Hidden Figures
BBBB (out of 5) The space race is a well documented period in American twentieth-century history, the project to get a man on the moon before the Russians could best the U.S.A. a… Continue reading
Tag Archive: Hans Zimmer
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Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice
BB.5 (out of 5) The inability to keep Superman in check makes a number of people nervous, including a skeptical senator (a perfectly game Holly Hunter) and a fellow superhero from a neighbouring… Continue reading
Winter’s Tale
0 (out of 5) An incomprehensible mess that gives you a glimpse of what it looks like when good actors die for our sins. Colin Farrell is raised an orphan after his parents… Continue reading
Interstellar
B.5 (out of 5) In the not-too-distant future, the scarcity of food has made agriculture the world’s primary focus, with sciences relegated to as frivolous a pursuit as acting, and historical events like… Continue reading
Rush
BBB.5 (out of 5) The real-life rivalry between Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt provides the spine of this thoughtful and diverting drama set in the world of fast cars and… Continue reading
The Last Samurai
BBB.5 (out of 5) After participating in a number of Civil War battles (many of which helped decimate the populations of natives in North America), an embittered, drunken veteran (Tom Cruise) follows his… Continue reading
Kung Fu Panda 2
BBB (out of 5) The cuddly martial arts hero who bested all odds returns for another adventure in this colourful sequel to the 2008 hit. Jack Black voices panda bear Po once again as… Continue reading
Mission: Impossible II
BBB (out of 5) This time the film is shorter on brains and longer on excitement, making it pretty much just as good as the original but on its own terms. Where the… Continue reading
Rango
BBBB (out of 5) Did you ever wonder what all those scaly critters were doing during westerns while John Wayne was duking it out against the bad guys? Apparently having a showdown of… Continue reading
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End
BB (out of 5) Johnny Depp hilariously sashays his way through another overblown mess in this third pirate adventure inspired by the Disneyland ride. Picking up where the last chapter left off (the two… Continue reading
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
B (out of 5) Hackneyed sequel to the successful original is only worthwhile as a continued showcase for Johnny Depp‘s immensely likable Captain Jack Sparrow. Orlando Bloom‘s Will Turner is arrested along with… Continue reading
The Weather Man
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Nicolas Cage plays a Chicago weather reporter whose life couldn’t possibly be less fulfilling: his ex-wife (Hope Davis) has no intention of trying to restore their union, his pre-teen… Continue reading
The Ring
BB (out of 5) Flat, tepid thriller that steals from every film of its kind. Naomi Watts stars as a driven journalist whose niece mysteriously dies of a stroke seven days after watching a… Continue reading
Broken Arrow (1996)
BBB.5 (out of 5) This exciting adventure stars Christian Slater and John Travolta as bomber pilots whose flying mission goes awry and the top-secret weapons they are carrying go missing. Or do they? It seems… Continue reading
The Simpsons Movie
BB.5 (out of 5) Television’s longest running sitcom, and one of the warmest, wittiest skewerings of popular American culture, gets its shot at the silver screen with this lovely adventure which basically plays… Continue reading
12 Years A Slave
BBBB (out of 5) A rarely told tale is that of Solomon Northup, a free musician from Saratoga who was hired by two men for a performance gig and then drugged and sold… Continue reading
The Pledge
BB.5 (out of 5) Jack Nicholson plays a retiring police officer whose small town is shocked by the rape and murder of a little girl on the night of his retirement party. Deciding to… Continue reading
Kung Fu Panda
BBBB (out of 5) Po is a panda bear (voiced by Jack Black) whose duck father wants him to grow up and become a master of noodle soup like himself. Po dreams of… Continue reading
The Dark Knight Rises
BBB (out of 5) It has been eight years since the events of The Dark Knight and we find Bruce Wayne a broken, downtrodden man; physically he is destroyed, financially he is spiraling… Continue reading
Batman Begins
BBBB (out of 5) The winged rodent superhero is back, and he’s a sight for sore eyes in this dark, brooding and exciting adventure by Memento‘s Christopher Nolan. Giving us more insight into… Continue reading
The Dark Knight
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Darker days ahead for a Gotham City that is so over with crime that cops are dressing up like the Caped Crusader in an effort to step up his… Continue reading
Inception
BB.5 (out of 5) Leonardo DiCaprio works in the highly odd business of invading people’s dreams in order to extract sensitive information which is valuable to people who pay him big bucks. The process… Continue reading
The Last Days
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Harrowing, captivating documentary that centres on the personal recollections of six Hungarian Holocaust survivors. This group of individuals was sent to camps in the last months of World War… Continue reading
Something’s Gotta Give
BBBB (out of 5) Jack Nicholson is vacationing with much younger girlfriend Amanda Peet at her Hamptons home when he collapses and has a heart attack. Forced to stay at her getaway until he recovers,… Continue reading
It’s Complicated
