Tag: Mark Strong

Kingsman: The Secret Service ****

Ever wondered what injecting a Bond film with a bit of comic-book madness would be like? Kick-Ass writer director Matthew Vaughn – who teams up with co-writer Jane Goldman again – has the answer: Kingsman: The Secret Service. It’s part-spy, part comic-book caper that doesn’t take itself seriously. Testament of Youth star Taron Egerton plays …

LFF 2014: The Imitation Game ****

The life of the brilliant-minded Alan Turing is not known by most. That will certainly change after this film, The Imitation Game, with the genius British logician and cryptologist forever associated with cracking the Nazis’ Enigma Code and helping the Allies win World War II. But inventor of the modern-day computer – as is suggested here, …

Kick-Ass 2 **

Those hoping for a repeat of the cool shock tactics of Kick-Ass might come away feeling rather short-changed after watching the sequel. Granted, all the key characters are back, in particular, Kick-Ass himself and the petite purple dynamo Hit-Girl that sees Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Chloë Grace Moretz take up their costume-clad roles respectively, verses Christopher …

Welcome To The Punch ***

Stylish Brit crime thrillers seem two a penny, and it takes a very different perspective to produce one that stands out from the crowd in this day and age. Shifty Director Eran Creevy’s gritty and sassy London-based drama Welcome To The Punch echoes recent Brit flicks like The Sweeney in design, showing an alluring but …

John Carter ***

Writer-director Andrew Stanton tries his hand at live action this time, putting some of his fun Pixar magic from the likes of award-winning Finding Nemo and Wall-E into John Carter, an other-worldly adventure staged on Mars – or Barsoom, as adapted from Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs’s work, A Princess of Mars. Whatever faults this …

Black Gold **

The prospect of another, more contemporary Lawrence of Arabia that focuses on relevant current affairs in the region today, and with big acting names involved is an attractive proposition, especially as Black Gold has been producer Tarak Ben Ammar’s long-time goal by bringing the finer points of Hans Ruesch’s rousing novel South Of The Heart …

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****

Tomas Alfredson came to attention in 2008 after his atmospheric thriller, the acclaimed Let The Right One In, about a young boy who befriends a vampire. The Swedish director now takes his chills-making expertise and coolly applies it to a John le Carré spy thriller adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and adds a spectacular …

Green Lantern **

You can hear the fanboys/girls buzzing away with anticipation at yet another comic-book adaptation bursting onto the big screen this week – with more ticket-hiking 3D promises. Indeed, Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern is probably one of the most down-to-Earth (pardon the pun) and human of the majority of superheroes in the DC world, so …

The Way Back – 3*

With highly respected film-maker Peter Weir (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) behind a new adventure, you know you are in for a visually stunning treat, born of meticulous planning and hard graft to get it factually right. The Way Back is no exception to the Weir catalogue of cinematic triumphs, a …