Action & Thriller

Through the 2009 reboot Star Trek and follow-up project Star Trek Into Darkness, J.J. Abrams and Co. have successfully resurrected a larger-than-life sci-fi franchise for younger generations. The films have been beautiful and exciting, and at the new series’ core, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto have been...

Hollywood has become so deeply preoccupied with rehashing old stories that a lot of sequels and reboots these days are unwanted. This is not the case with Jason Bourne. With Matt Damon back on board in the titular role and Paul Greengrass (who helmed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum) directing,...

X-Men: Apocalypse starts off looking more or less like Gods Of Egypt, which is to say you might start regretting your ticket purchase three minutes into the film. The opening sequence shows a glittering and ridiculous ancient Egypt in which a handful of mutants seem to be in charge. This is a necessary...

Five minutes into Money Monster I was worried George Clooney was losing it a little bit. A lot of great actors (looking at you Robert De Niro) seem to reach a point at which they start taking easy paychecks to do roles in which they humiliate themselves. And in those first few minutes, that’s what it looks...

Boy, what a strange film. I started High-Rise expecting the unexpected, because there’s not much out there that gives you a clear idea what, exactly, it is. Trailers were vague (though exciting) and plot synopses revealed little other than that it involved escalating tensions between the inhabitants of a...

If the first half of 2016 in cinema is to be defined by a clash between films about, well, clashes between superheroes, then we finally have what no one film actually gave us: a clear winner. Where Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice toiled through a messy script and drowned in its own presumed grandeur,...

One of the best things about the rise of streaming is that a lot of small films that might not merit wide releases quickly become available to large audiences. Such is the case with Mr. Right, an action comedy that had a limited release this month, but which is already available on some On Demand...

I have to admit, I went into Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice with pretty low expectations. I thought Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel was an unmitigated disaster, and I also wasn’t a fan of the semi-rehashing of Christopher Nolan’s Batman in Ben Affleck’s skin and Snyder’s world. Nevertheless, I wanted...

The 60s were the highpoint of ‘cool’ in movies – before flares and then big hair ruined it all. The decade was also the peak of ‘weird’. Mostly 60s cool tends not to be that weird, think Bullitt, À Bout de Souffle or Alfie. 1967's Branded to Kill is a key exception. Goro Hanada is a hitman...

Writer and director JC Chandor has said he was inspired to write All is Lost by a fatal car crash he was involved in aged 19. He and two other passengers survived, but his friend behind the wheel did not. Chandor described the event as "very, very intense." This emotion has informed his film. Gripping...