Be careful what you wish for, I guess. 1999’s The World is not Enough was a James Bond film that seemed oddly unenthused and lazy, relying on old franchise traditions without any real sense of spark or effort. The next Bond feature, … Continue reading REVIEW: Die Another Day (2002)
1999 saw the release of Pierce Brosnan’s third film as British secret agent James Bond – and the 19th film in the franchise overall. The World is not Enough captures the EON production team at a high point of comfort: GoldenEye (1995) brought … Continue reading REVIEW: The World is not Enough (1999)
The runaway success of Romancing the Stone led 20th Century Fox and producer/star Michael Douglas to move quickly on a sequel, and true to their intentions The Jewel of the Nile hit cinemas in the USA just 21 months after its predecessor. All it … Continue reading REVIEW: The Jewel of the Nile (1985)
Romancing the Stone was a big deal back in 1984. It saw producer and star Michael Douglas try his hand at a broad action-adventure film, clearly riffing upon the success of the Indiana Jones films. It marked the commercial breakout of director Robert … Continue reading REVIEW: Romancing the Stone (1984)
The requirements for a good sequel are fairly clear. The audience wants more of the same, but they also want something different. A change of tone, a progression of the characters, a raise in stake, or whatever transformation a filmmaker … Continue reading REVIEW: The Expendables 2 (2012)
Ric Roman Waugh’s Greenland emerges as 2021’s first major surprise: yet another large-scale disaster movie, it leaps head-and-shoulders above its genre to become the strongest film of its type since Michael Bay’s Armageddon back in 1998. On the same day that it becomes … Continue reading REVIEW: Greenland (2020)
A hot Mediterranean sun blazes down on a violent gang of thieves in hiding in Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s self-consciously stylish crime thriller Let the Corpses Tan. Based on a pulp novel and primarily shot on location in Corsica, it is … Continue reading REVIEW: Let the Corpses Tan (2017)
Let us start with what usually happens. A film is made and becomes a small-to-moderate hit. There is not a huge appetite for a sequel – not in theatres at any rate – but there is enough brand value and … Continue reading REVIEW: Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018)
Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) breaks out of prisons for a living, using his unique skills set to find the weaknesses in America’s maximum security facilities. When he is hired by the CIA to undertake the same task on an international … Continue reading REVIEW: Escape Plan (2013)
It is a strange time for cinemas. In those countries where theatres are still open, and the risk is low enough, there is a remarkable dearth of Hollywood product. The big-budget tentpoles are all rattling down like pinballs through the … Continue reading REVIEW: Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
