Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Antoine Fuqua Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Christina Vidal, Adrian Martinez, Riley Keough, Peter Skarsgaard, Ethan Hawke, Paul Dano, Eli Goree, Christiana Montoya. "Broken people save broken people.” Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a cop who has been demoted for some unspecified incident and is now working night shifts at the Los Angeles Police Department’s 911 dispatch call centre fielding calls from the desperate and frightened victims of crime. This is his final shift before a court appearance in the morning that will …
A STAR IS BORN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Bradley Cooper Stars: Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Anthony Ramos, Sam Elliott, Rafi Gavron, Andrew Dice Clay, Dave Chappelle, Ron Rifkin, Barry Shabaka Henley, Alec Baldwin, Greg Grunberg, Drena De Niro, Lukas Nelson. This is the fourth version of the classic story that was first filmed in 1937 with Frederick March and Janet Gaynor in the lead roles. It was notably remade in 1954 as a musical with James Mason and Judy Garland in the lead roles. It is forty years since we saw Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in their version of A …
SUPERFLY
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Director X Stars: Trevor Jackson, Kaalan Walker, Esai Morales, Michael Kenneth Williams, Lex Scott Davis, Andrea London, Jason Mitchell, Jennifer Morrison, Brian F Durkin, Big Bank Black, Antwan Big Boi Patton. This is a largely unnecessary remake of the 1972 Blaxploitation crime drama from director Gordon Parks jr, the son of legendary Blaxploitation filmmaker Gordon Parks, who gave us classic films like Shaft, etc. The original was a ground-breaking achievement as it one of the first films entirely financed and starring and …
TWO IS A FAMILY
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Hugo Gelin Stars: Omar Sy, Clemence Poesy, Antoine Bertrand, Gloria Colston, Ashley Walters, Clementine Celarie, Raphael von Blumenthal. A remake of the 2013 Mexican comedy Instructions Not Included, the crowd pleasing Two Is A Family is sort of a Gallic Kramer Versus Kramer that deliberately tugs at the heartstrings. It was the most popular film at the French box office in 2017-18, and recently screened to great acclaim at the French Film Festival here in Australia. It stars Omar Sy, who was wonderful in the fantastic French …
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Kenneth Branagh Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Penelope Cruz, Leslie Odom jr, Lucy Boynton, Sergei Polunin, Tom Bateman, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. Strangers On A Train? Agatha Christie is the world's best-selling author, having sold some 2 billion copies of her crime and mystery novels. She has written 66 novels, 33 of which feature her famous creation, the arrogant, fastidious and brilliant Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Many of her books …
THE BEGUILED
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Sophia Coppola Stars: Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Colin Farrell, Elle Fanning, Angourie Rice, Oona Laurence, Addison Riecke, Emma Howard. For her sixth feature film, Sophia Coppola (Lost In Translation, etc) remakes the 1971 southern gothic western that was directed by Don Siegel and starred Clint Eastwood, who had achieved international fame and success in the Sergio Leone directed spaghetti western trilogy. Based on Thomas Cullinan’s 1966 novel The Painted Devil, The Beguiled was the third of five films that the pair …
PORK PIE – interview with Matt Murphy
by GREG KING Pork Pie is a fast paced road movie about three misfits who travel from one end of New Zealand to the other in a stolen mini Cooper. The film is a remake of New Zealand filmmaker Geoff Murphy’s seminal road movie which helped kick start the New Zealand film industry. Ironically this remake is directed by Murphy’s own son Matt, a director of slick commercials making his feature film debut. Greg spoke to Matt about the five-year process of developing the script, the casting, and the challenges of shooting the car chase …
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GOING IN STYLE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Zach Braff Stars: Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, Ann-Margret, Joey King, John Ortiz, Matt Dillon, Josh Pais, Christopher Lloyd, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Peter Serafinowicz, Kenan Thompson. We’ve seen a number of films recently about elderly people behaving badly and refusing to go gently into that good night (Last Vegas, etc), although the nadir of this subgenre would have to be last year’s awful Dirty Grandpa. We even had the British comedy Golden Years, in which an elderly couple, fed up with the way their financial …