Director: Tim Burton Stars: Danny DeVito, Michael Keaton, Eva Green "This is a disaster," exclaims Alan Arkin's character during the climactic scenes of Tim Burton's live action Dumbo remake, and given the savaging the film has received from most quarters of the UK press, one might assume that this line will live to take on a … Continue reading Review: Dumbo (2019)
Year: 1992 Director: Tim Burton Stars: Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer In 1992 Tim Burton was in the midst of the greatest creative run of his career. 1988's Beetlejuice had been embraced for its wild comic fantasy and daring surreal imagery. That film also cemented a collaborative run with actor Michael Keaton who was proving himself … Continue reading Why I Love #89: Batman Returns
Director: Jon Watts Stars: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr. There are, personally speaking, plenty of reasons why Spider-Man Homecoming has been the Marvel title I've been least interested in catching for quite a while. Chief among these, I suppose, is a sense of fatigue with a junior league superhero I've actually barely spent any … Continue reading Review: Spider-Man Homecoming
Director: John Lee Hancock Stars: Michael Keaton, John Carroll Lynch, Nick Offerman It's not unreasonable to say that McDonald's restaurants changed America, and by extension changed the world. The business model prioritising speed of service over all else drawn up by brothers Mac and Dick McDonald reshaped the food industry. It changed the way people … Continue reading Review: The Founder
Appearing like an act of contrition following calamitous Adam Sandler vehicle The Cobbler last year, Tom McCarthy's latest directorial offering is as austere a movie as we're likely to get this awards season outside of The Danish Girl. Working with production company Anonymous Content (who, by no coincidence were behind HBO's The Wire in which McCarthy starred), Spotlight accounts … Continue reading Review: Spotlight
There are movies that get called pretentious when they're not. Movies that approach their subject matter from a unique or perhaps obtuse perspective that, because of said approach, don't spoon-feed the audience. They assume some intelligence or participation on the viewer's part. Recent examples being Under The Skin, Upstream Color or Holy Motors. The method may be unconventional, … Continue reading Review: Birdman
In the early stages of José Padilha's RoboCop reboot we are introduced to a man who has lost both of his arms. Gary Oldman's Dr Dennett Norton has fashioned for him two robotic replacements, operated via impulses from the brain. The man formerly played Spanish guitar, presumably quite well, and is tentative about playing again, fearing … Continue reading Review: RoboCop (2014)
