Skip to main content

Movie Reviews: 2010-2019

2019

Ad Astra
Aladdin
Alita: Battle Angel
Always Be My Maybe
Anna
Avengers: Endgame
Bait
A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
Bombshell
Booksmart
Captain Marvel
Cats
Color Out of Space
The Dead Don't Die
Doctor Sleep
Dolemite Is My Name
Domino
Dumbo
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Frozen II
Gemini Man
Glass
Godzilla: King of Monsters
The Good Liar
Greed
Happy Death Day 2U
High Flying Bird
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Hustlers
I Am Mother
I Lost My Body (J'ai perdu mon corps)
In the Shadow of the Moon
Io: Last on Earth
The Irishman
It Chapter Two
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Jumanji: The Next Level
The Kid Who Would Be King
Klaus
Knives Out
Last Christmas
The Laundromat
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Le Mans '66 aka Ford v Ferrari
The Lighthouse
The Lion King
Little Women
Long Shot
Marriage Story
Men in Black: International
Midsommar
Missing Link
Motherless Brooklyn
1917
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Parasite
The Personal History of David Copperfield
Pokemon Detective Pikachu
The Report
Richard Jewell
Rocketman
The Secret Life of Pets 2
Serenity
Shazam!
6 Underground
The Souvenir
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker
Terminator: Dark Fate
Toy Story 4
Triple Frontier
The Two Popes
Uncut Gems
Us
Velvet Buzzsaw
The Wandering Earth
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Yesterday

2018 

Alpha
Annihilation
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Apostle
Aquaman
Avengers: Infinity War
Bad Times at the El Royale
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Bird Box
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
Bumblebee
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Cold War
Deadpool 2
Early Man
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
If Beale Street Could Talk
Mute
Black Panther
The Christmas Chronicles
The Cloverfield Paradox
The Commuter
Crazy Rich Asians
Creed II
Death Wish
Den of Thieves
Destroyer
Dragged Across Concrete
The Equalizer 2
The Favourite
First Man
Game Night
The Girl in the Spider's Web
Green Book
The Grinch
Gringo
Halloween
Hereditary
Hold the Dark
Hotel Artemis
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Leave No Trace
Mandy
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Mary Poppins Returns
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
The Meg
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Mortal Engines
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
The Mule
Ocean's 8
The Other Side of the Wind
They Shall Not Grow Old
Outlaw/King
The Predator
A Quiet Place
Ready Player One
Red Sparrow
Robin Hood
Roma
Sicario 2: Soldado
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Sorry to Bother You
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The Spy Who Dumped Me
Stan & Ollie
A Star is Born
Suspiria
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
Tomb Raider
Tully
Under the Silver Lake
Upgrade
Venom
Vice
Welcome to Marwen
White Boy Rick
Widows
Won't You Be My Neighbor?

2017

Aftermath
Alien: Covenant
All the Money in the World
American Made
Atomic Blonde
Baby Driver
Beast
Beauty and the Beast
The Big Sick
Blade Runner 2049
The Book of Henry
Brawl in Cell Block 99
Bright
Call Me by Your Name
Coco
The Current War
Darkest Hour
The Death of Stalin
Despicable Me 3
Detroit
The Discovery
Dunkirk
Fast & Furious 8
Fifty Shades Darker
First Reformed
The Florida Project
The Foreigner
The Founder
Get Out
Ghost in the Shell
Good Time
The Greatest Showman
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Happy Death Day
The Hitman's Bodyguard
I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore
It
I, Tonya
Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond
John Wick: Chapter 2
Journey's End
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Justice League
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Kong: Skull Island
Lady Bird
The LEGO Batman Movie
Life
Logan
Logan Lucky
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Molly Brown
mother!
Mudbound
The Mummy
Murder on the Orient Express
Okja
Only the Brave
Paddington 2
Phantom Thread
Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge
The Post
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
The Shape of Water
The Snowman
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Suburbicon
Thor: Ragnarok
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Transformers: The Last Knight
T2 Trainspotting
The Upside
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
War Machine
War of the Planet of the Apes
Wind River
Wonder Woman
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage
You Were Never Really Here

