Santiago ”Pope” Garcia (Oscar Isaac) gathers a team of friends, all retired Special Forces soldiers, for a mission to Colombia where they intend to steal millions of dollars from a drug lord. A change of pace for J.C. Chandor, who’s not exactly famous for his action-thrillers – but he has plenty of help from co-writer … Continue reading Triple Frontier
UNITE THE LEAGUE. After the death of Superman (Henry Cavill), Earth is threatened by a supervillain and his demonic legion, leading Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) and Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) to form a league of heroes together with a couple of new talents. The DC Comics version of Marvel’s The Avengers tries hard to build … Continue reading Justice League
CALCULATE YOUR CHOICES. The Treasury Department is looking into a mysterious man called ”the Accountant” (Ben Affleck) who was responsible for murdering several mobsters; at the same time, he’s hired to audit a robotics firm… An odd idea for an action-thriller, although it does begin to vaguely resemble a Batman story in disguise as it … Continue reading The Accountant
THE AMERICAN DREAM HAS A PRICE. In 1926, WWI veteran Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck), who’s fallen in love with the mistress (Sienna Miller) of a gangster, becomes involved in the battle between two crime families, one Irish and one Italian. Affleck’s adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel, the second part in a series of books about … Continue reading Live by Night
Terrence Malick’s first serious misstep, a rambling ”portrait” of a struggling couple (Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko) who move from Paris to the Oklahoma countryside, and a Catholic priest (Javier Bardem) who’s unhappy and can’t hear the voice of God. Fans of the filmmaker might find something to enjoy in the beautiful visuals and some deeper … Continue reading To the Wonder
JUSTICE HAS A BAD SIDE. The most dangerous criminals in the world are gathered to be used as agents for the U.S. government, controlled by nano bombs planted in their neck… but the Joker (Jared Leto) complicates everything. This 3D film continues where Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) ended, with the same slam-bang … Continue reading Suicide Squad
Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), who hunts criminals as the masked vigilante Batman in Gotham City, is furious to see Superman (Henry Cavill) partly responsible for so many deaths in Metropolis. The 3D sequel to Man of Steel (2013) is more ambitious, visually and narratively, but once you get over the thrill of watching these … Continue reading Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
BIG BUSINESS JUST CUT THE WRONG GUYS. When a Boston shipbuilding giant starts downsizing, Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) loses his job, but he’s far from the only victim. TV producer and writer John Wells’s feature directing debut is a comment on the Great Recession of 2008, where we follow several white-collar workers and how they … Continue reading The Company Men
YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT ‘TIL IT’S GONE GIRL. When his wife (Rosamund Pike) disappears in what looks like a kidnapping, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is a suspect and a subsequent five-year anniversary treasure hunt turns into a mix of incriminating clues and confusing question marks. Gillian Flynn does an excellent job adapting her … Continue reading Gone Girl
SOME PEOPLE CAN NEVER BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES, UNTIL SOMEONE BELIEVES IN THEM. A professor and a therapist (Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Williams) try to make a twenty-year-old janitor (Matt Damon) at MIT realize that his brilliant mind should not be wasted. The drama that made Damon and Ben Affleck into household names in Hollywood became a … Continue reading Good Will Hunting
SEX IS EASY. LOVE IS HARD. This return to low-budget projects for Kevin Smith was a comeback after the failure of Mallrats (1995). It’s a story about a comic book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a gay woman (Joey Lauren Adams) and can’t accept just being her friend. That their relationship would … Continue reading Chasing Amy
THE MOVIE WAS FAKE. THE MISSION WAS REAL. In my reviews of Persepolis (2007) and A Separation (2011), I wrote that those films offer a well-needed opportunity to understand Iran. Argo, however, is not that type of film. It did in fact receive some criticism for portraying Iranian protesters as fierce animals, thereby playing into a … Continue reading Argo: The Great Escape
SOMETIMES IT TAKES MORE THAN JUST GOOD LOOKS TO KILL. Empty-headed high-school cheerleader Buffy Summers (Kristy Swanson) learns that it is part of her destiny to slay vampires. Joss Whedon probably realized that the original script he had written was better than this movie; five years later he would create a superior TV adaptation that would run for … Continue reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer
