Between 1915 and 1923, the Ottoman Empire murdered some 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children in a systematic policy of genocide aimed at wiping out the entire population. It has been recognised as one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. But when the history of WWI is written, this horrific episode is…
In large measure decidedly unfunny, Rough Night is a lame version of Weekend At Bernie’s crossed with The Hangover and Bridesmaids. Sorry to say, but its attempt to be edgy largely fails. Ten years ago five young women were college buddies, but a decade later they have all gone their separate ways. Scarlett Johansson plays Jess Thayer,…
The novels of British author Daphne du Maurier have provided a great source of material for filmmakers with their deft mix of intrigue, mystery, murder, mistrust and romance. Alfred Hitchcock captured the gothic atmosphere of her novel Rebecca, while he brought a sense of unease and menace to his adaptation of The Birds, a tale…
Churchill is a fascinating portrait of a man of high intellect who was facing a fight on two fronts in the final months of the Second World War. On the one hand there were the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men whose lives he was about to put on the line and then there…
Slow moving, intelligent and thought-provoking, Graduation is a slice-of-life piece tackles fear, honesty and morality. Forty-nine year-old Romeo Aldea (Adrian Titieni), a physician living in a small mountain town in Transylvania, has raised his daughter, Eliza (Maria Dragus), with the idea that once she turns 18, she will leave home to study and live abroad. His…
Tom Cruise feels totally miscast in The Mummy, a horror mishmash that the filmmakers spent far too much money on. Thought safely entombed deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella – Kingsman: The Secret Service) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in the present day. She was destined to…
A pall of foreboding hangs over almost every scene in the harrowing thriller Hounds of Love. That foreboding turns to dread and then white-knuckle fear. The film marks an auspicious feature debut from writer/director Ben Young. Hounds of Love is set in Perth during the summer of 1987. Teenage girls are disappearing from the streets. They…
Intrigue is the currency of merit in the intelligent, slow-moving drama, The Sense of an Ending. Tony Webster is semi-retired. The Internet and mobile phones are foreign to him. He potters around in his small shop which sells expensive second-hand cameras. Although long divorced from his lawyer wife, the pair remain on friendly speaking terms, especially…
A melancholic coming-of-age drama, there is much to enjoy from 20th Century Women. The film is set in Santa Barbara in the summer of 1979. Dorothea Fields (Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right) is a determined single mother in her mid-50s, raising her adolescent son, Jamie (newcomer Lucas Jade Zumann), at a time of cultural…
After the failure of movies like Snatched and CHiPs, good humour, hijinx, pecs and genetalia abound in this welcome return to form for lighthearted comedy. Baywatch follows devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchannon (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – The Fate of the Furious) as he butts heads with a brash new recruit (Zac Efron – Bad Neighbors). Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) directs…
