Movie Reviews 2014

2014

Automata.

Calvary.

Chef.

Cuban Fury.

Edge of Tomorrow.

Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Fury.

Gambit.

Guardians of the Galaxy.

Interstellar.

Into the Woods.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

John Wick.

Kingsman.

Noah.

Pompeii.

St. Vincent.

The Equaliser.

The Giver.

The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Imitation Game.

The Judge.

The Monuments Men.

The November Man.

The Seventh Son.

Transcendence.

Winter’s tale.

 

 

Tasty!

Jon Favreau directs, writes, and also performs in this amazingly beautiful, tasty, entertaining, funny, heartwarming road movie.

 

There is a lot of soul in this culinary visual treat and many times you will catch yourselves almost drooling. Genuine, authentic, simple but touching deeply, with humor and wit, it makes your heart sing.

 

Watch it every time you need a smile on your face, and get ready to hit the delivery button! 😊

 

. . . OMG! What an excellent movie. It tingled my taste buds, made my mouth water and made me hungry for quality food, cooked with that added ingredient of love.

 

. . . I feel as if they are all real people and that someone was lucky enough to capture this joie de vivre on camera.

 

Robots in a dystopian world develop free will and decide to have a life of their own...

It may remind you Blade Runner a little but this movie doesn’t reach that stature. A disappointing effort that mostly fails to move you. It is slow paced and lacks the verve and scale that would help improve its overall feeling of indifference. An ok watch for Sci-Fi fans.

 

 

Passion, mystery, black humor, dramatic naturalism in an exceptionally well written script.

From the creator of The Guard, another astonishing movie. A performance full of soul with a patriarchic hero almost cut from an ancient Greek drama.

Calvary is a comment about revenge and child abuse inside the Catholic Church. It is also a melancholic hymn about strong faith and the murder of innocence.  Brendan Gleeson’s powerful performance in this tragedy is destined to be considered a classic by future movie aficionados.  McDonagh’s masterful direction makes Calvary a classic.

Watch!

 

 

It’s Love! It’s Salsa! It’s Nick Frost! A super entertaining combination.

 

It’s a boy wants girl and must excel to win her heart plot. But Frost’s great comedic tempo, witty lines, the script’s tenderness and cheerful romanticism plus some great salsa make you want to see more. Cuban Fury 2 Nick?
Watch and dance! 😊

 

A video game inspired theme meets “Groundhog Day” the outcome is an extremely clever, witty, impeccably constructed and highly entertaining sci-fi adventure.

 

The basic idea of the story is a loop in time that keeps repeating  but each time the slight change in its variables produces a different outcome.  One of the amazing facts about this film is that you are not bored from the repetitious scenes, instead you find yourself expecting the next loop. The movie owes this to its video game feature of getting stuck at some point and repeating the same level many times to overcome the difficulty.

 

Edge of Tomorrow plays with the viewers mind in an intelligent way through repetition, epic visual effects, the wild action and Cruise’s realistic performance. It is a classic sci-fi thrilling adventure. Watch again and again! 😊

 

A visual extravaganza of immense epic proportions.

The famous story from the old Testament returns afresh to the big screen. This movie follows in the footsteps of the great epic movies of 50’s and 60’s like Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, etc.

Its visual effects go way beyond the usual epic proportions to build the scenery for a satisfying dramatic story. The movie vividly portrays the dark conflict between brothers, but also the conflict between humans and God.

  
Its brutal, almost savage, battle scenes, realistic plagues, entertaining action and the Dead Sea parting, make Exodus an amazing film containing the personal stamp of Ridley Scott.
Bale and Edgerton give almost emblematic performances. Enjoy it!!!!

 

An honest, robust WWII drama that tells the story of a tank commander who must make heroic choices in order to save his men.

Ayer’s smart directing gives us astonishing battle scenes and his realistic story telling is captivating with its powerful narrative. 
The extraordinary cinematography of Roman Vasyanov brings to life the story with refinement.

Pitt is exceptional and well supported by an intelligently selected cast. The dramatic climax impressively summarizes the psychological, emotional, and physical impact war has upon human lives. 

An entertaining watch!

 

Humor, fun, action and a challenging witty script with lots of twists and turns.

