With charming characters and impressive special effects, the reimagined Snow White is delightful. The original 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, helped established Disney as an animation powerhouse. Based on the classic fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm, the movie introduced the iconic characters of Snow White, the Evil Queen and the…
Oh, Canada is a confessional … a reckoning for a dying man. Writer and director Paul Schrader collaborated with actor Richard Gere 45 years ago on American Gigolo and it has taken them this long to reunite. Gere plays feted Canadian documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife at the end of his life, while Jacob Elordi is…
I cringe when I have to say this, but here is another one man against the world movie. Think quiet assassin. Action heroes like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Liam Neeson, Keanu Reeves and Jason Statham all do it. I speak of taking out hordes of adversaries on their own, while living to tell the tale….
British intelligence is under the microscope in Black Bag. George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is an elite operative at Britain’s closely guarded National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). He can’t stand liars. He seeks them out an exposes them. That has included his own father. Now there appears to be a mole in the ranks of the…
The filmmakers have dipped back into the well and reprised an iconic Australian character. I speak of Johnny Spitieri (aka Johnny Spit), played by David Wenham in Getting’ Square (2003). With a new story, Spit brings together several of the actors and key behind the scenes creatives from the movie released in the early noughties….
This is a film with heaps of dastardly monkeying about. Over the top. You betcha. It revels in beheadings, spearing, disembowelment and explosions. Human splatter is everywhere. No, I am not trying to turn you off, for this is a pitch-black comedy, based on a 1980 short story by Stephen King, written and directed by…
Mike Leigh continues his gritty filmmaking endeavours with his 23rd film, the tragicomedy Hard Truths. Middle aged Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Secrets & Lies) is a perpetually angry and desperately unhappy woman. With a series of claimed ailments, she pays out regularly on her plumber husband Curtley (David Webber) and their 22-year-old son, Moses (Tuwaine…
It is 2054 and Earth is in trouble, so droves of people are taking up the opportunity for interplanetary relocation. A man who has gotten himself into trouble and is financially destitute is Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson). Without digging too deeply, he seizes the chance to start afresh, as a new human colony is about…
A gritty piece about the travails of an ageing Las Vegas showgirl and those around her, The Last Showgirl feels real. Back in the day, decades ago, Shelly (Pamela Anderson), was one of the headline acts in Le Razzle Dazzle, which was fashioned on erotic Paris shows, like the Lido. Now, at 57, she is…
What a joy laden movie. This could just be the best of the four Bridget Jones films, that date back to 2001 and we have had to wait nine years since the last one. Mad About the Boy, which Jones also narrates, is filled with laughter, romance and reverence. Best of all, she (Renee Zellweger)…
