Tag Archives: Starship Troopers
PHIL vs BILL The family that slays together stays together in this violent black comedy about a New Jersey mobster trying to live incognito with his wife and teenage kids in France. They’re in the FBI’s witness protection programme, struggling to get to grips with the Gauls and going straight, when their identities and whereabouts are inadvertently revealed to the gangsters they snitched on. When the old gang turns up to exact payback, the tone changes from fish-out-of-water to sleeping with the fishes. An engaging cast and some quirky touches compensate for a fitfully funny script that straitjackets writer/director Luc Besson’s action strengths.

Bill O’Byrne’s Bargain Bin Blues: The Family

June 26, 2015 0 Comments

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 […]

Read more
Blu-Ray, Reviews
, , ,
PHIL vs BILL Jason Statham plays an ex-narcotics agent who’s forced into hiding when the bikie gang he infiltrated targets him for death in this routine, Sylvester Stallone-scripted thriller. Newly widowed with a young daughter, he re-settles under another identity in a small town where a feud with a local family leads to methamphetamine dealer James Franco exposing his secret. The violence and sentimentality are equally gratuitous, and the stock characters tick all the boxes, but Homefront looks terrific, boasts an unexpected turn-against-type by Kate Bosworth and has a great punchline that’s all-but lost in the alternate ending included among the handful of unremarkable extras.

Bill O’Byrne’s Bargain Bin Blues: Homefront

June 12, 2015 0 Comments

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 […]

Read more
Blu-Ray, Reviews
, , ,