Retro Movie Review – In The Loop
The film is predominantly dialogue based and a lot of the humour is quite quick so attention must be paid but it’s a hilarious world to enter. A place where everyone has their own agenda and is not afraid to do what ever they can to make things happen. Morality and virtue definitely take a backseat to self-serving and narcissistic behaviour.
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The television show’s documentary style and handheld camera look is mostly kept intact as are the chances for the actors ...
Retro Movie Review – Argo
The story revolves around the efforts of a CIA operative Tony Mendez (Affleck) who concocts and implements a fantastical plan to help six American diplomats escape from Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. The plan to have them escape by posing as members of a film crew making a science fiction film called Argo sounds like a plan that only Hollywood types could come up with and that is partially true.
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Two real tinsel town insiders’ help with the plan ...
Retro Movie Review – Girls Trip
There are not a lot of surprises in store via the script but what they get just right is the chemistry between the four friends and how shared time together actually does build a bond that can transcend time. The humour runs the gambit from adult humour to juvenile shenanigans that are every bit as childish as dude road movie’s stock in trade.
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Friends getting back together after life has driven them apart is a tale often told on screen but there is a genuine ...
Retro Movie Review – Dallas Buyers Club
Back in 1993 when McConaughey starred in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused as the twenty something loser David Wooderson, few would have imagined an Oscar in his future but the almost complete transformation of both his appearance and acting skills in Dallas Buyers Club is nothing short of amazing. From rom-com lite to serious leading man.
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His character in DBC, Ron Woodroof is a homophobic rodeo cowboy past his prime who contracts HIV from heterosexual ...
Retro Movie Review – Black Swan
I’ve read director Darren Aronofsky sees this as a companion piece to his 2008 film, The Wrestler and it’s easy to see why. Both are an examination on the extremes one will go to for their art. However in this case he ramps things up visually and thematically into a full-scale assault on the senses. This film engenders absolutely no passive feelings.
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The demand Aronofsky places on the audience is a mirror of the demands he placed on his cast members and the ...
Retro Movie Review – 127 Hours
James Franco plays Aron Ralston, a hyper young man who can climb, cycle and navigate with the best of them while sprouting existential dialogue and giving all those around him a running travelogue. Unfortunately for him in this case, his loner characteristics take over and he ventures forth into Robbers Roost, Utah by himself.
The isolated area, once used as a hide out by Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang is filled with huge rock formations and an almost hidden underworld between the ...
Retro Movie Review – The Beguiled
The film is period correct and set during the later part of the American Civil War. It examines the effects of isolation and a group dynamic during a prolonged period of conflict. These circumstances guide the actions of both the innocent and the guilty. It offers this information with little opinion and you are left to follow your our path into the character’s actions.
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The cast is filled with some heavy hitters. Colin Ferrel reprises the Clint Eastwood role ...
Retro Movie Review – Crazy Heart
Bereft of luck and reduced to playing in bowling alleys and coffee shops, Bad Blake is in the twilight of his career and barely holding on. His alcoholic and stubborn ways have prevented him from enjoying the gilded life that many of his contemporaries are enjoying. This includes one of his earlier writing and performing partners, Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell).
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The film’s believability is greatly aided by the fact that Jeff Bridges can actually play and sing. The ...
Retro Movie Review – Central Intelligence
They get to ply their trade delivering a script that doesn’t have a mean bone in its body. It’s quite refreshing to experience a comedy that doesn’t resort to the usual snide and put down ethos that seem to dominate the current crop of movie comedies.
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The set up is certainly silly. Overweight high school geek returns as super buff superman CIA agent (who loves the film Sixteen Candles) and reunites with the only fellow student that treated him with any ...
Retro Movie Review – The Disaster Artist
Now using one of the most unintentionally funny films of all time as fodder for a film about a film has yielded comic gold. James Franco nails the role of The Room’s creator Tommy Wiseau (minus the middle age creepiness) and has never been more fearless or funny. It’s also a family affair and features his brother Dave as a co-lead actor.
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The Room was beyond bad and feels as if it was alien in origin while The Disaster Artist feels Hollywood through and ...
