Reviews in a nutshell
It’s hard to fathom the big picture of the anticipated Ridley Scott-Cormac McCarthy collaboration, The Counsellor, apart from the obvious that greed is bad news, as is being embroiled in the drugs trade at any level. As a thriller, it’s stuffed with well-intentioned but wordy statements uttered by a crowd-pulling cast looking rather grand, including …
Boy A director John Crowley’s new British thriller starts by meaning business with the shocking but understated power of CCTV in its opening scenes that prompt us that we’re all under surveillance. Indeed, the UK is one of the most ‘watched’ lands, but how much good does it do us? This is one of two …
A fitting film to open this year’s BFI London Film Festival, Captain Phillips holds one of Tom Hanks’s finest and most raw performances to date. Coupled with Green Zone and United 93 director Paul Greengrass’s snappy direction and multitude of camera angles to capture every moment and reaction, the pace never eases and the intensity …
It’s safe to say, there would be little of interest to Kevin Macdonald’s (The Last King of Scotland) How I Live Now if it weren’t for the ever-beguiling Saoirse Ronan at the helm. Perhaps he knows this as the production compliments her every thought and expression in this apocalyptic story set in the not-too-distant-future in …
Some thrillers need more than a touch of style and an attractive cast; they need a substantial storyline. It’s not that Runner Runner doesn’t initially promise something meaty to bite on and the chance to watch it all play out in sunny Costa Rica, it’s just things fizzle out and become mediocre when we’ve soon …
Coming third in the People’s Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival this year, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve and Contraband writer Aaron Guzikowski’s dark thriller Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, packs a blood-chilling and sickening punch for any parent. It also questions just how far you would go to find a missing loved …
If you were a tad disappointed with John McClane’s escapades in the latest Die Hard film (A Good Day To Die, 2013), fear not, Independence Day director Roland Emmerich gives you a younger version of Willis in Channing Tatum as white-vest-wearing, gun-totting John Cale (even the name sounds similar) in White House Down. This is …
Meant to pick up where 2010’s Insidious left off, writer-director James Wan and co-writer Leigh Whannell place us in the company of the unfortunate Lamberts again, only this time at grandma Lorraine’s (Barbara Hershey) residence. The first thing that springs to mind is just why Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) hasn’t run for the hills with …
Just the title alone means business, and sounds like something from the Scream franchise will be re-enacted here. However, this is a smarter-than-average and well-paced home invasion horror that has both gore and sniggers from horror filmmaking duo, director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett, who reunite several cast members from their 2010 film, A …
