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4/5
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Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms
(2023)
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James Marsh
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Wuershan’s film is a ravishing romp through Chinese folklore that bursts with sumptuous production design, breathless action, and some surprisingly racy scenes of forbidden passion.
Posted Sep 27, 2023
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1/5
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The Moon
(2023)
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James Marsh
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By turns illogical, infuriating, casually xenophobic and head-bangingly stupid, The Moon is one of the worst Korean blockbusters in recent memory.
Posted Sep 27, 2023
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1/5
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No More Bets
(2023)
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James Marsh
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No More Bets takes an idiotic approach to addressing the problem [of online scamming], propelled by histrionic scaremongering and xenophobia before leaning into some unintentionally hilarious championing of the Chinese police force.
Posted Sep 27, 2023
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2/5
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Golda
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Saddled with a near-impossible task of conveying the complexities of Israeli politics in this period, Nattiv doesn’t really conquer this nor Meir, despite deploying the mighty Mirren.
Posted Sep 27, 2023
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2/5
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Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween - Destiny
(2023)
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James Marsh
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The endless brawling that defined the first film takes a back seat ... This middle chapter in director Tsutomu Hanabusa’s trilogy is often weighed down by exposition, as it sets the scene for a climactic final chapter.
Posted Sep 12, 2023
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3.5/5
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Snow Leopard
(2023)
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James Mottram
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You might say it’s a film that recognises the best and worst in humanity.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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3.5/5
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Ransomed
(2023)
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James Marsh
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Ransomed uses the true story of a Korean diplomat kidnapped in Lebanon in the 1980s as the sobering backdrop for a well-paced buddy action comedy. It is an awkward fit at times, ... but director Kim Seong-hun lands most of his punches.
Posted Sep 08, 2023
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3.5/5
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Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
(2023)
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James Mottram
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With his music capable of both soothing and searing the soul, as it does here, audiences will simply have one task at hand: find a cinema with a first-rate surround-sound system.
Posted Sep 05, 2023
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3.5/5
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Priscilla
(2023)
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James Mottram
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With pitch-perfect production design and costumes at her disposal, Coppola truly captures the era, and even dives into Elvis’ brush with spiritualism, gurus and LSD.
Posted Sep 05, 2023
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3.5/5
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Evil Does Not Exist
(2023)
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James Mottram
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An engaging but elusive rural drama.
Posted Sep 04, 2023
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4/5
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The Killer
(2023)
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James Mottram
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It’s a lurid crime thriller that, to some degree, chimes with Fincher’s 1995 masterpiece Se7en.
Posted Sep 04, 2023
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5/5
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Maestro
(2023)
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James Mottram
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While Cooper’s film is traditional – it’s nowhere near as radical as Todd Field’s TÁR – it’s a bravura tribute to the creativity and artistry. You don’t need to be a student of Bernstein or his work to find this richly rewarding.
Posted Sep 03, 2023
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4/5
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Poor Things
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Frequently hilarious, Poor Things is ribald and bawdy.
Posted Sep 03, 2023
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3.5/5
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Ferrari
(2023)
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James Mottram
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This isn’t really a film about motorsport, or even a biopic, as such. This is an operatic look at Ferrari, the man rather than the machine, and how one of the most iconic car brands of all time came so close to disaster.
Posted Sep 03, 2023
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3/5
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Blue Beetle
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Maridueña makes for an appealing lead, and the back-and-forth with his Blue Beetle personality (voiced by Becky G) is fun.
Posted Aug 17, 2023
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4/5
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Blue Giant
(2023)
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James Marsh
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Bursting off the screen in a cacophony of improvised jam sessions and electrifying solo performances, Blue Giant proves an intoxicating kaleidoscope of ambition, passion, sacrifice and all that jazz.
Posted Aug 15, 2023
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2/5
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Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story
(2023)
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James Marsh
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Gran Turismo never manages to pull away from the most formulaic of story beats, steering well clear of exploring the creation of the game or the goings-on of the GT Academy itself.
