The Girl on the Train (2016) Movie Review

October 19, 2016 Steve Baqqi

The Girl on the Train (2016) is a simple mystery movie based on a book by the same name, both centering on the lives and extramarital affairs of three women and two men in Westchester County, New York. Rachael, (one of the aforementioned women) a divorced and lonely alcoholic, fantasizes about a gorgeous couple she sees while riding the train every day. The woman of that fantasy couple, Megan Hipwell, ends up missing. Amid her drunken blackouts and emotional frailties, Rachael ends up caught in a web of lies and illicit affairs as she struggles to find out the truth of Megan's disappearance.

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The Revenant (2015) Movie Review

January 21, 2016 Steve Baqqi

Leonardo DiCaprio has starred in a number of Oscar bait films, and has done so much to win that elusive Best Actor Award. The Revenant is the next in a long string of movies stretching back to (at least) The Aviator that were prime Oscar contenders. Once again, Leo has delivered a fantastic performance, but the film itself leaves much to be desired. Despite The Revenant’s Oscar leading twelve nominations, the film is a ponderous slog that is rescued by extremely beautiful shots and strong performances by Leo and Tom Hardy.

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The Martian (2015) Movie Review

November 10, 2015 Steve Baqqi

Filmmaker Ridley Scott has been behind the camera for almost five decades, and though he is extremely talented he remains an enigma. How one man can be responsible for both Exodus: Gods and Kings and Alien (among other horrible failures and stunning triumphs) is utterly baffling. I am a big fan of Scott’s best work like the aforementioned Alien, Gladiator, or Black Hawk Down. However his failures such as Exodus or Prometheus are so awful they tend to make one wary of seeing any more of his films. So is his latest film another failure or another best picture contender? As it turns out Scott has made another fantastic film. The Martian is a surprisingly engrossing gem. The film thoroughly captures the journey, the sacrifice, and the work of one man as he struggles to survive on a barren planet over thirty million miles from Earth and the efforts of NASA to bring him home.

Black Mass (2015) Movie Review

November 3, 2015 Steve Baqqi

Black Mass is about incompetent FBI agents and that’s really it…no, no not really of course. The film harps on themes like blood is thicker than water, evil triumphs when good men do nothing, etc. In spite of this the film fails at anything meaningful because none of the characters really connect with the audience.