Joseph Walsh

★★★☆☆ With a hip-hop, cyberpunk aesthetic paying homage to 1980s classics Short Circuit (1986) and RoboCop (1987), by way of the critically derided Tank Girl (1995), Neill Blomkamp’s unorthodox sci-fi Chappie (2015) is an energetic, experimental genre piece that just falls short on delivering the heady concepts it raises. The film opens with newsreels blaring out…

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★★★★☆ These days there is such a rich offering of TV dramas that it can be hard to know what to watch and what not to. It can be difficult for new dramas to grab our attention, especially in world where shows like True Detective and Game Of Thrones dominate our viewing time. The BBC,…

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★☆☆☆☆ Johnny Depp continues his descent into self-parody with the mawkish and turgid caper Mortdecai (2015) from director David Koepp. Based on Kyril Bonfiglioli’s 1970’s comic novels, it follows the misadventures of the dodgy art dealer Charlie Mortdecai. He is a buffoonish British aristocrat who gives dear Johnny plenty of scope to up-the-ante on his…

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★★★☆☆ Matthew Vaughn’s slick second collaboration with writer Mark Millar, Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), brings together the kinetic energy and shock humour of Kick-Ass (2010) and the now well-worn tropes of the spy genre, making for a gleefully entertaining thrill ride, laden with taboo. At the centre of the story is a London youth…

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★★☆☆☆ “Believe nothing you hear and one half of what you see”, is a line lifted from Edgar Alan Poe’s The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether that is uttered by a plummy-toned Brendan Gleeson at the opening of Brad Anderson’s entertaining Grand Guignol genre-piece Stonehearst Asylum (2014) (previously Eliza Graves). Based on Poe’s book,…

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★★★☆☆ Thirteen years on from the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, Peter Jackson completes his journey through Middle Earth with action-packed and satisfying finale, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). Proceedings open in the depths of night in Lake Town in the midst of chaos; the town’s inhabitants scream and…

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★★☆☆☆ The prospect of a drama starring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke and Noomi Rapace based on Tom Rob Smith’s bestselling novel Child 44 suggested that it would be a great film. Sadly, in the hands of Daniel Espinosa, who was responsible for the “Martin Scorsese Presents” gangster flick Easy Money, that prospect dwindles…

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★★★★☆ Last year, American indie director Noah Baumbach wowed audiences with his kooky monochrome comedy Frances Ha (2012), now he is back with While We’re Young (2014). Baumbach’s latest may be another hipster comedy playing with the tropes of arrested-development yarns, but it feels incredibly fresh and has one of the smartest scripts you will…

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★★★☆☆ Russell Crowe’s good-looking, and thoughtful directorial debut, The Water Diviner (2014), makes for a fitting companion piece to Peter Wier’s 1981 war-drama, Gallipoli, picking up the story months after the ferocious and disastrous military campaign of the First World War. Crowe stars as Joshua Conner, an Australian farmer who packed his three sons off…

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★★☆☆☆ Heist movies are meant to be sexy and slick, where the underdog comes out on top thanks to their cunning and skill. Immediately we think of the sparkling smile of Robert Redford in 1973’s The Sting, the undeniable charm of Clooney’s Danny Ocean or the tenacity of De Niro’s Neil McCauley. However, with Glenn…

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