The Equalizer is the new Denzel Washington action film from the director of Training Day. It’s a little over 2 hours long, with a slow build, some well orchestrated set pieces, and a truly disquieting bad guy – some scenes are uncomfortable viewing. It’s a muted performance from Washington, but this well suits the character …
Category Archives: movie
Movie: The Matrix (live with SSO)
Watching The Matrix some fifteen years after its original release (with my then-girlfriend, now-wife beside me again), but this time with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra live at the Opera House along with the movie. With the exception of the flip phones and the occasional CRT monitor, the movie stands up well. Does it pass the …
Movie: What we do in the shadows
Movie: What We Do in the Shadows Having been a fan of Eagle vs Shark from many years ago, I thought this New Zealand comedy would be similarly enjoyable. It’s a mockumentary, tracing the adventures of a share house of vampires in Wellington. A journey through a lot of vampire / horror tropes, it manages …
Movie: Expendables 3
Movie: Expendables 3 I should qualify this first of all that I watched this movie out of a sense of family bonding tradition, and not necessarily for its significance in the pantheon of cinematic choices. Stallone is back, with a range of 1980’s movie stars from the action genre, with another series of set pieces. …
movie: edge of tomorrow
It took me all week to write this one up: Edge of Tomorrow is the latest Tom Cruise science fiction blockbuster, and – though it has not enjoyed great success at the box office, it’s one I really enjoyed. A mix of Starship Troopers and Groundhog Day with an refreshing (for Hollywood) take on gender roles …
movie: The Trip to Italy
Movie: The Trip to Italy Usually for a comedy, the best jokes are in the trailer. So it was a pleasant surprise that the majority of the jokes in the trailer were actually the first part of scenes of longer, funnier dialogue: there were lots of laugh-out-loud moments, the scenery was amazing, the food looked …
movie: the lego movie
Movie: The Lego Movie Clever kids movie that doesn’t necessarily pass the Bechdel test, but nonetheless entertains for its full duration, and has a catchy song with an upbeat message. A little too scary in places for very small children, but an enjoyable ride.
movie: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ralph Fiennes turns in a great comic performance in this flight of fancy through a surreal story set in a colourful, fanciful, Wes Anderson pre-world-war-two world. There’s a lot of swearing (some would say an anachronistic amount), and some other grown-up content, but to see Anderson’s take on series of action movie tropes is worth …
movie: robocop (2014)
Movie: Robocop. Reimagining the original Robocop (from 1987) in the modern day, with Samuel L Jackson as a kind of Fox News presenter, Michael Keaton as an evil billionaire, and Swede Joel Kinnaman in the titular role. Special effects heavy, and neither as violent and chilling nor as thorough in its presentation of a world …
movie: non-stop
Non-Stop is the latest Liam Neeson vehicle – it’s a thriller / whodunit on a plane. It’s no Citizen Kane, but it is an amusing puzzler with plenty of twists and turns. Julianne Moore is highly watchable, and the other group of people do a sufficient task at keeping the film going. There are a few …