Having just this week returned from climbing all 19,341 feet of Kilimanjaro, I find myself intimately capable of reviewing “Everest”, the new thriller from Icelandic director Baltamar Kormákur. Based on a true story from 1996, Jason Clarke and Jake Gyllenhaal play Rob Hall and Scott Fischer respectively, rival organisers of commercial climbing ventures whose businesses … Read more
“No Escape” is set in an anonymous South East Asia country bordering Vietnam facing a violent civil war, with the uprising triggered by perceived foreign imperialist intervention. The film was shot in Thailand but looks and feels like Cambodia. Having had the fortune to spend time in Cambodia and be immersed in its troubling history, this feels well … Read more
Stylish, glamorous and cool is how I remember the “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” when growing up in the 60’s, with the incomparable Robert Vaughn playing the titular “Man” (Napoleon Solo, famously named by Ian Fleming no less) and with David McCallum having a rapidly increasing presence as his Russian colleague Illya Kuryakin. I must have … Read more
As befits a film that could be subtitled “MI-5”, much of the action that underlies Tom Cruise’s latest outing as IMF agent Ethan Hunt is set in London and concerns shady goings on at British Intelligence. After ruthlessly gunning down a fellow agent in a record shot (the delectable fashion model Hermione Corfield) Ethan Hunt is … Read more
Pixar have always specialised in making multi-layered films that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults in equal measure. They have also developed a truly astonishing ability to tap into a parent’s deepest emotions, such that while their kids were quietly enjoying the animation of the first few minutes of “Up”; Jessie’s song from … Read more