Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Like its walking dead antagonists, the film shambles from one half-baked scenario to the next in search of something to sink its teeth into, but comes up empty every time. Review

By the Grace of God's biggest issue is in how uncinematic its storytelling is, its narrative relying far too heavily on epistolary correspondence rendered in voiceover between Alexandre and Barbarin. Review

Disney cracked a crowd-pleasing formula with Maleficent, but with its sequel, the spell is well and truly broken. Review

A comedy in the loosest sense of the label, Lucky Day has a crude and immature sense of humour that, much like the film's ensemble crime structure, is a holdover from the '90s. Review

As we're left to endure endless on-the-nose debates about paper versus digital versus audio books, watching Non-Fiction is a lot like attending your spouse or partner's office party, where you neither know nor care for any of the people present and are only kept awake by trying to guess which of their co-workers they might be sleeping with. Review

Official Secrets is at its best when it accepts that its covering storytelling ground that's far from fresh. The strongest scenes are those that explore the journalistic side of the story, with foul-mouthed journalists and editors bickering in their offices like the embittered real estate agents of Glengarry Glen Ross. Review

With its globe-trotting plot, digital aesthetic and on-the-nose dialogue, Gemini Man plays how I imagine Brian de Palma movies play for people who don't like Brian de Palma movies. Review

Zombi Child mixes up two movies to make one basic point, but there isn't quite enough meat on either subplot to sink your rotting teeth into. It's always watchable though, as Bonello is a skilled enough stylist for his moody visuals to make up for an absence of substance. Review

Yet while The King offers little new from a plot perspective, it does give us some fascinating period details that are usually overlooked by dramas of this ilk. Review

For all its vintage dressing, Joker is simply another pointless comic book origin story. Review

The film asks us to live in fear of its characters plummeting to their deaths for 100 minutes, but it's all too clear that Redmayne and Jones are in the comfort of a green screen studio. Perhaps the only way to really pull this off would be to cast Tom Cruise and simply send him up in an actual balloon. Review

The Day Shall Come opens with the tagline "Based on a hundred true stories", but by the time its 90 minutes of sub-HBO sitcom antics are up, any political points it intended to make have been largely lost amid a wave of forgettable one-liners. Review

If Samara Weaving is a genre to herself, Ready or Not is the weakest of the three horror movies she's thus far headlined, but as usual she's the best thing about the movie. Review

Don't Let Go boasts no thrills, no frills, no chills, but it may leave you a little green around the gills. Review

Thanks chiefly to Roger Deakins' cinematography, The Goldfinch is a well polished reproduction, but it's far from genuine. There's no life here. Review

If Rambo: Last Blood critiques American gung ho machismo, it also celebrates it in a climax that features levels of bloodshed not seen in a mainstream Hollywood movie since...well since the last Rambo movie. Review

If at its worst, Ad Astra is Tarkovsky for dummies, at its best it's a thrilling and thoughtful space adventure, one that features action set-pieces that are infinitely more exciting than anything found in the recent Star Wars films. Review

In her first ever screen appearance, Bjørkaas Thedin is commanding, her portrayal of a child forced to contend with the duties of adulthood truly affecting and heart-breaking. Review

The trouble with Hustlers is that while the strippers' victims are chiefly a collection of stereotypical stockmarket scuzzballs, the strippers aren't any better themselves. Review

Amping up the cheap laugh factor, It: Chapter Two often comes off like a parody of the first movie, the Scary Movie to the 2017 film's Scream. Review

Here Comes Hell certainly doesn't outstay its welcome, and the brief running time and its b-movie trappings make it a suitable candidate for the bottom half of your next Friday night horror double bill. Review

Personally, I was most struck by how tragic the nature of both relationships appeared. Review

If you're going to take this unique approach to repackaging a long dormant property, you really need to embrace the insanity of the idea, something The Banana Splits Movie never fully does. Review

Matthias Schoenaerts brings his well-honed strong, silent schtick to the role of Roman, an inmate 12 years into a long stretch for a crime left initially unmentioned. Review