Black Widow (2021)

We learn more about Natasha Romanov's childhood in this action thriller that is thankfully, refreshingly a Marvel superhero movie made with adults in mind with the sort of globetrotting locations and over-the-top hi-tech-villainry (and then some) found in James Bond movies.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Beowulf (2007)

With the exception of Ray Winstone in the title role who is transformed into the legendary, muscly Geatish warrior Beowulf, this computer-animated version of the Old English epic poem is populated by incredibly realistic animated versions of actors like Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar and Angelina Jolie as the mother of the marauding troll-like monster Grendell whom Beowulf is asked to slay, but far from eliciting wonder, the movie mostly leaves you feeling that director Robert Zemeckis' purpose for using such ultra realistic animation and not using the actors themselves was simply to be able to stage a series of peculiar nude fight scenes.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Ripley's Game (2002)

You can easily imagine this is Matt Damon's Tom Ripley grown up and comfortable in his sociopathic skin, no longer scared of what he can't control, now living in Italy with his wife and surrounding himself with frescoes, antiques, harpsichords, Baroque music and art and eating soufflés and truffles and still manipulating the people around him to achieve his own goals which, in this adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's third book in the Ripley series, is simply to avenge a neighbour's slight at a party - the high body count, the trips back and forth across Europe, a siege with Balkan gangsters, are all just part of that sociopathic game of revenge that fills time while really we watch this wonderful thriller to see if John Malkovich's Tom Ripley will make it to his wife's harpsichord concert or not.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Hugo (2011)

Watch this, a precious, highly stylised and drama-free whimsy about an orphan boy who discovers the magic of cinema, or simply recall instead that part of each Oscar award ceremony where the presenters heavyhandedly expound film's curative properties. 

★★☆☆☆ 

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Edge of Darkness (2010)

A policeman's daughter is killed and he investigates, learning of her secret life and involving himself in a nasty corporate intrigue, in this slight thriller given an unwarranted, sprawling, epic Heat-like treatment.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL : ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS