Tag Archives: American Cinema

They Cloned Tyrone – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A weird and fascinating film, full of style and an ending that does not hold back.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

losing lotto card.

They Cloned Tyrone Review –

Blaxploitation films are a genre I am familiar with but not nearly as versed with as I should be. It is a world, a vibe, a style of filmmaking, and a world that I need to know more about. There is no better time than the present; if it stars one of the current generation’s best actors, that is just gravy.

So to set the scene, Fontaine (John Boyega) runs a drug empire in the local neighbourhood, but one constantly under threat by people moving into his territory. It is a dangerous world, and one day as he tries to get money owed to him by Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), danger catches up to him as he gets gunned down in his car. Fontaine is dead, dead-dead, making it all the more interesting when he wakes up in bed the next day.  

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Oppenheimer – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A visual spectacle and a masterclass in dissecting a complicated life.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains a scene that may cause distress.

Exploding Flames.

Oppenheimer Review –

Every now and again, my old life and new life collide in interesting ways. All those years of teaching and exploring Arms Control and Disarmament finally became relevant in my current career. The story of the Manhattan Project is fascinating, as was the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose scope I doubt even three hours can completely cover. But given my general love of Christopher Nolan’s work [see Inception and Dunkirk], I knew I could not miss this one.

So to set the scene, the world is at war as Germany marches across Europe and Japan across the Pacific. This is already a dangerous predicament, but the world of theoretical physics has been running leaps and bounds forward, and everyone can see the endpoint, a bomb, a bomb of devastating potential. What happens if the Nazis get a bomb that can destroy cities? As the world scrambles, only one person in America can lead the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). However, his past might contain more problems than the government can handle.

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Barbie – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A deeply sincere film, swinging for the fences. Not everything lands, but you can’t dismiss the passion.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Barbie and Ken.

Barbie Review –


If you had asked me which film would have captured everyone’s attention in 2023, I honestly would not have expected it to be Barbie. That is just my biases being shown in full light for all to see. But with every set photo, every casting announcement, and every trailer, you could feel this surge of excitement, and it shows just how good the marketing team behind the movie is and the building excitement to see what a live-action Barbie film could look like. Well, today, that wait is over, and we can dive into a world full of pink where life might still be plastic, but it’s fantastic.

So to set the scene, in Barbie Land, we have a world where a day is not a day without a blowout party with a bespoke song and extensive choreography. In this serene world with pink buildings and gleaming coast lives Barbie (Margot Robbie). Things are looking good. Well, when you have a waterslide from your bedroom to the pool, that is a certain wondrous luxury. But in this wonderous world, Barbie starts to have an existential crisis that manifests itself in different ways, like flat feet. Trying to find a purpose, Barbie decides, after some pushing from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), to visit the real world to find the truth about the universe, oh and Ken (Ryan Gosling) stowaways for the ride as well.  

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While some aspects don’t quite work, I would say this is a nice epilogue to the Indiana Jones franchise.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Indy in a tomb.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Review –

We have seen many films try to recapture the past with a middling effect, hoping that nostalgia will lead to a quick buck. But rarely do you see them try to pivot that nostalgia to create a swansong for a character. Well, that is sort of what we get today, with a legacy film that is not looking to pass the torch but raise one last drink before the bar closes.

So to set the scene, it is the closing months of WW2 and Indy (Harrison Ford) is trying to infiltrate a castle in the French Alps that the Nazis are using as a staging post to ship back all their looted goods as France is reclaimed. He and Basil (Toby Jones) are after the Lance of Longinus [the spear that pierced Christ’s side], but it is whisked away on a train. While the Spear turns out to be a fake, on the train, Nazi physicist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) discovers something much more valuable. It is now 1969, and Indy is feeling bitter with the world after the death of his son and the failure of his marriage, but when Basil’s daughter and his god-daughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), arrives looking for the item they stole from that train, darker forces might be just on her heals.

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Nimona – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A delightful tale of two misfits that find each other when they need them the most.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Nimona shapeshifts into a Whale

Nimona Review –

Very rarely does a cancelled film get a second chance at life, even less so with animation, but this is what we are getting today. Coming back from the dead with an interesting animation style and a story that takes no prisoners.   

So to set the scene, a long time ago, there was a kingdom at peace, but there was a monster waiting to attack, and attack it did. A glorious hero Gloreth defeated the monster and put in place champions to make sure this never happened again. One thousand years later and the new knights are about to be knighted, where generations of tradition are being put aside as a commoner Ballister Blackheart (Riz Ahmed) might become the champion over other nobles, including Gloreth’s own descendant Ambrosius Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang). But when Ballister’s blade was bobby trapped, and the Queen (Lorraine Toussaint) is killed, he has to go on the run when he comes across his biggest ally or trap in the shapeshifting Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz).  