BBB (out of 5) Ten years after her husband (Alec Baldwin) left her for a much younger woman, Meryl Streep is a confident and adjusted single woman with three kids and a collection of… Continue reading
The Holiday
BB.5 (out of 5) Kate Winslet is heartbroken when she discovers that the man who dumped her years before (Rufus Sewell), but for whom she still carries a torch, is marrying another woman. Cameron… Continue reading
A World Apart
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Like A Dry White Season, this film illuminates the Anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, though unlike Euzhan Palcy’s film it is not a conventional thriller. Jodhi May is terrific… Continue reading
The Preacher’s Wife
BBB.5 (out of 5) Though lazily directed by Penny Marshall, this modern update of The Bishop’s Wife is well worth watching. Courtney B. Vance plays a severely depressed preacher who is losing his faith… Continue reading
A League Of Their Own
BBBB (out of 5) With most able-bodied men off fighting in the trenches during World War II, professional baseball team owners turn to creating a women’s league in order to keep the game… Continue reading
Renaissance Man
B (out of 5) Dead Poets Society goes to the army when Danny DeVito loses his position at a swanky advertising firm and is forced to take a job teaching English at an army… Continue reading
Riding In Cars With Boys
BBB (out of 5) Drew Barrymore once again outdoes herself in this heartwarming film based on the autobiography of Beverly D’Onofrio, a woman whose career in writing was set back by a teenage pregnancy… Continue reading
Toys
B (out of 5) Visual splendour is compromised by a nonsensical screenplay in this Robin Williams comedy directed by Barry Levinson to little effect. When his uncle (Donald O’Connor) dies and leaves him… Continue reading
Pacific Heights
BBB (out of 5) Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine finally get to purchase their dream home atop a gorgeous San Francisco hill, but with the expense of the house comes the need for a tenant.… Continue reading
Angels & Demons
B.5 (out of 5) The success of the first film adaptation of a Dan Brown novel meant a sequel couldn’t be too far behind, and here it is, quickly produced and thoroughly inferior… Continue reading
Frost/Nixon
BBBB (out of 5) Talk show host David Frost has had success in Britain and Australia but has yet to corner the American market, making it that much more insane an idea when… Continue reading
The DaVinci Code
BBB.5 (out of 5) Is anyone else here amazed that a millennial-old institution is having its very foundations shaken by a Barnes & Noble Must-Read and a movie by Ron Howard, director of… Continue reading
Insignificance
BBB (out of 5) Marilyn Monroe shows up at Albert Einstein’s hotel room one evening and explains to him the theory of relativity. Soon afterwards, Senator Joe McCarthy comes to badger Einstein about… Continue reading
Matchstick Men
BBB (out of 5) Nicolas Cage and Sam Rockwell play con artists (or “matchstick men” as the title suggests) who trick people into buying worthless water filtration systems and then pretend to be… Continue reading
Hannibal
BB.5 (out of 5) Gothic and beautiful but empty-headed follow-up to Jonathan Demme’s perfect Silence of the Lambs has Julianne Moore ably filling in for Jodie Foster’s role as Clarice Starling. The plot is… Continue reading
Gladiator
BBBB.5 (out of 5) Ridley Scott’s best film in years is this astonishing epic of Roman proportions about a general (Russell Crowe) who is demoted to gladiator slave when the kindhearted emperor (Richard… Continue reading
King Arthur
B (out of 5) For all its claims at historical accuracy, there’s nothing particularly credible in this butt-numbing epic. That said, Braveheart wasn’t that much more successful at reflecting history accurately but at… Continue reading
Tears Of The Sun
BB.5 (out of 5) Bruce Willis stated that he made this film as a way of showing support for President George W. Bush’s desire to launch a massive attack on Iraq. He plays a… Continue reading
Regarding Henry
BBB.5 (out of 5) Recreating the charm of Frank Capra classics is attempted in this enjoyable heartwarmer by Mike Nichols. He even casts it perfectly by putting Harrison Ford, the modern-day Gary Cooper,… Continue reading
Thelma and Louise
BBBBB (out of 5) So much has been said and written about this film and its politics since it was first released in 1991 that it’s a relief to watch it again and… Continue reading
Man Of Steel
BBBB (out of 5) It’s hard to imagine a superhero-led franchise more in need of making the old feel new again than that of Superman, the bland do-gooder who flies through the air… Continue reading
The Prince Of Egypt
BBB.5 (out of 5) The story of Moses in the Old Testament’s book of Exodus is told here with little dramatic license and too much respectful gravity. Though animated beautifully, Dreamworks’ perfectly voice-casted… Continue reading
Spanglish
B (out of 5) A little girl’s application to Princeton University is the subject of this dreadful comedy-drama. She relates, in badly written narration, the story of how she was raised by her… Continue reading
As Good As It Gets
BBBBB (out of 5) Jack Nicholson is an anti-everything curmudgeon who finds a kindred spirit in emotionally battered waitress Helen Hunt; Greg Kinnear is a lonely painter in Nicholson’s building who is befriended by both after being viciously… Continue reading
Black Hawk Down
BBBB.5 (out of 5) This unapologetically violent war movie achieves something almost impossible for the genre: Ridley Scott’s latest work (one that totally makes up for the same year’s absymal Hannibal) depicts an… Continue reading