Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Graham Moore Stars: Mark Rylance, Dylan O'Brien, Johnny Flynn, Zoey Deutch, Simon Russell Beale, Nikki Amuka-Bird. Not to be confused with the 1973 crime drama of the same name that was based on a novel by Donald E Westlake and which starred Robert Duvall as a former prisoner out for revenge against the mob that double crossed him. This is an intelligent and literate, yet claustrophobic drama in which the action is confined to the backroom of a bespoke tailor’s shop in Chicago in the late 50s. The film has been written and …
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Craig Roberts Stars: Mark Rylance, Sally Hawkins, Rhys Ifans, Christian Lees, Jonah Lees, Jake Davies, Ian Porter, Tommy Fallon, Mark Lewis Jones, Simon Farnaby, Johann Myers. Golf is not the most cinematic of sports, but it has provided the backdrop for a number of entertaining movies, including Tin Cup with Kevin Costner; the biopic The Greatest Game Ever Played; the based-on fact story of The Legend Of Bagger Vance with Matt Damon and Will Smith; and Tommy’s Honour about the creation of the modern game as we know it. Caddyshack …
DUNKIRK
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Christopher Nolan Stars: Fionn Whitehead, Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, B arry Keoghan, Tom Glynn-Carney, Damien Bonnard, Aneurin Barnard, James D'Arcy, Jack Lowden. Films like Saving Private Ryan and Hacksaw Ridge have given us gritty, visceral and harrowing depictions of the horrors and carnage of war, and the senseless loss of young lives, and they have raised the bar of the war movie genre. With his latest film Dunkirk, writer/director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, etc) again …
THE BFG
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Steven Spielberg Stars: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, Bill Hader. Roald Dahl is an author who has an innate understanding of the inner mind of children and a great imagination that has shaped his popular children's tales like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James And The Giant Peach, The Fantastic Mr Fox, etc. His stories have sold over 200 million copies, and many of them have been filmed. With an often mischievous sense of humour, his tales appeal to children, but …
BRIDGE OF SPIES
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Steven Spielberg Stars: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Sebastian Koch, Will Rogers, Austin Stowell, Jesse Plemmons, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Peter McRobbie, Billy Magnussen, Michael Gaston, Dakin Matthews, Burghart Klaussner, Scott Shepherd. Based on true events, Steven Spielberg's 29th feature is a Cold War thriller ripped from the pages of history. Bridge Of Spies also marks the fourth collaboration between Spielberg and Tom Hanks, after the superb WWII drama Saving Private Ryan, the chase thriller Catch Me If You Can, and The Terminal. The pair …
THE GUNMAN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Pierre Morel Stars: Sean Penn, Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone, Jasmine Trinca, Mark Rylance, Peter Franzen. It's unusual to see Oscar winning actor Sean Penn (Mystic River, Milk, etc) stuck in such a generic action movie, but that's exactly what we get here. There must have been some attraction in this adaptation of The Prone Gunman, a crime novel written in 1981 by the late French author Jean-Patrick Manchette, as Penn has also served as one of the producers as well as co-writing the script with Don MacPherson …