|
87%
|
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
|
"J.J. Abrams' ability to smash set pieces and whip together high octane action sequences is up there with the best of them."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
91%
|
The Hunt (2013)
|
"Mads Mikkelsen is perfectly cast as a man unfairly accused of child abuse in writer/director Thomas Vinterberg's cautionary tale about small town mob justice. But like the film, there is something cold and clinical about it."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
78%
|
Iron Man 3 (2013)
|
"The most interesting thing about Iron Man 3 isn't the movie itself, but the return of legendary screenwriter Shane Black."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
56%
|
Oblivion (2013)
|
"slow, heavy-handed and stiff-jointed, prone to admiring the scenery and populating it with bits and pieces plucked from a smorgasbord of post-apocalyptic interplanetary reality-bending cuisine."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
68%
|
Trance (2013)
|
"A restless, furious, jittery exercise in answering one gap of logic by creating another."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
15%
|
A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)
|
"When a Die Hard movie doesn't have a single well-staged action sequence, you know something went badly wrong."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
0%
|
Blinder ()
|
"Did the cast and crew honestly think viewers would want to chant "win, rapist, win!"?"
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
38%
|
Save Your Legs ()
|
"As a comedy that largely operates on a fish-out-of-water travelogue trajectory, predictably embracing that old chestnut about what Indian food can do to a white person's digestive system, Save Your Legs! struggles."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
59%
|
The Last Stand (2013)
|
"Schwarzenegger, now 65, hasn't lost his one amazing gift for being a movie's worst actor and best asset"
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
89%
|
Lincoln (2012)
|
"Spielberg's guarded representation of Honest Abe highlights some problems with the biopic format, especially in terms of veracity, and especially in terms of how we can (or can't) measure accuracy as the years roll by."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
78%
|
Flight (2012)
|
"In Flight Zemekis and co. have achieved something braver than the familiar "drugs are bad mmmk" chestnut, creating one of Hollywood's most vivid portrayals of a functional alcoholic character, and asking us not to judge him not by his addiction."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
88%
|
Django Unchained (2012)
|
"For his latest exercise in pulpy throwbacks and balls-to-the-wall homage, Quentin Tarantino once more wipes away the gunk of a zillion B movie tropes to do what he does best: apply a hyper-powered defibrillator to a tuckered out genre."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
69%
|
Les Misérables (2012)
|
"Hooper has managed to suck the life out of a magnificent production, draining the blood of bread-pilfering Jean Valjean into a port-a-loo of tedium."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
88%
|
Life of Pi (2012)
|
"At the peak of its power, Ang Lee's highly anticipated adaptation of Yann Martel's best-selling book feels like the cinematic equivalent of touching God."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
92%
|
Skyfall (2012)
|
"James Bond's 23rd official feature film gives the iconic secret agent something to stew over: an existential crisis."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
96%
|
Argo (2012)
|
"Affleck has paraded well beyond dramatic liberties into a thick confetti of parochial myth-making, and it's disconcerting to see how content he appears to be with trading fact for fiction."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
25%
|
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
|
"The latest instalment in a franchise of cheaply made mass-marketed movies that have lined the pockets of producers who chanced upon the holy grail of license-to-print-money filmmaking."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
87%
|
Frankenweenie (2012)
|
"This is McDonalds moviemaking - plonk it down, fry it up, slap on a new label, drop fresh tears in the cauldron - and the special sauce rarely tasted so bland."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
67%
|
Lawless (2012)
|
"Director John Hillcoat's terrifically acted prohibition era thriller, inspired by the real-life story of the Bondurant brothers, shows how the American dream starting to go wrong - before it even existed."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
16%
|
The Watch (2012)
|
"the story regularly dozes off and wakes up in other places, squinting its eyes and groping in the dark for laughs."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
26%
|
Kath & Kimderella ()
|
"Kath and Kimderdella is not a comedy, it's a collection of humiliations, the concept of an audience paying for this stuff delivering the sickest and most potent punchline."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
——
|
10Terrorists ()
|
"A hell-for-leather send-up of reality television so fast moving it needs a sign: no pregnant women or people with heart conditions allowed."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
35%
|
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)
|
"If The Matrix turned the humble spoon into an enduring visual motif for the cinematic dinner table, Vampire Hunter attempts to do the same with a fork."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
64%
|
Cosmopolis (2012)
|
"Cosmopolis is the first great GFC art film, linked to financial and social catastrophe in tantalisingly evasive ways."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
80%
|
Magic Mike (2012)
|
"Magic Mike works with a Boogie Nights-esque structure, showcasing a glowing cash-strewn catwalk empire before eventually urinating all over it."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