Posted Aug 10, 2023
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2/5
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The Monkey King
(2023)
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James Marsh
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The film’s Chinese mythological elements feel wholly cosmetic. Characters, dialogue and musical numbers all follow the familiar formula of Pixar, Illumination and other Hollywood studios, rather than offering any insight into the original legend.
Posted Aug 10, 2023
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2/5
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Meg 2: The Trench
(2023)
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James Marsh
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What is sorely lacking in Wheatley’s toothless sequel is bloody carnage and a sense of fun. It is not violent enough for the horror crowds, but perhaps too abrasive for the whole family to enjoy.
Posted Aug 03, 2023
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1/5
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Hidden Strike
(2023)
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James Marsh
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Hidden Strike is yet another barely satisfactory attempt from Chan, who would have been 64 at the time of filming, to stay relevant in a fast-changing action-cinema landscape.
Posted Aug 03, 2023
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2.5/5
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One More Chance
(2023)
|
Edmund Lee
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A sporadically touching and thoroughly predictable story of father-son bonding, where the pair gradually – and unconvincingly – warm to each other despite the challenging conditions they face.
Posted Jul 26, 2023
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3/5
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Haunted Mansion
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Anyone expecting anything more than a few jump scares and bumps in the night is going to be disappointed; in that sense, it is a credible attempt to channel the mild frights of the Disney ride into a movie.
Posted Jul 26, 2023
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3/5
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The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell
(2023)
|
Edmund Lee
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The film proves far more interesting when viewed as an epic about the drug trade set in an exotic foreign milieu than as an undercover-police drama that traces the limits of deception.
Posted Jul 20, 2023
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4.5/5
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Oppenheimer
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Detailing the way in which the world opened Pandora’s nuclear box, Oppenheimer is more than just a historical biopic. It feels like a movie for our times.
Posted Jul 20, 2023
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4/5
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Barbie
(2023)
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James Mottram
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It’s a wild and wacky pink-hued comedy-musical about the world’s most famous doll.
Like The Lego Movie before it, Barbie is a meta-movie that both wallows in nostalgia and challenges it. In that sense, it’s mission accomplished.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
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4/5
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Killing Romance
(2023)
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James Marsh
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A Day-Glo fairytale pastiche punctuated with toe-tapping K-pop karaoke anthems, director Lee Won-suk’s genre-bending comedy musical, Killing Romance, is a bona fide cult classic in the making.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
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4/5
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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
(2022)
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James Marsh
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The visually adventurous, gleefully surreal work combines an assortment of Murakami’s writing into a wholly immersive, otherworldly odyssey of urban malaise and imminent global disaster.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
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4/5
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One
(2023)
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James Mottram
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This is a hugely entertaining blockbuster, led by a fighting fit Tom Cruise, who has not lost one iota of his action-hero verve.
Posted Jul 06, 2023
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3/5
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Both Sides of the Blade
(2021)
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James Mottram
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Being incarcerated in this hermetically sealed world for nearly two hours is a suffocating experience at times, despite the impressively mature performances of Binoche, Lindon and Colin.
Posted Jul 05, 2023
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2.5/5
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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Without Bay at the helm, the ear-screeching carnage is taken down a decibel or two. With Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II) directing, this latest battle between alien robots, clocking in at around two hours, is ever so slightly more bearable.
Posted Jul 05, 2023
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3/5
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The Childe
(2023)
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James Marsh
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K-drama heartthrob Kim Seon-ho steals the show…injecting his well-groomed assassin with a refreshing dose of self-effacing irreverence…Like a shotgun-toting episode of Succession, The Childe escalates into a greed-fuelled bloodbath.
Posted Jun 23, 2023
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3/5
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Shin Kamen Rider
(2023)
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James Marsh
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A fast-paced and knowingly kitsch love letter to the beloved franchise of tokusatsu films…even more wacky, violent and conceptual than he was permitted with the monolithic Godzilla and Ultraman
Posted Jun 23, 2023
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3/5
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Extraction 2
(2023)
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James Marsh
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Extraction 2 outdoes its predecessor with its relentless action and wince-inducing violence...stakes its claim to being the next no-nonsense heavyweight action franchise.
