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Dallas Buyers Club
Can’t fault it. McConaughey and Leto are both excellent. →
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Fitzcarraldo
Outstanding achievement by Herzog; making Klaus Kinski look weirder here than when he played Nosferatu. →
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Mission: Impossible
Has aged better than you might expect thanks to some ‘90s nostalgia kicking in. Slightly schlocky but a lot of fun. →
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Maleficent
Overall very strong; shockingly dark at times for Disney, made me wonder if they knew what they were getting. Jolie is excellent →
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Gold
A cheap and grimy ‘70s Roger Moore flick set in a gold mine. Perfect if you’re in a Bank Holiday mood. →
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Edge of Tomorrow
Coasts along on the fun of watching Tom Cruise die over and over but fast degenerates into routine, hum-drum sci-fi action →
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Museum Hours
Quaintly unassuming character piece set in an Austrian art museum. Sleepy but charming. →
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Wake in Fright
A wonderfully overwhelming, grimy, sweaty study of masculinity in a ‘70s Australian mining town. Gives good Donald Pleasance →
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Smokey and the Bandit
Satisfied my need for a slow-motion shot of a fast car going over a collapsed bridge. Not enough of that these days. →
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Star Wars 3.1: Turn to the Dark Side
Valiant attempt to recut the Star Wars prequels into one good film; however, still unrelentingly awful. →
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Le Mepris
A surprisingly tolerable film from Jean-Luc Godard, though maybe because Brigitte Bardot’s backside has almost the lead role. →
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The Railway Man
A timid retelling of Eric Lomax’s story of going to Burma to meet his WWII torturer. Colin Firth good but film lacks punch. →
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Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Disappointed by lack of tigers, crouching or otherwise; impressed though by hidden dragon, didn’t see it once →
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X-Men: Days of Future Past
Fun, a nice fuck-you to all non-Bryan Singer X-Men films & Quicksilver an unexpected highlight. Frothy but fine. →
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The Queen of Versailles
Documentary on a rich family hit by recession. Not awful enough to be entertaining, but enough to be unsympathetic. →
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Legend
Sappy and floaty in that ‘80s fantasy way. Never clear to me why Mia Sara would choose mouth-breathing Tom Cruise over Tim Curry. →
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Ponyo
More simplistic and childish than a lot of Studio Ghibli films. It’s inconsequential but cute & charming and looks stunning. →
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Howl’s Moving Castle
Wonderful. →
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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Awful. Misogynistic, boring, muddled, artificial. Not a single redeeming quality. →
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Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Gloriously and hilariously grotesque. →