Tom Hardy

Spotlight on: Nicolas Winding Refn

On the eve of a TIFF Bell Lightbox retrospective looking at the works of still up and coming Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn, our film writers look at their favourite films from the uncompromising filmmaker behind Drive, The Pusher trilogy, and Only God Forgives

Lawless Review

Lawless feels like a film compromised somewhere in the editing process with long passages awkwardly truncated and the director’s patented slow, thoughtful pacing replaced with a more action-centric aesthetic, but the film still works reasonably well as an entertaining gangster yarn filled with the performances you get as a prestigious director working with his pick of the top actors around.

CONTEST: See LAWLESS in 4 Cities!

Enter for a chance to win a pair of passes to an advance screening of Lawless in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, or Winnipeg on Monday, August 27th at 7pm from Dork Shelf and Alliance Films.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

An appropriate end to the Christopher Nolan cycle of serious Batman films, The Dark Knight Rises manages to up the stakes in terms of action, suspense, and even in terms of wit. On the other hand, it’s not hard to say that this third instalment with Christian Bale behind the cowl is the least of the franchise, but most of the problems this time our are fairly nitpicky in nature and come mostly when Nolan seemingly needs to force himself to get serious again when even the director seems like he just wants to have some actual fun for a change.

This Week in DVD: 5/22/12

A busy week for big titles on video store shelves as we take a look at The Grey, The Secret World of Arrietty, The Woman in Black, This Means War, and Red Tails.

This Means War Review

This Means War refers not only to the title of director McG’s latest romantic action-comedy, but also to the exact sentiment I felt about forty minutes into the film. Staggeringly unfunny with a masochistic mean streak, only one of the jokes in the film even manages a single actual laugh, making for an extremely long feeling 95 minute sit. Ugly, incoherent, and all around lazy as hell, this is exactly the kind of movie I feel I will be weeping about when it inevitably hits number one at the box office.

Warrior Review

As a sports film, Warrior doesn’t offer any new twist on a tried and true template, but it could be held up as a perfect example of how to make an uplifting sports film. This story of two estranged brothers trying to make their way through a newly formed mixed martial arts tournament hits almost every beat the audience expects, but it does so with near flawless precision. This isn’t exactly the reinvention of the wheel, but it sure does give one of the smoothest rides of the year.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Trailer

An intense new trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has hit the web. The film — an adaptation of the John le Carré's novel of the same name — is the first English-language effort from Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson. Set during the coldest days of the Cold War, semi-retired spy George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is enlisted by MI6 to help sniff out a Soviet double agent within their ranks.

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Trailer Arrives

The first theatrical teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises has debuted online. Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception) has a great track record with very non-descript but thoroughly engaging teasers for each one of his films, usually accompanied by an equally gripping poster to build anticipation.

The Dark Knight Rises Casts Hathaway & Hardy

Hero Complex today ended one of the biggest bits of casting speculation in recent memory: Anne Hathaway is set to play Catwoman and Tom Hardy will play Bane in the third installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman cycle, The Dark Knight Rises. They join returning cast members Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Gary Oldman.

Inception Review

Christopher Nolan won himself a great deal of opening weekend cred thanks to The Dark Knight; he is likely going to need it for Inception. It’s not that Inception is a bad film—the movie is actually one of the most original major releases to come along in ages—It’s that the film feels too cerebral for […]