caper

The feature-length directorial debut of Ralphie from A Christmas Story doesn’t exactly come across as a harbinger of cinematic excellence, but even at that, Peter Billingsley’s Couples Retreat was a great deal more woeful than anyone could have imagined. Reading from the Adam Sandler/Happy Madison playbook of “unnecessarily expensive star-studded comedy set in a glamorous sun-kissed location for reasons,” the $60 million romp was admittedly a sizeable hit at the box office after somehow conspiring to earn $172 million…

Screenwriter Juel Taylor makes his feature directing debut with his own co-written script; it’s an odd, slightly baffling but likable piece of work. It’s a conspiracy mystery-comedy that starts out as a neo-blaxploitation romp or supersmart satire on race and white privilege that you might compare with Get Out or Sorry to Bother You. But then it broadens into something sillier and goofier, almost a kids’ movie. I can imagine it building a cult fanbase by being shown every Christmas Eve on TV, and it’s certainly got three…

High concept sci-fi isn’t difficult to come by – as has been the case for decades – but when movies like Robots come along and prove to be every bit as unimaginative and uninspired as their titles, it becomes clear that doing it well is an altogether different matter. Based on Robert Sheckley’s 1973 short story The Robot Who Looked Like Me, Jack Whitehall and Shailene Woodley headline the light and fluffy crime caper that does boast a solid central premise, but underwhelms on virtually every level. The response indicates…

Here is a cut-rate family caper aimed at younger kids, very much not to be confused with the Jurassic Park dino-thriller franchise. It’s actually a sequel to a film from 2019 that doesn’t appear to have been released in the UK; the awful acting on show here might explain why. It takes a few scenes to acclimatise to actors delivering lines with tight tranquillised smiles, like kidnap victims being forced to put on a show, gun held to their backs. Though to be fair, the sub-standard animated dinosaurs aren’t much cop…

This mostly unamusing British comedy sets off with a framing device that sees heroin addict Charlie (George Webster) explaining recent events in his life to a rapt therapist (Alice Lowe). Clever-clogs viewers might assume that this is the setup for some unreliable-narrator shenanigans and a twist or two at the end, and you’d be right. But the twist – more of an ugly snarl – is unearned by the setup, and feels like the product of lazy screenwriting, devoid of psychological insight. That sort of fits the cheerful, jejune…

With the Bond franchise taking itself rather seriously these days, and Bond himself missing in action, there’s a vacancy for a wise-cracking, globe-trotting secret agent with a taste for the high life. And Jason Statham hereby throws his hat into the ring. In this flashy but hollow action adventure from Guy Ritchie, Statham plays Orson Fortune, a spy with a formidable skill set and an expense account to match. Orson’s team, including minxy tech genius Sarah (Aubrey Plaza), is employed by the British government to…

via Star Cinema The humble heist caper is always a cinematic subgenre worth checking out, and despite its unlucky position on the streaming service’s viewership charts, last year’s crime comedy Partners in Crime has proven itself to be anything but cursed. Per FlixPatrol, the Filipino con caper has debuted as the 13th most-watched movie on the platform’s global rankings after bagging a cavalcade of Top 10 finishes in numerous countries, and it can’t be counted out that the lighthearted romp could end up…

via STX Films There’s nothing wrong with an industry veteran calling in a few favors when they decide to make their feature-length directorial debut, but Nash Edgerton’s Gringo could have really benefited from a tighter screenplay and a fresher approach to the knockabout crime caper, because the end result was a disappointing misfire derivative of many vastly superior movies. The multi-talented actor, writer, stunt performer, editor, and filmmaker rounded up a star-studded cast packed full of recognizable names,…

via Sony Edgar Wright had already cultivated a reputation as one of the most visually dazzling and consistently acclaimed filmmakers in the business through his Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy and sorely underrated comic book box office catastrophe Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but it wasn’t until Baby Driver that he hammered home his credentials as being more than capable of crafting a one-of-a-kind blockbuster smash hit. The spectacular crime caper is essentially a car chase-driven heist thriller that doubles…

After briefly disappearing into the Hollywood machine, steering IP-based franchises rather than creating his own films, Guy Ritchie is having something of a Shyamalan-esque B-movie reinvention. The big-budget bloat of Aladdin, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and The Man from Uncle (fondly remembered by some but wisely forgotten by most) has gone and, instead, there’s a renewed sense of purpose, a returned vitality that had gone missing. While the director has not exactly regressed to his roots per se, he has focused more…