Director: Adam Robitel Stars: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Indya Moore I must admit I have a soft spot for Escape Room. Adam Robitel's initial movie in this unlikely series felt like something of an underdog when it was released with little fanfare two and a half years ago. Who wanted or needed a YA Saw film? … Continue reading Review: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
Director: Leigh Janiak Stars: Kiana Madeira, Elizabeth Scopel, Darrell Britt-Gibson The latest in the unending is-it-a-movie-is-it-TV discourse, Netflix's time travelling teen horror trilogy/mini-series hops further back than before as it reaches its final frontier - or should that be frontier finale? Largely reusing its extant cast, Fear Street Part Three: 1666 takes us back to … Continue reading Review: Fear Street Part Three: 1666
Director: Everado Valerio Gout Stars: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Gregory Zaragoza James DeMonaco's Purge franchise lumbers onward. While it predated and has now surpassed the short sorry presidency of Donald Trump, it is the series that feels most laboriously representative of the whirlwind ills that the disgraced orange bile-pod brought to the Oval Office. … Continue reading Review: The Forever Purge
Director: Cate Shortland Stars: Florence Pugh, Scarlett Johansson, Ever Anderson There are two prominently featured middle-aged white men in Cate Shortland's Black Widow and they nearly capsize the whole thing. I've been stuck on this since leaving the multiplex. For it's entire first act, this feels like a breath of fresh air for the Marvel … Continue reading Review: Black Widow
Director: Justin Lin Stars: John Cena, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson There's a point in nearly any long-running TV series or soap opera when desperate writers will start to retcon character histories to bring in hitherto unknown relatives (usually younger siblings) in an effort to tell new stories and freshen up the cast list. It usually … Continue reading Review: Fast & Furious 9
Director: John Krasinski Stars: Noah Jupe, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds John Krasinski's A Quiet Place was an unassuming hit. Nobody really expected much from him as a director, let alone a smash sci-hi horror with a wicked gimmick and a heartfelt crush for Spielberg. I remember when I saw the film in a capacity screening for … Continue reading Review: A Quiet Place Part II
Year: 2012 Director: Paul WS Anderson Stars: Milla Jovovich, Li Bingbing, Sienna Guillory Okay, stick with me on this. Paul WS Anderson - a largely derided or simply dismissed director - is a man preoccupied. His career can be looked at like someone obsessively playing a video game over and over. His first feature, Mortal Kombat, … Continue reading Why I Love… #124: Resident Evil: Retribution
Director: J.J. Abrams Stars: Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega You could feel it coming; a disturbance in the force. Gradually, as the press junkets for The Rise of Skywalker began, different members of the cast started speaking fondly of how Abrams' return felt so welcome. Abrams himself joined the fray. You could sense the urge … Continue reading Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Director: Jake Kasdan Stars: Karen Gillan, Danny DeVito, Awkwafina When, in combination, The Greatest Showman and Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle took more money for Sony than the last Bond film, it seemed inevitable that at least one of them would be franchised as quickly as possible. Jumanji was the obvious choice. After all, it was … Continue reading Review: Jumanji: The Next Level
Director: Tim Miller Stars: Mackenzie Davis, Linda Hamilton, Natalia Reyes In hindsight, perhaps we ought to be thankful for just how dire Terminator Genisys turned out to be. That movie - which pissed all over a pretty well sodden franchise - ended with the threat of further sequels. Fortunately, those plans have been terminated (ha!). Dark Fate … Continue reading Review: Terminator Dark Fate
Director: David Leitch Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby The promotional materials for Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw are something else. Cheaply green-screened face-offs to camera in which Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Shaw (Jason Statham) shit-talk one another while a whole load of rapidly cut nonsense explodes all around them. These promos said one … Continue reading Review: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw
Director: Gary Dauberman Stars: Katie Sarife, Madison Iseman, Mckenna Grace Ah, back again. The franchise offshoot that just won't die. Annabelle is a weird one. A series centred on an evil doll from The Conjuring which is completely inanimate, yet acts as a conduit for a cumbersome demon that wants to suck your soul out. The first … Continue reading Review: Annabelle Comes Home
Director: Tim Story Stars: Samuel L Jackson, Jessie T. Usher, Regina Hall Gordon Parks' 1971 film Shaft is probably the mainstream's flagship title from the blaxploitation run of the era, but it - and its sequels - are also outliers in the subgenre. The majority of the pictures that fall into this bracket were about vigilantes, … Continue reading Review: Shaft (2019)
Director: Josh Cooley Stars: Tom Hanks, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves The BBFC certificate card for Toy Story 4 confirms that it is rated U for universal, as expected, but it also advises that the film contains 'mild violence' and 'scary scenes'. A murmur ripples out across the packed cinema audience. 'Scary scenes'? This is a Pixar … Continue reading Review: Toy Story 4
Director: F Gary Gray Stars: Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, Chris Hemsworth I've been accused of contrariness before, and in fairness not without reason. Fine. But here at The Lost Highway Hotel, the name Will Smith is synonymous with entirely smug, borderline unwatchable goofiness. See also Barry Sonnenfield. As a result, the Men In Black franchise has, … Continue reading Review: Men In Black International
