Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018)
Genre: Biblical drama
Director: Andrew Hyatt
Starring: Jim Caviezel, James Faulkner, Olivier Martinez, Joanne Whalley, John Lynch, Alessandro Sperduti, Yorgos Karamihos, Noah Huntley, Manuel Cauchi, Kenneth Spiteri
Duration: 108 minutes
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd

Jim Caviezel returns to a religious role after portraying Christ in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). This time he portrays St Luke, the Evangelist, who was a disciple of St Paul, here played by James Faulkner.

The film, which was shot in Malta, sees how Luke risks his life to travel to Rome to visit Paul, then a chain-bound apostle who was held captive in Nero’s darkest prison cell. Haunted by the shadows of his past misdeeds, Paul wonders if he has been forgotten as he awaits his grisly execution. Before Paul’s death, Luke resolves to write another book that details the birth of what will come to be known as the Church.

The film, directed by Andrew Hyatt (The Last Light, Full of Grace), has received generally poor reviews, with critics lauding the main protagonists but saying that the picture is rather dull. 

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “We have a monotonous conjectural melodrama for the faith-based crowd that does nothing to reach out to others. It does indicate how a very important seed was planted for the blossoming of Christianity but is banal where it needed to be charged with passion and a palpable religious compulsion of its own.”

Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times commented: “A few minutes of thriller-like tension early on gives way to a lot of tediously- scripted scenes of whisper-acting that rarely breathe life and humanity into what should be a potent turning point story in a religion’s history.”

And the critics’ consensus on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “Paul, Apostle of Christ proves a well-intentioned yet disappointingly diffuse interpretation of a Bible story whose flashes of potential never come close to living up to the source material.”

The $5 million production, released in the US the weekend before Good Friday, has so far earned $12 million in box office receipts.

Ratings
IMDB: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 41%
Empire: N/A

David Oyelowo is accompanied by Charlize Theron and Joel Edgerton on a trip to Mexico in Gringo.

Gringo (2018)
Genre: Action
Director: Nash Edgerton
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo, Thandie Newton, Sharlto Copley, Amanda Seyfried, Paris Jackson
Duration: 111 minutes
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

The comedy action film, directed by former stuntman and actor Nash Edgerton and co-produced by Charlize Theron, follows a mild-mannered US businessman named Harold Soyinka (David Oyelowo), who finds himself at the mercy of backstabbing colleagues, local drug lords and a black ops mercenary after travelling to Mexico.

Crossing the line from law-abiding citizen to wanted criminal, Harold fights to survive an increasingly dangerous situation.

The cast includes Theron and Joel Edgerton who play Harold’s bosses.

The film garnered mixed reviews, with the ensemble cast gaining praise. Chris Hewitt of Empire magazine called it “a pitch-black, often very funny slice of pulp fiction with a number of stand-out performances, notably the ferocious Theron”.

Emily Yoshida of Vulture magazine commented: “It’s a surprising high point in Oyelowo’s already distinguished career and a not-at-all shabby debut for Edgerton the director.”

But Chris Agar of Screen Rant was much less impressed. He said: “Gringo is a messy, confused entry in the crime genre that wastes its stellar ensemble on an uninspired narrative and leaves minimal impact.”

Released on March 9 in the US, the film has grossed a mere $7 million worldwide so far.

Ratings
IMDB: 6.0
Rotten Tomatoes: 39%
Empire: 4 stars

Taraji P. Henson is a sharpshooter in Proud Mary.

Proud Mary (2018)
Genre: Action thriller
Director: Babak Najafi
Starring: Taraji P. Henson, Billy Brown, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Neal McDonough, Margaret Avery, Danny Glover
Duration: 89 minutes
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Iran-Swedish film-maker Babak Najafi (London Has Fallen) directs this action thriller revolving around an assassin whose career  is turned upside down.

Taraji P. Henson plays Mary, a successful hitwoman working for an organised crime family in Boston. However, her life changes when she crosses paths with a young boy who is left orphaned after a professional hit goes wrong.

Critics lambasted the movie. Michael Ordona of Common Sense Media wrote: “This action film’s lack of originality and cleverness is made worse by a self-defeating visual style and overuse of music” while Paul Asay of Plugged In said: “Both aesthetically and morally, this film is a minor disaster.”

And David Edelstein of Vulture magazine wrote: “Much better thrillers have been made from much worse materials, but the director  has no evident clue how to compose a simple dialogue, let alone a shootout with multiple moving parts.”

Ratings
IMDB: 4.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 29%
Empire: N/A