Easily and obviously Ridley Scott’s best film since Black Hawk Down (2001), and instantly joining that film, Gladiator, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner and Alien as among the best of his 23-film oeuvre, The Martian is big-screen, all-ages, mass-market entertainment at its best. It excels in every department – cinematography, script, VFX, sound, design, editing – but perhaps most of all in casting.…
There is a strong argument to be had that Macbeth is the best play ever written – better than Hamlet, better than King Lear. It’s leaner and cleaner than those plays, with a relentless narrative drive, exceptional characters and an absolute cracker of a plot. It’s a natural for big-screen adaptation, and there have been…
Finally a film that I can say is really solid all around. Sicario is a dark, tense, drama/thriller about the drug war at the U.S. and Mexico border that offers a perspective of that war, and provides a strong narrative story as well. Emily Blunt plays Kate Macer, an idealistic FBI tactical agent that gets…
There’s nothing inherently wrong with Christian film as a concept. When it comes right down to it, it’s simply one more point of view. People make movies with all sorts of perspectives. They could be politically motivated, philosophically motivated, or often financially motivated. So, what’s so bad about somebody making a movie with a spiritual…
You know, it drives me crazy when a movie could be great if it just pushed the envelope a little further. Sadly, Cooties is just such a movie. It looked like so much fun, but just doesn’t go far enough in both the humor AND the gore aspects. The premise is silly enough: Something contaminates…
It’s been way too long since Johnny Depp has actually been in a role that wasn’t a comically overblown weirdo in a unfunny script. I think we’ve had enough pirate shenanigans from him, though vexingly there is yet another Pirates of the Caribbean movie to come, and surely Jonathan Frid of Dark Shadows fame should…
M. Night Shyamalan’s self-funded (five million dollar) mockumentary, The Visit, is a strange brew of humour and creepiness that seems to be intended for the teen market. Shyamalan has said that he recommends the youngest viewer be fourteen or above; I recommend the eldest being seventeen or below. Australian child actors Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould play…
Rename this flick Straight Outta Compton: The Authorised Biopic of NWA, and you’ll have no problem slurping up its many pleasures. Any perceived oversights, white-washings and re-writings of history can be relegated to the internet, while up on the silver screen, jazzy images, fine performances, and awesome music can be smugly devoured. Not that, even…
In the realm of stoner action comedies, American Ultra isn’t too bad. But what a weird genre to begin with, right? It seems sort of counter intuitive to have an action movie for stoners. Usually when you’re stoned, the last thing you want is action. You just want to laugh while you’re eating your pizza.…
A drama with a couple of laughs rather than a comedy, and more a philosophical discussion than a drama, Irrational Man is a very contained, very minor particle of Woody Allen’s huge cinematic universe, and it could’ve been a disaster were it not for the extremely committed performances of its three leads: Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and…