The Silver Brumby (1993)
May 20, 2000The Lives of Horses
Adaptation of a classic Australian children's story about a breed of mythic horses. Starring an unknown Russell Crowe.
Russell Crowe
Virtuosity (1995)
Jun 20, 2002Android Serial Killer
Director Brett Leonard started the fascination with Virtual Reality off with The Lawnmower Man but shot himself in the foot with this absurd braindead follow-up in which Denzel Washington pursues a madly OTT Russell Crowe as an android serial killer
Rough Magic (1995)
Jul 6, 2000Magical Realism
Venture into Magical Realism with Bridget Fonda as a magician's assistant who undergoes a Mexican ceremony to emerge with real magical powers. Featuring a young Russell Crowe.
The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)
Nov 20, 2012Martial Arts/Shaw Brothers Homage
RZA of rap group Wu-Tang Clan fame (with the aid of Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino) makes a dual acting/directing appearance with this homage to Shaw Brothers martial arts films … not quite the genuine article but a solid effort where RZA certainly doesn't embarrass himself
Man of Steel (2013)
Jun 14, 2013Comic-Book Superhero
With Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan under one roof, a reboot of Superman could hardly go wrong could it? Not entirely bad but I spent the first half of the film irritated at its throwing great chunks of comic-book canon out the window and the second half bored with the mass destruction orgy that drags on and on
Noah (2014)
Apr 12, 2014Biblical Legend
Darren Aronofsky's adaptation of the Biblical legend was mired in controversy. I can only applaud his decision to defy those who claim ownership of the story and set out to make an interesting film. Yet Noah remains an epic that never seems to quite fill the screen and a human drama that never quite comes to life
The Water Diviner (2014)
May 22, 2015Post-World War I Drama/Magical Realism
Russell Crowe turns director and, as is the case with actors turned director, feels the need to take up an epic historical subject – the aftermath of World War I (albeit with some Magical Realist elements). Crowe wields all the epic flourish and polish, even if the film never truly moves one
Winter’s Tale (2014)
Feb 15, 2014Urban Fantasy/Romance/Fate and Miracles
Akiva Goldsman, a screenwriter who has laid a trail of devastation through the genre, attempts to film a classic fantasy novel that has aptly described as unfilmable, resulting in a curtailed story that works in individual scenes but is mostly a spawling patchwork of fantasy elements and a romance that never seems to spark
The Mummy (2017)
Jul 22, 2017Revived Mummy
The reboot of the Mummy series emerges as a wannabe Michael Bay film where even star Tom Cruise plays second banana to the CGI eye candy. Equally, an attempt to jumpstart a shared universe out of Universal's Famous Monsters with the inclusion of Dr Jekyll seems awkward
Unhinged (2020)
Nov 6, 2020Road Rage Psycho
The first film to go into wide US release during Covid lockdown with Russell Crowe snapping and turning psycho after a road rage incident. Much better than the lukewarm reception it received, this is a quite reasonable variant on Duel
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Sep 17, 2022Marvel Comics Norse God Superhero
The fourth of Marvel's Thor films, where director Taika Waititi gets the balance of humour down much more successfully than he did in the previous film
The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)
May 19, 2023True-Life Exorcist
A film based on the true-life figure of the Vatican’s official exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth this could have been great but descends into tedious hokum
The Exorcism (2024)
Jul 19, 2024Possession Film on the Set of a Remake of The Exorcist
Joshua John Miller, the son of The Exorcist’s star Jason Miller, makes a film where an actor cast as the priest in a remake of The Exorcist becomes possessed. A witty and clever blend of meta reference and autobiography
Kraven the Hunter (2024)
Jan 25, 2025Marvel Comics Superhero
Another of Sony’s films spun off from Spider-Man supporting characters. In the comics, Kraven is a Spider-Man super-villain with a big game hunter motif but here is turned into a superhero
