Dominic Corry

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to pronounce their undying love for Tim Burton’s 2010 adaptation of Alice In Wonderland, but the film made over a billion dollars at the global box office, so here we are. Alice and the Commercially Mandated Sequel asserts itself as a large scale blockbuster in its thrilling opening […]

In a mainstream cinema landscape that often seems driven by concession – to the studio, the investors, the marketers, the distributors, certain demographics, the foreign market, the domestic market, the Stone Cutters – there are few things more satisfying than seeing a populist filmmaker getting to do exactly what he wants on a large canvas. […]

Despite a welcome enhancement of the futuristic aesthetics on display and an increased emphasis on faintly gritty action scenes, this third entry in the Divergent series suffers greatly for the over-familiarity of its generic YA dystopian aspirations. Possessing neither the mildly mythic heft of The Hunger Games franchise nor the nimble genre efficiency of the […]

The buoyant chemistry between Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Bell keeps this slight comedy afloat in the face of a thin storyline and an uneven tone. In full-on firecracker mode, the limber McCarthy is clearly enjoying herself revisiting a character she first developed in her days as an improv performer with the famed Groundlings troupe. The […]

The sub-title of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice suggests a movie that emphasises set-up, and thankfully that isn’t really the case – director Zack Snyder wrings plenty of drama from the justice and power themes that Man of Steel and Watchmen also touched upon, and he sets up his characters’ conflicting motivations judiciously. The world-building that does occur here is […]

Although not especially well-regarded by history, 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen delivered a very watchable stream of slickly executed violent action movie tropes. The old school swagger on display helped push the film beyond its initial status as the Pepsi to White House Down‘s Coca-Cola. Very little of that unapologetically fascistic appeal has made it into […]

It may be because I’m a sucker for any movie that strives to recapture the joy of the glorious action comedies of the 1980s, but I enjoyed the original Ride Along, which is quite possibly the most financially successful film ever ($130 million at the US box office) to not receive a theatrical release here. […]

Even without its Ashton Kutcher-led predecessor, this Steve Jobs biopic would likely have suffered from the perception that there may be nothing left to say about the much-discussed Apple innovator. Thanks to the specific talent involved in the film, it does not live down to this perception at all. Instead, it feels as vital and […]

Irish director Lenny Abrahamson, who made his mark with 2012’s underappreciated thriller What Richard Did, follows up 2014’s festival favourite Frank with this sensitive adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel. A much more direct cinematic experience than the intriguing-but-inscrutable Frank, Room leans in to its harrowing subject matter and delivers an uplifting and rewarding tale of […]

It’s easy to be wary of The Finest Hours – it gives off the whiff of an earnest, manipulative, straight-arrow film, the likes of which could only be released by Disney. It is all those things, but if you’re willing to hold your cynicism at bay, it’s also an often stirring, highly enjoyable tale of […]

Oscar nominee Anomalisa is unlike any film that has ever been made before. Which is all the more impressive considering it was written and co-directed by Charlie Kaufman, a filmmaker who has consistently broken new cinematic ground as the writer/director of Synocdoche, New York and the writer of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine […]

As great as Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained were, the manner in which Quentin Tarantino’s pointed proclivity for ponderous proclamations went unchecked in those films prevented me from wholly embracing them. In The Hateful Eight, the third entry in QT’s unofficial ‘Revisionist Myth’ trilogy, those tendencies go even further, gloriously so. The writer/director’s trademark verbose speechifying works in a way […]

Oscar-winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu applies his artful specificity to one of the wildest settings imaginable, resulting in a gripping and immersive frontier adventure. As an exercise in pure cinematic style, The Revenant is almost unprecedented – the film is simply staggering to behold for practically its entire running time. Iñárritu dives deep into the savagery […]

The latest collaboration between Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence and director David O. Russell hits cinemas as a Boxing Day present for film fans. Joy sees the pair back in award-winning form, with the star tapping into previously-unseen talents as the head of a billion-dollar family business. Their pedigree is undeniable, but just in case you weren’t […]

The prospect of seeing Steven Spielberg sink his teeth into the Cold War is an enticing one indeed, but although Bridge of Spies contains a couple of tense set-pieces, it is much more focused on being a character drama than a period thriller. Bifurcated almost exactly in two, the first half of the film follows […]

A palpable sense of timely relevance helps this musical biopic overcome the formulaic traps that fell almost every other contemporary addition to the genre. Which isn’t to say that Straight Outta Compton doesn’t rely on biopic formula in its own way. But that said, the events on display have so much retroactive power, it’s impossible not to […]

The prospect of a film inspired by a notorious 1960s fainting epidemic is an enticing one indeed, considering how under-exploited the incident has been in popular culture. Also enticing is the notion of seeing Arya Stark graduate to the big screen. Both of these elements provide enough entertainment value to make The Falling worth the effort, although neither quite […]

Given that it is named after the most popular area of Disney’s flagship theme park, I was steeling myself for a brand-enhancing exercise in corporate synergy when I sat down to watch Tomorrowland. I should’ve had more faith in director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) – I don’t think the word ‘Disney’ is ever even spoken out […]

After cutting her blockbuster teeth in the Percy Jackson franchise, rising actress Alexandra Daddario graduated to more… adult roles with a memorable supporting part in the first season of True Detective. Now she’s playing The Rock’s daughter in the new disaster adventure San Andreas. Dominic Corry earned the envy of the Flicks office by sitting down with her for […]

A remake of the Steven Spielberg-produced domestic horror classic from 1982 could quite reasonably have suffered from a case of the ‘John Carters‘. Which is to say, it’s based on source material that has been so influential, any new adaptation would undoubtedly be cursed by a sense of over familiarity. And when you look at […]

While the rest of the Freaks & Geeks wasted no time taking over Hollywood when the critically-adored TV show was cancelled after one season in 2001, it wasn’t until the 2011 megahit Bridesmaids that F&G creator Paul Feig’s directorial career really took off. Since then he’s made The Heat and now this espionage comedy, both of which star Bridesmaids break-out Melissa McCarthy. McCarthy is a […]