The Movie Diorama

Stranger by the Lake cruises around its taut water body with audacious yet empty eroticism. In the blazing heat of summer days, an idyllic destination turns into a popular cruising location for gay men. Some folk seek “no strings attached” act... Read the full review »

Layer Cake energises London with an overstuffed yet vigorous gangster-driven story. “The art of good business is being a good middleman”. XXXX. An anonymous criminal that has nothing to do with Diesel’s high-octane spy shenanigans (xXx refer... Read the full review »

A Haunted House drains the life out of ‘Scary Movie’, producing something aggressively unfunny. Marlon Wayans needs to stop. Immediately. His career will never reach the heights of ‘Requiem for a Dream’ ever again. How? How does he obtain... Read the full review »

Wine Country pours spirits upon its sunny vineyards but fails to let the alcohol breathe. Poehler is undoubtedly a talented comedian. From writing/producing the popular sitcom ‘Parks and Recreation’ to pitting her hilarity against other comedi... Read the full review »

The Grand Budapest Hotel welcomes audiences to the most whimsical and characteristic lodging cinema has to offer. War-torn Zubrowka. 1932, ‘68 and ‘85. A grandiose inn towers over the frosty mountainous peaks, accessible by rickety cable cars.... Read the full review »

3 Days To Kill slaughtered my one brain for two whole generic hours. Did anyone order a McG sandwich? No? No one? Can we then remove this uninspired item from the menu? It genuinely baffles me how a man brimming with unfavourable mediocrity still... Read the full review »

The Counsellor pretentiously advises that all actions have consequences. The consequence of watching this heap of mess is that your precious time, patience and intelligence would all be wasted in a two hour ordeal where literally nothing cohesive... Read the full review »

Last Vegas gambles its legendary cast for embarrassingly uninspired parties. “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”, so the infamous phrase goes. This feature didn’t quite receive that memo, and released its relentlessly snooze-inducing she... Read the full review »

The Kingdom embeds a thorough investigation to strike an explosive third act. Saudi Arabia. The kingdom of oil. Lucrative resources dwell deep beneath the dusty landscape. Percolating through the cracks of endless warfare. Radicalism is a subject... Read the full review »

Ender’s Game strategised an adaptation that annihilated its own source material. Obliteration. Destruction. Decimation. War, in all its principles, sets out to bring peace through nihilistic chaos. Battles commanded by lieutenants whom implement... Read the full review »

Free Solo removes all documentarian constraints and ascends through an intense portrait. Free soloing. Willingly climbing obstacles both in nature and in mind. No harness. No life cable. Just incalculable amounts of methodical courage to ascend th... Read the full review »

Samsara cyclically embellishes the world’s cultural differences through arresting imagery. Life and death. Construction and destruction. Peace and war. Our world is what we make it. What we choose to mould it. A naturally formed canvas of endles... Read the full review »

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit spies on Bond to replicate aspects and become re-Bourne. Clancy’s series of intense novels involving CIA analyst turned operative Jack Ryan have had several adaptations in the past. A film franchise that suddenly, after... Read the full review »

The Taking of Pelham 123 gradually accelerates its tension before applying the emergency brakes. New York City. The bustling heart of American bureaucracy, capitalism and greed. An urban beat sprawling the towering skyscrapers, harnessing corporat... Read the full review »

Bad Neighbours 2 rents out double the parties, crude gags and tampered air bags. The first instalment to this rather unoriginal series of comedy features was still somewhat refreshing, mostly due to the kinetic energy sparking off the cast members... Read the full review »

The Amazing Spider-Man swings its way into a corpulent yet semi-realistic reboot. Unpopular opinion, but that’s the beauty of art in all its forms, Raimi’s original Spider-Man trilogy are not top-tier comic book adaptations in my view. The act... Read the full review »

National Treasure: Book of Secrets furthers its improbable mystery to conceal repetition. A sequel was destined after the predecessor’s bountiful success. Never mind the discovery of an entire hall worth of jewelled artefacts founded by the Knig... Read the full review »

National Treasure cryptically explores Freemasonry, occasionally striking treasured gold. Adventurous mysteries. From ‘Indiana Jones’ to ‘The Da Vinci Code’. Archaeologists, symbologists, cryptologists and all-round treasure hunters. Journ... Read the full review »