Jamie Neish
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Film Review: John Wick: Chapter 2
★★★★☆ John Wick: Chapter 2 comes two years after the first tore up cinemas across the world and resurrected the career of Keanu Reeves, who hasn’t felt so comfortable in a role since he played Neo in The Matrix. It doesn’t disappoint. In fact, this is a sequel that advances on its predecessor in a…
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Film Review: The Founder
★★★☆☆ The contentious start of fast food chain McDonald’s is the focus of the smart if unspectacular The Founder, in which Michael Keaton delivers a sturdy performance as Ray Croc, an ambitious salesman who spends his days travelling through every drive-by dinner across America. If you are looking to register your small scale business, check…
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Film Review: The Lego Batman Movie
★★★★☆ The first spin-off from The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie may not have that film’s depth of heart yet remains an hilarious mining of the comic book hero’s history. It hops straight to it, the opening scene positing an epic battle between Batman (Will Arnett) and The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) that’s brimming with…
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Film Review: Fifty Shades Darker
★★☆☆☆ In a scene towards the end of James Foley’s Fifty Shades Darker, Kim Basinger and Marcia Gay Harden square up following a heated revelation. It’s the best scene of the whole film and a reminder of all the wasted talent in this dull and laughable follow-up to Fifty Shades of Grey. Dakota Johnson and…
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Film Review: T2 Trainspotting
★★★☆☆ Two decades after cult hit Trainspotting tapped into the zeitgeist of the 1990s its sequel – the oddly titled T2 – reaches screens, propelled by an overbearing sense of nostalgia. Not only does the film’s narrative bear a striking resemblance to that of the original, but returning director Danny Boyle also finds ways to…
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Film Review: Urban Hymn
★★★★☆ Debuting at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival, British crime drama Urban Hymn is an impressively rounded character study set against the London riots of 2011, in which people far and wide acted out in protest to the death of Mark Duggan. Teenager Jamie (Letitia Wright) has been in care at a state-run residential home…
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DVD Review: Triple 9
★★☆☆☆ Triple 9 is nothing if not muddled. Toplined by an all-star cast including Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson, John Hillcoat’s latest is a messy and unsophisticated cop drama that quickly stumbles into a spiritless slumber. Michael (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his crack band of crooked cops and ex-military professionals – Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Norman…
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Film Review: Me Before You
★★☆☆☆ Self-adapted by author Jojo Moyes, Me Before You has an interesting conceit, yet consistently undermines it by resorting to cheap and ever predictable rom-com cliches that have a habit of irritating beyond belief. Louisa (Emilia Clarke), a quirky and bouncy twenty-something, spends her life supporting her hard-to-do family. When she’s fired from one job,…
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Film Review: Sing Street
★★★★☆ Once director John Carney returns to his native Dublin for Sing Street, a 1980s-set coming-of-age crowdpleaser with real depth, heart and wit to match its toe-tapping musical beats. Conor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a 14-year-old kid who’s forced to move from a private school to rowdy public one run by the Christian Brothers when his parents…
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Film Review: Our Kind of Traitor
★★★☆☆ After The Night Manager wowed audiences on the BBC, now another John le Carré adaptation comes to the silver screen. This time it’s Our Kind of Traitor, a contemporary espionage thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Harris. The duo star as Perry and Gail, a couple of Londoners on a make-or-break holiday in Marrakesh,…