2016

The Accountant
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Allied
American Pastoral
The Angry Birds Movie
Arrival
Assassin's Creed
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Bad Santa 2
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years
Ben-Hur
The BFG
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Blood Father
Captain America: Civil War
Captain Fantastic
Central Intelligence
Collateral Beauty
Colossal
The Conjuring 2
Criminal
A Cure for Wellness
The Dark Tower
Deadpool
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Doctor Strange
Don't Breathe
Eddie the Eagle
The Edge of Seventeen
Elle
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Fences
The 5th Wave
Finding Dory
Florence Foster Jenkins
Free Fire
Ghostbusters
Gimme Danger
The Girl on the Train
The Girl with All the Gifts
Gods of Egypt
The Great Wall
Hacksaw Ridge
Hail, Caesar!
The Handmaiden
Hell or High Water
Hidden Figures
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
The Huntsman: Winter's War
Ice Age: Collision Course
Independence Day: Resurgence
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Jane Got a Gun
Jason Bourne
The Jungle Book
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Kubo and the Two Strings
Kung Fu Panda 3
Hell or High Water
A Hologram for the King
Lady Macbeth
La La Land
The Legend of Tarzan
The Light Between Oceans
Lion
London Has Fallen
The Lost City of Z
Love & Friendship
The Magnificent Seven
Manchester by the Sea
Me Before You
Midnight Special
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Miss Sloane
Moana
Money Monster
Moonlight
The Neon Demon
The Nice Guys
Nine Lives
Nocturnal Animals
Now You See Me 2
O.J.: Made in America
One More Time with Feeling
Our Kind of Traitor
Passengers
Paterson
Pete's Dragon
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Rules Don't Apply
The Secret Life of Pets
Silence
Sing
Snowden
Spectral
Split
Star Trek Beyond
Suicide Squad
Supersonic
Swiss Army Man
10 Cloverfield Lane
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
13th
Toni Erdmann
Train to Busan
Triple 9
Trolls
Warcraft: The Beginning
War Dogs
War on Everyone
X-Men: Apocalypse
Zoolander 2
Zootropolis

2015

The Age of Adeline
American Ultra
Amy
Anomalisa
Ant-Man
Avengers: Age of Ultron
A Bigger Splash
The Big Short
Blackhat
Black Mass
Bone Tomahawk
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
By the Sea
Carol
Chappie
Child 44
Christmas with the Coopers
Cinderella
Concussion
Creed
Crimson Peak
De Palma
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
The Dressmaker
Ex Machina
Eye in the Sky
Fantastic Four
Far from the Madding Crowd
Fifty Shades of Grey
Focus
Forsaken
45 Years
Furious 7
The Gift
The Good Dinosaur
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
Goosebumps
Green Room
The Gunman
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
The Hateful Eight
High-Rise
Home
Hotel Transylvania 2
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
Inside Out
Insidious: Chapter 3
In the Heart of the Sea
The Invitation
It Follows
Joy
Jupiter Ascending
Jurassic World
Knight of Cups
Krampus
The Last Witch Hunter
Legend
Life
The Lobster
Macbeth
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Martian
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Minions
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Mordecai
Mr. Holmes
The Night Before
No Escape
Our Brand is Crisis
Pan
The Peanuts Movie
Point Break
Poltergeist
The Revenant
Ricki and the Flash
Rock the Kasbah
Room
Sicario
Slow West
Solace
Son of Saul
Southpaw
Spectre
Spooks: The Greater Good
Spotlight
Spy
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Straight Outta Compton
Steve Jobs
Suffragette
Sully
Survivor
Tale of Tales
Terminator Genisys
Tomorrowland: A World Beyond
Truth
Victor Frankenstein
The Walk
The Witch
Youth
Z for Zachariah

