John Hillcoat’s Triple 9 (2016) mixes good ideas and bad. It is well-cast and slickly directed, but it is also messily written. In many ways it is a solid pastiche: part-James Ellroy, part-Training Day, and part-Grand Theft Auto V. It also subverts … Continue reading REVIEW: Triple 9 (2016)
There is a superbly tense sequence in Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion. Co-protagonist Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is crawling through the undergrowth while a hulking feathered dinosaur with absurdly long blade-like claws sniffs the air in search of her. She … Continue reading REVIEW: Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
Almost all videogame movies are crap, goes the general sentiment. Since the early 1990s popular cinema has been littered with the corpses of failed blockbusters, murdered by audiences after being poorly equipped and armed by numerous production companies, studios, and … Continue reading REVIEW: Uncharted (2022)
Perversely given a wide cinema release earlier this year, Robert Eggers’ The Northman is a grim and spectacularly obtuse viking thriller. The masses failed to connect with it, which given Eggers’ atmospheric style and deep cultural immersion is not a surprise. For … Continue reading REVIEW: The Northman (2022)
The Princess, which recently premiered on Hulu and Disney+, seems both a simple and strange movie. Simple because it is one of the most propulsive and direct action films of the year so far. Strange because its non-stop violent action … Continue reading REVIEW: The Princess (2022)
Ernie Barbarash’s 2015 action film Pound of Flesh is a fascinating artefact. It is not due to its screenplay or production values, which are poor, nor is it due to its star Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film is set in Manila, yet … Continue reading REVIEW: Pound of Flesh (2015)
The makers of Norwegian disaster pictures The Wave (2015) and The Quake (2018) are back for a third cataclysmic round in John Andreas Anderson’s The Burning Sea (2021). There is nothing particularly innovative or inventive about Anderson’s film: a disaster strikes, one character is trapped and … Continue reading SFF REVIEW: The Burning Sea (2021)
Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 action film Point Break is, as they say, “a keeper”. It is more than 30 years old, and yet there are things it still has to teach action movie directors today. Its visual sense and choreography, and particularly its … Continue reading REVIEW: Point Break (1991)
Here’s the thing about Matt Reeves’ The Batman: the film is great. It is impeccably cast with actors who absolutely shine in their roles. It is beautifully shot and wonderfully atmospheric. Michael Giacchino’s score dominates from end to end, like a mournful … Continue reading REVIEW: The Batman (2022)
One of the longest-running film series in the world was Daiei Studios’ Zatoichi. They starred Shintaro Katsu as the titular blind samurai-turned-masseuse, and ran for 26 feature films and 100 episodes on television. It has been revived and adapted since – even … Continue reading REVIEW: The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
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