Risen Movie Review
Naturally, given the story, the torture porn of The Passion is mostly absent here and in its place is a fictionalised account of a Roman Tribune, Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), and his efforts to locate Jesus' (Cliff Curtis - makes sense) resurrected personage before he once again inspires Judaeans to reject the good, wholesome Roman way of life endorsed by Prefect Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth).
On the strength of the trailer, Risen looked to be an interesting study on the juxtaposition of ...
Deadpool Movie Review
Ryan Reynolds is the perfect man for the job and his ability to act the class clown and emote even with his face covered in a silly red and black mask is outstanding. He has finally found a role that utilizes all of his talents. Animator Tim Miller makes his directing debut with Deadpool and his sense of pace is spot on. He throws so many jokes and unique ideas your way that the fun doesn’t stop from the hilarious opening credits to the very end crazy credit (don’t miss it).
By now ...
Gods of Egypt Competition
In this action-adventure inspired by the classic mythology of Egypt, the survival of mankind hangs in the balance as an unexpected mortal hero Bek (Brenton Thwaites) undertakes a thrilling journey to save the world and rescue his true love. In order to succeed, he must enlist the help of the powerful god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in an unlikely alliance against Set (Gerard Butler), the merciless god of darkness, who has usurped Egypt's throne, plunging the once peaceful and prosperous ...
The Good Dinosaur Movie Review
Pixar are renowned for producing films of varied levity from the fun Finding Nemo to the much more serious Inside Out which is capable of reducing adults to a blubbering mess. They're all primarily aimed at kids though, so from a tyke's perspective they're all fun (mum and dad are just wusses).
From the outset (and on the strength of the promotional trailer), The Good Dinosaur looks like one of Pixar's lightweight affairs but upon viewing it quickly becomes apparent that there is a ...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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 ...
Spectre Movie Review
The feeling lingers that they started with an overall direction for the Craig films but ended up taking too many diversions along the way. Some of the reveals are far from the surprise the filmmakers intended. Also extending the realism and casting Bond as more human and less the gadget guy has worked with only half of the four films. This sombre realism worked well with Casino Royale and Skyfall, less so with Quantum of Solace and Spectre.
Even though Craig is contracted for one more ...
The Last Witch Hunter Movie Review
If you can get past Diesel's quietly hilarious Norse beard, The Last Witch Hunter is a reasonably fun fantasy action thriller. It’s Middle Ages sections hark to the sword 'n' sorcery cheapies of the early eighties (The Sword and the Sorcerer, Beastmaster, Krull et al) while it's present day sections are solid Ghostbusters/Men In Black type fare with a dash of Underworld thrown in for good measure.
It's all harmless fun, though the final showdown between the good guy and the bad girl is ...
