Kev's Reviews

    1863, Mississippi farmer Newt Knight serves as a medic for the Confederate Army. Opposed to slavery, Knight would rather help the wounded than fight the Union. After his nephew dies in battle, Newt returns home to Jones County to safeguard his family but is soon branded an outlaw deserter. Forced to flee, he finds refuge with a group of runaway slaves hiding out in the swamps. Forging an alliance with the slaves and other farmers, Knight leads aa rebellion that would forever change history. “It's a tale of racial liberation and heroic bloodshed that is designed, at almost every turn, to lift us up to that special place where we can all feel moved by what good liberals we are.”,   says Owen Gleiberman, movie critic for Indiewire.com . I second this sentiment. This true-story-based film doesn’t suck on the teet of special effects or the belabored so-called “wow” factor that ims regrettably favored by puff pieces that dominate in ticket sales. Rather, the fi

Before Whitey Bulger, before Al Capone came two of the most notorious gangsters, London-based Reggie and Ronnie Kray.  The Kray Twins were the forerunners of organized crime. The identical crime-lords -  both roles played by Tom  Hardy - might have been vicious thugs but they also rubbed shoulders with the wealthy and powerful, building their empire in the East End of London.  Similar to American gangster Al Capone, the twins accrued glamorous lifestyles to cover up their brutal killings. If you can look beyond their barbaric ways, you'd find the Kray's underlying charm. Falling for Reggie, girlfriend-then-wife Frances (Emily Browning) tells the story as an omniscient narrator (even though she dies roughly two-thirds into the movie). Since her image of Reggie is obscured by love, in the beginning, he comes across as suave and sophisticated. Weary of Ronnie, Frances maintains her distance but still is fascinated by his quirky charm. As Dan Jolin from empireonline.com wrot

While exploring uncharted wild American frontier in 1823,  Hugh Glass (Leonardo Dicaprio) becomes severely wounded in a bear attack and is left for dead by his own troop of explorers. Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home to his beloved family. Grief-stricken and fue led by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), the former confidant responsible for abandoning him. Yes, Hugh Glass was a real frontierman who was almost  killed by wilderness in pursuit of vengeance against the men who left him for dead. But how much of the story after that was real? Time calls it, "A fictionalized version of the tale was recently brought to life by Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu ... based on the 2002 Michael Punke novel of the same name" . Glass joined a team headed up by Andrew Henry traveling up the Missouri River and the Grand River of modern-day South Dakota. It was on that trip that a grizzly b

At the Helm of this adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrook's novel, Director  Ron Howard uses his cinematic brilliance - not to tell - but to show the peril of the epic true journey of the ship Essex that inspired Herman Melville's fictional tale Moby Dick. In 1820, the New England crewmen aboard the Essex become submerged in a battle of survival when a whale of extraordinary size and power attacks, crippling their vessel and leaving the Essex adrift with ocean on all sides stretching for miles. With limited supplies, and in the midst of storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men must take drastic measures to beat the odds of dying at sea and, ultimately, inspiring Melville. In the beginning, as the writer (played by Ben Whishaw, the new Q in 007) sits down with one of the much-aged crewman, the film has an eerie Titanic-like feel. Much like the old lady in Titanic, you are unsure whether or not he is telling the truth. Tom Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson) is, after all, a was

  Former special-ops agent Frank Martin is back in this gripping, edge-of-your-seat action flick. Now retired, Martin (Ed Skrein) is living a less perilous life and has left his former life as a special-ops mercenary south of France  - that is until he falls in the clutches of a fem-fatal and her posse of three equally gorgeous women plotting revenge on a villainous Russian kingpin.  This film is slightly corny but it's not really about the plot as it is sensation. It's about getting your heart pumping , engaging the sensation of feel rather than a confounding plot that you don't get until the billionth time. It's about speed; fast cars and fast women. It's not a film you'd bring your grandma to. And if you have a problem with that - well....let's just say you might have bigger issues to deal with. *** (three stars.)

  Confusing, confusing, confusing. This very perplexing, and sloppy novel begins as General Custer lays dying on the battlefield at Little Big Horn. As he lets out his last breath, Custer's spirit levitates and finds a new body to invade - a Sioux warrior named Paha Sapa. Dan Simmons weaves the two lives together in a retrograding fashion as the story focuses on both the general's and the Native American's pasts. As a reader, I want to go on an adventure,be entertained and think (not too hard) about the story. Simmons demands the reader to pay close attention to the story as the reader struggles  to follow diverging pasts. The story can be difficult to follow, particularly toward the beginning of the book before the reader is accustomed to the back-and-forth, decade-skipping flow of the narrative. I had to read reviews while reading the book just to keep up with the convoluted story. This book definitely made me work. ** (two stars).

When a present-day journalist (Dougray Scott) investigates Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva (Charlie Cox), he discovers a deep, dark secret that links his own father, Manolo (Wes Bentley), to Escriva. Manolo and Escriva were once close friends until the pair took two entirely different paths when war showed its ugly face. Manolo fought alongside the rebels, while Escriva pursued his faith and became a priest for the Roman Catholic church. Based on the incredible true story, this drama reveals the core values that killed a long-lived friendship. *** (three stars). The acting could have been better.