REVIEW: Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Two years after his fight against the Green Goblin, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) struggles to balance his part-time job and university studies with his secret life as Spider-Man. Things look up when he meets the scientific genius Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) - but then a terrible accident transforms Octavius into the deranged super-villain Dr Octopus, ...
“We’re out of sake for the saint” | Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
Within Japan Humanity and Paper Balloons has long been celebrated as one of the greatest films ever made, as well as one of the most significant films in the jidai-geki, or period drama, genre. Internationally, however, it has remained obscure until very recently. Part of its problem is that its director, Sadao Yamanaka, died a year after ...
REVIEW: Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story (2018)
There is a huge range of subject matters available for a good documentary. The best to my mind are those that showcase something very real, but which you would be unlikely to believe unless someone had spend years putting together a documentary about them. That is certainly the case with Chris Sievey, an aspiring pop ...
REVIEW: The Nun (2018)
1952. When a nun in a remote Romanian abbey commits suicide, the Vatican dispatches Father Burke (Demian Bichir) and the novice Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) to investigate. Irene believes it is a run-of-the-mill, albeit unusual, assignment. Father Burke already knows that their mission is of a more supernatural nature. While every studio in Hollywood fights ...
REVIEW: Adrift in Tokyo (2007)
Long-time student and layabout Fumiya (Joe Odagiri) owes ¥800,000 to loan sharks. When a middle-aged thug named Fukuhara (Tomokazu Miura) comes to collect, he offers Fumiya a choice: either come up with the money in the next few days, or join Fukuhara on a leisurely walk through Tokyo and Fukuhara will give him ¥1,000,000 in ...
REVIEW: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise), an ex-major in the US army's military police, is drawn back into the fold when former colleague Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) is arrested for espionage. After investigating the incident, Reacher himself is framed for the murder of an army colonel. He and Turner break out of custody to bring down ...
REVIEW: The Woodsman and the Rain (2011)
In a small town in northern Japan lives Katsu (Koji Yakusho), a 60 year-old lumberjack. He's still grieving for his wife, who died two years earlier. He's fighting with his son, who seems to spend all day sitting on the couch watching television. When a film crew arrives from Tokyo to shoot a zombie movie, ...
