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2 days ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
The great fun of Paul Feig’s A Simple Favour was seeing how the blogger and baker Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) got sucked into the sophisticated, dangerous orbit of Emily Nelson (Blake Lively). The latter was the very antithesis of Stephanie, a beauty who oozed confidence and an elan light years from Stephanie’s own domestic domain. Emily’s raison d'être was to shock and belittle and soon she had Stephanie transfixed in her headlights.
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3 days ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
Obviously The Avengers we’re going to disappear entirely, at least in spirit. And while audiences await the release of Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps come July, this motley crew should fill the gap nicely. Although the strapline on the poster suggests that they are neither super nor heroes, they are certainly high-achieving and pretty valiant.
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5 days ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
Of course, Christian Wolff is more than just a number cruncher. Indifferent to whose books he cooks, be they criminal or legitimate, Wolff is not above doing someone a favour, if they ask nicely. At heart, he just loves solving problems and his acquired savant syndrome makes him ideally suited to think outside the box. He may be socially awkward (and often appear downright rude), and he may be amoral, but he has an exceptional mind.
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6 days ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
The premise is terrifying, the execution as efficient as in any Gerard Butler potboiler and the conclusion is, well, absurd. But Viola Davis is in charge, both as star and producer, so it’s not all bad. She plays Danielle Sutton, the current US president and former war hero, the sort of woman the Democratic elite would love to have in the White House, a Michelle Obama fantasy figure.
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1 week ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
Walter had a lot of women in his life, but only one real female friend. His constant companion, though, was all male, albeit of the canine variety. So when Walter takes his own life, he bequeaths his Great Dane to his special friend, Iris (Naomi Watts). But Iris doesn’t like dogs, lives in a small, rent-controlled apartment with a strict no-dog policy and, well, the last thing she needs is a distraction from the book she is working on.
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1 week ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
Steve Coogan embodies a very particular brand of Englishman. Tom Michell thinks of himself as an Ernest Hemingway type, except without the money or any books to his name. He is, though, learned in the ways of literature, is a bitter man, sarcastic and, in the hands of Steve Coogan, a natural comic (Coogan just can’t help himself). Steve Coogan has carved a niche for himself by appearing in humorous, small-scale, quintessentially British films based on extraordinary true stories.
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1 week ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
Even when war is painted as hell, the cinema has tended to bring a gung-ho frisson to the genre. But in Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s Warfare there is no vicarious thrill – and no heroes – just confusion, pain and chaos. Mendoza served as a US Navy Seal in Iraq and brings a virtually unprecedented authenticity to the film, while Garland contributes his cinematic expertise (which is considerable).
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2 weeks ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
There’s more than a smidgen of ol’ time religion in Ryan Coogler’s Mississippi-set, richly textured hymn to evil and music. A ferociously original, transportive slice of bravura filmmaking, Sinners takes old themes and weaves them into a colourful tapestry with more than a whiff of Tarantino in its tail. And that is a massive compliment. The year is 1932, the setting the Deep South, and a young lad with a guitar and horrific facial wounds staggers into a white clapboard church.
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2 weeks ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
It’s just a horror film. But it’s a good one. In fact, it’s the best example of its kind to hit the multiplex in aeons, from a director who knows how to play the genre, tweaking the tropes to delirious effect. Christopher Landon, who brought us Happy Death Day, Happy Death Day 2U, Freaky and We Have a Ghost, raises his own bar with a plot braided as densely as cable knitwear. It's a first date from hell, but not for reasons that either participant had anticipated.
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3 weeks ago | 
filmreviewdaily.com | James Cameron-Wilson
There are no two ways around it, As government agents go, Charlie Heller is not exactly cut from heroic cloth. However, he knows his way around a computer like a strand of spyware. In fact, his surveillance skills lead him to waters that he’d rather not have breached. It transpires that his seniors at Langley have been directly responsible for an unsanctioned and devastating overseas drone strike.
