Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

Had Bruckner taken advantage of Spall's comic talents and gone down the Dog Soldiers route, this could have been a future Friday night six-pack and pizza classic. In its current state, it's barely worth watching on a wet Wednesday. Review

There are times when Jolie's direction still feels rough around the edges, such as the distracting jump cuts of the opening act, but for the most part this is a giant artistic leap for the actress turned filmmaker. Review

Hardcore devotees of such Far East fantasy will likely embrace the madness, but everyone else will begin to suspect Sono is making all this up on the fly, and the film's ultimate explanation resembles the type of ending a schoolboy might slap on his short story assignment when he finally reaches the designated word count. Review

Let Goodbye Christopher Robin bring a little joy into your world for a couple of hours; it has a hundred acres of heart, but it will also make you think, think, think. Review

Thanks in no small part to an instant star-making turn from Beecham (perhaps the year's finest work on the acting front), Daphne is one of the most complex, intricate and fascinating characters to appear on a screen in recent years. If the only true love is the love of cinema, I'm head over heels for Daphne. Review

The cast assembled for TGC is quite staggering, but everyone is wasted here... Review

Offers two thoroughly charming protagonists... Review

Suffice to say the situation grows increasingly absurd until it reaches apocalyptic levels in the final act (think 8½ meets Children of Men). It's a Monty Python sketch stretched out to two hours, or a Eugene Ionesco play with too many actors. If you can tolerate it, good for you, but halfway through I began wishing cinema auditoriums came equipped with ejector seats. Review

What ultimately saves the film is its cast. It's refreshing to see a movie in which most of the performers are over the age of 60, and The Death of Stalin benefits significantly from the combined wealth of experience on display here. Review

While it's difficult for a neutral viewer to invest in Borg Vs McEnroe the way the film would like you to, it's the film's strong performances that will hold your attention. Review

Fans of the western genre, feminists and anti-clerics will all find just about enough to keep themselves amused by Brimstone, but much of it feels like a mishandled mis-opportunity. Review

The biggest failing of The Bad Batch is that it's all constructed with far too much sanity. It seems inspired by genuine cult movies like Alejandro Jodorowsky's psychedelic western El Topo, but you're always aware it's the creation of a control freak rather than a genuine lunatic. Review

It's at this point that Bonello's film becomes a lot less interesting, a half-baked commentary on consumer culture that fails to hold a candle to its obvious inspiration, George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Review

A film that will make you question how you might react in a similar scenario, Killing Ground is survival horror with a capital S and a capital H, the most refreshing take on the genre in quite some time. Review

The kids are a delight to watch, Skarsgard is effectively deranged as Pennywise and the movie doesn't shy away from the darkness of its subject matter. But 135 minutes just isn't enough. Review

While in the west we have to settle for the mini-skirt clad Wonder Woman, ironically, it's the male-dominated cultures of the Middle East and South Asia that have been offering us the most defiantly feminist role models. Review

In Between is by no means a perfect film, and its protagonists are equally flawed. But that's what makes them so real. Hamoud isn't interested in making her characters 'likeable'. They're not seeking our approval, just our acceptance. Review

I can't speak for Harrower's play, but the film he has fashioned as a scriptwriter suggests he has scant interest in anything other than exploiting a shocking subject. Review

Insyriated offers an intriguing setup for a chamber drama, but it quickly veers into over the top melodrama that too often relies on character behaviour that's difficult to swallow. Review

What should have been a high concept horror movie is instead a drab detective story, one which can't decide if it wants us to root for Holmes or Moriarty. Review

Most of us would cross the street to avoid men like this in real life, but as portrayed by Vaughan-Lawlor and Ward, it's difficult not to warm to the pair. Review

Medina's drab film is occasionally enlivened by the music hall interludes, which are as primitive and bawdy as you would expect, but Cooke really throws herself into them, displaying a side of the young star we haven't seen before. Bored with The Limehouse Golem, I begin to daydream how great a remake of My Fair Lady with Nighy and Cooke could be. Review

Cruise's shit-eating grin and boundless enthusiasm are vital in helping us believe this man could get away with so much wrongdoing, thanks to his not-so-innocent charm. It's a chance to exercise both his dramatic and comic chops, and Cruise seizes it with the amount of enthusiasm you would expect from this workaholic. Review

Somehow Sheridan manages to make this material feel fresh, and he even subverts some of our expectations regarding this genre. Review