Review: Mama

A horror I was always keen to visit with producer Guillermo Del Toro’s name attached, but feedback had been shaky at best. Personally, the film wasn’t terrible, in fact it had a lot of atmosphere to give. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of Game of Thrones fame) leads the film as Lucas, the brother of a father…

Review: John Wick

Keanu Reeves is back in this high octane revenge shoot ’em up. Full of style and plenty of bloody carnage, I enjoyed it a lot. When a crime-lord’s son takes a fancy for John Wick‘s car, he decides to steal it as well as murder John’s pet puppy, mere days after the tragic death of his…

Review: Locke

Tom Hardy is the focus of this dramatic piece as a man who’s life collapses as he takes a long nighttime drive. Ivan Locke is the head of a construction company with nine years under his belt as a reliable workman and surveyor, his peers and superiors know him as level-headed. But tonight Locke makes…

Review: Fast and Furious 7 (aka Furious 7)

I want to make it clear, first and foremost, anyone dying is a tragic thing, Paul Walker was far too young and his career was only just beginning. I don’t want my opinion of this film to be considered disrespectful. Furious 7 is so, so far from what the franchise used to be that I…

Review: Chappie

From the director of District 9 and Elysium, a robot is given a chance to experience growing up in a city of gangland warfare after an experimental artificial consciousness is loaded into it. Dev Patel (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) plays Deon, a praised robotics designer responsible for ending most crime in Johannesburg by inventing Scout robots for…

Review: Boyhood

98% Fresh from critics on Rottentomatoes.com, 8.2 on IMDB.com, winner of one Academy award and nominated for five others including Best Picture and Directing, and winner of two BAFTAs and three Golden Globes. Yes, the sting for this opening paragraph is that I didn’t care forBoyhood. Progressively filmed over twelve years and edited down to…

Review: Kingsman – Secret Service

Matthew Vaughn continues his comic book adaptations after Kick Ass and X-Men: First Classwith this bloodied, tongue-in-cheek British spy action movie. A smart British youth who has found himself in hard times after the death of his father, but when an agent of a secret organisation requests he join the service he, and the other…

Review: Whiplash

A tremendous short story following a young drummer student locking horns with his sociopathic but passionate mentor. Andy Neyman is a young student at a prestigious music school studying the art of drums. But when he catches the attention of a notoriously strict but skilled jazz composer named Terence Fletcher, Andy must drastically improve his…

Review: Foxcatcher

A grim tale about some of humanity’s worst, albeit more subtle, traits. Great acting all around but does this story really need to be told? Based off a true story, two brothers are Olympic medal winners in wrestling, but now they are older the youngest brother wants to start out on his own, feeling neglected in his…

Review: Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

A film loved by critics and one can see why, but Birdman also had my attention immediately. Unique and darkly humorous, Michael Keaton at his very best. Riggan Thomson is a washed out, down on his luck actor who once had Hollywood fame as the superhero Birdman. Hoping to reignite his life’s significance he writes, directs…