Retro Movie Review – Hotel Mumbai
The main trust of the film is the attack on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. This site was chosen for its opulence and the large numbers of Westerners that stayed there. We follow the plight of the humble hotel staff, most notably Anupam Kher as head chef Hemant Oberoi and Dev Patel as Arjun, one of his waiters. The staff are presented as selfless and brave. This reality is confirmed by the high number of actual staff members that were killed in the siege while protecting their guests.
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Retro Movie Review – The Nice Guys
Crowe is unafraid to play a role far removed from his usual on-screen persona and he lets his advancing age and lack of fitness give the role a realistic and well-worn feel. It’s one that is free from the false heroics that mar so many similar roles. Gosling gets the nuance just right between glamour boy idiot and heart of gold father. These two play off each other and the friendship that builds between them is so naturally developed; it’s a real pleasure to behold.
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Retro Movie Review – Terminator Genisys
The story throws a lot your way and it relies quite a bit on the viewer’s past knowledge of the Terminator film series and its liberal take on time travel. Most of the plot twists originate from that ethos and they are at times hard to follow. It also features a progression of special effects as the early reels show simpler CGI while the later reels try their best to blow your mind with what’s now possible with zeros and ones.
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The new cast play better with ...
Retro Movie Review – Minions
Its timeline starts from the beginning of time and quickly accelerates to the swinging sixties and as such makes for some very funny history lessons. It also rewards those looking for popular culture references with a wide range of improbable moments. The soundtrack is also fantastically period appropriate and the filmmakers spared no expense in securing the original songs by the original artists. The licensing fees must have been through the roof.
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The core of the ...
Retro Movie Review – Amy
When Winehouse broke out in the early noughties, she really stood out. Here was a jazz singer that wrote incredibly personal lyrics, had great vocal chops and delivered them with a looseness that ran counter to a lot of jazz singer’s rigid professionalism. That she was a hot mess only added to the original appeal.
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The film was made in the beginning with the family’s full approval but as the final cut came together their disapproval became pronounced and it’s ...
Retro Movie Review – Southpaw
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.
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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 ...
The Hunt Movie Review
This tale of what came first, the chicken or the egg is an ideal project for the times. It will create dialogue and opinions and fill a much needed gap in new film releases. Seen as social commentary it is cutting, as entertainment, outrageous and as feminist propaganda, empowering. It does all this and still remains escapist especially in these isolationist times.
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The idea of hunting humans for sport has been visited many times before on the big screen but never ...
Retro Movie Review – Django Unchained
When the rumours of Tarantino tackling the Western genre first surfaced, what a hundred years ago, it provided a number of great movie conservationist’s topics. Could his make cowboys look and sound cool? Could he recharge careers and get superlative performances from his regulars? Could he make an increasingly jaded audience stand up and cheer? In almost all categories the answer is a resounding yes.
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Few are unaware of the film’s basic synopsis after another ...
Retro Movie Review – Kingsman: The Secret Service
Colin Firth as Kingsman agent Harry Hart is flawlessly cast as our introduction to this world of perfect gentlemanly conduct and deadly killing precision. And in stark contrast to the recent proclivity of the Bond franchise to do away with all those cool spy gadgets, this film is littered with deadly hardware that would have made the old Q more than happy.
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Underlining the cool technology on display is a story based on character development, honour and paying back ...
Retro Movie Review – American Hustle
The always-outstanding British actor Christian Bale lays to rest the man in black for the new man in fat. His visual transformation is just one element of his transcendent performance. He has to act his butt off just to transcend that hairdo of his. Jennifer Lawrence adds to her building resume of great performances as Bale’s on screen wife who is both hilarious and clueless.
Bradley Cooper’s manic drug fuelled performance is also outstanding. Now no discussion of great roles in this ...
