Alistair Harkness

1 month ago | scotsman.com | Alistair Harkness

Thunderbolts* (12A) ★★★★☆Parthenope (15) ★★★☆☆Even for a studio synonymous with self-referential humour, the latest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes so wrapped in quotation marks it risks deconstructing itself before it’s even told us what it is. But what’s surprising about Thunderbolts* (even its weirdly asterisked title has an ironic punchline), is how much this approach actually works.

1 month ago | scotsman.com | Alistair Harkness

The Accountant 2 (15) ★★★Den of Thieves: Pantera (15) ★★Julie Keeps Quiet (12A) ★★★★A moderate hit for Ben Affleck when it was first released in 2016, The Accountant was a fairly disposable action thriller with an entertainingly goofy premise: an autistic forensic accountant (Affleck) with a shady roster of clients turns out also to have been trained by his bully of a father since childhood to become a lethal killing machine.

1 month ago | scotsman.com | Alistair Harkness

Spy thriller The Amateur, with Rami Malek’s character like a weedier Jason Bourne, already seems like a relic from a different eraThe Amateur (12A)★★★☆☆Holy Cow (15)★★★★☆The Return (15)★★☆☆☆Rami Malek returns to the territory of his break-out role in TV’s Mr Robot with The Amateur, an espionage thriller about a CIA tech nerd (Malek) out for revenge after his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) is killed in a London terrorist attack.

2 months ago | msn.com | Alistair Harkness

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2 months ago | scotsman.com | Alistair Harkness

On the evidence of A Working Man and Novocaine, things are looking grim for the action movie, writes Alistair HarknessA Working Man (15) ★★☆☆☆Novocaine (15) ★★☆☆☆The End (12A) ★★★☆☆Ten years on from his hilarious supporting role in the action-comedy Spy, Jason Statham has yet to find a comparably entertaining vehicle for his particular brand of hard-punching action mayhem. Sadly, A Working Man is yet another dud.