Movie reviews of Eric Hillis

As a fan of soul music, I didn't think it could be possible to make a movie about Northern Soul that's so mind-numbingly dull. Review

Neither a great action movie or a particularly insightful look at the effects of war, Fury is at its most arresting in its early stages, exploring the gray areas of conflict. Sadly, it gradually all becomes very black and white, with a gung-ho third act that plays out like The Expendables in a can. Review

There's a market for this sort of thing, one that's probably gone hungry in the years since the genre's Grisham heyday. Precisely by striking all the familiar notes, it will likely find a satisfied core audience. If you're not a devotee of Grisham and his ilk, however, there's little beyond some great performances to keep you satisfied. Review

Not since Christian Bale's Patrick Bateman have we seen such a thoroughly engaging scuzzball. Review

If you can get past the film's technical issues, and can live with the predictable nature of its plot, Gold is one of the more engaging Irish dramas of recent years. Review

The Calling ultimately feels like a pilot for a TV show that wasn't considered worthy of greenlighting. Review

As with The Conjuring and the Insidious movies, the filmmaker is denied the chance to create tension and suspense through imagery alone. Leonetti sets up some great shock images, but they're consistently ruined by being telegraphed with a loud bang. Review

Like many of Hitchcock's films, it's the supporting characters that leave the greatest mark here. Review

As is customary in modern Hollywood, this is an origin story, which of course means it ends at the point a more interesting story might begin. Review

If you knew nothing of Leduc's work before, you'll be just as ignorant by the end of Violette's mind and ass numbing 139 minutes, as the appeal of her writing is never conveyed. Review

This movie is yet more proof that the zom-com is a genre that needs a headshot to put it out of its misery. Review

In Demange's hands, the story plays out like a John Carpenter homage. Review

Working on his home turf has produced his first worthwhile effort, and the positive international response to Ida may give Polish cinema the shot in the arm it needs. Review

Throwing a bunch of characters into a pot and slowly bringing them to the boil, Virzí has effortlessly crafted the sort of ensemble drama the likes of Soderbergh, PT Anderson and Paul Haggis have struggled with in the past, and delivered one of the key films of 2014. Review

What we have here is a classic example of Hollywood execs wanting to have their cake and eat it, all too happy to cash in on the name recognition of an existing property, but too embarrassed by the source material to remain true to it. Review

A Walk Among the Tombstones is far from ground-breaking, nor is it particularly original, but there's enough here to satisfy fans of the gumshoe genre. Review

The ensemble cast is great, with Firth stealing the show with a performance reminiscent of Alvy Singer and Basil Fawlty trapped in the one body. Review

The premise of Maps to the Stars might be somewhat timeworn, but there's an undeniable pleasure in watching its cast essay such a rogues gallery with relish. Review

The ensuing mayhem resembles something from a 70s horror movie, and manipulative though it may be, it's impossible not to feel your blood boiling at the antics of these self-entitled gits. Review

As with Garden State, Braff fills the movie with "feel now!" moments accompanied by middle of the road indie folk and even recited poetry, borrowing emotion that, like everything else about this project, will never be reciprocated. Review

Remove the comedy and In Order of Disappearance could have been a satisfying grym film, but sadly it's just the latest crime caper to fall somewhere below Tarantino and somewhere above Guy Ritchie. Review

If you're after a high octane spy thriller, you won't find it here. What you will find is an immaculately constructed and realistic look at the workings of Western intelligence, with a signature Hoffman performance that serves as a worthy bookend to his cinematic legacy. Review

Little details like this quickly pile up, so by the midpoint of the story we've lost all faith in the script. When the end credits roll, you'll wish you could temporarily suffer amnesia, so you can wipe the memory of this headache inducer. Review

The setting of Paris's famous catacombs, built to house the city's dead and now home to six million corpses, automatically adds a creepy atmosphere, and the movie succeeds initially by leaving things to our imagination and allowing us to half-glimpse images in the shadows. Towards the end, however, we enter crash, bang and wallop territory, and the movie begins to feel like a Youtube walk-through of a horror themed video game. Review