The Beach

Getting away from it all may not be perfection paradise after all? I first viewed this film upon its release and felt that the final third did the film down - and that the voice-over took away from the essence of the story, thus it's average. My subsequent viewings over the years would see me lament about an arcade game sequence and bemoaning that Robert Carlyle wasn't given a more extended rol...

We are lucky that the photography depicts some of the most beautiful scenery on Earth as the rest of this adaptation of Alex Garland's book is positively stodgy. Talking of beautiful things, Leonardo DiCaprio still has something of his "Romeo & Juliet" (1996) boyishness to him as he arrives in Thailand. After an encounter with an enigmatic Scotsman (Robert Carlyle) who doesn't last for long, he fi...

I have to go all in on this, I loved the book, and I do love the movie but... OK, it's a bias 100% rating. This wasn't a good film for Leo, not because he did a bad job but because they needed a different kind of actor. It should have been Ewan. And, honestly, it could have used to be a little more like the novel, but Danny does a great job of adapting hard to adapt books, I mean look at Tra...