Tom Holland returns for a third outing as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in what is arguably the best of the Marvel movies. A film that delivers emotional payoffs and character arcs from not only the previous films in this iteration of Spidey, but the two other big-budget live-action. series helmed by Sony before this. Picking up right…
Tag: benedict cumberbatch
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) – Sam Raimi
Sam Raimi returns to the superhero genre and tinges it with his sense of horror with Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Benedict Cumberbatch returns as the titular Strange as well as multiple versions of the famed sorcerer as he confronts a danger that threatens the whole of the multiverse. Raimi brings his…
TIFF 2021: The Electrical Life of Louis Wain dir. Will Sharpe
If one could transmute joy and tears of a life, or transform a dew dropped ray of sunlight, into a film, then the result may very well be Will Sharpe’s biopic on English artist (you know his work, whether you recognize the name or not), Louis Wain (a fantastic turn by Benedict Cumberbatch). Sharpe’s tale…
TIFF 2021: The Power of the Dog dir. Jane Campion
Combining intimate drama with dramatic landscapes has been a signature of Jane Campion’s work, and in her latest film, The Power of the Dog, which she also wrote, that mixture still holds true, giving us a different kind of western. Set in Montana, 1925, the film centres around two ranching brothers, the hard-edged, Phil (Benedict…
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Blu-Ray Review
After ten years, and eighteen previous films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe came together in a way that no other film series has done. Since 2008, with the introduction of Iron Man, Marvel has built upon each film, creating an interwoven reality, and hinting at a terrible threat to come. That threat has arrived. Avengers: Infinity…
12 Years a Slave (2013) – Steve McQueen
What kind of species are we that we can enslave our fellows? There are two scenes in McQueen’s masterpiece 12 Years a Slave, that shook me to my core. The first was a scene in which Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Solomon Northup is left to hang, while life goes on around him, and another when Solomon is…
Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Taika Waititi
Marvel and Disney unveil their latest foray into the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with a new instalment in the Thor series. It’s loud, it’s fun, but lacking a bit of an emotional punch in its final act. This time out Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has been out travelling the cosmos, leaving both Earth and Asgard behind….
Doctor Strange (2016) – Scott Derrickson
Benedict Cumberbatch settles rather nicely into the Marvel universe, as he dons the cloak and mantle of the MCU’s (Marvel Cinematic Universe) latest superhero. Doctor Strange. Easing into an American accent, as easily as he does Strange’s costume, Cumberbatch fits the role perfectly, bringing to life the doctor’s arrogance, ego, and eventually his humbled, giving…
The Imitation Game (2014) – Morten Tyldum
Benedict Cumberbatch turns in a masterful performance as Alan Turing in Moreten Tyldum’s Biopic/WWII Thriller, The Imitation Game. Based on the book by Andrew Hodges, with a screenplay by Graham Moore, the film follows the life story of brilliant mathematician, Alan Turing, slipping back and forth through his life, centering on his youth in school,…
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies IMAX (2014) – Peter Jackson
The last (or latest) trip to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth opened this weekend and, of course, being a fan of the world, I had to check it. The IMAX 3D presentation I saw, was in the higher frame rate presentation, and I was eager to see how it looked and felt. I walked out…
The Mind Reels 