Gangster Squad, 2013. Directed by Ruben Fleischer. Starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Sean Penn, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Nick Nolte and Josh Pence. SYNOPSIS: A 1940s crime tale about the rise and fall of gangster Mickey Cohen. Let me start by saying that I enjoyed Gangster Squad, but it […]

Django, Prepare a Coffin (Italian: Preparati la bara!), 1968. Directed by Ferinando Baldi. Starring Terence Hill, Horst Frank, George Eastman, Jose Torres and Pinuccio Ardia. SYNOPSIS: After the cold-blooded execution of his wife, a lone gun-slinger, Django (Hill), becomes a vigilant for a town at the mercy of his wife’s murderer. With increasing publicity for […]

Shadow Dancer, 2012. Directed by James Marsh. Starring Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough, Gillian Anderson, Aidan Gillen, Domhnall Gleeson, Brid Brennan, David Wilmot, Stuart Graham and Martin McCann. SYNOPSIS: Single mother Collette McVeigh is a Republican living in Belfast with her mother and hardliner IRA brothers. When she is arrested for her part in an aborted […]

The Impossible, 2012. Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona.Starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and Tom Holland. SYNOPSIS: A dramatisation of the events of the 2004 Tsunami, following the Bennett family as they struggle for survival. Creating a film of the 2004 Tsunami was always going to divide audiences on the subject of taste, but no one […]

Les Misérables, 2012. Directed by Tom Hooper.Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter and Samantha Barks. SYNOPSIS: After breaking parole, ex-prisoner Jean Valjean is ruthlessly hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert. When Valjean agrees to care for factory worker Fantine’s young daughter, Cosette, […]

Django Unchained, 2012. Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino.Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, James Remar, Michael Parks, Don Johnson and Jonah Hill. SYNOPSIS: With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. […]

Samsara, 2011. Directed by Ron Fricke. SYNOPSIS: Samsara casts a beautiful light on 25 countries and the stories and landscapes of each. Nearing the first hour of Samsara director Ron Fricke shows us a series of assembly lines. Disturbing in some senses (the sheer monotony of the job or the slaughter of chickens, cows and […]

Gangster Squad, 2013. Directed by Ruben Fleischer. Starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Sean Penn, Robert Patrick, Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Nick Nolte and Josh Pence. SYNOPSIS: In 1940s LA, a group of incorruptible police officers band together to stop an up and coming mafia boss. Throwing aside due process and badges and […]

Baraka, 1992. Directed by Ron Fricke. SYNOPSIS: A montage of photographed images telling, “The story of our planet, and human interaction within it.” Cinema is by definition a visual medium, and if this is the beating heart of cinema, then director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson’s Baraka adopts this identity with power. The opening […]

Broken City, 2013. Directed by Allen Hughes.Starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Alona Tal, Jeffrey Wright, Natalie Martinez, Barry Pepper, Michael Beach and Kyle Chandler. SYNOPSIS: An ex-cop trailing the wife of New York City’s mayor finds himself immersed in a larger scandal. It seems every other year or so we tend to get […]