To Catch a Killer, Review: Mass murderer vs FBI veteran and rookie policewoman It’s a tame title, considering the killer puts down 29 individuals in the first round of his carnage. The other title, Misanthrope, is vague. It’s not nail-biting stuff, rather a thinking man’s whodunit, with occasional movements towards the edge of the seat. Mounted on a great scale, it is unable to escape the familiar tropes: Good officer being bullied, taking the rookie under his wing, a couple...

Spies in Disguise, Review: Walter, Pigeon and These Guys You might say that being in disguise is an essential qualification of being spies, so why give your film an obvious title? There is a rhyme and reason. The spy in this film turns into a pigeon, no less, upon drinking a serum, invented by a teenager called Walter Beckett, and that is one hell of a disguise! Use of the plural is questionable, though, since there is only one spy in the picture, while the other guy in ‘disguise’...

Spider-man--Far From Home, Review: PP, HH, Ray, May, MJ, Ned, E.D.I.T.H., Nick and Beck Can a pulsating teenage romance between a super-hero’s alter ego and a beautiful schoolmate over-ride inherent flaws in a film’s scripting and logic? Is the inability to go “aw..so cute!” every time you see an awkward boy mustering up the courage to approach his love interest, to utter the three magic words, a sign of aging and fossilisation? Is the need to look beyond the obvious, ...

Captain Marvel, Review: Skrull duggery, the Kreeps, a charismatic cat and muddled memories To many Indians, who grew up reading DC comics in the 50s, 60s and 70s, Captain Marvel is a man, and he acquires super-powers upon uttering the magical acronym, SHAZAM: genius of Solomon, strength of Hercules, unbreakable will of Atlas, lightning blasts of Zeus, power of Achilles and speed of Mercury. Named Billy Batson as a human, Captain Marvel’s powers comprised super strength, flight, invulner...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Nothing like a rousing World War II “never surrender” movie to lift the spirits from current political events; thus comes DARKEST HOUR, set for release from Focus Features on Nov. 22, the day US President John F. Kennedy was shot, not a coincidence one guesses. “You can’t reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth,” bellows Gary Oldman as a very convincing and Oscar buzzy Winston Churchill. And he is backed u...

For Slow West, debut director John Maclean tapped veteran cinematographer Robbie Ryan to make it a visual bonanza. I caught up with Ryan several weeks ago, when the film was screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. Click below for his insights:  http://www.thalo.com/articles/view/1037/cinematographer_robbie_ryan_on_shooting_slow_west   ...