Even if you have never played chess in your life, Pawn Sacrifice is fun to watch.
It is a testament to Zwick’s direction and Knight’s writing that Pawn Sacrifice makes chess games so tense and exciting.

There isn’t a single line of corny dialogue, which is a far cry from blockbuster Hollywood. The acting is universally excellent, with Clarke continuing to impress with his range and a New Zealand twang that never feels out of place. This visually breath-taking film will make you want to go to Nepal…

This film is not a sendoff to EDM fans, but a cookie cutter, coming-of-age rom com, with a sprinkling of lame and generic EDM to look ‘hep’ and ‘cool’. Like most famous underground DJs who sold out and began belting out generic beats for commercial clubhouse and airtime gains, We Are Your Friends panders to the younger and dumber audience with the hope of striking box office gold.

The only reasonably enjoyable moment is in the end credits, when co-producer Salman Khan shows up to sing a song.

Don’t get carried away, though. Even that’s not worth sitting through the rest of it.

Hitman is a video game property that seems cinematic because it borrows from other movies. However, a movie based on a game that is based on movies is hardly a recipe for good filmmaking. The curse of the video game based movies continues. It’s now up to Duncan Jones’ Warcraft and Michael Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed to reverse this curse.

Streep is the only element worth watching the film for, but there’s only so much of ‘Streep pretending to be a failed rocker’ one can take.

It’s hard to fathom whom this film was made for. Perhaps folks who need a fix of some mindless action and thrills will find this passably interesting, but for those looking for something more meaningful, ‘No Escape’ is a deterrent.

The Man from UNCLE is not as fun as, say, Kingsman, but it’s another fine entry in a year full of great spy comedies that subvert James Bond.

The only underutilized part of the movie is Hugh Grant as a British Intelligence honcho who predictably ends up being the boss of both the spies. There’s even a predictable twist towards the end and one wishes the film left that one out and focused more on the bromance between Cavill and Hammer. In any case it’s a small complaint in a film that’s big on entertainment. Watch it.

What really drives the movie home are the excellent performances from the entire cast. Edgerton is delightfully strange, while Bateman is pretentious in an endearing kind of manner. The only wasted opportunity is the superb Allison Tollman from ‘Fargo’ is cast in a minor role that doesn’t add anything to the story. But that’s only a minor complaint in an otherwise awesome movie. As far as thrillers with smart thrills go, it doesn’t get better than ‘The Gift’.