A troubled war hero about to be redeployed struggles with life in America. Its glossy direction and staging notwithstanding, this is an at-times awkward drama that doesn’t offer much new except in its good intentions and immaculate technical credits. Perhaps an indication that not all novels are translatable to film.
Here’s the trailer.
On a world where male thoughts are visualised, a young man helps a stranded female astronaut. Ham-fisted loose adaptation of Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go. OK performances help, but a cut-and-shut script and dangling subplots evidence the movie’s troubled production.
Here’s the trailer.
A dying physicist attempts to get a message to a returning spacecraft. Lop-sided though well-meant SF drama, an adaptation of Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. The story’s wafer-thin, so has to resort to tickbox genre jeopardy done better elsewhere. A shame, as there’s a fine, quiet drama here somewhere.
Here’s the trailer.
A dying criminal finds himself on the run with a young woman. Smart, low key hardscrabble crime drama from the Nic Pizzalatto novel. Can’t quite decide to go for arthouse or for jailhouse, but worth your time nevertheless.
Here’s the trailer.
An SAS officer is caught in a Channel Tunnel train hijack overseen by disgruntled mercenaries. Boorish, overlong action thriller that’s both hideously contrived and has some properly dumb ideas. A decent TV-ish cast and some effective stunt work help, but this is clunky, obvious stuff throughout.
Here’s the trailer.
1939. With England on the cusp of war, an excavator is hired for a private archaeological dig. Good-looking and well-acted though slight reimagining of the Sutton Hoo site discovery, hampered by a busy script that doesn’t care to fillet the source novel to make a film-shaped story.
Here’s the trailer.
An itinerant Civil War veteran volunteers to take an orphaned child to distant family. Handsome, straightforward, elegiac and allegorical Western. Light on story, perhaps, but does what it needs to do at its own pace. Recommended.
Here’s the trailer.
Hercule Poirot must investigate a killing on a luxury sleeper service. Handsome if slightly stagey and camp version of the Agatha Christie stalwart. An awkward backstory and too many starry suspects make for tricky telescoping of the novel, but fans won’t mind a bit.
Here’s the trailer. And a previous review.
A young teacher takes a first job as a governess to two wealthy orphans: she comes to believe their stately home is haunted. Good-looking but otherwise rote version of MR James’ The Turn of the Screw. A few well-executed jumpscares aside, there’s nothing special here, alas.
Here’s the trailer.
A journalist investigating vessel disappearances in the Caribbean finds the modern-day descendants of 18th-century pirates are responsible. While the movie (adapted from a post-Jaws Peter Benchley book) doesn’t do its premise justice, there’s some fun to be had, not least in the gleeful supporting cast of Brit character actors.
Here’s the trailer.
![Chaos Walking (2021, dir. Doug Liman [and Fede Alvarez])](https://255review.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/chaos-walking-poster.jpg?w=960)
