Cigar chain-smoker and all-around war hero Winston Churchill once mused, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” While Child 44 isn’t quite that indecipherable, Churchill’s sentiments perfectly summarise the disjointed and fragmented adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s U.S.S.R.-based novel. Director Daniel Espinosa fails to utilise the superb cinematic tools at hand—including […]
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes with J and Søren
J’s Review Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is not the “savior of the summer of 2014,” and I wonder if the people praising it as such have actually been to the theater in the past couple months. As long as we’re comparing, it has none of the visual sophistication of Godzilla and completely lacks the wit of Edge […]
Looking Back: The Dark Knight
Six years ago today, one of the most critically acclaimed movies of all time hit theaters. The Dark Knight won over 100 awards when it was released, including academy awards for both sound editing and the late Heath Ledger’s performance. It has remained in the public consciousness since 2008 and is regularly hailed as one of the best […]
The Dark Knight Rises with Søren and Stuart
Here’s how our Dueling Reviews format works: each contributor writes an independent, abbreviated, spoiler-free review of the film. Then, the contributors come together in a podcast and discuss the movie in depth. Søren’s Review At this point, I think that most people are aware that I just plain old didn’t like The Dark Knight. The film won endless […]
Kung Fu Panda 2
I can safely say that I haven’t had as much fun watching a movie in a while as I did when I saw Kung Fu Panda 2. As a sequel to the much-lauded Kung Fu Panda, it succeeds on every front, and as a piece of cinema, it makes for a compelling, dramatic addition to […]
The Problem with Tomas Alfredson
I would be the first to call Tomas Alfredson a perfect director; someone who hits every possible emotional note in his films, whose impeccable timing offers the viewer a spectacular sense of pace and mood. So why, then, are reviews for his films still fairly mixed? Why, with a film as sound as Tinker Tailor […]
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tomas Alfredson is an incredible director whose other internationally-acclaimed film, Let the Right One In, was easily one of the best movies of the last decade. Well, now he’s back and I am very pleased to say that his latest effort, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, easily matches up to his impressive debut. First and foremost comes […]
The Dark Knight
I cannot tell you how sorrowfully my hopes were dashed when I first saw The Dark Knight in theaters. Unfortunately, Nolan refuses to realize both the limitations of an audience’s attention span, and how much plot one can squeeze into one film. Christopher Nolan created what, as disparate elements, are absolutely amazing components of a […]
