Because Everybody Else Has One

Denzel Washington is back in a very Denzel Washington-y kinda movie. Take that as you will... This review is also up at Channel 24 . What it's about Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) seems like an ordinary blue-collar worker but when a young prostitute (Chloe Grace-Moretz) he befriended is viciously beaten up, his mysterious past comes to the fore as he finds himself up against a ruthless organized crime ring. What we thought Antoine Fuqua is a director who spends his time alternating between grity and quite serious dramas (Training Day, Tears of the Sun) and disposable action movies (Olympus Has Fallen, Shooter) and despite the fact that his last film was the underwhelming shoot-em-up Olympus Has Fallen, it's interesting to see him diving so soon into another glorified b-movie – especially as he has brought along Denzel Washington, the star of his most acclaimed film, along for the ride. The Equalizer is apparently based on an '80s TV show (nope...

The Faultier in Our Stars, perhaps? This review is also up at Channel 24 What it's about Mia Hall is your average teenage girl about to graduate high school: juggling boy problems, trying to get into the college of her dreams and figuring out where she, a classical-music-loving cellist fits into her hip, punk-rock family. After being involved in a major car crash and with her life hanging in the balance, she has is suddenly confronted with the most crucial question of all. What we thought It's all but impossible not compare If I Stay with The Fault in our Stars when the two films, separated by a mere couple of months, have so much in common - at least on the surface. Both films are based on highly successful young adult novels, both feature the struggles of a teenage girl at their centre and both deal with themes of love and loss, when superimposed against life and death. They're also both, as it so happens, the work of newcomer directors as Fault'...

I don't have internet access for most of this week, so you're going to have to wait a little longer for my year-end roundup and for some mini reviews of a bunch of films currently on circuit that are actually worth your time. For now though, here are two of my reviews that were published over at Channel 24 this past weekend. Sorry for the delay. Check it out Channel 24 as well, if you're so inclined. What it's about Carrie White is a shy girl, raised by an overbearing ultra-religious mother who, while trying to navigate the embarrassments and cruelty that comes with being a high school outcast, has to come to terms the very powerful and very deadly telekinetic powers that she has suddenly started to develop. What we thought I am probably going to get a lot of flack for this but I was never the biggest fan of the original Carrie. Stephen King, who authored the novel on which both Carrie films are based, may consider it to be one of the most successful ada...