Posted Jun 16, 2023
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2/5
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The Flash
(2023)
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James Marsh
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Falling victim of its own thematic mantra, The Flash refuses to let go of the past, instead allowing it to define what it has become in the present – in other words, a hodgepodge of former glories, with no clear identity of its own.
Posted Jun 07, 2023
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|
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Farewell My Concubine
(1993)
|
Richard James Havis
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A complex examination of both China's political history and sexual identity. It's also about art.
Posted Jun 05, 2023
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4.5/5
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse more than matches its predecessor. Deeper, darker, crazier, funnier, it’s The Empire Strikes Back of animated sequels.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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3/5
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The Roundup: No Way Out
(2023)
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James Marsh
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What emerges is a perfectly serviceable action vehicle that is sure to elevate its lovable star and his unique on-screen image even further. In the wake of its eye-catching forerunners, however, No Way Out plays things disappointingly safe.
Posted Jun 01, 2023
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3.5/5
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The Boogeyman
(2023)
|
Matt Glasby
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Tense rather than terrifying, The Boogeyman is far better than most studio horror films and a cut above the recent crop of King adaptations (Pet Sematary, Firestarter).
Posted May 29, 2023
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2/5
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Cobweb
(2023)
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James Mottram
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Far too indulgent, the lengthy 135-minute running time is not merited; a much crisper, leaner story would have served the humour far better.
Posted May 29, 2023
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3.5/5
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Elemental
(2023)
|
James Mottram
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It’s true that after all that lovely world-building, the film flags in the middle section, but there are moments of true beauty in Elemental that will appeal to incurable romantics everywhere.
Posted May 29, 2023
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3.5/5
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Perfect Days
(2023)
|
James Mottram
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Yakusho revels in a performance where gestures, not words, are key. It’s a sublime piece of acting in a film that charms you with its simplicity.
Posted May 26, 2023
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3/5
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The Little Mermaid
(2023)
|
James Marsh
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Halle Bailey proves to be the film’s strongest selling point, cutting an enchanting figure as she bashes out “Part of Your World” for all she’s worth.
Posted May 26, 2023
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4/5
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The Best Is Yet To Come
(2020)
|
James Marsh
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Wang’s effort retains a gritty documentary feel that lends the story an extra layer of front-line authenticity.
Posted May 26, 2023
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4/5
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Hopeless
(2023)
|
James Mottram
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Hopeless is a competently made and acted drama that is moodily shot. It simmers with tension.
Posted May 26, 2023
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4/5
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Kubi
(2023)
|
James Mottram
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Even if you fail to grasp the nuances, Kubi is such an exhilarating ride at times that it scarcely matters. From mid-air fights to vast battles, from female ninja assassins to castles set ablaze, there’s plenty to feast your eyes upon.
Posted May 24, 2023
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4/5
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Asteroid City
(2023)
|
James Mottram
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This is Anderson at his most off-kilter.
Posted May 24, 2023
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2/5
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Project Silence
(2023)
|
Clarence Tsui
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This extremely loud disaster movie repeats territory well-trodden in classics such as The Host, Train to Busan and Tidal Wave. Unfortunately, Project Silence ends up a bad cover version of these originals.
Posted May 23, 2023
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3.5/5
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May December
(2023)
|
James Mottram
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It is not top-tier Haynes, weighed down as it is by heavy-handed symbolism. But for all the flaws, cinema enthusiasts will delight in picking it apart.
Posted May 22, 2023
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5/5
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Killers of the Flower Moon
(2023)
|
James Mottram
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Following Scorsese’s mournful hymn to mob rule in his last film, 2019’s The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon is every bit as powerful – a late-career masterpiece.
Posted May 22, 2023
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3/5
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The Breaking Ice
(2023)
|
Clarence Tsui
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Bolstered by flowing camerawork and a dynamic performance from Zhou Dongyu, the film is an enjoyable if somewhat lightweight drama about three young people trying to drink and frolic away their physical and psychological traumas.
Posted May 22, 2023
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