Reviews by Angus Wolfe Murray

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Despite The Falling Snow (2016)

  Review preview for Despite The Falling Snow

  Baffling and slow

  A spy falls in love with the politician she is supposed to be watching.
• 
  Eye In The Sky (2015)

  Review preview for Eye In The Sky

  A simple idea, beautifully executed

  The moral and practical outcome of a drone strike in rural Kenya is thrashed out at British HQ as an American pilot in Nevada awaits orders to fire the missiles that may cause unacceptable collateral damage
• 
  Eddie The Eagle (2016)

  Review preview for Eddie The Eagle

  You don't have to like skiing, or care less about the Olympics, to root the hell for Eddie

  The story of Eddie Edwards, the notoriously tenacious British underdog ski jumper who charmed the world at the 1988 Winter Olympics.
• 
  Welcome To Me (2014)

  Review preview for Welcome To Me

  There have been bad films. There have been terrible films. And then there's Welcome To Me

  When Alice Klieg wins the Mega-Millions lottery, she immediately quits her psychiatric meds and buys her own TV talk show.
• 
  Risen (2016)

  Review preview for Risen

  In the colonial tradition there is only one course of action, unreasonable force and the hard hand of authority pressing down upon the throats of the protesters

  A Roman tribune is sent to find the missing body of an executed Jew rumored to have risen from the dead.
• 
  Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)

  Review preview for Kung Fu Panda 3

  The vocal cast is star studded. Trouble is they are given too little to speak.

  Po discovers his real dad and fights the great yak from the spirit world to save the world
• 
  Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

  Review preview for Olympus Has Fallen

  24-carat, high pressure excitement

  Terrorists take the White House, and only a disgraced former Presidential guard can stop them.
• 
  London Has Fallen (2016)

  Review preview for London Has Fallen

  "The plot is bollocks."

  Mike Banning tries to foil an assassination plot.
• 
  The Walk (2015)

  Review preview for The Walk

  Everything is wired for excitement.

  The story of French high-wire artist Philippe Petit's attempt to cross the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.
• 
  A Bigger Splash (2015)

  Review preview for A Bigger Splash

  You have to care for these people to give a damn. That's hard.

  A rock star's holiday is interrupted by the arrival of her old flame and his daughter.
• 
  Dark Places (2015)

  Review preview for Dark Places

  Charlize Theron is electrifying

  A woman revisits the crime that killed her family.
• 
  Infinitely Polar Bear (2014)

  Review preview for Infinitely Polar Bear

  Ruffalo is astonishing. He makes Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook look easy.

  A manic-depressive mess of a father tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility for their two young daughters.
• 
  A War (2015)

  Review preview for A War

  Morality and mayhem make uncomfortable bedfellows

  Helmand-province set drama about a Danish army company.
• 
  The Hateful Eight (2015)

  Review preview for The Hateful Eight

  Tarantino flexes his trash thrashed imagination and vomits forth the guts of a serial killer's darkest desires

  In the dead of a Wyoming winter, a bounty hunter and his prisoner find shelter in a cabin currently inhabited by a collection of nefarious characters.
• 
  Sisters (2015)

  Review preview for Sisters

  Films that find alcoholism funny, encouraging the kind of behavior that would give Gramps a heart attack, are kicking at an open door

  Two sisters decide to throw one last house party before their parents sell their family home.
• 
  Star Wars: Episode 7 - The Force Awakens (2015)

  Review preview for Star Wars: Episode 7 - The Force Awakens

  The action sequences are where the money went and can be quite spectacular

  A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a new threat has emerged and new heroes must arise to save the day.
• 
  Ice And The Sky (2015)

  Review preview for Ice And The Sky

  The film fails to make the blood race

  Documentary about a lifetime's struggle to persuade affluent nations that their energy greed is melting Antarctica which will eventually destroy life as we know it
• 
  Christmas With The Coopers (2015)

  Review preview for Christmas With The Coopers

  You have no idea how enjoyable this is

  The Coopers are falling apart in different, funny ways. Christmas doesn't help. It tries to paste over the cracks. Yo ho, indeed!
• 
  The Good Dinosaur (2015)

  Review preview for The Good Dinosaur

  Child childs will love it

  An epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend
• 
  Bridge Of Spies (2015)

  Review preview for Bridge Of Spies

  What seems dry and dusty on the page is far from it on the screen

  An American lawyer is recruited by the CIA during the Cold War to defend a Russian spy
• 
  Black Mass (2015)

  Review preview for Black Mass

  It's true what they say about violence. Too much and you become immune.

  The true story of violent criminal turned FBI informant Whitey Bulger in Boston.
• 
  The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)

  Review preview for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

  The plot stutters into absurdity

  The rebels escort Katniss Everdeen into the Capital to assassinate President Snow, or die trying.
• 
  The Clearstream Affair (2014)

  Review preview for The Clearstream Affair

  Who does what and how they fit into the scheme of things requires a refresher course

  Finance thriller, based on the real exploits of Denis Robert – an investigative journalist who spent years tracking the illicit activities of the Luxembourg-based Clearstream bank.
• 
  My Friend Victoria (2014)

  Review preview for My Friend Victoria

  Only in France can a film of such delicate sensibility be made

  The story of two young Parisiennes and their different destinies
• 
  Chorus (2015)

  Review preview for Chorus

  The film is dark. Its message of disconnection has layers of sub plots, barely hinted at yet still damaging

