Retro Movie Review – Blade Runner 2049
As visual arresting today as the first edition was 35 years ago, Blade Runner 2049 asks as many new questions as it does answering questions of old. It’s visual mix of cultures and moods (complements of genius director of photography Roger Deakins) adds so much to each scene that the film is never less than visually stunning.
The story still raises questions about what it is to be truly human but from a slightly different vantage point than before and the main actors keep things as fluid ...
Retro Movie Review – Get Out
The story revolves around leaving the big city and going out to the country to meet the girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Along the way it touches on issues as diverse as rich white privilege, social injustice, true friendship and how often times people are completely different than the first impression would lead you to believe.
//
The direction is assured and important elements of the story arrive with perfect timing. For a first time director, this level ...
Retro Movie Review – Battle Of The Sexes
Emma Stone is quickly becoming the Meryl of her time and she is consistently outstanding in this and pretty much every film she stars in as of late. Steve Carell is also perfectly cast as the buffoonish Bobby Riggs. Using the actual audio from the original match (recorded back in 1973) really does show how ingrained the male chauvinism was at that time.
//
The film plays out like a time capsule of the day and the attention to seventies detail is outstanding. Even ...
Retro Movie Review – Baby Driver
Wright pulls remarkable performances from his entire cast. Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent) shows a real star turn as the enigmatic title character and both Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx really sell the menace as they both play great criminal psychos. Headmaster Kevin Spacey keeps them all together with a solid mix of benevolence and belligerence.
//
Special mention should also be made about the car chase scenes. Without any noticeable computer generated ...
Retro Movie Review – Kong: Skull Island
The cast is chock full of Hollywood A-Listers including a man of the moment, Tom Hiddleston, the always popular Samuel L. Jackson (in a bad guy role) and even an attempt at some form of indie cred with Brie Larson, here getting her best Lara Croft on following her star turn in Room. The other A-Lister is that big bad monkey man, who this time out is big but not so bad.
//
The locations are exotic and the sets are stunning and the emergence of the big guy is played to ...
Retro Movie Review – Spider-man: Homecoming
So with that in mind, it’s great to see Marvel relax the reins on Spider-man: Homecoming a bit and tell a story more character driven than special effects driven. The film’s lighthearted touch with an emphasis on humour makes it much more accessible than some of the recent overly serious Superhero films. It easily lives in the MU while comfortably standing alone. It even features a crazy credit at the very end of the film that sells laughs instead of product.
//
...
Retro Movie Review – Snowden
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 ...
Retro Movie Review – Deepwater Horizon
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.
//
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 ...
Retro Movie Review – Atomic Blonde
The story revolves around actions set in Berlin during the last dying days of the communist separation of that city. An end that came to fruition in 1989. As is evident in all good period pieces, the fashions and social values of the day are also the stars. The film pulsates with a great eighties soundtrack that adds even more to the feel of the decade the film is set in.
//
Theron as said super spy is impossibly skilled at her job and she plays it as badass as any ...
Retro Movie Review Logan Lucky
It’s also a work of two parts and while the first half struggles a bit to find its footing, in the second half, things pick up nicely. As in all good caper yarns, things are not always as they seem and the work’s internal logic by film’s end is most satisfying. Soderbergh as is his way, loads the film with a heavy duty cast and it’s great to see Daniel Craig play against his usual screen persona as Joe Bang, a bleach blonde career criminal with a way with science.
// ...
