Category: GENRE
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Trainwreck [2015] ★★½
As much as I like Judd Apatow and his comedies (from “Knocked Up” to “This is 40”), I didn’t fully appreciate his latest effort. “Trainwreck” is frustratingly uneven and drags at 125 minutes . Luckily, the movie never runs on sitcom empty. How could it, with a terrific cast, led by Amy Schumer as a highly sexual woman…
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Hitman: Agent 47 [2015] ★★
I may sound like a party pooper but didn’t we agree that Hollywood should stop making movies based on famous video games? “Super Mario Bros”, “Resident Evil”, “Silent Hill”…to name a few. Then there’s “Hitman”. The first attempt goes all the way back to 2007. The movie opened to mostly toxic reviews; in short: fans…
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Vacation [2015] ★½
As if we needed a “Vacation” reboot. The 1983 original starring Chevy Chase wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, but it was funny and entertaining enough. The new one, starring Ed Helms as a family guy who decides to take his wife (Christina Applegate) and two sons on a “fun” road trip to “Walley World”, has nothing much to…
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Fantastic 4 [2015] ★½
Don’t let the success of other superhero movies tell you that Hollywood can’t fuck up. For that, get a load of “Fantastic 4”, a new example of how NOT to make a comic book movie unless you want to screw things up. Terrible CGIs, horrible acting, cheesy writing (was it written by a 10 year…
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The Gift [2015] ★★★
Aussie actor Joel Edgerton couldn’t have picked a better vehicle to explode his proper skills as a loner who can’t seem to let go of the past. Edgerton also directs Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, who play a wealthy married couple who have moved from Chicago to Los Angeles for a fresh start. Things go crazy weird when Simon bumps…
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Irrational Man [2015] ★★★
It’s difficult to dislike Woody Allen’s latest movie. It isn’t one of his best, and I’ll admit it doesn’t feel as fresh or original as “Crimes and Misdemeanors” or even “Match Point”, but it has all the right ingredients to make you fall for it. The great Joaquin Phoenix is well cast as Abe Lucas, an…
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White Heat [1949] ★★★★
I’ve fallen in love with gangster films made in the 1930’s. Actors like James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart were in almost every gangster picture made in that era. And yet it took director Raoul Walsh years before making one of the best gangster films of all time. Cagney was an ageing star but his…
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Limelight [1952] ★★★½
I find it quite ironic that this is the last movie I ever saw with my granddad. Ironic because, unlike many Chaplin movies, this one is tragic. Ironic because my granddad passed away a few months later. Looking back at “Limelight”, there’s always a bittersweet feeling. Even when I saw it again recently, I couldn’t…
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The Man From U.N.C.L.E [2015] ★★★
Caught between James Bond and this year’s surprise hit “Kingsman”,”The Man From U.N.C.L.E” is an elegant combo of action, espionage and comedy that breathes exciting new life into the spy genre. Adapted from a TV series that aired from 1964 to 1968 and directed by Guy Ritchie with the same “anything-goes” ingenuity he brought to “Snatch” and…
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Double Indemnity [1944] ★★★★
The quintessential film noir. No other film of the genre can match the brilliance of Billy Wilder’s haunting tale of greed, murder and betrayal. Driven by its masterful techniques and perfect narrative, “Double Indemnity” tells the story of an insurance salesman (Fred MacMurray) who falls for a beautiful but deadly oil tycoon’s wife (Barbara Stanwyck) and…
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Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation [2015] ★★★
I’m a sucker for the Mission Impossible movies. And I do believe that, unlike many series, this one has actually improved with each new installment ever since MI3 hit theaters back in 2006. Director J.J Abrams reinvigorated the concept back then and Brad Bird followed it up with the incredibly entertaining “Ghost Protocol” a few…
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Kind Hearts And Coronets [1949] ★★★★
I can’t begin to describe how funny this movie is. I haven’t recommended a classic movie in quite a while, but “Kind Hearts and Coronets” seemed like a good way to start again. Alec Guiness is brilliant playing not 1, not 2, but 8 characters (!) in this hugely entertaining black comedy about a poor, distant…
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Inside Out [2015] ★★★½
Far too many contemporary animated movies are like fast food, easily digested and just easily forgotten. Then there’s the folks at Pixar, who never fail to impress me. Their latest feature, “Inside Out”, is an amazing achievement, for a variety of reasons. It’s a breathtaking ride into the realm of pure imagination. Its story isn’t easily encapsulated, and…
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Ted 2 [2015] ★★½
The first “Ted” caught me off-guard. Instead of a silly film about a talking teddy bear, director and co-writer Seth MacFarlane raised the bar by leaving out the cuteness and focusing on the hardcore hilarity. And he found just the right actors to knock it out of the park. In short: I was instantly hooked. The movie was…
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Ant-Man [2015] ★★★
It’s about time that a tiny superhero got to kick dirt in the face of the other heroes in the Marvel universe. I’m talking about Scott Lang (Paul Rudd, well cast), a small-time thief who just got out of prison. He can’t seem to find a decent job, his friends are all crooks, and his wife…
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Pixels [2015] ★★½
If you grew up playing Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Centipede and other arcade games, then “Pixels” is probably the movie event of the year for you. I mean who wouldn’t want to see all these characters on the big screen? And the movie gave me a lot to cheer for: a fresh concept and clever…
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Waves ’98 [2015]
Ely Dagher’s Waves ’98 deservedly won the top prize at the Cannes film Festival, the Palm D’Or in the short film category. The script has few spoken words, relying on visual impressions that connect a young man called Omar to a world he never knew existed. Dagher links the intimate story to the surreal one by creating miracles…
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Magic Mike XXL [2015] ★★½
As one who didn’t like the first “Magic Mike” movie, I didn’t mind this one so much. For one thing, I knew what I was in for: more half naked dudes going wild in front of the ladies. And yet deep down inside, “Magic Mike XXL” is just a buddy movie. Channing Tatum reprises his role…
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Unfinished Business [2015] ★½
Vince Vaughn deserves better than this terrible comedy about a small business owner and his two stupid associates (Tom Wilkinson and Dave Franco) who travel to Europe to close the most important deal of their lives. Sounds like a setup for a wild, raunchy ride. But the air goes out of that balloon pretty damn quick. Ken Scott,…
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Aloha [2015] ★½
Good directors tend to screw up. If you admire Cameron Crowe and his movies (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) like I do, you’ll be rooting for him to score another bull’s eye with his latest effort. But it’s clear from the very first moment that “Aloha” is a complete misfire: a tiresome, dull romantic comedy/drama about a…
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