Retro Movie Review – Sicario
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.
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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 ...
Retro Movie Review – Foxcatcher
How a member of one of America’s richest families comes to murder an American Olympic star is one of the strangest tales ever told and even with the liberties taken with time lines and some of the actions on screen, the story remains true to life and true to being very bizarre.
Almost unrecognizable under make up and facial prophesises, Steve Carell as John Eleuthère du Pont drops the dry funny man stick and delivers the performance of his career, albeit a very creepy one. From his ...
Retro Movie Review – The Theory of Everything
The life and times of theoretical physicist, cosmologist and million selling author Stephen Hawking is told via a screenplay based on a book by his first wife of thirty years, Jane Wilde. We are given a window into his life from his early years and get to spend time with him before the revenges of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) took over his body.
While the force of the man’s will and his defiance of the medical profession’s estimate of the time of his demise is very inspiring, ...
Retro Movie Review – Senna
His career also ran parallel to the dawn of the new media age pertaining to live sport, so his life was very well documented visually, so well in fact that the film is built entirely from actual footage from his career, while a large part of the film’s dialogue comes from Senna himself.
It’s a masterful job of blending archival footage, spoken snippets from Ayrton himself and comments from some media experts that knew him well. There is also family footage that nicely places the ...
Retro Movie Review – Chappie
The story revolves around a computer sciences geek Deon Wilson (played by Dev Patel, he of Slumdog Millionaire, The Newsroom and Best Exotic Marigold Hotel fame) who creates an Artificial Intelligence program to help his robots achieve a level of human consciousness. His place of employment has already used his technology to build robots that the police use to enforce the law in Johannesburg. Upper management is opposed to this, so he goes rogue to complete the task. This is when the story ...
Retro Movie Review – Focus
Will Smith plays a hyper intelligent and suavely smooth career con man with one major flaw and it’s one you have to wait until film’s end to assess. He plays off the somewhat naive Jess, played by Margot Robbie in her first major role after her breakout appearance in The Wolf of Wall Street.
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In line with most flicks of this ilk, there is a large group of co-conspirators and victims and it’s very enjoyable to find out which is which. The sets and background ...
Retro Movie Review – The Martian
It is equal parts thriller and scientific exploration and focuses on the human resolve to rise to the occasion and survive despite all the odds. Matt Damon is fantastic as the hyper intelligent astronaut that due to circumstance gets left behind on an aborted manned mission on Mars.
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His approach to survival is based around his scientific knowledge and raw will to live but it is tempered by irreverence towards his circumstance and to the authority figures that he ...
Retro Movie Review – The American
The story revolves around a hit man played with icy cool by George Clooney who is on the lame after the tables have been turned on him and he finds himself an intended target for termination. He hides out in a small Italian town that seems familiar to him and pretends to have a somewhat normal life.
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Unfortunately this normalcy is only applicable to someone with no discernable job but lots of money and one whose only real human contact is with a priest with a ...
Retro Movie Review – The Lego Movie
The underlying message is a positive one (believing in yourself and seeing greatness in everyday moments) but really even if the theme was completely saccharin, who could take that much offense when it is delivered by yellow plastic beings with hooks for hands!
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The jokes fly fast and furious while the filmmakers get the mix of adult humor and childlike wonder spot on. There is also the fun of identifying the voice actors. The list includes Morgan Freeman, Jonah ...
Retro Movie Review – A Single Man
The film, based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood, does have a very distinct visual look. This at times almost robs the film of its emotional impact by being a bit too obvious but the window into the soul of its main character George Falconer (Firth) is so strong, it helps to keep the focus. George is an English Professor practicing his trade in California in the early sixties.
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He has suffered a tremendous personal loss and is barely hanging on. His British ...
