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)
Robert Rodriguez’s 2010 grindhouse riff Machete, starring Danny Trejo, is a creative misfire that takes a passable comedic sketch from Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse project and stretches it to an interminable feature length. Despite the occasional funny moment, this grindhouse spin-off is … Continue reading REVIEW: Machete (2010)
Walt Disney’s ongoing run of live-action adaptations of their past animated hits reaches a fresh height in creative futility with Niki Caro’s Mulan, a non-musical riff on the company’s 1998 hit. It would be deeply unfair to claim this remake is … Continue reading REVIEW: Mulan (2020)
The Expendables is a classic example of a film giving an audience exactly what it wants – whether that is a good thing or not. In its defence, for the large part that does seem a good thing: Sylvester Stallone’s deliberately generic film … Continue reading REVIEW: The Expendables (2010)
Johnnie To’s first – and, to date, only – international co-production does not quite scale the levels of inventiveness found in his Hong Kong-specific works, but Vengeance remains a beautifully staged and operatic action thriller. French chef Francis Costello (Johnny Hallyday) arrives … Continue reading REVIEW: Vengeance (2009)
Sam Raimi is a widely liked director of genre pictures; most audiences will know him for either his Evil Dead or Spider-Man movies. Wedged in-between, however, are a number of less famous films. Darkman, released back in 1990, is a personal favourite. It was the … Continue reading REVIEW: Darkman (1990)
The lovestruck manager of a Yokohama development project (Emoto Tasuku) falls in love with a construction worker (Mita Moa), but his affections are not reciprocated. When he childishly steals her name tag from the work site, the worker takes matters … Continue reading REVIEW: Beautiful New Bay Area Project (2013)
Young street musician Shinji Taki (Akira Kobayashi) wanders into the northern Japanese city Hakodate and straight into the affairs of local mob boss Akitsu (Nobuo Kaneko). Taki gets assigned to force a nearby family to vacate their house so that … Continue reading REVIEW: The Rambling Guitarist (1959)
Loosely adapting the popular television series, The Equalizer reunites star Denzel Washington with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua. If only the result was half as engaging as that film. In truth, The Equalizer is a lazy and overly padded bore. Washington plays … Continue reading REVIEW: The Equalizer (2014)
In a world experiencing a widespread viral outbreak, and with most cinemas closed and scheduled releases delayed, it has been a hard year for audiences seeking popular big-screen entertainment. Thankfully Netflix has been taking great advantage of the ‘new normal’, … Continue reading REVIEW: Enola Holmes (2020)
