TL;DR – Honestly a bit of a disappointment
Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
I honestly don’t know where this film went wrong, it has a good cast, it clearly has talent working behind the scenes and it has an interesting premise, but in the end, it kind of feels like we have a movie that is just paint by numbers.
TL;DR – Not what it seems, which is good, because it is better than it seems
Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
Wow, what a fascinating film. To be perfectly honest I was not going to go see The Dressmaker, but a colleague of mine challenged me to see a film I would not normally see, and boy did I end up picking a good one. The Dressmaker tells the story of Myrtle ‘Tilly’ Dunnage (Kate Winslet) who at the start of the film is arriving back in her hometown of Dungatar after leaving as a child under the cloud of scandal. She is back to see her mother Molly (Judy Davis) who has in the preceding years suffered from dementia and become a recluse in her house, garnering the nickname Mad Molly. But for Tilly, time away from Dungatar has meant learning fashion design from the greatest minds of London, Paris and Milan and maybe, just maybe she can use her talents as a dressmaker to win over the town. And in a normal film that would be that, stick a couple of scenes of a shirtless Liam Hemsworth and call it a day, but The Dressmaker is more than that, and it is so much better for it.
TL;DR – A solid film but it makes you wish for more
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
The Bridge of Spies is the third historical film we have had in a row now and unlike Legend (see review) and Black Mass (see review) it is not a mob flick, instead, it is all about spies. As well as this, unlike the other two, it actually is really quite good. The Bridge of Spies is a film about the Cold War, a time of bipolar world powers bent on outmanoeuvring each other and the fear of nuclear obliteration was very real one. Within this context, both the US and the USSR mobilised extensive resources to spy on each other and inevitably people got caught.
TL;DR – Interesting but I doubt it will be remembered a month from now
Score – 3 out of 5 stars
Review –
Well, it seems like this is the time for a gritty retelling of true stories of the criminal underground and while last week’s Black Mass (see review) was a boring mess this week’s Legend is a little bit more interesting. While one should endeavour to review films on their own merits, it’s a bit hard not to compare the two films due to their similar content, the manner of presentation and proximity of release.
TL;DR – “This is … This is … This is…. ‘What?’ .. This is borrrrring” Scott Pilgrim
Score – 2 out of 5 stars
Review –
Black Mass is a ‘true’ story about how the FBI ended up being entangled with an Irish-American mobster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger from Boston in an attempt to take down the local Italian Mafia, leading to the FBI ‘unexpectedly’ backing Whitey into becoming the crime lord of Boston. So during Black Mass, we get to see the rise and fall of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and his Winter-Hill Gang, and that’s not a spoiler because they tell you that in the first couple of minutes of the film. Before we go on I cannot tell you how true the ‘based on True Events’ tag is, I mean I could research it, but the film honestly does not feel like it is worth the effort.
TL;DR – A movie with tension, humour and humanity, go watch it
Score – 5 out of 5 stars
Review –
The Martian is a film about adversity and challenge in an environment that will kill you, which would make a very interesting film, now take that environment and put it on another planet and then leave your protagonist alone as everything crumbles around them.
TL;DR – I feel like I have seen this movie, this is the same story over and over again, but it has its moments
Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
Pan is a story of how Peter Pan became the boy that never grew up, how Hook becomes Captain Hook and how Hugh Jackman decided that we was just going to have fun and ham it up for an hour and a half.
TL,DR – Is this the train wreck everyone said it would be, yes, this is an abomination of cinema, Do Not Waste Your Money On It.
Score – 0.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
There was a time a long, long time ago in a galaxy far away when I quite enjoyed Adam Sandler films. Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, 50 First Dates and The Wedding Singer are all classic films worthy of a re-watch. As time when on I just stopped liking them, but hey people grow up, tastes change, and you know Adam Sandler goes out of his way to keep his friends employed every year, so kudos to that. But as time goes on and it is just one terrible film after another, it has me wondering, is there ever going to be an Adam Sandler film that I like again?, is Pixels going to be that film?, No, no it’s not.
TL;DR – This is a film that does not know what it wants to be, and ends up just being a mess
Score – 2 out of 5 stars
Review –
When I walked into this film I knew nothing other than the title and the two leads, so I was interested to see something completely without any pre-held notions. Unfortunately, honestly, I think if I had found out more before I went, I probably would have given this a miss.
TL;DR – A really good action flick and an example of world building done right.
Score – 5 out of 5 stars
Review –
John Wick has been out on DVD/Digital Download for some time and with a sequel now on the cards, I thought I would have a look back at one of the better action films in recent times.
The basic plot of John Wick is that the titular character John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is a man who was once in deep in the Russian mob, and through an impossible act he freed himself and settled down with his new love, only for her to pass away. The last thing his wife did was buy John a puppy so he could move on from his grief. The son of the Russian Mob boss Iosef (Alfie Allen) mistakes him for an easy mark, this is an error, a grave error.
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50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
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freelance film critic with an interest in multilingualism, feminist perspectives in cinema and crime dramas.
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