ScreenScribe

The Raid 2 | Value for money: $$$$$ Directed, written and edited by Gareth Evans. Starring Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Yayan Ruhian. The Raid 2 is the first Bargain Bin Blues flick to get the coveted five dollar signs of super value. For whatever you shell out for this wherever you find it, you get two and a half […]

Forbidden Ground | Value for money: $$  Directed by Adrian Powers, Johan Earl. Written by Johan Earl. Starring Johan Earl, Tim Pocock, Martin Copping. You are about to get the entire plot of Forbidden Ground with all of its attendant twists and turns. This is not just because I am a thoughtless, joy-stealing bastard. It is […]

Sabotage | Value for money: $$$ Directed by David Ayer. Written by Skip Woods. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington, Olivia Williams. Sabotage is when Arnold finally goes all dark. And grizzled. You have to say grizzled with this because he has grey stubble. And he looks worn out and mean. Still, you don’t get to be […]

The Butler | Value for money: $$$$ Directed by Lee Daniels. Written by Danny Strong. Starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr. America is a bit funny about race. Sort of in the way greyhounds are funny about rabbits. The Butler is a story of being black in America in the 20th century, from the […]

I am Ali | Value for money $$$ Written and directed by Clare Lewins. I Am Ali reminds you just how beautiful Muhammad Ali was. In this 2013 doco there’s no sign of the modern version, ravaged by Parkinson’s disease and suffering from old fartism. The person here is the young, cocky, rhyming prince who danced […]

The Spoils of Babylon | Value for money: $$$ Created by Matt Piedmont, Andrew Steele. Starring Tobey Maguire, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell. To work out whether you will enjoy The Spoils of Babylon, imagine a Venn diagram of three information sets. (For the younger, NCEA-era readers, just imagine three circles holding hands in a mutually supportive […]

Freezer | Value for money: $$ Directed by Mikael Salomon. Written by Tom Doganoglu, Shane Weisfeld. Starring Dylan McDermott, Yuliya Snigir, Peter Facinelli. To misquote Brian Fantana, but for a higher purpose, 68 per cent of the time Freezer works all of the time. Almost the entire movie is set in a freezer unit of what looks […]

The Family | Value for money: $$ Written and directed by Luc Besson. Starring Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, some kid from Glee,Tommy Lee Jones. When someone is pitching a movie idea to the folks with the money, a really handy idea is for the funders to say: “So where does this get filed in the […]

Jobs | $$ Directed by Joshua Michael Stern. Written by Matt Whiteley. Starring Ashton Kutcher, Josh Gad, Ahna O’Reilly.  If you like Ashton Kutcher, you will like Jobs. He has a headstart in looking like Jobs in the first place and he does a good imitation of Jobs’ gestures and his voice.  Kutcher is good in most […]

Homefront | $$$ Directed by Gary Fleder. Written by Sylvester Stallone. Starring Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder. Vengeance, thy name is Statham. One of the best things about Homefront is seeing Jason Statham with a full head of biker drug-gang hair. That alone is worth the price of admission for Jase fans. But it […]