The Creator – feel familiar?

I watched new movie The Creator last night and was struck by how many of its elements were reminiscent of other films. I was perfectly pleased with the plot, visuals, characters and action and found it to be an original, engaging and at times emotional story, but those similarities kept drawing me out of the…

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MOVIE REVIEW: Sicario: Day of the Soldado

It was nearly three years ago that I wrote this article in praise of the music in the 2015 war-on-drugs thriller Sicario. Sicario: Day of the Soldado is the sequel to that film, and it was with great excitement that I fronted up to my local cinema to see what could possibly be done to…

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Thor: Ragnarok – A spoiler-free review and analysis

Taika Waititi was a surprising choice of director of the third movie in the Thor series, Thor: Ragnarok. Primarily known for his quirky, feel-good comedies—most recently the surprise hit of 2016, Hunt for the Wilderpeople—Waititi does not seem a natural fit for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it works. And not only does it work,…

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Independence Day: Resurgence is downright crazy

Wow. Independence Day: Resurgence was certainly something. I’m just not sure what that something was. As a student of writing, I was completely flummoxed by this movie. It wasn’t that the dialogue was horrible (though mostly it was) or that the plot was poor (because it wasn’t, if considered only in the broadest terms), it…

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Seen Sicario? This is what I want to know…

I don’t get to see a lot of movies. I have two young sons and a deficit of reliable babysitters, so my love of the cinema is generally unsated. But not last weekend. Last weekend my wife and I managed to escape for long enough to see a rather fine piece of cinema called Sicario….

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