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No Hard Feelings – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While I appreciate that it is trying to have something to say about class relations and Jennifer Lawrence’s physical comedy chops, the narrative just didn’t land for me.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Jennifer Lawrence

No Hard Feelings Review –

Comedy films directed only at adults can be a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, they can go to extremes that you just can’t do in more family fair. However, it can just be an excuse to hit below the most common denominator. If you will be crass, you need to be at least thoughtful about it. Today we are looking at a film that is at least trying the latter.

So to set the scene, Maddie Barker (Jennifer Lawrence) is an Uber driver and waitress in the summer holiday town of Montauk, New York. While she lives in the house bought by her mother, she can’t afford the property tax that has dramatically excecated as all the rich people from New York come to buy summer homes. After having her car towed, her primary source of income, she is lost with what to do until she sees an ad in the paper. Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison Becker (Laura Benanti) are concerned about their son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman), who is primarily a recluse. Percy is going to Princeton next year, and they fear he will not survive. So, they are paying Maddie with a car to “Date” their son and get him out of his shell.

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Extraction 2 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It might not stick the landing, but it was a good action romp until then.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Chris Hemsworth stare down in an elevator.

Extraction 2 Review –

When I watched the first Extraction, I found it to be a film that barely had a working narrative, with just enough connective tissue to move from action set piece to action set piece. But each action set piece was strong enough to carry the film to its conclusion. But given the first film went to 100% and stayed there, was there room for them to go any further in the sequel? This is the question I sought to find out when I sat down to watch Extraction 2.  


So to set the scene, Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is feared dead until he washes ashore on a river in Bangladesh, barely clinging to life. He is medically evacuated to Dubai, where they can save his life, but Tyler is faced with an immense mountain of physical therapy because of his wounds and is unsure if he has the strength to make it through it. In Kojori, Georgia, local underworld figure Zurab’s (Tornike Gogrichiani) brother Davit’s (Tornike Bziava) prison sentence was extended, and Zurab is murdering the local governor kind of upset. Nik Kahn (Golshifteh Farahani) and her brother Yaz Kahn (Adam Bessa) set Tyler up in a cabin on the side of a lake in Gmunden, Austria, to try and give him some drive to recover. When Alcott (Idris Elba) gives him a mission, he has to get his sister-in-law, Davit’s wife Ketevan (Tinatin Dalakishvili), and her children out of the prison that Davit has locked them up in. It is a simple mission. What could go wrong?    

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The Flash – Movie Review

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TL;DR – Through all its pre-production issues, the final product is a blast of fun, but I am not sure it would have the staying power on repeat watches.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

The Flash running at speed.

The Flash Review –

We are entering quite a tricky period for Superhero films. While they have been the dominant media property over the last decade, the shine is starting to come off the genre. While we will probably not see the great Western collapse again, how many players does the industry have room for? Can you still engage with a property you know is about to be rebooted? And can multiverses still work? These are some of the questions we will look at with our review of The Flash today.

So to set the scene, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is living his life as part of the Justice League, but not as a leading figure as we see when Alfred (Jeremy Irons) calls him up before his morning breakfast to help clean up some of Batman’s (Ben Affleck) mess in Gotham City. But while he is very good at catching babies, the main issue in his life is trying to get his father, Henry (Ron Livingston), out of jail. He is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, and Barry’s mother, Nora (Maribel Verdú), something Barry knows his dad did not do, but no one listened to him because he was just a kid at the time. In his frustration, Barry runs so fast that he breaches the speed of light and begins to transverse back and forwards in time, and surely nothing bad can happen from that.  

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Transformers Series Review – Exploring the Past

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TL;DR –.We explore the highs and lows, and lows, of the Transformers film series.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+/Amazon Prime services that viewed these films.

Transformers –

We might be in the era of nostalgia, but that does not mean that current films can capture what made those original properties soar. An excellent example of this is Transformers, a series that swings wildly in quality and in how it connects with the series it is based on, and now I have watched them all.

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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a solid entry in the series that shows that there are still legs under this franchise, even if it does end in a very predictable way.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film

Optimus Prime

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review –

For a long time, it felt like the Transformers Franchise was destined to but absolute garbage, maybe occasionally dipping into mediocre. Then Bumblebee happened, and for the first time since maybe 2007, it felt like someone who understood the characters was taking a crack at the series, and good things happened. However, was this an anomaly or a start of a new trend? That is what we are exploring today.

So to set the scene, on a world a long time ago, a planet is under attack in a galaxy far away. But this is not just an invasion, for the planet eater Unicron (Colman Domingo) is here to not only consume the planet wholesale, but he sends his minion Scourge (Peter Dinklage) down to secure the Transwarp Key from the Maximals so that he can warp to any planet in the Universe and consume it. Apelinq (David Sobolov) fights to give his Maximals time to escape, and the key is lost. Back on Earth, it is 1994, and it has been seven years since the Autobots arrived at the end of Bumblebee, and their short pitstop has turned into a prolonged stay as they can’t find a way off the planet. This pains Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen). Still, when Elena Wallace (Dominique Fishback) accidentally reveals part of the Transwarp Key, he sees an opportunity, but the Autobots are not the only ones who spotted the key’s energy signature.   

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