One Mann’s Movies Film Review: Selma (2015)

Last year’s “Pride” brilliantly demonstrated how far gay rights have come in the UK in 30 years.  Selma does an equally superb job in showing how far racial equality has come in the US in 50 years.   The year is 1964 and racial tension is rife in the Southern states, with attacks and murders … Read more

One Mann’s Movies Film Review: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)

Matthew Vaughn, who’s previous films in the director’s chair number just four – “Layer Cake”, “Stardust”, “Kick Ass” and “X-Men: First Class” – does not do subtle.  But he certainly does do stylish and entertaining.  Of this set of past works, Kingsman is probably most closely aligned to Kick Ass with its anarchic tone and … Read more

One Mann’s Movies Film Review: American Sniper (2015)

Clint Eastwood has become a highly respected figure in the film industry.  His iconic acting would have got him there, but add on his prolific film score composing and the fact that American Sniper is his 37th (THIRTY-SEVENTH!) directorial credit and the much over-used epithet “legend” is surely applicable.  Given that I was less than … Read more

One Mann’s Movies Film Review: Ex Machina (2015)

Ex Machina has a simple story dealing with a deeply complex and philosophical topic:  namely what makes humans human. The increasingly omnipresent Oscar Isaac plays billionaire Nathan Bates, genius creator of ‘Google’ – my mistake – ‘BlueBook’, the world’s “leading search engine”.  Living in the middle of the American wilderness (in reality, a very picturesque … Read more

One Mann’s Movies Film Review: Foxcatcher (2015)

Every comedian clearly has a burning desire to be seen as a “serious actor” at least once in their career:  Jim Carrey had his “Truman Show”;  Steve Coogan wrote himself into “Philomena”; and (whilst he has denied that he is desperate for this sort of attention) Foxcatcher is Steve Carell’s turn…. and boy does he … Read more