Cruise remains committed as ever as Hollywood’s death-defying action star par excellence, but this is such a slog and bogged down by the need to justify the knotty, plotty ideas of the earlier movie.
To some degree an anti-blockbuster par excellence, this much maligned sequel sees the infamous villain navigating a new and treacherous psychological terrain, packaged as an unorthodox if imaginative musical-cum-courtroom drama.
It may be mid-tier Ridley Scott with standard-fare storytelling, but this sequel is boosted by Denzel Washington’s scene-stealing supporting role and a gleefully gorier treatment of violent spectacle.
Humans and bugs are out to exterminate each other in Verhoeven’s much-maligned ‘fascist’ blockbuster that has enjoyed a cult resurgence, with its nonchalance and irreverence towards the pleasures of gory violence and media brainwashing satirically relevant.
With generous doses of horror and comedy, though with some way-too-sappy scenes of melodrama, this ‘zombies-on-a-train’ flick is no doubt a crowd-pleasing marker of Asian blockbuster success.
There is enough time-ticking tension to make the age-old formula work to some extent, though it can also feel emptily spectacular but still somewhat entertaining in this half-decent entry to the ‘Alien’ franchise.
While its plotting might seem too ‘neat’ to really satisfy, this deliberately-paced serial killer flick balances well the ‘procedural’ and ‘occult’ aspects as a greenhorn FBI special agent must solve a series of decades-long murders.
Although a tad plodding in its early stretches, this new Godzilla film combines thrilling spectacle with a grounding in narrative storytelling, as it psychoanalyses and indicts Japanese wartime militarism in hopes of a pacifist change in mentality.
This enjoyable and boisterous sequel to one of Pixar’s high watermarks pits its protagonist against the onset of puberty as the appearance of more emotions creates havoc and a crisis of sense of self.
Eschewing narrative economy for an epic five-act saga, this prequel to Fury Road is a different beast of a film, focusing first on drama and then action, effectively deepening the mythos of the Wasteland.
Eternality Tan 