Arrival Movie Review
Amy Adams is Dr. Louise Banks, a linguist expert that the government recruits to help communicate with one of the alien entities that have arrived at twelve points around the globe. She is the soul of the story. Joining her is Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly, a theoretical physicist with a very well developed sense of wonder about the world.
The story is told in a non-linear manner and subsequently every scene must be paid attention too. The film is also shot with a very subdued colour ...
Doctor Strange Movie Review
It's about yet another rich, narcissistic, egotistical twat whose circumstance dictates a seachange to superheroism. It is heavily styled along the lines of Christopher Nolan's Inception but lacks his clever script to make the minutiae work. There are puzzling continuity errors - did nobody proof watch this movie? Equally puzzling are some of the action scenes that are extremely difficult to follow. Other scenes seem clunkily truncated - no doubt to be later expanded upon in a Blu-ray ...
The Accountant Movie Review
Affleck plays Christian Wolff, an autistic certified public accountant that also moonlights as an assassin. Wolff’s inability to really connect with other human beings adds a chilling reality to his actions and Affleck’s stoic portrayal feels accurate. Even the love angle is suitably underplayed.
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The film’s structure mixes enough back-story to flush out Wolff’s beginnings but not so much as to rob the film of its forward momentum. It builds to a satisfying climax while ...
Inferno Movie Review
The latest edition skips the third Brown book, The Lost Symbol and drops Harvard University professor Robert Langdon (Hanks) into the usual world of intrigue. Conspiracies play a more reduced role this time and the film plays out with more action and less intrigue. The action is largely set in Venice, which is an excellent choice as it’s one of the world’s most unique looking cities.
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The casting is not the film’s strongest suit as Hanks and lead actress Felicity Jones as his ...
Deepwater Horizon Movie Review
Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell are the heroes of the piece as their salt of the earth characters rise to the occasion and help to prevent a more serious loss of life through selfless heroism. The action is suitably claustrophobic as the isolation of the out-to-sea oil platform plays into the disaster.
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Berg’s decision to focus on the accident on the oil rig and reduce the ecological disaster that was cased by the oil leak to a small footnote at the end of the film robs the experie...
The Girl On The Train Movie Review
Every film viewing session, while being a great collective experience should be assessed without the bias of others. We’ve all had to endure watching films when those around us are so obviously not enjoying themselves. It enacts a real negative vibe and is as rude as those that chomp and plastic wrap rustle their way through the entire film.
Assessing The Girl On The Train as its own entity is also a bit difficult with so much press comparing it to Gone Girl. This sets up the audience ...
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Movie Review
Unafraid to unsettle his young target audience (if only just a bit), Burton keeps the creepiness quotient on a low boil while interspersing the proceedings with enough lightness to keep things on the sweet dreams side of nightmares. My 9 year-old was fine with it and, indeed, loved it. Think Coraline-level macabre but perhaps a touch more grisly.
It pays to keep your wits about you in order to follow the film's mild time-bending eccentricities but, if you keep up, it's not hard to ...
The Magnificent Seven Movie Review
After working together on Training Day and The Equalizer, director Antoine Fuqua continues his work with Denzel Washington and as usual doesn’t really push the actor to step much outside his established on-screen persona. It’s the strong, sullen and silent type once again from his lead actor.
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The film’s redeeming trait however is the strength of its ensemble cast and their diverse on-screen personalities. A number of the A-list actors do follow a somewhat well trod path, Chris ...
Snowden Movie Review
Snowden was a young and prodigious computer geek that got involved in the US government network of spies and its American citizen electronic scrutiny. He got pulled in, chewed up and spit out when the morality of the domestic spying regime overwhelmed him. He ended up paying a very heavy price for his ethics.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is outstanding as Snowden and it’s almost eerie how close his portrayal comes to the real person (especially brought to light in the film’s coda where the ...
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years Movie Review
In the early years, The Beatles cut their teeth playing an insane number of live gigs (highlighted by their time in Germany) but once they became known worldwide, did not play live that often. Eventually they stopped playing live altogether and became a studio only band. This was before the reform to play benefits industry caught on, so even that didn’t bring them back together again.
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Howard’s film focuses on their last great flurry of live gigs and liberally uses live footage ...
