeness to Connery-era Bond is clear and Ritchie does a superlative job in ...
Fantastic Four Movie Review
Despite its incredibly successful Marvel brethren, this Fantastic Four is yet another dud, albeit a dud with a $200 million dollar budget.
The story is fantastically linear: we follow genius, Reed Richards, from childhood as he meets each of the characters who we know will become part of the Four as well as the guy we know is destined to be the villain, Victor von Doom (with a name like that, how could he not turn bad?).
Usually in an instance like this the structure of the film would ...
