The Brown Note Movie Review

I really feel for star Taylor Kitsch, who I always like and thinking is hugely underappreciated as a leading man but often wed to failing products. This glorious misfire is as amiable and enjoyable as he is, you can see why it famously and epicaly bombed but theres plenty of grand-scope Sci-Fi to enjoy here, with a strong story and likeable cast. Perfect fodder for home entertainment for people th...

What an antidote to the icy new-Nordic thriller this magnificent twisted Norwegian beast is! Frequently crossing far over the line and blackly hilarious.

MMA star Gina Carano made such a good start here, you wonder how on earth she got relegated to Fast and the Furious bit parts. For an MMA star launch vehicle its ludicrous - director, Steven Soderbergh, cast including Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Channing Tatum. holy cow. Well worth checking out and even up against that top tier talent she acquits herself well.

Terrific hard edged genre rewards from a charismatic Mel Gibson, here on the slow road back to redemption. Sadly Gibson's pick of director, Adrian Grunberg would not follow up on this promise with the olympically awful Rambo: Last Blood his only follow up, suggesting Mr Gibson had an enormous hand in making this.

Wow! what a year that was, the top three films from this year ended up my top three of the entire decade. And remember De Niro and Jason Statham starring in The Killer Elite?!? Did that actually happen?

Let's hope Josh Trank redeemed himself with the upcoming Al Capone biopic after he trashed the incredible promise shown in this fascinating superhero outlier, with the dreadful Fantastic Four reboot. Here though he injects the troubled adolescent tropes with supernatural vigor for one of the most imaginative and memorable found footage films.

Drew Goddard's modern genre bending Sci-Fi horror near classic throws multiple kitchen sinks on top off the college kids in the woods trope, to awesome imaginative effect.

With the esteemed documentary director Kevin Macdonlad (of Touching the Void fame) at the helm and its charismatic subject, a watchable but curiously flat Bob Marley documentary.

By far the best and most compelling of the oddest franchise behemoth of the decade, one that exploded onto the scene and seemed to immediately recede from view with every subsequent release, ending on a dark elliptical note, with a couple of awful middle films along the way. But taken alone the original packs a thematic punch and has the hero to match it in Jennifer Lawrence.

What it says on the tin - my round up of my favorite and least favorite films of 2014.

Damien Chazelle's major debut is so thunderously exciting you almost forget the dreadful La La Land ever existed. The brilliant JK Simmons trades drumsticks with a nearly as great Miles Teller.

The occasionally complex and nuanced direction of Clint Eastwood gives way to a more black and white Spielberg pallet in this Bradley Cooper starring biopic.

Peter Jackson's terribly misguided attempt at stretching the tiny Hobbit novel across seven hours trundles unsatisfying to an end.

Alejandro Inarritu's art-house Oscar hoover reboots a terrific Michael Keaton's career.

Brilliant and essential YouTube hosted documentary on the modern epidemic of obesity and its link to sugar.

Terrifically wild and subversive no budget black comedy debut from director E.L.Katz, based literally on the paradigm of what would you do for a thousand bucks.

More interesting and complex than the cartoon Saving Private Ryan but still more trite than profound, an excellent Brad Pitt anchors the sometimes excellent director David Ayer's tank based war film.

Barely passable but slightly interesting young adult hokum.

One of the best (and truest) Sci-Fi films of the century so far. Aussie/German directors The Spierig Brothers open with one of cinemas greatest shaggy dog stories and it gets even better from there. A stunning, awards worthy Sarah Snook stars opposite Ethan Hawke.

If only Piers Brosnan had brought this much Daniel Craig grit and intensity to Bond. Underappreciated sub-Bourne actioner well worth a once through. Veteran Kiwi Roger Lindsey Donaldson directs.

Impressive, serious and unusual ecological thriller with strong turns from a well matched Jessie Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Meek's Cutoff's Kelly Reichardt.

Draws a bow between the lesser Police Academy and Wayans brothers comedies and just about clears it to being almost amiable.

Coherence is a mind-bending and deeply eerie Sci-Fi chiller. Dinner party madness directed by debutante James Ward Brykit.

A muddled and minor entry into the Liam Neeson megalopolis of film, directed by Scott Frank and frankly with no one else interesting in it.

Review of the last Philip Seymour Hoffman film released before his death (and a top turn for him to go out on). A cold war esq thriller based on the John Le Carre novel, directed by noted U2 botherer Anton Corbijn, co-starring Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright. Probably not quite as good as this review stated in retrospect but definitely worth watching the great man's final bow.