A Cohen Brothers remake of the 1966 movie with Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.  This is a satisfying “perfect heist” comedy that is well acted and directed guaranteeing high entertainment. Watch watch! 😊

 

 

 

Intergalactic pop cultured adventure of epic proportions…

 

Well, yea, that too, but most of all a shiny vibrant universe that keeps you hooked with its convincing characters until the very end. Entertainment guaranteed.

 

A spectacular Sci-Fi that offers less depth drama than one expects.

 

Still its epic character and amazing visuals can offer some intense moments of pure entertainment. Grand production that succeeds in taking you on a mind stretching journey across the mysterious multiverse, and Matthew McConaughey is excellent. Watch it!

 

 

A feast for the eyes and ears.

 

On screen adaptation of Lapine and Sondheim’s unusual fairy-tale musical.

This is a delightful old fashion patchwork of some famous fairytales enacted by an accomplished cast with Meryl Streep leading the way.

 
Visually pleasing, classy and full with vibrant colors, it thrills and excites the viewer and delivers the perfect happy ending. Watch also for the brilliant cameo by Johnny Depp as the Big Bad Wolf… Enjoy! 😊

 

Entertaining.

A sequel to the famous Jack Ryan franchise, the movie’s steady structure allows the viewer to follow the story line without too much difficulty right from the beginning.

The pace increases smoothly with characters dancing gracefully through intelligent interaction and witty lines. Branagh directs the action faster and faster to bring the movie into a climax at its grand finale.

 

 

Well, written, acted, directed, choreographed, filmed and watched thriller

 

John Wick was the best hitman around until he retired.  “He’s not the boogieman, he’s the guy you get in to deal with the boogieman.”  

Wick puts away his guns then some fool gangster steals his treasured car and kills his dog. Whoops!

 

 

Refreshing and amazing take on the James Bond genre.

 

Great script transformed into an classy action thriller with black humour, good laughs and wows! Excellent tech gadgetry, tailoring and action sequences, also quality acting performances from good guys and villains. A sophisticated gentleman avenger clashes with low lifers and recruits a new comer into the struggle against the assholes of society. Samuel L. Jackson plays the badass genius threatening civilization. Those who wish to produce in the James Bond style need to take into account the existence of this movie.

 

 

A beautiful and masterfully directed religious movie.

An epic storytelling that will fit alongside the older classics of the same genre. Russell Crowe as Noah struggles to fulfill his duty towards God as he builds a great ship. Crowe gives one of the most honest and powerful performances of his career so far. Artistically the movie is a feast for the eyes as it balances gracefully reality with grand visual effects. Spectacular viewing and a challenging story. Watch in 3D and you will be amazed.   😊

 

 

Entertaining enough to watch once only.

The movie starts ambitiously, but offers mostly shallow characters and background story.  The epic scale of digital volcano bombardment for the whole second half until the last few seconds is informative but overdone.  Very average but not a total waste of time.

 

. . . SPOILER ALERT!  The heroics and efforts of all the main characters amount to nothing but death and the negative ending is half-saved by a schmaltzy fairy-tale kiss. Ahhh!

 

 

Convincing, sweet, refreshing, colorful, funny…

 

A misanthrope war veteran finds a faithful friend in a young boy with divorced parents and a struggling mom.

 

Few could play this role better than Bill Murray.  He brings to life this unstable and irritable anti-hero who has so many faults but such tenderness. Murray gives us the sensitivity hidden underneath the grumpy surface. He takes the opportunity to portray the character in his own superb way without sentimentality and is outstanding; thanks also to an excellent script and directing by Melfi.
Watch watch!

 

High level vengeance entertainment.

 

Plus an acting performance as superb as expected from Denzel as Bob the zen like loner who works at a DIY store.

 

When friends suffer injustice at the hands of the Russian mafia and corrupt cops, Bob the warehouse guy reveals himself to be an action man with a secret past and possessing a good use of tools. Bad guys start to get nailed when he demonstrates his fearlessness and remarkable skills.

 

A lone hero movie well worth watching for the feel-good vibe of seeing the bad guys get their just desserts for once. Crime does not pay in this movie.

