REVIEW: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

It’s weird to call a blockbuster an unexpected hit, but 2018’s Venom was a rather modest affair for a superhero movie.

Intended to spin-off Sony’s part ownership of Spider-Man into a cinematic universe of their own, Venom made more than $800 million at the global office; a sum to rival Sony’s Jumanji reboot from the year before.…

REVIEW: The Shallows is a lean, mean tale of survival

Just when you thought you were safe from shark movies being genuinely scary…

Forty years after since Steven Spielberg first chummed the waters, those feeding grounds are now mostly patrolled by bottom-feeders, like the made-to-be-so-bad-it’s-good Sharknado franchise. What Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Shallows does is provide a good argument against that next beach holiday.…

Ghostbusters: don’t fear the reboot

 

Has any film provoked as big a backlash before its release as the new Ghostbusters?

Sure, Batman V Superman wasn’t exactly eagerly awaited  — not least on this very site (and associated podcast) — but it seemed no sooner had this film been announced than the Internet rose up and declared, “Ain’t no bitches gonna hunt no ghosts” (actual quote).…

Huge dividends, dramatic or otherwise, are unlikely with Money Monster

 

Jodie Foster’s most recent directorial effort after 2011’s The Beaver, Money Monster seeks to combine the hostage dynamics of Dog Day Afternoon with the financial acumen of The Big Short, but lacks the portfolio to pull it off. 

George Clooney stars as Lee Gates, a smirking Wall Street whiz who makes a living giving out overblown stock tips on a bells-and-whistles cable show called Money Monster.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is shockingly average

 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the middle film in a trilogy tends to be the best.

Movie lovers may be torn between The Godfather and Godfather, Part II, but the rule certainly holds true for The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, The Dark Knight.…