The Cinema Corner – February 16th

Movie of the week – Point Break

We may be in the middle of another grim Irish winter, but that isn’t stopping the Lighthouse throwing a summer party on Saturday night, transforming into a tiki bar for a 35mm screening of Kathryn Bigelow’s action classic Point Break. Starring Keanu Reeves as the rookie undercover cop hired to take down surfing bank robber Patrick Swayze, it’s an old school action fest of the best kind, with Bigelow displaying her noted talents for constructing exhilarating set-pieces.

Black Panther

The first Marvel superhero movie of 2018 is Black Panther. This one transplants the action to Africa and gives us a predominantly black cast, but otherwise it’s another piece of unremarkable Marvel mediocrity that wastes the talents of its director (Ryan Coogler, who did a great job with Rocky sequel Creed) and impressive cast.

The Shape of Water

Guillermo del Toro’s b-movie homage/romance The Shape of Water now seems the favourite to land this year’s Best Picture Oscar. Irish audiences can finally see it this week. It’s easy on the eyes and boasts great performances from Sally Hawkins and Richard Jenkins, but it’s tonally jarring, playing like a children’s movie with graphic sex and violence, and difficult to take seriously.

By Eric Hillis of themoviewaffler.com