Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Genre: Drama/History/War
Certification: 15
Duration: 139 minutes
Directed by: Mel Gibson
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey
KRS Releasing Ltd

Tori Kelly in Sing

Hacksaw Ridge follows the extraordinary true story of conscientious objector Desmond T. Doss who saved 75 men in Okinawa, during the bloodiest battle of World War II, without firing a single shot.

Believing that the war was just but killing was nevertheless wrong, he was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon. As an army medic, Doss single-handedly evacuated the wounded near enemy lines – braving enemy fire and putting his own life on the line. He was the first conscientious objector to ever win the Congressional Medal of Honour.

The film, based on an earlier documentary about Doss, was directed by Mel Gibson and written by Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan. It incorporates recurring religious themes and imagery. For instance, a young Doss wallops his brother with a rock; his bullying dad (Hugo Weaving) whips him with a belt for his crime. Years on, Doss uses his own belt to help an injured man, his journey to redemption symbolically begun.

Hacksaw Ridge was chosen by the American Film Institute and National Board of Review as one of the top 10 films of 2016 and has received numerous awards and nominations, including Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Garfield.The film was nominated for 12 AACTA Awards winning the majority of awards, including Best Film, Best Direction, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor for Garfield and Best Supporting Actor for Weaving.

In fact, it received rave reviews with some critics going so far as to call it a masterpiece.

Ann Hornaday from the Washington Post praises the intensity of the film stating: “Gibson never met a wound he didn’t want to gaze at with almost masochistic intensity: His camera can’t turn away.”

A.O Scott from The New York Times describes the film as “a rousing celebration of the thrills of battle”, while Stephanie Zacharek from Time maintains it is “a picture alive with grim vitality”.

As of January 11, 2017, Hacksaw Ridge has grossed $65.2 million in the US and Canada and $92.4 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $152.6 million, against a production budget of $40 million.

All in all, the film is definitely not one to be missed.

Ratings
IMDB: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Empire Magazine: 4 stars

Sing (2016)
Genre: Animation/Comedy
Certification: U
Duration: 110 minutes
Directed by: Garth Jennings
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon
KRS Releasing Ltd

Tori Kelly in Sing.

As the title might suggest, Sing is a full-blown musical.

Including more than 60 classic songs from famous artists, and  an original song by Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande, the film follows a group of animals that enter a singing competition, hosted by a koala hoping to save his theatre.

An eternal optimist, and a bit of a scoundrel, dapper koala Buster Moon loves his theatre and will do anything to preserve it.

Facing the crumbling of his life’s ambition, he takes one final chance to restore his fading jewel to its former glory by producing the world’s greatest singing competition. Five contestants emerge: a mouse, a timid elephant, a pig, a gorilla and a punk-rock porcupine.

Despite the message being ultimately a cliché ‘believe in yourself’ self-help mantra – as in a thousand other animated movies – there are just enough unexpected quirks in the plot to make it stand out.

The film garnered mixed reviews, with some praising the film’s fun qualities and others describing it  as bland and predictable.

Chris Hewitt from Empire maintains that “although it’s like being assaulted by a jumping jukebox for two hours, Garth Jennings’ first animated movie has enough bounce and brio to carry the day. Immensely likeable”.

On the other hand, Time’s Stephanie Zacharek maintains that “Sing, like its yearning-for-validation characters, mostly just radiates desperation”.

Despite its mixed reviews, the film did quite well at the Box Office, grossing a worldwide total of $428.7 million, against a production budget of $75 million.

Ratings
IMDB: 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
Empire Magazine: 4 stars

The Bye Bye Man (2017)
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Certification: 15
Duration: 96 minutes
Directed by: Stacy Title
Starring: Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount, Cressida Bonas
KRS Releasing Ltd

Douglas Smith, Lucien Laviscount, Jenna Kanell, and Cressida Bonas in The Bye Bye Man.

The Bye Bye Man is an American horror thriller based on the chapter “The Bridge to Body Island” in Robert Damon Schneck’s book The President’s Vampire.

In the late 1960s, a mass murder occurs in which a man kills people on his block. In the present day, Elliot, his girlfriend Sasha, and best friend John move into an off-campus house not far from their college. Soon, mysterious things start to happen. Elliot also finds writing consisting of “don’t think it, don’t say it”, “don’t say it, don’t think it”, and ultimately a name: the Bye Bye Man. They soon discover that once the Bye Bye Man gets inside your head, he takes control. Is there a way to survive his possession?

Dubbed a cliché horror film, The Bye Bye Man received generally negative reviews from critics.

Stephanie Post from Washington Post asserts: The Bye Bye Man has a relatively modest budget, and it shows in the special effects, which tend to be more funny than scary.”

Additionally, on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 22 per cent as the site’s critical consensus reads: “The Bye Bye Man clumsily mashes together elements from better horror films, adding up to a derivative effort as short on originality as it is on narrative coherency or satisfying scares.”

Ratings
IMDB: 3.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 22%
Empire Magazine: N/A