Bridge of Spies: Movie Review

A masterful production of Cold War tensions with humour and heart.

It’s hard to imagine a more perfect Hollywood royalty production of a Coen brothers screenplay, directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks, and Bridge of Spies delivers on that perfection. It is dramatic, interesting, beautiful, funny, intense and entertaining from scene-to-scene. It opens with the heart of the Cold War, a foreign spy, on American soil, engaging in secretive behaviour, and then he’s arrested. It’s a mysterious opening, and the film seamlessly evolves from mystery to court room drama to thriller.		2015 Directed by: Steven Spielberg Screenplay by: Matt Charman, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance

Steve Jobs: Movie Review

The machine side and human side of Steve Jobs are detached but interesting.

Biographical drama Steve Jobs, is a very novel approach to a biography. It’s not the story of his life, but a development of who he is based on a peek into what was happening during three different periods of time. The machine side of Steve Jobs has always been described in a cynical way – cold, manipulative and only caring about results. That side gives us this emotionally-detached methodical overview. The human side doesn’t come through until the end as a father-daughter relationship drama.		2015 Directed by: Danny Boyle Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin Based on they book by Walter Isaacson Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet

Goosebumps: Movie Review

The fun, funny, creepy and thrilling world of Goosebumps.

I haven’t read an R.L. Stine book in 20 years, and so, at the same time, I am both in the target audience and not in the target audience. It can be hard to sell it as a kids movie to today’s kids and as a nostalgic kick to yesterday’s kids, and yet that’s exactly what Goosebumps has done. Give our young hero a witty line and let Jack Black as author R.L. Stine have one creepy look, and it took just a few quick minutes to be transported back into the fun, funny, creepy and thrilling world of Goosebumps.		2015 Directed by: Rob Letterman Screenplay by: Darren Lemke Based on the books by R.L. Stine Starring: Dylan Minnette, Jack Black and Odeya Rush

The Stanford Prison Experiment: Movie Review

Recreates the experiment with intensity and alarming intrigue.

Based on the psychology experiment conducted by Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in the summer of 1971, the film The Stanford Prison Experiment is just as shocking even when we know the results. Watching it all unfold in this straight-forward recreation is still distressing, stunning, and alarming thanks to the fantastic ensemble cast and a chronological re-telling that really helps to put it in context		2015 Directed by: Kyle Patrick Alvarez Screenplay by: Tim Talbott Starring: Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, Michael Angarano, and Olivia Thirlby

Sicario: Movie Review

Evil Mexican cartel drug lords, shady FBI agents, and little of interest.

Sicario is the type of film which starts with an idea, or just a basic premise, and then decides on all the elements that make it up afterwards. Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is a young, idealistic FBI agent thrust into the world of Mexican drug-trafficking. That’s the world they created, and after a few supporting characters and hiring a cinematographer, they stopped short of actually having an interesting story to tell.		2015 Directed by: Denis Villeneuve Screenplay by: Taylor Sheridan Starring: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro