Category Archives: War

Mission Kandahar review — Gerard Butler gets stuck in the sand

May 25, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh | Written by Mitchell LaFortune | 120 min | ▲▲△△△ The second Gerard Butler actioner this year — I confess I missed the earlier one, the surprisingly well-reviewed Plane — but this one reteams the Scottish star with his Greenland helmer, Waugh. That's a promising start. Also, the script is…Read More

Sisu review — Bonkers Finnish war western a good time

May 17, 2023 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Jalmari Helander | 91 mins | ▲▲▲△△ This picture is like a wild creature the likes of which we don't see often, which is a recommendation unto itself. A Finnish genre mash-up — weirdly and largely in English, which can only be due to market considerations — it tells the story…Read More

Full River Red review — A bloody, convoluted historical thriller (and comedy)

March 25, 2023 flawintheiris

Original title: Manjianghong | Directed by Yimou Zhang | Written by Zhang and Yu Chen | 159 min | ▲▲▲△△ Chinese filmmaker Yimou Zhang is a master of epic period thrillers like The Great Wall, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers, and here is again with a single-location comedy-mystery based on historical fact, with the entire…Read More

All Quiet On The Western Front (2022) review — Fresh reminder that war is hell

February 6, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Edward Berger | Written by Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque | 148 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Netflix I'm familiar with the 1930 original adaptation of the novel, which was released as a silent but also, later, in a sound version, and then the 1979 CBS…Read More

Top 10 New-To-Me Movies of 2022

December 18, 2022 flawintheiris

A few days ago on the hellscape we all know as Twitter, someone posted a list of the older films they'd discovered this year. Movies from the past they'd never had a chance to see before but had sought out or stumbled upon in the past 12 months and were glad they did. Since I'm…Read More

The Woman King review — Epic drama overcomes conventionality

October 1, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood | Written by Dana Stevens and Maria Bello | 135 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Crave Watching this romantic epic was accompanied by a sudden and uncomfortable realization of how little I know about African history. I had heard that the female warriors of a pre-colonial African empire inspired the Dora Milaje…Read More

Operation Mincemeat review — A thrilling piece of wartime history

July 12, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by John Madden | Written by Michelle Ashford, based on a book by Ben Macintyre | 128 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Netflix Sometimes a genre picture, otherwise conventional in many ways, can excel just via its commitment to the material, stylish choices in the direction, and a collection of unimpeachable performances. That's what's happened…Read More

Top Gun: Maverick review — A vertiginous victory, just

May 28, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Joseph Kosinski | Written by Peter Craig, Justin Marks, Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie | 131 min | ▲▲▲△△ If you remove the Mission: Impossible series from the equation, Tom Cruise has never made a sequel to any of his hit movies. Given his 40+ years in the Hollywood spotlight…Read More

Munich: The Edge of War review — Tasteful-to-a-fault wartime spy drama

January 29, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Christian Schwochow | Written by Ben Power, based on a novel by Robert Harris | Netflix | ▲▲△△△ Here's a thriller so handsome, so well appointed, it's practically constipated. It's the kind of movie that's so dedicated to being an unabashed anachronism — so unlike anything resembling a film made in the past…Read More

#FIN2021 Reviews — Wife Of A Spy, The Worst Person In The World

September 19, 2021 flawintheiris

Wife Of A Spy | Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Written by Kurosawa, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and Tadashi Nohara | 115 min Kobe, 1940. The military presence in Japan is cracking down on free thinking merchants and amateur filmmakers like Yusaku Fukuhara (Issey Takahashi), who heads to Manchuria with his nephew on a business trip. Is…Read More