David R. Walker

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Babylon

Director: Damien Chazelle

Cast: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jean Smart, Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Lukas Haas, Tobey Maguire, Samara Weaving, Katherine Waterston, Eric Roberts, Max Minghella, Li Jun Li

Running Time: 3 hours and 9 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Warning: This film is extremely explicit featuring graphic violence, nudity, drug use and scenes that will upset sensitive viewers.

Set between 1926 and 1932, as Hollywood was transitioning between the silent film era into talkies or films with sound, Whiplash and La La Land director Damien Chazelle makes his boldest, bravest film yet: Babylon.

The lavish Babylon is a Feliniesque epic set in Hollywood in the early days during this fascinating transition whereby Chazelle chooses to shock his audience with the absolutely debauched and decadent party scene in the opening sequence, introducing his three main characters, silent screen stars Jack Conrad, Nellie LaRoy and producer Manny Torres played respectively by Oscar winner Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Oscar nominee Margot Robbie (I, Tonya, Bombshell) and the impressive newcomer Mexican actor Diego Calva amidst a drunken orgy featuring elephants, dead starlets and absolute chaos.

The eye-catching opening of Babylon is followed by some amazing set pieces of directors and actors trying to make silent films including an expansive medieval battle sequence which goes horribly wrong. Massive crowd sequences are cleverly orchestrated to the brilliant jazzy musical score of Oscar winner and frequent collaborator Justin Hurwitz (La La Land) who should win again for his inventive score.

Behind the lavish parties and the crazy antics involving rattlesnakes in the desert is Damien Chazelle’s love and hate relationship with Hollywood in which he does not hold back in showing the extremely dark and violent underbelly of the City of Angels in a very bizarre scene featuring Tobey Maguire involving a dungeon, an alligator and some SM dwarves.

Despite all the debauchery, there are some superb scenes particularly between the frenetic, tough as nails Nellie LaRoy and the passionate Manny Torres and between the suave Jack Conrad and Hollywood gossip columnist Elinor St John played by Jean Smart.

There are repeated scenes of the main characters buying movie tickets and going into a packed cinema which is an allegory of how scriptwriter and director Chazelle feels about the next seismic shift in film entertainment, streaming which is threatening the viability of cinemas as a palace of enjoyment, as a collective experience of an audience watching their favourite stars onscreen.

Damien Chazelle wants the cinema ritual to continue even though he repels and delights his audience simultaneously in this shocking and brave allegorical epic about the changes in the entertainment industry brought about recently by streaming services.

Set almost 100 years ago, Babylon is a cinephile’s film, a tribute to cinema goers and film enthusiasts but unlike Steven Spielberg’s glossy The Fabelmans, Babylon is a Ken Russell inspired orgy of a film featuring brilliant performances by Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva. There are lots of cinematic gems in this film, which you can look for in between the chaos, the predators and the debauchery.

The production and costume design is stunning and Babylon despite its length should get acknowledged for this effort.

This epic 1920’s film is a sensuous simulacrum of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, Fellini’s Satyricon (1969) and Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby. Love it or loathe it, Babylon is an exceptionally daring homage to cinema and gets a film rating of 8 out of 10. See it for the visual spectacle.

Took Place on Tuesday 10th January 2023 in Los Angeles and hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at the Beverly Hilton Hotel – Here are the 2023 Golden Globe Winners in the Film Categories:

Best Film Drama: The Fabelmans

Best Film Musical or Comedy: The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Director: Steven Spielberg – The Fabelmans

Best Actress Drama: Cate Blanchett – Tar

Best Actor Drama: Austin Butler – Elvis

Best Actress Musical or Comedy: Michelle Yeoh – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Actor Musical or Comedy: Colin Farrell – The Banshees of Inisherin

Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett – Wakanda Forever

Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Foreign Language Film – Argentina 1985 directed by Santiago Mitre

Shotgun Wedding

Director: Jason Moore

Cast: Josh Duhamel, Jennifer Lopez, Lenny Kravitz, Jennifer Coolidge, Sonia Braga, Cheech Marin, Steve Coulter, Callie Hernandez, Desmin Borges

Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

This film is now showing in cinemas in South Africa and will be on Amazon Prime from 27th January 2023.

Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore returns to the big screen an action comedy with Shotgun Wedding, an appropriate title for a film about a wedding that gets attacked by pirates. Fortunately the two stars of Shotgun Wedding, Jennifer Lopez (Out of Sight, Marry Me, Hustlers) and Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Bandit) make this crazy and bizarre film work through their sizzling onscreen chemistry.

Shotgun Wedding is about Darcy Rivera played by Lopez and Tom Fowler played by Duhamel who have a destination wedding on a tropical island in the Philippines. Both the couple’s crazy parents are there: Renata and Robert Rivera played respectively by Brazilian actress Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spiderwoman) and Cheech Marin (From Dusk till Dawn, Machete) as are Tom’s parents Carol Fowler wonderfully played by Jennifer Coolidge (Promising Young Woman, Legally Blonde, American Pie) and Larry Fowler played by Steve Coulter.  

Naturally with a destination wedding set in Paradise, everything is expected to go according to plan down to the last batch of glitteringly decorated pineapples. Except for Darcy and Tom’s wedding, despite the pre-wedding drama, a group of heavily armed Balinese pirates attack the wedding ceremony and put all the guests in the resort swimming pool demanding a multi-million dollar ransom otherwise they will start killing the guests.

Unfortunately for the pirates complete with crazy headgear, the bride and groom are nowhere to be found. Slowly despite their differences, Darcy and Tom work together to try and save themselves, their parents and friends from these pirates while trying to figure out who the real villain is.

Audiences should look out for singer and actor Lenny Kravitz (The Butler, The Hunger Games, Precious) as Darcy’s showy and jealous ex-boyfriend Sean Hawkins who arrives at the wedding via helicopter.

Director Jason Moore’s Shotgun Wedding is not serious entertainment but it is funny and enjoyable. Josh Duhamel and superstar singer turned actress Jennifer Lopez do brilliantly as the butt kicking couple ready to save their wedding. The best actors in the film are those playing the couple’s parents with a particular mention of the hilarious Jennifer Coolidge as mother of the groom. Coolidge kills the part, like literally.

If audiences enjoy some crazy entertainment, a film about paradise but with bullets then Shotgun Wedding is for you, complete with a tropical location, unbelievable stunts and a fantastic ensemble cast. Shotgun Wedding gets a film rating of 6 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for pure escapism.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Director: Edward Berger

Cast: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Bruhl, Devid Striesow, Edin Hasanovic, Michael Witterborn, Sebastian Hulk, Anton von Lucke, Aaron Hilmer

Running time: 2 hours and 28 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

This film is only available on Netflix

Every year on the 11^th November at 11h00, England and some European countries mark Armistice Day which is when World War 1 ended but the significance of such an hour on such a day is clearly and brutally illustrated in director Edward Berger’s brilliant German anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front, a 2022 remake of the 1930 film which won a Best Picture Oscar then.

This film is based on the famous German novel of the same name written by German soldier and World War I survivor Erich Maria Remarque published in 1929. The 2022 version has been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

If viewers love a really brilliant war film, then All Quiet on the Western Front is highly recommended viewing, an epic film masterfully directed by Edward Berger and featuring an entirely German and Austrian cast including Felix Kammerer as the main character Paul Baumer, a young and idealistic German teenager who like his compatriots at school get pulled into the blind patriotism of German war fever as the German army is battling the French in the incredibly brutal trench warfare on the Western Front, the border between Germany and France. For complete authenticity watch this film in German with English subtitles.

To counterpoint all the violence, horror and utter bloodshed, the narrative also focuses on the diplomatic mission led by Germany to sue for peace with the French, a task given to diplomat Matthias Erzberger wonderfully played by Golden Globe nominee Daniel Bruhl (Rush). The more famous Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds, 7 Days in Entebbe, Woman in Gold) also served as executive producer of All Quiet on the Western Front and was instrumental on getting this 21^st century version of the film made and premiered at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in September 2022.