  A marriage torn apart by the disappearance of a child is reconnected as events offer closure, resurrecting emotions and a kind of hope
• 
  Fathers And Daughters (2015)

  Review preview for Fathers And Daughters

  This is a film about rejection. Everyone's contaminated in one way or another

  The emotional diversity of a father's love for his daughter and his daughter's inability to love. Insecurity runs riot across a landscape of psychological dysfunction
• 
  Steve McQueen: The Man And Le Mans (2015)

  Review preview for Steve McQueen: The Man And Le Mans

  The sadness and the courage and the ambition is here

  The true story of how a cinema legend would risk almost everything in pursuit of his dream.
• 
  Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

  Review preview for Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse

  Zombie cats are fun but exploding heads are not

  Three scouts, on the eve of their last camp-out, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak
• 
  He Named Me Malala (2015)

  Review preview for He Named Me Malala

  Her energy is remarkable and what this film shows is the humility, intelligence and bravery of a girl lucky to be alive

  Documentary about events that led to the Taliban attack on Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and the aftermath.
• 
  Death Of A Gentleman (2015)

  Review preview for Death Of A Gentleman

  A brave and shocking statement of the blinding obvious - success drives money and money corrupts.

  Two cricket journalists, Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber, set off on a journey to the heart of the second most popular sport on Earth, only to stumble upon something more sinister than they could ever have imagined.
• 
  Kill Your Friends (2015)

  Review preview for Kill Your Friends

  Murder is more satisfying than sex

  Murderous exploits of an amoral A&R man in the mid Nineties Britpop era
• 
  Paper Planes (2014)

  Review preview for Paper Planes

  Every cliche that sang out of tune at the concert of dreams is here

  Boy from the Australian outishback competes in the world junior paper planes contest in Japan. Frankie should have sung a song.
• 
  Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015)

  Review preview for Hotel Transylvania 2

  A one-gag concept lasts as long as a werewolf's belch

  When Drac's daughter gives birth to a half blood he worries about the baby fangs. Where are they? What has happened to the vampire DNA?
• 
  Mississippi Grind (2015)

  Review preview for Mississippi Grind

  As a road movie it is surprisingly static

  On the road with gambling addicts who live high and lose loads.
• 
  The Program (2015)

  Review preview for The Program

  A clear, clean picture without tricks

  A journalist tries to prove Lance Armstrong is a cheat.
• 
  Pan (2015)

  Review preview for Pan

  Visual indigestion and intellectual flatulence

  A 12-year-old orphan is spirited away to the magical world of Neverland where he fights pirates to save fairies and ultimately discovers his destiny as Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up.
• 
  The Passage (2014)

  Review preview for The Passage

  Pretentious? Maybe. Confusion? Certainly.

  Young Australians setting out to disprove an urban legend find themselves caught up in a different supernatural horror.
• 
  Suffragette (2015)

  Review preview for Suffragette

  All message and no massage

  Story of the early feminist movement.
• 
  The Intern (2015)

  Review preview for The Intern

  A little light drama with a message for workaholics.

  Widower Ben Whittaker discovers that retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion company.
• 
  Captive (2015)

  Review preview for Captive

  Authenticity is well matched by the performances

  A drug-addicted single mum is taken hostage in her own home.
• 
  Life (2015)

  Review preview for Life

  Drifts dangerously close to irrelevance.

  An ambitious young photographer takes pictures of an unknown actor in the hope of selling them to Life magazine. The actor's name is James Dean.
• 
  Miss You Already (2015)

  Review preview for Miss You Already

  The squirm count is off the scale

  Best friends grow up, marry and laugh a lot until one of them is diagnosed with the Big C.
• 
  Everest (2015)

  Review preview for Everest

  The grandeur and beauty of the place is set against figures of climbers, like black ants, across a white wilderness

  A climbing expedition on Mt. Everest is devastated by a severe snow storm.
• 
  Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

  Review preview for Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

  Fear can't touch you if you don't care

  After having escaped the Maze, the Gladers now face a new set of challenges on the open roads of a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles.
• 
  Dope (2015)

  Review preview for Dope

  The film has charm, due in most parts to Shameik Moore's performance

  Self confessed teen geek from the wrong side of the tracks in Inglewood, Cal, with aspirations to go to Harvard, is compromised by a stash of drugs and threats from gangster crews.
• 
  No Escape (2015)

  Review preview for No Escape

  The feeling of making it up as they go along is well done

  An American family get caught up in an overseas coup.
• 
  Me And Earl And The Dying Girl (2015)

  Review preview for Me And Earl And The Dying Girl

  As cool as a multi-coloured popsicle.

  How to be a teenager without losing your life and why helping a friend who is sick need not be an exercise in sentimental wishwash
• 
  Straight Outta Compton (2015)

  Review preview for Straight Outta Compton

  They sang it as they saw it and in Compton that was not pretty

  The group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton, Los Angeles, in the mid Eighties and revolutionises hip hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.
• 
  Gemma Bovery (2014)

  Review preview for Gemma Bovery

  The final act has multiple twists but by that time interest has waned

  An English couple move to Normandy and because of their name are drawn into Flaubert's web as if doomed to repeat the follies of Madame Bovery
• 
  Paper Towns (2015)

  Review preview for Paper Towns

  Every once in a while young fiction remains true to itself

  A teenage girl runs away from home, leaving her friends to search for clues, opening their eyes to the possibility of change and renewal