SPLING | Movie Critic | Movie Reviews | Film News | Movie Podcasts -

Custom Search

Last Added

Most Viewed

Top Rated

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 Next > End >>

Sleeper's Wake [ Hits:6610 ]
Review: Crime haunts us in South Africa. We live on the edge in order to stay one step ahead of what seems to be an unofficial tax for living in such a beautiful country. Being grateful that we're alive (and insured) are how we get by, yet the toll of the trauma and stress remains a mystery...Sleeper's Wake deals with the darker, primal urges of living in a seemingly lawless country, where citizens are confronted with the unthinkable and pushed to the edge. We're introduced to a writer, whose family has...

Jack Reacher [ Hits:22611 ]
Review: Tom Cruise is Jack Reacher, in the adaptation of One Shot, a novel by Lee Child, in which ex-military hero, Jack Reacher, becomes the lead investigator in a multiple shooting homicide after the prime suspect of an "open and shut" case calls for the drifter by name. Tom Cruise has played Ethan Hunt several times in Mission Impossible, had a convincing turn as a contract killer in Collateral and has a history of strong performances in military dramas, A Few Good Men and Born on the Fourth of Ju...

Unknown [ Hits:22785 ]
Review: According to a 2008 IOL article, identity theft could be costing South African individuals and firms more than R1 billion a year. Scam artists have even begun to register assumed identities as deceased in order to make a claim on their life insurance or estates. That's what makes Unknown so fascinating and possible as Dr. Martin Harris finds out what it's like to slip off the grid. Imagine waking up after a car accident to find that your life has been upended without a trace of your former life....

Jagveld [ Hits:2187 ]
Review: Jagveld is an outback crime thriller based on the novel by Deon Meyer, which tracks the journey of a young woman, who is pursued by a gang of drug smugglers after she witnesses them killing a traffic officer. Byron Davis makes a directorial debut working with a notable South African ensemble in Leandie du Randt, Neels Van Jaarsveld and Tim Theron. Jagveld is in the same league as Beyond the Reach and Desierto, as a cat and mouse hunt unfurls over a dry and dusty landscape. While similar, Meye...

Bypass [ Hits:2113 ]
Review: Bypass is a medical thriller, directed by Shane Vermooten and starring Natalie Becker, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Greg Kriek and Deon Lotz. It centres on, and creates awareness about the controversial criminal world of human organ trafficking. We journey with Dr Lisa Cooper, a renowned cardiac surgeon, who is forced to take desperate measures in order to secure a future for her son, Sam. After giving her consent for Sam to undergo an illegal procedure at a clinic in East Africa, she begins to realise tha...

Baby Driver [ Hits:12430 ]
Review: Edgar Wright is the British director behind cult classics such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. His ambitious, colourful, quirky, playful and imaginative films are geared towards laughs and thrills and Baby Driver is no different. Always unpredictable, fun and visually-compelling, Wright has added a heist thriller to his growing list of shiny, wonderful films. The title Baby Driver, probably should have been Baby, Driver but that would have made too much sense when...

Road to the Well [ Hits:2015 ]
Review: Road to the Well is a low-budget dark comedy thriller from the mind of writer-director, Jon Cvack, and stars Micah Parker, Laurence Fuller and Marshall R. Teague. The film journeys with Jack, a drifter who meets up with his old friend Frank, whose desk-bound job and down-on-his-luck relationship status leave him vulnerable. After Frank gets involved with a woman at the bar, he reaches out to Jack for help when he wakes up after a brutal attack only to find the woman's body in the trunk of his ca...

The Accountant [ Hits:2261 ]
Review: As a movie title, The Accountant conjures up images of office paper, photocopiers, spreadsheets and responsible haircuts. Luckily the movie poster went for something less sensible: Ben Affleck kitted out like he was going to audit an "entrepreneur" in the slums of Rio. The stark contrast creates a series of nagging questions and presents much more promise than a Wednesday in the life of Ben Affleck as a self-employed accountant. The Accountant echoes the equally irritating movie title, The Infor...

Our Kind of Traitor [ Hits:2047 ]
Review: Our Kind of Traitor is based on the novel by John le Carré, an author whose film credits include: The Constant Gardener, A Most Wanted Man and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. His espionage thrillers are thought-provoking - more realistic than James Bond and less action-intensive than Jason Bourne. Our Kind of Traitor fits into this mold once again, delivering a thought-provoking story about a couple who finds themselves caught between the Russian Mafia and British Secret Service. It's a cerebral...

Money Monster [ Hits:2302 ]
Review: Money Monster is the latest film from Jodie Foster, who last acted in Elysium in 2013 and previously directed The Beaver in 2011. On the surface, it's a simple, somewhat claustrophobic thriller about a gunman who takes a financial show host hostage on live television in a bid to get real answers about a bad stock tip. Apart from directorial credits for TV shows like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, Jodie Foster's been reasonably quiet. While The Beaver was ambitious, leaning on its t...