As the hours approach for the ceasefire, a bloodthirsty general is determined to continue fighting the French right up until the last minute before the armistice takes effect, much to the detriment of the 78^th Infantry Reserve Regiment in which Paul Baumer is part of along with his fellow soldiers Kat played by Albrecht Schuch, Kropp played by Aaron Hilmer and Tjaden played by Bosnian actor Edin Hasanovic. Collectively they represent the Iron Youth of Germany.

All Quiet on the Western Front, like similar war films including Sam Mendes’s brilliant 1917 and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan is a gritty, stark and bloody war film about the meaninglessness of trench warfare and the unnecessary deaths of over 3 million people, many of them young men.

Beautifully shot and extremely captivating, All Quiet on The Western Front gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing. It’s a fascinating anti-war film about the brutalities of close combat.

The Fabelmans

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch, Gabriel LaBelle, Julia Butters, Mateo Zoryan, Julia Butters, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley

Running Time: 2 hours 31 minutes

Film Rating: 9 out of 10

Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) makes his most personal film by far, with the critically acclaimed film The Fabelmans which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), a sure indicator of multi Oscar nominations.

The Fabelmans is a fictional account of Spielberg’s childhood and his idyllic love of cinema and focuses on a boy Sammy Fabelman brilliantly played respectively by Mateo Zoryan as a young boy and Gabriel LaBelle as the teenager and wisecracking Jewish kid who turns his hobby of filmmaking into a career choice.

With an excellent script by Tony Kushner (Munich, Lincoln), The Fabelmans focuses on a Jewish family in America in the 1950’s and 1960’s starting in New Jersey and moving across the country first to Arizona and then finally to California. Sammy’s parents Burt and Mitzi Fabelman are played by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, 12 Years a Slave, There will be Blood) and four time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Manchester by the Sea).

Michelle Williams finally deserves an Oscar for her complex portrayal of Mitzi Fabelman a slightly off kilter but talented mother who will do anything for Sammy and his three sisters but is willing to risk everything for true love.

Williams’s performance is mesmerizing in The Fabelmans and she creates the emotional centre for this film, particularly in the superbly acted scenes between Mitzi and her son Sammy as he negotiates adolescence and discovers a secret about his mother which will rip his family apart.

In between all the family drama, there is Sammy’s persistent love of cinema and his dedicated desire to film everything and in the end does capture every moment even the scenes that are not meant to be filmed. Even at high school besides being terrorized for being the only Jewish boy at a predominantly Christian school in Northern California he even films the Ditch Day at the Beach and makes one of his archenemies and school jock Logan Hall played by rising star Sam Rechner uncomfortable when he sees himself on screen.

Audiences should watch out for a superb cameo by veteran actor Judd Hirsch as Uncle Boris who influences young Sammy into following his dreams of becoming a film maker.

With superb cinematography by Spielberg regular and Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) and excellent ensemble acting, The Fabelmans is a love letter to traditional cinema, to the art of film making while effortlessly exploring serious issues including anti-Semitism, infidelity and mental health.

The Fabelmans is a top class film: elegant, nostalgic and perfectly acted. Highly recommended viewing, this excellent film gets a film rating of 9 out of 10 and signifies Spielberg’s undisputed persistence of vision as a top calibre film director.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Director: Kasi Lemmons

Cast: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Ashton Sanders (Moonlight), Tamara Tunie, Clarke Peters, Daniel Washington

Running time: 2 hours and 26 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

In an effort to paint the celebrated musician Whitney Houston in a constantly positive light, Harriet director Kasi Lemmons choses to focus on all the high points of Whitney’s celebrated and controversial life in the new musical biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody starring British breakout star Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston and Oscar nominee Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) as her smart and efficient manager Clive Davis.

The Multi-Grammy winning American singer, was the first woman of colour to attract a completely multiracial American audience in the late 1980’s and in the 1990’s and was often accused that her music was not black enough. Whitney Houston’s brief excursion into acting landed her the lead role in the iconic 1992 film The Bodyguard opposite the hot young star of the 1990’s Kevin Costner.