 

Good dystopian adventure for teenagers.

Not much of a movie for your sophisticated mindset; but for cosmopolitan newbies, the memes of freedom, some would label “subversive”, are masterfully and almost invisibly woven into the plotline.

The plot has its youthful characters sail across the surface of ideas of truth, fascism, autocracy and democracy.  In a few places, it cleverly cuts deep enough to give the uninitiated some discernment into the dangers of blindly following orders. It also eloquently delivers insight into joys of unshackling, music, art, culture, knowledge and individual freedom, all without rocking its adolescent boat.

 
It is a good movie to initiate naive teenagers into the profundity of these concepts; or even a good movie for adults whose bodies or minds dwell in places like North Korea.

 

. . . Adapted from the award-winning 1993 novel by Lois Lowry, The Giver turns out to be just another teenage futuristic/dystopian fairy tale.  Central idea is that a human spirit cannot be contained no matter how hard future societies will try. The movie is simplistic in its rendering and all in all doesn’t offer much to the more demanding viewer. Jeff Bridges stands out.

 

 

A piece of cinematic mastery, in short a masterpiece!

 

Nostalgic, funny, classy, and elegant. Artistic as only few modern films are, and emotionally challenging.

All elements of the film combine into a shiny precious ensemble. A masterpiece in every aspect.

 

Stylish biographical treat for your intellectual innards.

A classy glimpse on the life of charismatic mathematician Alan Turing and his efforts to crack the Enigma code. A story told before, but here we have the luck to see Cumberbatch in one of his best performances. Inspiring cinematography and a highly creative quality production design gives us a great movie. A must-watch!

 

A father-son emotional drama with an old-fashioned atmosphere and strong performances.

Dysfunctional families with their potential for explosive dynamics are always a promising idea for a plot.  ‘The Judge’ fulfills that promise with enough honesty towards the viewer.

 

The story would be more appealing with an improved tempo but it’s still worth the watch.

 

A WWII movie that is extremely entertaining and fun to watch.

Monuments Men poses a dilemma: Is saving art worth the sacrifice of a human life? Watch and find out!

George Clooney directs with vigor, depth, detail and an amusingly clever eye this quick paced and unusual war adventure that keeps you wanting for more until the end. The fact-based plot takes you into the world of art but from the point of view of the retrievers of stolen goods.
The production team earn their dollar and photography from cinematographer Phedon Papamichael is outstanding.

This concept would bite hard in a contemporary middle eastern war setting but that idea is still up for grabs.

 

An ex-CIA agent returns to action on a personal mission and confronts his former pupil in this accomplished action thriller.

 

The story develops fast: shadowy secrets, swifts of plot and the exciting chase come to life in an old-fashioned way without the help of special effects which enhances the film’s realism and honesty of the characters. Brosnan is exceptional in a genre that he knows very well. Watch 😊

 

A little bit too much of this turns out to be a lot less than expected.

 

Full of clichés and with very little directing originality, it is counting on the visual effects to prevent it from sinking into the indifferent zone. A mediocre film that you can watch once, but not much to remember it for afterwards.

 

The movie is one of the best sci-fi films of the decade.

 

It succeeds in going deep in a provocative and almost shocking way. What will the consequences be if AI evolves into a modern day artificial messiah?

 

Accomplished cinematographer Wally Pfister and Johnny Depp at their best. These aces’ take us on a journey into the future of Artificial Intelligence, a future that may be closer than we think.

 

The story gives food for many thoughts and you need to watch it more than once to follow where all of them go. An excellent movie. Watch it!

. . . Will we lesser humans crucify a more advanced intelligence, or in the name of Love, will it sacrifice itself to save us?  Skillfully produced Sci-Fi with a profound message that maybe too advanced for the intelligence of most movie critics to comprehend.

A few sparks of entertainment and some magic and glitz but it fails to move you deeper than its romantic shiny surface.

 

Based on Mark Helprin’s novel, the movie tries to give its best but unfortunately does not fully meet the viewer expectations. The film takes itself too seriously as a fantasy romance and it appears to be out of tune in spite of the brave efforts of the cast, .  There is some exquisite photography but the general outcome is spineless.  Worth a watch 😊