First Man: Watching Ryan Gosling take a giant leap for mankind will be one rewarding cinematic experience
The Apollo 11 moon landing remains one of the most iconic milestones in human history, while Neil Armstrong remains one of the world’s most celebrated heroes of the Space Age. The remarkable story of the first lunar landing and the first man to walk on the moon is the subject of Damien Chazelle’s latest project First Man; a look at the events and circumstances surrounding the historic mission and the man at its centre. Set to be released next month, the film is based on James R Hansen’s terrific biography, First Man: The Life of Neil A Armstrong. The movie’s trailer ...
Read Full PostTag: How far are you willing to go for friendship?
For almost two and a half decades, a group of childhood friends have been playing an amusingly absurd game of ‘tag’, an activity that started in school and has been carried over into adulthood as an offbeat way for the cohorts to stay in touch. For one month every year, the players go through ridiculous lengths to tag each other; the last person tagged is “it” till the next year. Their story came to light through a 2013 piece in Wall Street Journal. Inspired by the real-life shenanigans of the aforementioned group, Tag tells the tale of six grown-ups who have turned a ...
Read Full PostTo All The Boys I’ve Loved Before: A cute teen romance that plays it safe and ends up being very bland
Over the last few years, Netflix has made an international impact as an online media service, thanks in large part to its impressive original content. Among the streaming platform’s latest releases is the film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, a fairly basic teen romance that doesn’t offer anything particularly new or innovative but still charms with its sweetness as well as its amicable cast. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name (the first instalment of the trilogy) by Korean-American young adult fiction author Jenny Han, the Susan Johnson-directed movie is a standard issue young romance with ...
Read Full PostChristopher Robin is a warm and emotional trip down memory lane
“Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood, Where Christopher Robin plays, You’ll find the enchanted neighbourhood, Of Christopher’s childhood days.” But Christopher’s childhood days are bound to come to an end. So what happens then? That’s the story of Christopher Robin, a charming fantasy comedy based on the beloved characters that were created by author AA Milne and illustrator EH Shepard almost a decade ago (inspired by the former’s own son and his toys). In Director Marc Forster’s new film, Christopher Robin (portrayed as a kid by Orton O’Brien) leaves his childhood friends behind as he grows up, trading the imaginative lands of the Hundred Acre Wood ...
Read Full PostMamma Mia! Here We Go Again isn’t solid filmmaking, but then again it isn’t meant to be
With its feel-good vibes and irresistible nostalgic draw, Mamma Mia! won over audiences around the globe in 2008, leaving viewers so engrossed in having fun that they didn’t notice (or mind) that the ABBA jukebox musical wasn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece. Its financial success – the film became the highest grossing musical of its time – all but guaranteed that a follow-up would eventually materialise, and that sequel (which also serves as a prequel) is finally here in the form of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Directed by Ol Parker, the film brings more of the same joyous energy that made its ...
Read Full PostDark and suspenseful, will ‘Glass’ help Shyamalan get his groove back?
M Night Shyamalan has admittedly had more misses (Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, After Earth) than hits (The Visit, Split) of late. But while he may not be the most consistently impressive filmmaker, the Indian-American director has still created quite a few interesting horror thrillers over his career, which is why the viewers’ attention is piqued whenever he releases something new. His latest venture is the upcoming Glass, the third instalment in the Eastrail 177 trilogy, which bring Shyamalan’s previous films Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016) together, and serves as a sequel to both. The worlds of ...
Read Full PostIncredibles 2: The journey may be predictable this time around, but it’s still a whole lot of fun
More than a decade after they first conquered the big screen with what turned out to be an instant Pixar classic, the Parr family is back for their second adventure in Incredibles 2, a return to the world created by Director and Writer Brad Bird that revisits much of the same turf as the original but makes sure it never ceases to be fun. Our protagonists – parents Bob (voiced by Craig T Nelson) and Helen (Holly Hunter), and their kids Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dash (Huck Milner) and Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile) – are, once again, dealing with ostracisation. Superheroes are still ...
Read Full PostGiven its stellar cast, Ocean’s 8 is not the masterpiece one would expect
While Hollywood has always been very fond of remakes and spinoffs, it has more recently developed a fascination with female-centred continuations of beloved cinematic adventures and established franchises. From the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot to the upcoming The Expendabelles, The Hustle and The Rocketeers, several female-led reimagining are bringing old tales back to the big screen with a new twist. An example of this phenomenon currently in cinemas is, of course, the much-talked-about Ocean’s 8, the all-female spin-off from Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy. The action-comedy is centred on the character of Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) – the younger sister of the (probably) late Danny Ocean – who is trying to pull off ...
Read Full PostLikely to be a winner, ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ humorously targets the internet and Disney itself
It may not have made as much money as Frozen (2013) or received as many awards as Big Hero 6 (2014) or Moana (2016), but that doesn’t change the fact that 2012’s Wreck-It Ralph was one of the most inventive animated films Disney has made as of late. The story of Ralph (voiced by John C Reilly) – the antagonist of the Fix-It Felix Jr arcade game, who no longer wants to be the bad guy – and Vanellope (an effervescent Sarah Silverman) – the glitch in the game Sugar Rush, who wishes she was a racer – the film ...
Read Full PostCan Mowgli surpass The Jungle Book’s success?
Why? That is probably the first thing you’ll wonder when you think about the upcoming film Mowgli, yet another adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, which comes just two years after Disney gave its 1967 animated classic a live action remake. Why are we getting another The Jungle Book movie so soon after the previous one? It’s a phenomenon we’ve seen time and again: twin films – two similar but separate projects developed at the same time by two different studios. That is certainly what has happened in this case as well. And it’s the massive success of Jon Favreau’s 2016 take on the fantasy ...
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