movie: Kingsman: The Secret Service

Casting Colin Firth as the James Bond character in a film is unexpected – watching him balance the action film moves and immaculate dress of an English gentleman makes for an impressive basis for a film. It’s a film that makes some progress against gender stereotypes in spy films, with a female assassin alongside a Samuel L Jackson billionaire …

movie: the imitation game

Bomba turninga2 by Andgasow – Own work. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons. movie: the imitation game Watching Benedict Cumberbatch in this film only a few days after watching Sherlock was a challenge – there are many similarities in character genre, but Cumberbatch plays the roles differently. There is a lot of propaganda within the …

movie: birdman

Birdman (2015) is a borderline-arthouse movie. The camera dances around the key characters in long, continuous shots – it’s the kind of film you can get lost in. If you’re looking for a Fight-Club level tilt from Edward Norton, an only-slightly Galifianakis from Zach, and an amazing performance from Michael Keaton. There are underlying themes of life’s …

movie: Nightcrawler

Movie: Nightcrawler (2014) Jake Gyllenhall produced and stars in this action/drama. A tale of a drifter who finds the thing he’s passionate about. In his case, it’s being a nightcrawler – someone who drives around taking video of crime scenes to sell to TV stations’ news programmes. Gyllenhall’s performance is really great: creepy, persuasive, and filled with …

movie: gone girl

Gone Girl is the latest David Fincher movie. Brilliant visually, in the vein of the old Dirty Harry movies. A mix of creepy, mysterious, funny, and over-the-top in terms of its violence and other content. Not for the faint of heart.