Film Reviews by AB

To be honest, I didn't dislike this film. It kept me entertained for a bit under 2 hours. I was just rather underwhelmed as the film progressed. There is one spine-tingling moment when the back-story of the master gardener is suddenly revealed. One might expect fireworks after that but they never happen. It is reasonably well acted with Sigourney Weaver putting in the best performance as the stern owner of the huge estate.

This is very much a two-hander starring Nicolas Cage and Joel Kinnaman. The rest of the cast are very incidental to the story. Kinnaman plays an ordinary guy about to drive to a hospital where his wife is in labour. Before he can drive off, Cage gets in to the back seat brandishing a gun. And off we go with these two on a car journey fraught with peril. Cage shows again why he is one of the best players of a real psychopath. But was this just a random carjacking, or is there more to it? Watch the film to find out.

This is a film about a young woman, played by Florence Pugh, involved in a serious traumatic incident. It ruins her life. She descends into addiction hell. The understanding and friendship offered by the father of her previous fiance begins her path to redemption.

With lesser actors than Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman this could have been a fairly run-of-the mill melodrama, but with these two, especially Pugh, the film is elevated into a tremendous and moving drama.

Some time ago I watched an equally bad film as this one, called The Bezonians, and lo and behold it had the same writer/director. Don't waste your time with this. And incidentally, most of the amazing reviews on IMDB are obviously fake.

I completely agree with GI. The numerous stunts are incredibly well done. Some of the ideas have been done before eg a fight on a train roof, but I don't think they have been done better. Strongly recommended.

This is an original, intriguing and, in my view, enjoyable film. It starts conventionally enough, with US border guards trying to catch illegal Mexican migrants. Paul Mescal plays an ex-marine, volunteer border guard. He saves a young female dancer called Carmen from being killed. She is played by an excellent newcomer Melissa Barrera. They go on the run together. From here on the film takes a whimsical turn involving rather a lot of rather good dancing. If you like flamenco dancing, you get some of that. Even Paul Mescal does some energetic dancing. I loved the film score. I found the film quite uplifting.

I do think that one star is unduly harsh. I give this film 3 stars. Why? Because Adam Driver as Mills the pilot gives a strong performance, the CGI dinosaurs are quite well done, and the dramatic tension is well sustained. Also, perhaps surprisingly, there are some moving and tender moments between Mills and the young girl who is the only other survivor of the crash. Overall I enjoyed this film.

This is a devastating film about the futility of war. The recreation of the World War I battlefields and the trenches is incredibly effective.

It is a hard and painful film to watch, but perhaps necessary to once again remind ourselves of the futility of throwing away the lives of thousands of young men while the bone-headed generals and politicians argue.

If you like the old classic Westerns, a la John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, etc, then you will enjoy this. It has all the classic ingredients - a strong, silent avenger, a feisty woman rancher, several wicked villains. And its all quite well put together.

This film is a well crafted thriller. Aubrey Plaza puts in a fine performance as Emily, a young woman with a crap job. She also has debts which she can't pay off. She is offered the chance to do something quick but illegal to earn good money. Things start to escalate and the tension winds up. It's a good little movie, with all the cast doing a fine job. Recommended.

This is a film written, directed and starring B J Novak. He has come up with a darkly comic, original and intriguing film. BJ stars as a writer called Ben desperately looking for a big story. He discovers that a woman called Abilene that he had a hook-up with has mysteriously died in Texas. He decides to investigate, travelling to her home and staying with her relatives who are convinced she was murdered. Ben the intellectual is a fish-out-of-water with the down to earth Texans and tends to make a fool of himself. Gradually the true, but hidden, motivations of Ben and the family and friends of Abilene are revealed. On the way the film looks at how in this age of instantaneous information, the lines between fact and fiction, innocence and blame get blurred. There is a shocking denouement at the end. Recommended.

This is only the second DVD from Cinema Paradiso that I stopped watching half way through. I hate wasting money, but this really is pretentious piffle. I just could not watch any more. The so-called stories are futile farragos of unfunny fatuity. Why so many great actors got pulled into this mess is a complete mystery. You may suspect by now that I do not recommend this film.

'Done to death' is both a description of the film and the particular genre. I know many will disagree with my view that this kind of non-stop gore-fest has become boring. As is usual with this type of film, the bloody violence is completely over the top. There is little pretence of an actual storyline. Maybe it's my age but I did not enjoy this film.

This is not a new film, but somehow I missed it completely. And it should not be missed! Denzel Washington plays a charismatic teacher who is training a debating team at a small black American college in 1935. The team take on allcomers until finally they are invited to go up against the glittering Harvard debating team. The teacher and the team have to deal with overt and menacing racism. Another great performance from Denzel, and a terrific and moving film.

This moving film is ostensibly about the Lancaster bomber. Yes, we hear about its development and performance in WW11. But the real meat of the film is in the interviews of surviving aircrew, now old men. They flew over Germany when they were young men in their early twenties. With matter-of-fact heroism they described flying mission after mission, knowing that every time they flew they had a high chance of dying a fiery death. A must watch film for everyone interested in WW11.