Reviews in a nutshell
The mighty stag still holds a lot of comedy value, so much so Jon Turteltaub tried to do a geriatric version of The Hangover recently with Last Vegas that spawned a lukewarm response, even with a stellar cast onboard. Debut writer-director John Butler has tried to cash in on this fertile ground with his Irish …
Kevin Hart has fast become a US household name, only recently proving more notorious this side of the pond with his turn in the Stallone-De Niro boxing comedy Grudge Match. Now he’s fully exposed – as apposed to blasts of over-enthusiasm in the latter film, paired with stony-faced Ice Cube in cop comedy Ride Along …
If the Devil were running a company, Stratton Oakmont, the dubious stocks-and-shares brokerage house founded by infamous (former) white-collar criminal Jordan Belfort would be it. In fact, Belfort was possibly Satan incarnated. The 80s/90s antics of the real-life character – now a respectable businessman who has a cameo at the very end – is pure …
Star Vince Vaughn is up to his usual tricks in Ken Scott’s Delivery Man; that of ‘man child’ forced to grow up with the help of ‘the family’. Admittedly, he does curb some of his usual stream of prattle in this. There is a sense that the comic actor is trying to find the right …
Jon Turteltaub’s Last Vegas is obviously pitched as a ‘mature’ The Hangover with a crowd-pleasing, all-star cast of Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline, and Mary Steenburgen as the love interest. It has the potential of being quite a geriatric farce, and there are parts that are very funny in a …
The new Forrest Gump this is not, in terms of an iconic screen character, but actor-director Ben Stiller’s remake of the James Thurber classic 1947 short, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty has some life-assessing moments, some of which you may be stirred into making. In that sense, it has a poignant and ‘inspiring’ legacy …
Some might argue, why do another Anchorman film, given the low takings of the first back in 2004 (around $90 million mark)? The chauvinist, un-PC news dinosaur that is perfectly-coiffured newsreader Ron Burgundy – played by Will Ferrell – surely has said everything he needs to say back then. And if you didn’t like what …
The term ‘ladette’ is out-modish but once upon a time would have been apt in describing the female characters in debut director M.J. Delaney’s new Brit chick flick, Powder Room. All-female comedy has come a long way since, without the need for a weepy romantic bit. This is a cack-handed confidence boost in the guise …
Mary Poppins is a seasonal classic, and The Blindside director John Lee Hancock’s ode to her creator, Saving Mr Banks, the closing film of BFI LFF 2013, is likely to evoke the same euphoric highs. It hits all the right notes in an utterly charming, funny and well-meaning manner; part in thanks to the great …
