Reviewed by GREG KING Directors: Joe and Anthony Russo Stars: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Reger-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfre Woodard, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, Wagner Moura, Julia Butters, Shea Whigham, Callan Mulvey. This generic globe-trotting action thriller comes across like James Bond on steroids. The Gray Man is based on the 2009 thriller written by Mark Greaney, who was a frequent collaborator with the late Tom Clancy and is credited with writing some of the recent Jack Ryan novels. The Gray Man introduces us to Court Gentry (played Continue reading
FIRST MAN
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Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Damien Chazelle Stars: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Pablo Schreiber, Christopher Abbott, Ethan Embry, Patrick Fugit, Olivia Hamilton, Ciaran Hinds, Corey Stoll, Shea Whigham, Lukas Haas. Oscar winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle has quite a resume to his credit. He who gave us the superb drama Whiplash, which was my top film of 2014. He followed that with La La Land, a colourful and kitsch homage to the old Hollywood musicals of yesteryear, but I was not quite as enamoured with it as many other critics seemed Continue reading
SONG TO SONG
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Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Terrence Malick Stars: Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, Iggy Pop, Val Kilmer, Patti Smith, Flea. I loathed the past couple of films from revered auteur Terrence Malick, particularly his To The Wonder and Knight Of Cups, with their frustratingly obtuse, indulgent and abstract experimental nature, existential meditations, impressionistic and unconventional approach to narrative, the mumbled and at times inaudible dialogue often delivered as internal monologues, the Continue reading
LA LA LAND
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Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Damien Chazelle Stars: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, J K Simmons, Tom Everett Scott. The new film from director Damien Chazelle (the superb Whiplash) is a charming and ambitious take on the old fashioned technicolour Hollywood musical and it harks back to those classic musicals of the 50s and 60s, a bygone era of glamour and romance. The film is inspired by the likes of Jacques Remy's classic The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and Stanley Donen's Singin' In The Rain, and is steeped in nostalgia. There are numerous in-jokes about Hollywood and Continue reading
