EDDIE THE EAGLE ... this "biopic" about Eddie Edwards, the British ski jumper who awed the world at the Calgary olympics for all the wrong reason, is so far removed from the facts it's hard to call it a biopic at all. But fuck - it's tons of fun. It has a likable schlub for a lead (Taron ...

THE NICE GUYS ... Shane Black's most recent film, a story about two PIs who investigate a murder of a porn star in 1977. los angeles, is just enough funny and entertaining to keep you engaged for its duration - but nothing else. Crowe and Gosling are funny, the girl playing Gosling's daughter is gr...

CRIMINAL ... this story of a rough convict (Kevin Costner) being implanted memories of a CIA operative (Ryan Reynolds) in order to save the world from an evil anarchist is as original as...well, something wholly unoriginal. But it works! It's a thrilling 2 hours, it's competently shot and Costner h...

HARDCORE HENRY ... I have enjoyed this otherwise quite silly film like nothing recently. The story is not much of a story, just a pretext - evil mobster wants to make a clone army and one his subjects escapes. It's the execution which stands out, as HARDCORE HENRY is shown completely from first per...

Alien Redrum wrote:As a huge fan of Mann's work, that movie was fucking horrible.

It's frustrating. I really enjoyed some parts, ie. the visualisation of a hack attack. But everything else is fairly stale.

BLACKHAT ... this story of a dangerous hacker threatening world economy starts off pretty intense, but the excitement dries up after a big shootout in the middle and second half fully exposes the script's shortcomings. Michael Mann is in fine form, but even his capable direction can't save you from...

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA ... old school epic about a Nantucket whaler which runs afoul of a huge ass white whale is entertaining enough to keep you in it, but it offers no real value outside of that. Still, it's beautifully shot, Chris Hemsworth is very charismatic as the sea-savvy first mate, and i...

BRIDGE OF SPIES ... I can totally see someone else - say, Scorsese - taking this script and making a taut cold war spy thriller from it. But not Spielberg. For this purpose, he takes the Capra route, with Tom Hanks being his "aw, schucks" James Stewart as a honourable lawyer who is thrown...

KINGSMAN : SECRET SERVICE ... it is not such a great shame that James Bond went crap recently, because we have a lot of similar films which are better than the inspiration material. There was the aforementioned U.N.C.L.E, but Kingsman takes things one step further - it reestablishes the connection ...

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E ... this attempt to concoct an origin story of a multi-national spy team which combats global whatever, and also revive interest in an old television show, fell flat on its ass at the box office more-less. And I will add it is a rather undeserving verdict, for this film is qu...

MAD MAX : FURY ROAD ... once you move away from all the gloss and sheen this film subjects you to, you eventually figure out that George Miller has just did what he wanted to do 35 years ago but had no proper funding for it. Is FURY ROAD a bad film? No, it's dynamic (in parts), it's well shot, it's...

RUN ALL NIGHT ... Liam Neeson (who else?) plays an aging hitman for the Irish mob in New York, reduced to playing santa at christmas parties. When a drug deal involving kingpin's (Ed Harris) son goes awry and threatens to involve his otherwise clean-cut son, he intervenes and that sets up an eventf...

SELF/LESS ... this updated retread of John Frankenheimer's excellent SECONDS has received quite a beating at the box office and with the critics, but it's not that bad at all. Ben Kingsley is a wealthy industrialist who opts to extend his life via a highly experimental procedure called "sheddi...

The scene in which Jackman presses Patel against the desk and cocks the gun to his head, was the directorial instruction "I need to you sound most australian you have ever sounded in your life"? I literally lol'd when he said that he makes him nervous as a "frog in a sock".

NO ESCAPE ... an American civil engineer (Owen Wilson) uproots his family from Austin, TX and heads off to an unidentified south east asian country for work. The bad part? The PM of the said country is killed in a coup just hours after he lands, and the whole thing erupts into a mayhem, complete wi...