There have been many haunted doll movies made over the years, Annabelle being the most recent until now. Robert the Doll a tale about the real life doll that inspired the Childs Play franchise, it’s just a shame the story is as wooden as the doll itself. Robert tells us the story of the Otto…
From the man who brought us Hooligans at War, Steven M Smith brings us Law of Survival. This is a film that totally eclipses the shambles that was the original hooligan movie that we previously reviewed here on Back to the Movies. Law of Survival revolves around Danny (Chris Bell) an ex-thug who’s life is…
If you’re a fan of entertaining espionage and exciting escapades, it’s been a banner year; 2015 has already seen the carefree fun of Mission:Impossible, the risqué rampage of Kingsman, and the playful parody of Spy. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. borrows a little from each of these categories, aiming to create a 60’s-infused action movie that…
Forget terrible Rotten Tomatoes scores and damning editorial pieces, nothing is quite as worrying as going to see a movie and having the cinema staff beg you not to buy a ticket. When “hello mate, one for Fantastic Four” is met with a desperate plea of “please sir, I cannot in good faith recommend that…
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…
