Joel Edgerton looks to shrug off his “oh what have I seen him in before?” status and prove himself as a Hollywood triple-threat by writing, directing (for the first time) and starring in The Gift. A quietly disconcerting thriller, the movie centres around Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall), an apparently contented couple who…
One of the big questions regarding Tom Cruise (excluding queries about his personal life) has to be: how long can he continue to up the ante on performing his own stunts as he gets older? The 51-year old returns to lead the franchise that he essentially owns, this time displaying his “balls of steel” in…
Touted by its marketing materials as “the best boxing movie since Raging Bull”, Antoine Fuqua’s sports-drama has generated considerable expectations for itself. Jake Gyllenhaal’s “beast-mode” physique and tales of production meetings taking place inside the gym have been all over the movie press in the build-up for Southpaw, but does the film live up to…
Warning: if you thought the opening scenes of Up were heart-wrenching, then get ready to cry yourself into dehydration during Inside Out – you may even consider catching it in 3D so that you can use the glasses to hide your embarrassingly watery eyes. Pete Docter’s newest animated feature is the raw definition of bittersweet…
Tarsem Singh continues in his apparent quest to never quite strike a suitable balance between style and substance; Self/Less, his latest directorial project, fails to find either concept over 116 minutes of unremarkable storytelling and uncharacteristically weak visual appeal. The story, which bears more than a passing resemblance to 1966’s Seconds, centres around New York…
Ant-Man is a must-see for those who prefer zany and absurd action in their comic-book adaptations. If The Dark Knight is the king of gritty superhero stories then Ant-Man is its polar opposite; rather than trying to mix a dark atmosphere with witty quips (e.g. The Avengers), director Peyton Reed has gone all-out to create…
Amy is a film so filled with frustrations, about what might have been and about what could have been done differently, that it is difficult not to feel drained upon leaving it. If indeed one can leave it, as director Asif Kapadia has assembled his portrait so effectively that it will likely linger with you…
In 2011, director Paul Feig changed the landscape for female-centric comedies with the smash hit Bridesmaids. Sticking with his muse in Melissa McCarthy, Feig now turns his attention to the James Bond trademarked secret-agent genre with Spy.McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a timid and desk-bound CIA agent who remotely directs her suave field counterpart, Bradley…
At one point during Terminator: Genisys, Kyle Reese exclaims “time travel makes my head hurt”. Truer words have never been spoken. This isn’t because the plot does anything intricate or intelligent with paradoxes or timelines, far from it; Genisys instead utilises time travel as a story convolution device. It throws multiple alternate realities at the…
In Mr. Holmes, Sir Ian McKellen gives a stunning portrait of an ageing Sherlock, dealing with the on-set of dementia and senility which is robbing the once Great Detective of his once great mind. This adaptation of Mitch Cullin’s novel ‘A Slight Trick of the Mind’ gives us an image of the ‘real’ Sherlock, now…
Let’s kick this review off with a quick bit of maths. Silvano Alves, the current Professional Bull Riders World Champion, has an average buck off time of 3.59 seconds. The Longest Ride, the new Nicholas Sparks adaptation from director George Tillman Jr, has an agonisingly lengthy running time of 128 minutes. Thus, in the same…
Much of what’s been written surrounding this big screen adaptation of the popular television show has, quite understandably, centred on the heavily sexist leanings of its portrayal of Hollywood life. Anyone familiar with the series during its original run will be aware of these criticisms, though whether or not its more committed viewership have any…
The transition from creating a successful indie-comedy film to directing the difficult revival of a classic and adored franchise can be no easy task, yet Colin Trevorrow has done exactly that. Following 2012’s Safety Not Guaranteed, a film made with a modest $750k, Trevorrow graduated straight into blockbuster leagues to take the reigns on a…
The one saving grace I can really identify in Survivor, is that it was all mercifully over before I even realised thanks to its bite-sized 96 minute running time. The film follows Milla Jovovich’s ‘Kate Abbot’, a hot-shot processor of visa applications (as thrilling as that sounds) at the American embassy in London. Kate must…
From the uncomfortable introduction through to the uneasy small talk, there are few things more awkward than the first minutes of a blind date. Between the probing questions and exaggerated answers, no-one is quite who they say they are in those difficult opening moments but you’d hope that at least their name isn’t a complete…
Acapalla groups in my eyes are the unsung heroes of music today with a talent that is seemingly overshadowed due to the lack of a physical instrument. However, Glee managed to make this prominent in the eyes of the public, bring acapala to the mainstream. Pitch Perfect surpasses Glee in my eyes, due to it…