87%
|
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
|
"This is terrorist fiction writ large: bracing, visceral and intensely atmospheric, the loudest and most ferocious post-9/11 movie to come out of Hollywood so far."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
100%
|
The King Is Dead ()
|
"The King is Dead! is a deliciously dark genre mash-up, coy and explorative but tight and insular, sprayed with wry laughs and a genuinely foreboding undertone."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
73%
|
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
|
"The Amazing Spider-Man is as much a contract as it is a movie, filled out, signed and delivered in front of our eyes."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
51%
|
The Three Stooges (2012)
|
"Without actually saying it, and certainly without needing to, the Farrellys present the Three Stooges as grown men with severe intellectual disorders, blissfully ignorant of their impairments. "
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
78%
|
Take This Waltz (2012)
|
"a soap opera for people who don't watch soap operas; Dawson's Creek for those who scoff at the prospect of watching James van der Beek, Katie Holmes and - yes - Michelle Williams, shooting the pop culture breeze."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
41%
|
Rock of Ages (2012)
|
"The core issue in Rock of Ages is a blaring disconnect between the story it tells and the movement it aspires to capture. "
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
50%
|
Swerve ()
|
"Lahiff strings together an entertaining chain of actions 'n' consequences but yanks the strings of disbelief suspension too hard and aspires to do too much."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
80%
|
Get the Gringo (2012)
|
"Get the Gringo sees the return of bad ass Mel, the macho-macho man, all gravelly voice, misanthropic sadness and two-steps-ahead conman."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
74%
|
Prometheus (2012)
|
"Prometheus is atmospherically dazzling in a way that makes your eyeballs want to have a cigarette, zip up their pants and go out for breakfast afterwards."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
70%
|
Men in Black III (2012)
|
" The plot swirls around in fun and frothy circles for much of the running time, but like a dog chasing its tail never quite gets where it wants to go. "
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
58%
|
The Dictator (2012)
|
"The Dictator is the sort of film the Farrelly brothers would be making - and certainly would like to make - if they were writing edgy shock-comedy scripts. "
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
38%
|
Dark Shadows (2012)
|
"The jokes seem to have been written, fittingly enough, by the dead."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
93%
|
Marvel's The Avengers (2012)
|
"It's a long ride before jaws drop and the eyeball caressing spectacle of The Avengers clicks into high gear"
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
83%
|
Wish You Were Here (2013)
|
"For a long time the nonlinear structure dilutes the impact of a bunch excellent performances, led by Edgerton's seasick glare."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
51%
|
John Carter (2012)
|
"Director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall.E) could easily have found himself feeding the belly of a turkey too fat to support its own legs - slow, clunky, stupid - but manages to keep a spectacular beast of a movie fast-footed. "
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
96%
|
The Kid with a Bike (2012)
|
"Belgian writer/director/producers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne capture with heartfelt verisimilitude a boy's misplaced determination to find a father figure. "
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
84%
|
The Raid: Redemption (2012)
|
"Writer/director Gareth Evans' full throttle guns-n-fisticuffs Indonesian action flickis a hardcore bloke fest."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
——
|
Black & White & Sex ()
|
"Writer/director John Winter's strange and seductive vaudevillian one setting power play between a sex worker and a male interviewee is black and white only in a literal sense."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
59%
|
Any Questions for Ben? ()
|
"this graceless comedy has been made by middle-aged dags trying and failing to capture the mannerisms and lifestyles of people decades their junior."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
——
|
Bulgasari (2001)
|
"What or who is this giant idiotic creature supposed to represent? What political message can be dug out from the rubble of this weird, bad, gloriously messed-up exercise in socialist filmmaking?"
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
96%
|
The Muppets (2011)
|
"settle down for something wondrous, and wondrously artificial - an hour and a half of proof that the Dream Factory can still squeeze out more than one happy song to sing along."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
83%
|
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
|
"Alfredson maintains an admirable lightness of touch, and the performances are fine, but narrative cohesion was the first victim of the cross-over and structurally the plot flies helter-skelter."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
89%
|
The Descendants (2011)
|
"The film's tone is quaint but the story dramatic and the characters maintain the ability to shock and surprise. "
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
44%
|
J. Edgar (2011)
|
"the prolific veteran filmmaker, whose first feature as a director was released the same year as Spielberg's career kick-starter Duel (1971), enters his 80s with a rich and sophisticated biopic."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
|
93%
|
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (2011)
|
"Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is a blast."
|
Luke Buckmaster
|
87%
24%
91%
85%
45%
40%