I Wanna Dance Somebody covers all the tumultuous years of Whitney’s career from her incredible highs including the singing of the Star Spangled Banner at the 1991 Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida at the outbreak of the Gulf War to her passionate commitment to the anti-apartheid movement including her concerts in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa in November 1994 after the first democratic elections were held.

However, the Bohemian Rhapsody screenwriter Anthony McCarten fails to contextualize certain key moments of Whitney Houston’s life and director Kasi Lemmons handles Whitney’s drug addiction and her terrible relation with R & B singer husband Bobby Brown played by Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders with kid gloves, without really giving the audience enough subtext and specific details.

Which means by the time the two and a half hour biopic ends, the death of Whitney Houston in a plush bathtub at the Beverly Hilton during Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party in Los Angeles on the 11^th February 2012 is completely glossed over and hardly mentioned. This was one of the most dramatic deaths of a famous celebrity since River Phoenix and Marilyn Monroe. The media frenzy and consequent fallout of Whitney Houston’s death in 2012 should have been in this film 10 years later.

British new comer Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) does a relatively good job of playing Whitney Houston however she does struggle to keep the emotional pace of a playing a music legend for two and a half hours. Maybe Austin Butler and Rami Malek need to give her some advice.

Stanley Tucci is entertaining as Clive Davis, but again Tucci does not get enough screen time and McCarten does not give the talented star enough interesting dialogue.

The best part about I Wanna Dance with Somebody is the fantastic music of Whitney Houston in which Naomi Ackie does a good job of delivering the voice of the late 1980’s.

Unfortunately as a musical biopic, there is a lot of excellent content out there already and I Wanna Dance with Somebody just falls short of becoming a brilliant film although it is entertaining and will satisfy the fans of Whitney Houston.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody gets a film rating of 7 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for the music but less for the incoherent storyline.

Glass Onion: a Knives Out Mystery

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Kate Hudson, Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odon Jr, Ethan Hawke, Hugh Grant, Jessica Henwick

Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Please note this film is only available on Netflix

Former Bond star Daniel Craig reprises his role as the flamboyant Southern detective Benoit Blanc in the extravagant and complex sequel to the 2019 hit Knives Out this time featuring an entirely new cast and the location moving to a secluded island in Greece.

Writer and director Rian Johnson who garnered an Oscar nomination for the original Knives Out in 2019, has written an even more fascinating sequel surrounding the mysterious tech billionaire Miles Bron wonderfully played with a panache bordering on narcissism by triple Oscar nominee Edward Norton (Primal Fear, American History X, Birdman)  who organizes a murder mystery weekend and jets in a couple of his closest friends from America following a complex invitation which he sends to all of them in midst of the Covid19 Pandemic in May 2020.

Glass Onion, a Knives Out Mystery is a contemporary who dunnit featuring a stellar cast of 40 and 50 year old stars, a sort of revamped Agatha Christie with all the modern 21^st century twists. Bron’s group of his closest friends include fashion model Birdie Jay played by Oscar nominee Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), muscle man Duke Cody played by Dave Bautista, Tech company co-founder Andi Brand superbly played by Janelle Monae who deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting actress and Oscar nominee Leslie Odom Jr (One Night in Miami).

All the friends gather on Bron’s private island in Greece where an elaborate and hi tech mansion rests complete with an array of interesting alcoves including a Glass Onion and a sports car on the roof. Bron announces to the guests that there is a murder mystery game in which he is the murder victim and they are all suspects. As the first night progresses amidst lots of drinks in fancy glasses, things go curiously awry when one of the guests is killed and Benoit Blanc has his hands full trying to solve the complex murder while assisting an associate who hired him earlier to solve a previous murder.

The Glass Onion is a delicious conundrum, a problem to be solved, a puzzle to be figured out, an onion to be peeled back layer by layer as audiences need to figure out who the real killer is.

Director Rian Johnson throws lots of glittering clues at the audience in the first half of the film, but Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is an extravagant and lavish murder mystery set in 2020 featuring a superb ensemble cast and an immaculate performance by Daniel Craig as the fashionable Southern detective who eventually solves the riddle.

