PODCAST: 1917 & The Gentlemen [The Movie RobCast]

You may have noticed The Movie Robcast has a lovely new logo image. Created by the rather wonderful Bridge Fazio, we’re thrilled with it. See more of Bridge’s work here.

Episode 79 sees Robs Daniel & Wallis review both the ridiculous and the, not sublime, but well-crafted.

REVIEW GRAB-BAG: The Dark Tower, Logan Lucky, & The Hitman’s Bodyguard

The Dark Tower

Or How to Make Soup out of Stephen King’s Keystone Series.

In brief: Take an epic eight-book series inspired by both Lord of the Rings and Spaghetti Westerns, strip away the character and the uniqueness, boil down the mythology and the plot, and reduce to 95 minutes.…

CINEMATIC GRAB-BAG: The Lego Batman Movie, Toni Erdmann, & Gold

The Lego Batman Movie

“All important movies start with a black screen…”

If there’s one thing you can say about The Lego Batman Movie, it’s that it’s very self-aware. Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very self-aware.

Free State of Jones: a restrained but impassioned anti-slavery drama overtaken by history

Almost twenty years on from Spielberg’s Amistad, who would have thought that we’d be talking about any film that doesn’t see Matthew McConaughey as a serious Oscar contender as something of a disappointment?

Opening in the midst of the American Civil War with a battalion of grey-suited Confederate soldiers marching calmly to their deaths – their ranks thinning as the least fortunate among them fall underfoot – Gary Ross’ Free State of Jones initially feels more like reenactment than dramatization.…

Dallas Buyers Club is a life-affirming tonic of a film

 

If ever there was a film that just may have conceived to mint Oscars, Dallas Buyers Club might be it.

It concerns the exploits of a homophobic cowboy, Ron Woodroof, who contracts AIDS and pairs up with trans woman, Rayon, to begins selling unapproved drugs to the Dallas gay community.…