The Playground [ Hits:2876 ]
Review: The Playground is a dark and foreboding drama thriller and feature film debut for writer-director Edreace Purmul. Set as a series of chapters, we slowly advance up a flight of cobblestone stairs as this ominous and atmospheric ensemble drama journeys with five distinct individuals. Joseph is a priest seeking solace on the outskirts of the city. Mr. Vaugn is a businessman, who finds himself in a great deal of financial distress. Grandison is homeless and looking to escape a life of destitution....

10 Cloverfield Lane [ Hits:4538 ]
Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane follows Cloverfield, a sci-fi thriller that tracked some kids with a first-person video camera perspective during a monster attack on New York City. Matt Reeves went on to direct Let Me In and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and there wasn't much thought to a Cloverfield prequel or sequel. Well, eight years down the track we have one. Instead of going for another city demolition monster movie in the vein of Godzilla, they've gone for a tight, claustrophobic and rural thriller ...

Eye in the Sky [ Hits:2319 ]
Review: Drone military warfare was at the heart of psychological thriller, Good Kill and thriller, Drones. It's now the subject of Gavin Hood's latest war drama thriller, Eye in the Sky, starring Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Barkhad Abdi and the late Alan Rickman. We've entered a new age of war, where surveillance has become a double-edged sword functioning as a next generation terrorism counter-measure in exchange for a measure of privacy. Instead of training pilots to man air strikes, we're getting them...

The Gift [ Hits:2263 ]
Review: The Gift is an elegant and unconventional mystery drama thriller that will surprise you. This is a fine production from the mind of Joel Edgerton, who writes, directs and stars. The story follows a married couple, who are forced to unearth dark secrets when they confront an old acquaintance, after relocating to a new city for a fresh start. While the plot sounds fairly typical and the sleek cinematography at home in this kind of thriller, the differences are in the unexpected. Like the ca...

Last Ones Out [ Hits:3366 ]
Review: Last Ones Out is punted as Africa's first zombie feature film. While it's difficult to dispute, since there doesn't appear to be a horde of titles to rival the claim, it's still quite surprising. Especially when you consider Nollywood's flourishing grassroots film industry and that the decision to make Last Ones Out, a zombie film, was necessitated by budgetary constraints. Last Ones Out was birthed from passion, enterprise and ironically, undying commitment. The credo of "no excuses" is what d...

Hitman: Agent 47 [ Hits:2551 ]
Review: Hitman: Agent 47 is a video game adaptation from up-and-coming director, Aleksander Bach. While explosive and visually stimulating, this action thriller starts with great promise and then becomes increasingly dull as we try to connect with stilted performances and insubstantial characters. The first Hitman movie starred Timothy Olyphant and while only serviceable is still better than Hitman: Agent 47. The latest installment incorporates more elements from the video game in terms of stealth, dis...

Cut Bank [ Hits:2663 ]
Review: Cut Bank is one of those small town ensemble crime thrillers you'd expect to be set in a snowy North American Winter. Although that would probably make it a bit too similar to films like A Simple Plan, Fargo, The Big White and Thin Ice. We're introduced to a low key "heist" scenario where Dwayne, a small town dreamer, tries to siphon reward money from the U.S. post office when he inadvertently finds himself in possession of footage relating to a postal worker's murder. It's a curious premis...

Jurassic World [ Hits:2438 ]
Review: Jurassic World is one of those movie sequel throwbacks that channels '90s nostalgia and theme park curiosity into a weird tribute to dinosaurs. We're living in an age where films like Sharknado have an audience, which helps explain the theme park roller-coaster ride meets Jurassic Park tribute tone of Jurassic World. Colin Trevorrow's been charged with creating something new, based on something old and he's done that with a cheeky tone and casting Chris Pratt as our resident Steve Irwin meets I...

The Riot Club [ Hits:2374 ]
Review: The Riot Club is an adaptation of the stage play Posh, which follows two first-year students at Oxford University, who are recruited by the infamous Riot Club, where reputations can be made or destroyed overnight. This is a film by Lone Scherfig, who directed the initiate drama An Education with Carey Mulligan. She doesn't shy away from delivering an uncomfortable atmosphere, unlikable characters and taunting us with some thrilling moments where anything can and does happen. While it's not nea...

Run All Night [ Hits:2380 ]
Review: Run All Night... while it sounds like a Lionel Richie song, this mobster man-on-the-run thriller deserves to be taken Harvey Keitel seriously. It definitely would've got more street cred with a movie title like "Sins of our Fathers", but it does have a Die Hard affinity, which makes it a bit of an in-betweener. Run All Night is the third outing for director Jaume Collet-Serra and Liam Neeson after Unknown and Non-Stop. While it didn't live up to its potential, Unknown was swept under the Taken ...

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 Next > End >>

Welcome to Spling Movies