For those that enjoy a fabulous murder mystery, catch the entertaining Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery which gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Stephen Lang, Jack Champion, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, CCH Pounder

Running Time: 3 hours and 12 minutes

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

This film is only available in cinemas – please support cinemas

After a 13 year absence, director James Cameron returns with the highly anticipated sequel to the 2009 smash hit Avatar which is a mix up of the first film, with directorial flourishes from his earlier films including the Oscar winning Titanic and 1989’s The Abyss. Avatar: The Way of Water follows the Na’vi race to protect Pandora from the Sky People commonly known as humanity who have come to colonize Pandora as earth is becoming increasingly uninhabitable.

This epic fantasy adventure is over 3 hours long and can be viewed as a family orientated cinematic opera with a clear 3 act partition. The narrative focuses on Jake Sully and his family as they leave the rainforests and escape to the water people, Metkayina reef people headed up by TonoWari played by New Zealand actor Cliff Curtis (Once Were Warriors) and his wife Ronal played by Oscar winner Kate Winslet (The Reader) who reteams with James Cameron after the critical success of Titanic.

Act 1 of Avatar: The Way of the Water is establishing the family dynamics of Jake Sully and his wife Neytiri played by Zoe Saldana and their four children: two boys and two girls as they live blissfully in the lush rain forests of Pandora. Act 2 follows the family’s departure to the water people following an imminent threat by Quaritch played by Stephen Lang, a human space commando that has become an Avatar to track down Jake Sully and then Act 3 is the most spectacular as there are the Aqua Wars.

It is really in the critical scenes of Act 3 that director James Cameron excels as the gorgeous water scenes are extraordinary. However soon the water people and the ocean species are threatened by the arrival of Quaritch with humans, ammunition and extremely advanced technology which destabilizes the delicate balance of life that the Water people, wisely governed by TonoWari has fought so hard to maintain. The water sequences in Act 2 and 3 are truly phenomenal: dazzling and visually beautiful. For that reason alone it is worth seeing Avatar: The Way of Water. The second reason, besides the cutting edge visual effects, is the extraordinary production design, not only in scale but in imagination and interpretation.

The story of Avatar: The Way of Water could be an allegory for conservation, the climate crisis and rapid urbanisation. It could also be an allegorical tale about the colonizer trying to conquer the colonised to the point of extinction. Both allegorical reference points remain relevant and contemporary.

Visually lavish, Avatar: The Way of Water is truly amazing to behold, a vast and glimmering spectacle of oceanic wars, threatened species and unbelievable technology.

Avatar: The Way of Water gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and should win an Oscar for Best Visual effects. It is a very long film, but highly recommended viewing, not so much for the storyline but for the cinematic spectacle.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre

Cast: Emma Corrin, Jack O’Donnell, Matthew Duckett, Joely Richardson, Faye Marsay, Ella Hunt

Running Time: 2 hours and 6 minutes

Please note this film is only available on Netflix

When celebrated British novelist D. H. Lawrence first published his controversial novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1928, almost 100 years ago, it was immediately banned for indecency and immorality. The novel was only unbanned in 1960.

This new steamy film adaptation of the infamous novel is directed by French director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and stars The Crown actress Emma Corrin as Lady Chatterley and Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Tulip Fever) as the rough and toned gamekeeper Oliver Mellors, a typical Derbyshire working class man.

Set in England between the World Wars, Lady Chatterley’s Lover tells the story of a young woman who marries into Landed gentry her husband Clifford Chatterley wonderfully played by Matthew Duckett. After the First World War, Lord Chatterley returns to his country estate, wealthy but crippled, left a paraplegic from being severely injured in the war. Obviously his injuries include him not being able to produce an heir to his estate, which is always vital for the continuance of the estate.

As this young and wealthy couple navigate their new situation, Clifford basically gives Connie permission to have an affair with another man, although he did not expect her to fall so passionately in love with the groundsman Mellors played with a brutish physicality by O’Connell who delivers his best onscreen work yet.

