Widows (2018)

Lynda La Plante's crime soap, a book previously made into a British tv series and now, here, a star-studded American blockbuster, ends up feeling like its story of gangster wives, forced to do a 'job' after the death of their husbands, overreaches in its attempts to be a sprawling epic because while its flourishes - race and gender politics, personal trauma, relationship angst - are interesting, none seems warranted given the heist at the core of the movie ends up being a home robbery requiring the widows to climb some stairs and make sure first that no-one is home.

★★★☆☆

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Beautiful Creatures (2013)

Teens familiar with the book series might appreciate this tiresome movie in which ancient feuding families, let's say "the Muggles and the Capulets", have their rift exascerbated by the blossoming love of Eric and Lena, a star-crossed pair of opposites a little like magic-casting Twilight versions of Romeo and Juliet with Southern accents.

★★☆☆☆

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Solaris (2002)

This American remake of the 1972 Russian 'Solyaris', about a psychologist summoned to a space station-in-distress, starts well by adopting the original's mesmerising tone with a sleek, sexy new look, and it certainly doesn't hurt that George Clooney's, um, natural acting talents are on regular display, but too quickly the movie starts spelling everything out, characters hurry to articulate their emotional crises, and the profound philosophical puzzle that was the original movie ends up a fairly monotonous, superficial romantic space drama here.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS