It’s been a big year for Stephen King adaptations about people in deadly foot races. Earlier, we had the impressively gruelling and poignant The Long Walk and now comes The Running Man, not only a King adaptation but a remake of the 1987 Arnie film. The original film was an entertainingly silly piece of glossy 80’s sci fi action that
Read moreThe Gen X franchise regeneration continues with a surprisingly entertaining addition to the sci fi action franchise Predator in Predator: Badlands. As with the Terminator movies, what was once the otherworldly villain has now become the hero as the Predator known as Dek (New Zealand actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), who is a member of the a Yautja people, is at the
Read moreThe Now You See Me franchise, which started in 2013, has proven an occasionally inventive but often annoying crime caper series that uses stage magic as device for introducing visual gags and action sequences and as an excuse for improbable plot points. Based largely on the franchise’s ability to lure likeable stars such as Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Morgan Freeman
Read moreThe Roses is the sporadically funny but undercooked, shakily constructed and tonally uneven remake of the dark 1980’s marital discord comedy The War of the Roses that starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. This time, replacing Douglas and Turner are Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman. Cumberbatch plays Theo Rose a renowned architect who after an astonishingly quick courtship marries chef
Read moreFrench legal drama, The Thread, which is directed by and stars the revered Daniel Auteuil, is in many ways a familiar courtroom drama but Auteuil invests the story with a potent sense of intrigue and an affecting personal quality. Based on actual events, the film sees Auteuil play Jean Monier, a lawyer in the throes of self-doubt and disillusionment with
Read moreCop show parody, The Naked Gun (1988) was classic Zucker brothers humour with silly word play, send ups of Hollywood clichés and surreal sight gags revolving around the bumbling Captain Frank Drebin’s (Leslie Nielsen) complete obliviousness to reality and capacity for unintentional destruction. The quality of the Naked Gun movies declined across the sequels but some people, including producer Seth
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