Reviewed by Freda Cooper There are two Gerard Butler films around at the moment. One sees him explaining Scottish slang. The other is Den Of Thieves. This is a movie that’s bursting to be something else. With its chases and gunfire, it fancies itself as the DeNiro/Pacino face-off, Heat (1995), but its ambitions don’t stop there. It also sees itself as something of a Sicario (2015), especially when a gun…
Read MoreFilm Releases: Weekly Round Up
A round up of this week’s new releases by our Editor Linda Marric The Maze Runner: The Death Cure The third and final instalment of this very popular dystopian trilogy sees it opening with a bang. An impressive action set piece which could rival any thriller worth its salt. The film is however sadly let down by a meandering screenplay which doesn’t seem to have got the memo that less…
Read MoreFilm Review: Native
Reviewed by Lee Hill For an independent filmmaker, a first feature, without access to the near unlimited technical and financial resources of a major production entity or studio, is always a gamble. It is one thing for a new director and company to argue that “less is more”, but another thing entirely to pull off this aesthetic if one small, but significant aspect of the project misfires. It’s no surprise…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Commuter
Reviewed by Linda Marric Sticking to what he does best, this week sees the return of Liam Neeson in yet another action packed thriller which is as ridiculously outlandish as we have come to expect from this most unlikely of action stars. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop, Orphan, House of Wax), The Commuter is the kind of production which doesn’t seem to care about convincing story-wise, nor does it seem…
Read MoreFilm Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Reviewed by Freda Cooper It was only a matter of time. One of the brothers McDonagh had to hit the jackpot. Big brother John Michael had made The Guard, Calvary and, more latterly, War On Everyone. Martin had In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths under his belt. And now he brings Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri to the screen – the most cumbersome of titles for a film which is the…
Read MoreFilm Review: All The Money In The World
Reviewed by Freda Cooper Only two months ago, a large question mark hung over the fate of Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World. We all know why and we all know what happened next. Rather than have his film shelved, the director reverted to his original choice of Christopher Plummer to play billionaire J Paul Getty and re-shot his scenes in just six weeks.
Read MoreFilm Review: Walk With Me
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines The introspective and sedate documentary Walk With Me, from directors Marc J. Francis and Max Pugh, works as a soothing balm to a hectic mind, much like the mindfulness practice that the Zen Buddhist pioneer Thich Nhát Hanh introduced to the west. Thich Nhát Hanh was forced to leave Vietnam in the sixties when his efforts towards peace were not appreciated. Now 91, Walk With Me…
Read MoreFilm Review: Brad’s Status
Reviewed by Lee Hill Ben Stiller is Brad Sloan, a Generation Xer suffering from a serious case of mid-life crisis blues. On the surface, Brad seems to have a pretty good life in suburban Sacramento. He is married to an attractive loving wife, Melanie (Jenna Fischer) works in the California state legislature, while Brad runs a small NGO that links worthy charities to philanthropists. Their only child, Troy (Austin Abrams),…
Read More