Little Women Movie Review
Gerwig gives the film a contemporary feel with the liberal use of different timelines, yet offers few visual cues so it necessitates the need of the audience to pay close attention. She also plays on the actors strong points and minimises their lesser strengths. Although allowing Emma Watson’s occasional reversion to her English accent is an odd oversight.
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Often considered the American equivalent of what Jane Austin offered the British readers, minus the sharp ...
JoJo Rabbit Movie Review
Using Christine Leunens's novel Caging Skies as the nucleus for his project JoJo Rabbit finds the Kiwi in great form. Leunens's book about a Hitler youth who finds out his mother is harbouring a young Jewish girl in their house provides the basis for a Waititi screenplay that is rich in humour and subtext.
It’s a wild ride that jumps from being uproariously funny to being heartbreakingly sad without missing a beat. The emotions feel real and are never less than meaningful. In contrast, ...
Jumanji: The Next Level Movie Review
The film easily divides into two halves, with the less impactful opening stanza setting up essential the same storyline as the films that have come before but with a minor tweak that doesn’t really pay off. They add two new characters into game play, Eddie (Danny DeVito) and Milo (Danny Glover) and when Eddie is cast into the Dwayne Johnson character, the Rock just can’t do justice to the DeVito voice and his mannerisms.
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Later in the film when Awkwafina takes ...
Cats Movie Review
Oddest choice of all is not utilising the current state of the art for cinema sound with its amazing ability for massive soundscapes. Instead we often get thin eighties sounding synth line based music. Also very few of the cast members have strong voices, with the exception of Jennifer Hudson who gets to belt out the thrice repeated hit, Memories.
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Keeping things very stagy, most of the cast is adapt at the sinuous physicality and dance movements needed to ply the ...
The Gentlemen Movie Review
There are double and triple crosses a plenty in this examination of the marijuana trade and you don’t know where things really stand until the very last of its multiple endings. The byzantine script makes full use of the set up and the film ends with a final reveal that is a self-referential joy to behold.
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The cast is incredibly cool with naughty boy Hugh Grant providing the voiceover storyline and Charlie Hunnam showing he hasn’t lost any of his acting chops ...
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Movie Review
It pulls out all the stops in its effort to entertain and to bring the overriding story arc to a popular conclusion, this includes surprise cameos and events that have been on the cards for quite a while now. It provides almost too much information upon first view and will certainly divide the uber fan as few franchises have such vested followers.
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Even with a long running time of 141 minutes, there is little down time. The action is relentless as these characters ...
Playing with Fire Movie Review
The premise of an uptight workaholic, in this case, fire station leader Jake Carson (John Cena) being stuck with a trio of misfit children has worked in the past. The missing element here is a solid script with strong characters. The jokes, when they do arrive are just not funny enough to carry the film.
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There are some gross out moments that elicit a rumbling of laughs from the audience, but those moments are few and far between. Few comedies in recent memory have ...
Black Christmas Movie Review
Still set in the world of sorority houses, hazing and the holidays, we follow Riley Stone (Imogen Poots) as she recovers from a traumatic experience and tries to bond with her fellow sorority sisters. When a number of her friends go missing, she alone feels that something is not right.
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The film’s pacing does little to build the tension as its middle section is quite slow and doesn’t really take advantage of the underlying reason that the girls are going ...
The Good Liar Movie Review
Producer/director Bill Condon has a history with McKellen with Gods & Monsters and Mr. Holmes and does little to rein in his eccentricities. Mirren gives as good as she gets and does so with a thinly veiled look of superiority. With the ad and press campaign for the film leaving little doubt that both participants have something up their sleeves, the real surprises don’t arrive until the last reel reveal.
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The twist when it does come, will catch most by ...
Martha: A Picture Story Movie Review
That she did this on her own (without paid assignment) and at a time when street artists were considered criminals makes her work even more risky and remarkable. This aspect of her life forms the backbone of the film but it’s far from the defining factor. Martha, now in her mid-seventies has remained unconventional and still totally involved in documenting humanity in the world around her.
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The scenes where she risks injury and arrest to capture street art show ...