From the way the affair begins, The Mustang director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre already hints to the audience that this is going to be steamy and explicit, as the sexually frustrated Lady Chatterley expertly played by Emma Corrin first glimpses Mellors stark naked in an outdoor shower. Voyeurism and desire make for an enticing mix.

Lady Chatterley breaks all the social laws that govern strict separation between the classes in 1920’s Britain, particularly between the Landed gentry and the working class and finds an unlikely ally in Clifford Chatterley’s carer Mrs Bolton superbly played by Joely Richardson (The Patriot, Event Horizon, Red Sparrow).

As Clifford Chatterley becomes increasingly frustrated, his wife Lady Chatterley becomes increasingly fulfilled as she embarks on a passionate affair with Mellors often having trysts in the open or in his shed, close to where the other estate workers live. Naturally gossip amongst the servants ensue and soon Clifford is humiliated while Lady Chatterley departs for Venice realizing that she has to make a critical choice.

What makes Lady Chatterley’s Lover so significant is that as a romantic story it charts the sexual awakening of a young woman in which she makes the pivotal decisions, whether to stay with her husband or leave, whether to forgo her reputation and find independent love or to conform in a vicious upper class social world in which married woman have little room for manoeuvre.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover is beautifully filmed and extremely well-acted and brilliantly charts a forbidden love affair of a woman that would become the Gamekeeper’s Girl. Sexually explicit and gloriously elegant, Lady Chatterley’s Lover gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is highly recommended viewing.

Bandit

Director: Allan Unger

Cast: Josh Duhamel, Elisha Cuthbert, Mel Gibson, Nestor Carbonell, Swen Temmel

Running Time: 2 hours and 6 minutes

Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

American actor Josh Duhamel plays the charming but duplicitous Canadian bank robber Robert Whiteman in director Allan Unger’s cops and robbers film Bandit also starring Canadian actress Elisha Cuthbert (House of Wax) as Robert’s unsuspecting wife Andrea and Oscar winner Mel Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge, Braveheart) as Ottawa gangster Tommy Kaye.

What really elevates Bandit is Josh Duhamel’s performance as Robert a clever and slippery bank robber who devises a brilliant scheme of flying around Canada from Vancouver to Toronto to Ottawa and rob banks in various forms of disguise in the mid 1980’s while he uses the stolen cash to try and build a life with Andrea and their baby daughter.

Naturally, like bees to honey, robbers attract cops and in this case its two persistent Ottawa policemen Snydes played by Nestor Carbonell (The Dark Knight Rises) and the sleek Hoffman played by Austrian actor Swen Temmel (Midnight in the Switchgrass, In Time) who are determined to catch Robert as the bank robberies pile up and he remains an elusive thief.

Canadian director Allan Unger brings a uniquely Canadian film aesthetic to Bandit which is devoid of flashy camera shots or images of glistening American skyscrapers but keeps Bandit interesting and turns this bank robbery thriller into a specific character study of Robert and why he keeps returning to his criminal ways.

Fortunately Josh Duhamel has that charisma to pull off such a role as Robert portraying a real life bank robber who did not possess the Hollywood glamour of his onscreen character. In actual fact the real Robert was an ordinary guy who manage to almost pull off the greatest bank heists in Canadian history back in the 1980’s.

Bandit is an engaging film, which could have been edited, but is elevated by two amazing performances by Josh Duhamel and Mel Gibson, the latter has not been onscreen much since his 1980’s heyday when Gibson starred in such box office hits as the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max franchises.

Audiences must bear in mind that Bandit is a Canadian period film about the 1980’s and the era of bank robberies which occurred during a recession in North America in 1986.

Elisha Cuthbert is suitably good as Andrea as she has to adjust to the truth that her husband is actually a frequent flyer bank robber, better known as Bandit. With the exception of Mel Gibson, it’s refreshing to see lesser known actors headlining a mainstream film.

For fascinating retelling of a true story without all the American flashy glamour, catch the Canadian thriller Bandit, which gets a film rating of 6.5 out of 10. Recommended viewing.