It’s not quite the thriller you might have imagined or hoped for – mainly because Redford never gets out of the office. Somehow he is able to run rings around his CIA colleagues, even though they would’ve had the same training as him. As such, it’s an intriguing thriller that doesn’t quite work. The basic ingredients are good, and with more focus in the storytelling, it might have been more satisfying.
Demi Moore is wildly miscast as Hester Prynne, who begins an affair with the Reverend Dimsdale (Gary Oldman) in a small settlers community in 1667 Massachusetts. Hester believes her cruel and abusive husband is dead – until he shows up (in the form of Robert Duvall).
The film unnecessarily adds a plot about a war between the settlers and natives. It also adds a quite dodgy montage scene when the couple first consummate their relationship. Moore is absolutely out of her depth as an actor.
The DVD box has some weird marketing messages on it. Two of the quotes refer to "fun". The film is many things, but fun isn't one of them.
Inspired by real-world figure of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, this is a mostly well-made film. There are some dramatic sequences showing the dangers of the divers' underwater assignments. At times it seems a little sappy, perhaps because of the choice of music, but the storytelling and acting lift it above average status. The two male leads are both excellent, and they make their characters suitably convincing to bring this true story to life.
Mia Wasikowska stars in the title role, while Rochester is played by Michael Fassbender. Both of them are absolutely at the top of their game, delivering subtle and nuanced performances.
There’s something highly believable about it – a gritty realism that’s often lost when revered classics are filmed.
An Indonesian National Police tactical squad attempts a raid on a deadly drug lord's apartment block.
It's incredibly violent – almost certainly the most violent film I've ever seen. The action is relentless. There's endless hunting, fighting and killing that ultimately becomes numbing. The film is extremely well choreographed, shot and edited, but its unrelenting quality makes it both disturbing and difficult to watch.
A secretary with a major law firm (Melanie Griffith) falls in love with a spy (Michael Douglas) and takes on her own spy mission in Berlin. Her only qualification is that she speaks fluent German (although, unlike the other actors, she doesn’t even try to put on a German accent) and has learned about intelligence work from enjoying films at the cinema. On this ridiculous premise, the film wobbles along in a highly entertaining manner.
Liam Neeson isn’t too bad as the Nazi officer General Franze-Otto Dietrich. John Gielgud isn’t very well used as the agent “Sunflower”. And Joely Richardson is fairly watchable as the double agent Margrete von Eberstein.
There are plenty of implausible moments but the film does have a few things in its favour. There are a few exciting sequences and Douglas and Griffith both have charm. But it’s so far-fetched and silly (with several unintentionally funny moments) that you wonder if it would’ve been better played as a comedy.
There are a few funny bits, but not nearly enough. One amusing scene has Whoopi trying to make out the words to the title song by the Rolling Stones and not being able to make sense of Mick Jagger’s phrasing.
The most interesting aspect is seeing what state-of-the-art office computing looked like in 1986.
Adapted from the novel by John Green and directed by Josh Boone, this is a romance about two teens with terminal cancer. It’s more watchable than that description might suggest.
Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort star as the main couple, Hazel and Gus, and both are fairly compelling. Since it’s very much from a teen perspective, the adults are oddly marginalised. Laura Dern just about has a role as Hazel’s mother, but Sam Trammell is a complete nothing of a character as her father.
Another interesting aspect is Hazel’s (dying) wish to seek out an obscure author whose work she admires (played by Willem Dafoe). When she eventually meets him, in Amsterdam, he’s a disappointingly unpleasant alcoholic. It’s a slightly odd plot – especially when he shows up again, and surprisingly hasn’t been humbled or redeemed by his encounters with the innocently adoring fan.
An unusual affair all round, but it certainly makes you think.
It’s a powerful and gritty story, subtly written and brilliantly acted. As well as the two leads, there’s Anthony Mackie as Frank, a local drug dealer who has his own problems.
It could have become sentimental and trite, but there are no easy resolutions offered and it remains disturbing and depressing.
The music is by Canadian band Broken Social Scene.
There’s something very fresh and even raw about it – both visually and emotionally – and this makes it feel much more real.
Sally Hawkins is superb as Anne Elliot, conveying a huge range of emotions with her face alone. Rupert Penry-Jones is fine as Captain Wentworth, but less impressive overall.
It's nice to see the familiar Bath city locations as well as a very cold-looking Lyme Regis.
It’s genuinely exciting, with some particularly strong scenes – one set on a bridge and another in the streets of New York City. It’s the sort of film you wish the 1990s James Bond instalments had been, with strong characters, credible geopolitics, tight plotting, and a convincing scenario. The Pierce Brosnan films, sadly, had none of those things.
Somewhat stilted period drama directed by Amma Asante.
The premise is intriguing enough – the upbringing of an illegitimate girl is entrusted to William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice (Tom Wilkinson), who lives in Kenwood House, Hampstead. The girl's mixed-race background is a cause of controversy within the Earl's social standing.
This is based on a true story inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle, but – frustratingly – events have been changed and fictionalised for the purposes of this film. Why invent parts of the plot when the truth is more interesting?
The older actors are impressive – Penelope Wilton, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson – but the two would-be sisters Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Sarah Gadon, are surprisingly flat for such important roles. And annoyingly, it wasn't even filmed at Kenwood.
Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard star as a Canadian intelligence officer and French resistance fighter. They fall in love, while pretending to be a married couple for a military mission in Casablanca. They move to London as the war continues, but is everything as it seems?
Zemeckis brings his usual high quality of storytelling, and the narrative keeps you guessing until the end. Pitt is OK rather than spectacular (as usual), but Cotillard steals the show with a much more impressive, nuanced and well-rounded performance.
The dialogue is trite, preventing any development of the characters (weakly portrayed by Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss). There's an ugly aesthetic, too. The plot isn’t explained very well and there's not even much action – just a lot of “enigmatic” non-conversations that go nowhere. You get no sense whatsoever of the wider world or the notion that humanity is in peril.
I really couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.
Nicolas Cage plays a CIA man intent on revenge after he was tortured by a terrorist 22 years previously. The unusual twist is that he is suffering from a form of dementia, which affects not only his memory, but also his moods and behaviour.
It has a low-budget feel and there’s very little action. It seems like a cut-price attempt to make a Jason Bourne film, but without Paul Greengrass’s directorial energy and skill.
The dementia angle is surprisingly low-key in the plot. I was expecting it to be used as a rationale for all sorts of odd outbursts from Cage.