2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2
American Sniper
Automata
The Babadook
Bad Neighbours (aka Neighbors)
Before I Go to Sleep
Big Eyes
Big Hero 6
Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Black Sea
The Boxtrolls
Boyhood
Burying the Ex
Calvary
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Chef
Citizenfour
Cold in July
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Deliver Us from Evil
Divergent
Dracula Untold
Draft Day
The Drop
The Duke of Burgundy
Earth to Echo
Edge of Tomorrow
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
The Equalizer
Exodus: Gods and Kings
The Expendables 3
The Fault in Our Stars
Force Majeure
Foxcatcher 
Frank
Fury
The Gambler
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
The Giver
Godzilla
Gone Girl
Good Kill
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Guest
Heaven is for Real
Hercules
The Hobbit - Extended Editions
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
The Homesman
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Jersey Boys
John Wick
The Judge
Kill the Messenger
Kingsman: The Secret Service
The Lego Movie
Leviathan
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau
Love is Strange
Lost River
Lucy
Magic in the Moonlight
Maleficent
Maps to the Stars
The Maze Runner
Million Dollar Arm
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Mr. Turner
Monsters: Dark Continent
The Monuments Men
A Most Violent Year
A Most Wanted Man
Muppets Most Wanted
Need for Speed
A New York Winter's Tale
Nightcrawler
Noah
Non-Stop
One by One
Paddington
Penguins of Madagascar
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch, Reflecting on Existence
Pompeii 
Predestination
The Raid 2
The Rewrite
Ride Along
Rio 2
Robocop
The Rover
Sabotage
Selma
'71
Sex Tape
Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
The Skeleton Twins
Space Station 76
Still Alice
Stretch
St. Vincent
Taken 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Theory of Everything
3 Days to Kill
300: Rise of an Empire
Transcendence
22 Jump Street
Two Days, One Night
The Two Faces of January
Unbroken
Vampire Academy
The Voices
Whiplash
Wild
X-Men: Days of Future Past
A Walk Among the Tombstones
What We Do in the Shadows
While We're Young

2013

2012

2011

Young Adult


2010


Popular posts from this blog

Abandon selective targeting. Shoot everything.

28 Weeks Later (2007) (SPOILERS) The first five minutes of 28 Weeks Later are far and away the best part of this sequel, offering in quick succession a devastating moral quandary and a waking nightmare, immortalised on the screen. After that, while significantly more polished, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo reveals his concept to be altogether inferior to Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s, falling back on the crutches of gore, nihilism, and disengaging and limiting shifts of focus between characters in whom one has little investment in the first place.
Read more

The Bible never said anything about amphetamines.

The Color of Money (1986) (SPOILERS) I tend to think it’s evident when Scorsese isn’t truly exercised by material. He can still invest every ounce of the technical acumen at his fingertips, and the results can dazzle on that level, but you don’t really feel the filmmaker in the film. Which, for one of his pictures to truly carry a wallop, you need to do. We’ve seen quite a few in such deficit in recent years, most often teaming with Leo. The Color of Money , however, is the first where it was out-and-out evident the subject matter wasn’t Marty’s bag. He needed it, desperately, to come off, but in the manner a tradesman who wants to keep getting jobs. This sequel to The Hustler doesn’t linger in the mind, however good it may be, moment by moment.
Read more

Captain, he who walks in fire will burn his feet.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) (SPOILERS) Ray Harryhausen returns to the kind of unadulterated fantasy material that made Jason and the Argonauts such a success – swords & stop motion, if you like. In between, there were a couple of less successful efforts, HG Wells adaptation First Men in the Moon and The Valley of the Gwangi (which I considered the best thing ever as a kid: dinosaur walks into a cowboy movie). Harryhausen’s special-effects supremacy – in a for-hire capacity – had also been consummately eclipsed by Raquel Welch’s fur bikini in One Million Years B.C . The Golden Voyage of Sinbad follows the expected Dynamation template – blank-slate hero, memorable creatures, McGuffin quest – but in its considerable favour, it also boasts a villainous performance by nobody-at-the-time, on-the-cusp-of-greatness Tom Baker.
Read more

If this were a hoax, would we have six dead men up on that mountain?

