Thandie Newton

Anaconda

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Anaconda (2025)
  • IMDb: link

Attempting to breathe new life into the dormant B-movie film series, the new Anaconda casts Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, and Thandiwe Newton as childhood friends whose combined midlife crisis takes them to the Amazon Rainforest to attempt a low-budget reboot of the franchise. Added to the mix are Selton Mello as the wacky snake handler and Daniela Melchior as a young woman acting as their boat captain and guide (but running from her own troubles).

…

AnacondaRead More »

Anaconda Read More »

John Woo’s M:I-2

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Mission: Impossible II
  • IMDb: link

Throwback Tuesday takes us back to the first sequel to 1996’s Mission: Impossible. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt on a new mission to stop a spy who has gone bad (Dougray Scott) from getting his hands on a genetically-enhanced bio-weapon and loosing it on the world. Ving Rhames also returns to reprise his role as Luther with the rest of the small team being filled out by the forgettable John Polson and the memorable Thandie Newton as a thief, and former lover of the baddie, who Ethan recruits for the job.

…

John Woo’s M:I-2Read More »

John Woo’s M:I-2 Read More »

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
  • IMDb: link

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Man, chickens are stupid. Or, depending on the scene in question, they are highly intelligent and skilled. For the plot of this film, both premises will need to be equally true. Feeling very much a straight-to-video sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget features the return of Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) and their friends who have carved out a safe community for their daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey). Telling her nothing of the horrors of the outside world, any of which could have prevented all the events which follow, a curious and rebellious Molly sets out to discover a world where chickens seem happy in buckets (did I mention chickens are stupid?).

…

Chicken Run: Dawn of the NuggetRead More »

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Read More »

All the Old Knives

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: All the Old Knives
  • IMDb: link

Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton star as spies and former lovers reunited eight years after a terrorist attack in Vienna. Still with the agency, Henry Pelham (Pine) is tasked with discovering whether or not an inside man helped the terrorists nearly a decade before with the obvious suspects being his former lover and her boss (Jonathan Pryce).  

The film from writer/director Olen Steinhauer attempts to be a slow-burning thriller revealing secrets and twists while poking at old wounds as Pine and Newton hash out past events over dinner. Never as thrilling as it should be, and with an odd choice to jump into extremely jarring close-ups at random intervals, All the Old Knives is really only worth noting for the performances of its two stars, as the plot, despite its attempt at shocking twists, is mainly just an excuse for the two to eat dinner while telling lies and variations of the truth.

…

All the Old KnivesRead More »

All the Old Knives Read More »

Solo: A Star Wars Story

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Solo: A Star Wars Story
  • IMDb: link

Solo: A Star Wars Story movie reviewIn many ways Solo: A Star Wars Story is the antithesis of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. Solo plays things ultra-conservative, continually dumbs down the plot for the audience, and relies heavily on nostalgia. The result is a fun, if flawed and unambitious, film that offers fans the Cliff’s Notes version of Han Solo‘s (Alden Ehrenreich) past.

Star Wars fans will know the planet Corellia. Aside from being the homeworld of Han Solo, the planet played a major role in various storylines of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Solo: A Star Wars Story is the first Star Wars film to give fans a glimpse of the world… and it’s about and underwhelming as possible. It doesn’t help that the only scenes we get involve a young Han, saddled with a Dickensian backstory which turns him into Oliver Twist, working along with other local younglings as a thief.

If the film has a major flaw its the first 30-45 minutes which struggles mightily to set-up the story and at times is borderline bad. Thankfully, once Han makes some new friends and the heist plot is introduced, things begin to pick up.

…

Solo: A Star Wars StoryRead More »

Solo: A Star Wars Story Read More »