REVIEW: House of Gucci

Between House of Gucci and Christopher Pratt’s casting as Mario, it’s been a difficult time for Italians in cinema.

Ridley Scott’s second film this year after historical epic The Last Duel, House of Gucci is more in the vein of his 2017 effort All the Money in the World – a stylish crime drama based on a real-life event, though trading that film’s shadowy restraint for a smorgasbord of scenery chewing character work.…

PODCAST: Ghostbusters: Afterlife [Movie Robcast]

In ep 133 of The Movie Robcast, Robs Daniel & Wallis suit up, fire up their proton packs and try not to cross the streams as they deliver their verdict on Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Will it please audiences more than the little-loved 2016 reboot, or is this just another case of 80s nostalgia swallowing its own tail?…

REVIEW: Red Notice (Netflix)

Bromancing the Rock. Jungle Snooze. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Dull.

Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot. Should be a winning combination, but Netflix’s latest somehow manages to make the trio unfunny, uncharming, and even a bit dull.

The streaming service’s second heist-based blockbuster in recent weeks, Red Notice is written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who previously worked with the actor formerly known as The Rock on both buddy comedy Central Intelligence and actioner Skyscraper.…

PODCAST: LFF 2021 – The Tragedy of Macbeth [Movie Robcast]

This is our final London Film Festival wrap-up episode, and thank you to all those listeners who stuck with us on a review of this year’s LFF.

To end, we look at Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand.…

REVIEW: The Card Counter

For a film called The Card Counter, Paul Schrader’s latest has very little interest in games of chance.

William Tell (Oscar Isaac; self-contained, slicked-back hair), the eponymous card counter, is a creature of habit; in part a holdover from his time in prison.…

REVIEW: Finch (Apple TV+)

People like post-apocalypses, cute robots, and, perhaps most of all, Tom Hanks.

Apple TV’s first big acquisition was last year’s Greyhound, which starred Hanks as a US Navy Commander leading a convoy during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Here he plays the eponymous Finch, one of the only survivors left in a scorched, sand-swept America.…

REVIEW: Bull

Three men digging in the green earth beneath a pale blue sky.

As evening draws on, the figures become silhouettes; a fire burns. We stay fixed on this as they retreat slowly over the hillside, away from us.

Paul Andrew Williams’ Bull is a slow-burn thriller set apart, at least initially, by its restraint.…

PODCAST: LFF 2021 – The Power of the Dog, Nitram, The Lost Daughter, Dashcam, Benediction, Petite Maman, Benedetta, & King Richard [Movie Robcast]

Episode 131 is our penultimate London Film Festival wrap-up episode, and it’s a bumper one.

At 2:55 we review the new Benedict Cumberbatch film The Power of the Dog.

At 11.20 we give our thoughts on the Cannes award-winning and hard-hitting drama Nitram.…

PODCAST: LFF 2021 – Last Night in Soho & Titane [Movie Robcast]

Episode 130 of The Movie Robcast continues our coverage from The London Film Festival.

We go to the darker side of the capital with Last Night in Soho, starring Thomasin Mckenzie, Anya-Taylor Joy, and Matt Smith.

What do we think of Edgar Wright’s latest movie?…

PODCAST: LFF 2021 – The Harder They Fall & Spencer [Movie Robcast]

Episode 129 of The Movie Robcast is the first instalment of our London Film Festival review.

To keep it to a manageable length we’ve decided to break it down into multiple episodes this year.

Kicking off proceedings is Jeymes Samuel’s lively Western, The Harder They Fall, starring Jonathan Majors, Idris Elba, Regina King, Lakeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, and Delroy Lindo.…