The X-Files 4.24: Gethsemane   Season Four is undoubtedly the point at which the duff arc episodes begin to amass, encroaching upon the decent ones for dominance. Fortunately, however, the season finale is a considerable improvement’s on Three’s, even if it’s a long way from the cliffhanger high of 2.25: Anasazi .
Read more

My hands hurt from galloping.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) (SPOILERS) Say what you like about the 2016 reboot, at least it wasn’t labouring under the illusion it was an Amblin movie. Ghostbusters 3.5 features the odd laugh, but it isn’t funny, and it most definitely isn’t scary. It is, however, shamelessly nostalgic for, and reverential towards, the original(s), which appears to have granted it a free pass in fan circles. It didn’t deserve one.
Read more

Your desecration of reality will not go unpunished.

2021-22 Best-of, Worst-of and Everything Else Besides The movies might be the most visible example of attempts to cling onto cultural remnants as the previous societal template clatters down the drain. It takes something people really want – unlike a Bond movie where he kicks the can – to suggest the model of yesteryear, one where a billion-dollar grosser was like sneezing. You can argue Spider-Man: No Way Home is replete with agendas of one sort or another, and that’s undoubtedly the case (that’s Hollywood), but crowding out any such extraneous elements (and they often are) is simply a consummate crowd-pleaser that taps into tangible nostalgia through its multiverse take. Of course, nostalgia for a mere seven years ago, for something you didn’t like anyway, is a symptom of how fraught these times have become.
Read more

Out of my way, you lubberly oaf, or I’ll slit your gullet and shove it down your gizzard!

The Princess and the Pirate (1944) (SPOILERS) As I suggested when revisiting The Lemon Drop Kid , you’re unlikely to find many confessing to liking Bob Hope movies these days. Even Chevy Chase gets higher approval ratings. If asked to attest to the excruciating stand-up comedy Hope, the presenter and host, I doubt even diehards would proffer an endorsement. Probably even fewer would admit to having a hankering for Hope, were they aware of, or further still gave credence to, alleged MKUltra activities. But the movie comedy Hope, the fourth-wall breaking, Road -travelling quipster-coward of (loosely) 1939-1952? That Hope’s a funny guy, mostly, and many of his movies during that period are hugely inventive, creative comedies that are too easily dismissed under the “Bob Hope sucks” banner. The Princess and the Pirate is one of them.
Read more

I’ve heard the dancing’s amazing, but the music sucks.

Tick, Tick… Boom! (2021) (SPOILERS) At one point in Tick, Tick… Boom! – which really ought to have been the title of an early ’90s Steven Seagal vehicle – Andrew Garfield’s Jonathan Larson is given some sage advice on how to find success in his chosen field: “ On the next, maybe try writing about what you know ”. Unfortunately, the very autobiographical, very-meta result – I’m only surprised the musical doesn’t end with Larson finishing writing this musical, in which he is finishing writing his musical, in which he is finishing writing his musical… – takes that acutely literally.
Read more

Who gave you the crusade franchise? Tell me that.

The Star Chamber (1983) (SPOILERS) Peter Hyams’ conspiracy thriller might simply have offered sauce too weak to satisfy, reining in the vast machinations of an all-powerful hidden government found commonly during ’70s fare and substituting it with a more ’80s brand that failed to include that decade’s requisite facile resolution. There’s a good enough idea here – instead of Charles Bronson, it’s the upper echelons of the legal system resorting to vigilante justice – but The Star Chamber suffers from a failure of nerve, repenting its premise just as it’s about to dig into the ramifications.
Read more

You’re going to make me drop a donkey.

Encanto (2021) (SPOILERS) By my estimation, Disney brand pictures are currently edging ahead of the Pixars. Not that there’s a whole lot in it, since neither have been at full wattage for a few years now. Raya and the Last Dragon and now Encanto are collectively just about superior to Soul and Luca . Generally, the animation arm’s attempts to take in as much cultural representation as they possibly can, to make up for their historic lack of woke quotas, has – ironically – had the effect of homogenising the product to whole new levels. So here we have Colombia, renowned the world over for the US’s benign intervention in their region, not to mention providing the CIA with subsistence income, beneficently showered with gifts from the US’s greatest artistic benefactor.
Read more