Movie reviews of Bob Mann

Fall neatly develops this into a tense and enthralling survival movie. Review

It has high ambition but came across as a rag-bag of elegant bits of content that just didn’t mesh into a satisfactory story. Review

I personally thought it was a hoot, with more than enough depth for adults (and superhero-fan adults in particular) to enjoy. Review

Directed by Deadpool 2 director David Leitch, Bullet Train is similarly loud, brash and very violent. But it is also, spasmodically, very entertaining, moving and – most importantly – very funny. Review

As a remake of a classic, this movie was always going to be dicing with disaster. It’s fine as a gentle, undemanding watch. But if it is aiming for a nostalgic older audience, it feels underpowered on both the nostalgia and the plot. Review

It’s both trying to be a melodramatic pot-boiler and a courtroom drama, and neither work particularly well. It just feels like it’s trying to cram too much into a movie. Review

I was prepared for a “Taken” style “park your brain at the door” actioner. But there’s “park your brain at the door” and “labotomise and liquify your brain in a blender”. And this movie is certainly more the latter. Pretty poor stuff. Review

This was marketed as movie firmly at the ‘comedy’ end of the MCU spectrum. But, for me, it really struggled to meet the “six laughs” test. Sure, there were multiple smiles, but very few decent belly laughs... Review

This is undoubtedly one of the films of the year. You feel like you really are watching Elvis in the story. Review

The French Dispatch is a rag-bag of disconnected episodes, all of varying degrees of bat-shit-craziness, but which never quite congeal into a satisfying movie experience. Review

We are firmly in B-movie territory here. But although it’s pretty mindless fun, it still manages to entertain. Review

Insightful and thoughtful, it was a terrific movie that will appeal to many older people. Review

Lightyear is a reasonably entertaining yarn and as beautifully animated as you would expect. Review

I was rather mystified by the enormous success of It and its sequel It Chapter 2. I found them to be glossy but insubstantial. In contrast, I found The Black Phone to be far superior in every way. If you like your ‘small’ indie horror films, then this one comes with a recommendation. Review

I really wanted to like this more than I did. It seemed to have a lot of potential that got frittered away with an over-eager rush to chuck in action. As a curate’s egg, it’s well worth watching for the bits where the script zings along nicely. And overall, it’s a perfectly pleasant movie for a rainy afternoon. Review

I was looking forward to this summer blockbuster. But it failed on every level to satisfy me. What a disappoinment! Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, being FAR better than I expected. Hanks delivers a fine performance and the story – a nice cross between Wall-E, Castaway and The Incredible Journey – never lost my interest. Review

A surprisingly solid movie blockbuster that delivers brilliantly on its promise. Tense, exciting and with star quality, this is a movie you definitely need to get out to a big screen to see. Recommended. Review

Yet, after its 5* opening, the messaging felt to me like I was being repeatedly slapped around the head by a soggy and blood soaked arm. Review

The convoluted plot is just so clever in warping the multiverse concept to its needs. I had a massive grin on my face for a lot of the movie, particularly when the various villains arrived! It’s a stunning bit of writing, with some extremely poignant call-outs to past movies in the series. Review

Does the movie quite deliver on a childlike joy of Homecoming? After watching both films again, I think not. But it only misses it by about 10 or 20%. It’s still a highly enjoyable romp. Review

It’s another cracker, hugely entertaining though much darker in tone to “Infinity War”. (I actually prefer the first film). Review

Right from the Colombia logo, this is a dazzling feast for the eyes and the ears. A movie that shimmers with visual inventiveness. It’s also extremely funny, with some cuttingly clever dialogue, knowing digs at some of the earlier Spider-Man incarnations and visual gags that Ted Avery and Chuck Jones would have been proud of. Review

This is one hell of a roller-coaster of action/adventure entertainment. It is infused with great humour but has more than its share of Shakespearean pathos. Review