Molly's Game (2017)

This film adaptation of Molly's Game, author Molly Bloom's autobiographical account of her rise to fame as a high-stakes poker-game madam, is Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut and is a fast-paced, funny and interesting character study featuring Jessica Chastain in the title role, Idris Elba as her reluctant lawyer, and a whole lot of fast prattle just like in that other Jessica Chastain movie, Ms Sloane.

★★★★☆

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JFK (1991)

As New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, Kevin Costner is required to deliver only short and grammatically simple lines and he delivers them all the same wooden way with upward inflection as though everything is a question, but his woodenness suits the machine-gunned details of the JFK investigation, presented here in the first of Oliver Stone's three President movies (so far), this one an epic three-and-a-half hour conspiracy theory, some of the details of which you have the advantage over Jim Garrison of being able to shoot out of the water with a quick Wiki search on your phone while you are watching.

★★★☆☆

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Mr Brooks (2007)

One way the existence of this incredibly boring 2007 serial killer drama makes sense is if it were originally intended as a big-screen adaptation of Dexter, the tv series which commenced in 2006 -- perhaps the people behind Dexter pulled the plug and this became the movie not of Dexter the serial killer but Mr Brooks the serial killer with his alter ego, Marshall, and his blackmailer (a wannabe killer), and his pregnant daughter embroiled in some other crime of her own, and the police woman chasing him while going through a divorce, her partner in a fedora, and a whole lot of other convoluted Dexter-ish plot threads presented here with no discernible, marketable core premise.

★☆☆☆☆

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Hidden Figures (2016)

The moving moments in this crowdpleaser about three women who performed important work for NASA in the 50s and 60s are when someone offers a piece of chalk to a 'computer' or grants permission for a gifted student to study further - moments that should be unremarkable but sadly aren't; the lunacy of segregation is nicely countered with scenes of joyous family- and love lives.

★★★★☆

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

The always charismatic Chris Pine steps into the lead role of this fifth Jason Bourne Jack Reacher Ethan Hunt Jack Ryan movie which is a glossy, youthful addition to the Tom Clancy film series but one that completely runs out of steam when Keira Knightley as Jack's fiance turns up unexpectedly in Paris mid- his first deadly assignment, is told her husband's secret business there, and then with a glib "while you're here" is enlisted by CIA zombie Kevin Costner to front up to a dinner assignment with a hideously violent Russian bad guy...and of course ends up a hapless pawn...yawn.

★★☆☆☆

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Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Once a dazzling blockbuster movie event, this Robin Hood movie now only dazzles with its mediocrity, featuring an American-accented Robin Hood engaging in slow-action sword and archery fights...even the "arrow cam" which wowed in 1991 is no longer impressive, and while his award-winning performance is still the best thing in it, the late Alan Rickman, you suspect, portrayed his Sheriff of Nottingham the way he did - sardonic, leering - to entertain himself as much as others, given how tedious a movie-making experience this now appears, one that looks just like actors mucking around in front of cameras.

★★☆☆☆

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