SYNOPSIS: The Unholy Trinity starring Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson and Tim Daly unravels a tale of betrayal, revenge and redemption in the dusty lawlessness of 1870s Montana. When Henry Broadway returns to witness his estranged father's execution, he learns the hanging was the result of a brutal setup. Determined to avenge him, Henry rides into the town of Trinity, a place ruled by buried secrets and shifting allegiances. There, he's caught between Sheriff Gabriel Dove, a lawman with a haunted past, and the enigmatic St. Christopher, whose motives remain dangerously unclear. As blood is spilled and loyalties fracture, Henry must fight not only for survival but for the truth that could finally set him free or destroy him.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Once a dominant Hollywood staple, the Western has struggled to find its footing in recent decades especially in the wake of high-profile disappointments like Kevin Costner’s ambitious Horizon saga. Still, the genre occasionally finds new life on the streaming market, where indie projects like The Unholy Trinity can appear seemingly out of nowhere.
To its credit, The Unholy Trinity isn’t entirely a low-profile affair. With Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson leading the cast, the film carries enough star power to turn a few heads. Written by Lee Zachariah and directed by Richard Gray, it attempts to pack betrayal, revenge, greed, and all manner of frontier evil into a lean runtime sometimes to its detriment, but rarely without intrigue.
Brosnan plays Gabriel Dove, the town’s lone sheriff, while his wife Sarah (Veronica Ferres) conveniently serves as the local doctor. Trouble arrives in the form of Henry Broadway (Brandon Lessard), a young man bent on killing Dove for the hanging of his father. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure named St. Christopher (Jackson) rides into town with his eye on the gold Henry’s father left behind. A third thread involves Running Cub (Q’orianka Kilcher), a Native American woman accused of murder, whose innocence Dove insists on defending despite the townsfolk clamoring for her death.
It’s a busy script, though Zachariah doesn’t quite weave its many threads into a cohesive whole. The pacing drags, and centering so much of the story on Henry Broadway—an underwhelming character at best robs the film of the intensity it promises. A sharper conflict between Dove and St. Christopher from the outset might have delivered the kind of tension the film sorely lacks.
Even so, Gray manages to stage some satisfying old-school shootouts and bursts of sudden violence that keep the film from flatlining. Brosnan, aging gracefully, remains a magnetic presence as the weary sheriff, while Jackson injects unpredictability and menace into his ex-slave drifter. A brief cameo by David Arquette as a phony priest adds a touch of pulp charm.
The Unholy Trinity isn’t for everyone. It gestures toward epic scope but never fully delivers and much of its cast is saddled with underdeveloped or shady roles. Yet the combination of Brosnan, Jackson and the sweeping Montana backdrop makes it an easy if imperfect watch. Hardly a classic but good enough for fans craving a few shootouts and a whiff of frontier grit.
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy/Adventure/Family
Director: Seth Worley
Cast: Tony Hale, D'Arcy Carden, Bianca Belle, Kue Lawrence, Kalon Cox, Jaxen Kenner, Randa Newman
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Frightening Scenes)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 18 September 2025
Synopsis: When a young girl's sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life—unpredictable, chaotic, and dangerously real. As the town unravels, she and her brother must track down the creatures before they leave permanent damage. Their father, racing to find them through the fallout, must navigate a town in crisis to reunite his family and stop the disaster they never meant to unleash.
Movie Review:
We were taken aback to see Angel Studios, the production label best known for faith-based, Christian-themed titles emerge as the primary backer for Sketch. Not because the film lacks heart but because it’s not the type of project the studio usually produces.
Yet Angel Studios may have a winner on its hands. Sketch is, at its core, a fantasy children’s drama that manages to resonate even with non-faith-based audiences, delivering a wholesome and meaningful experience for the entire family.
Written and directed by Seth Worley, the story follows 9-year-old Amber (Bianca Belle) and her older brother, Jack (Kue Lawrence), who are still reeling from the recent death of their mother. Their father, Taylor (Tony Hale), is struggling to hold the family together while leaning on his sister Liz (D’Arcy Carden), a real estate agent helping him sell the family home—a convenient excuse, perhaps, to start over.
While Taylor and Jack appear to be coping, Amber withdraws into her notebooks, filling the pages with eerie drawings of monsters and strange creatures. Her teacher grows increasingly concerned. One day, Jack stumbles across a magical pond with the power to repair, restore and heal. But when Amber accidentally drops her notebook into the water, her frightening creations spring to life, terrorizing the siblings and their friends.
Despite being aimed at younger audiences, Worley never talks down to viewers. With imaginative use of CGI, Amber’s hand-drawn sketches come vividly alive from one-eyed spiders to a cookie-monster-like beast named Dave. A standout sequence sees the children trapped inside a school bus by Dave, forced to soothe the creature with calming music. It’s a clever, well-staged scene that balances humor, thrills and inventiveness.
That said, the film’s frequent jump scares may be too intense for very young children. Some of Amber’s creations, particularly a disturbing human-like figure born from her darkest thoughts, are surprisingly unsettling. The CGI stands out most in its tactile, crayon-and-marker-inspired textures, which lend the monsters a unique visual authenticity.
Beneath the monster mayhem lies a surprisingly poignant message: how do children truly cope with grief? Jack, drawn to the magical pond for reasons of his own, attempts a heartbreaking act—trying to bring back his mother using her ashes, only to be stopped by his father in time. Amber externalizes her sorrow through her drawings, but the film gently asks: what about those who seem fine on the surface? Are they really okay?
At just 92 minutes, Worley packs in a lot of charm and heart. The lively group of kids including Amber’s bully, Bowman (Kalon Cox) are consistently entertaining while the adult cast plays a quieter, supporting role, with Hale shining as a thoughtful and compassionate father. The monster-filled adventure is inventive and fun but it’s the film’s timeless, meaningful themes that leave the deepest impression.
Movie Rating:
(Imaginative monsters and grief comes together in this wondrous drama about facing your true feelings)
Review by Linus Tee
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MICHELLE AND TONY GOES MOYNAT LABUBUPosted on 11 Sep 2025 |
SYNOPSIS: When a titan music mogul (Denzel Washington), widely known as having the “best ears in the business”, is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma. Brothers Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for the 5th in their long working relationship for a reinterpretation of the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s crime thriller High and Low, now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Highest 2 Lowest is a reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 classic High and Low, itself adapted from the American novel King’s Ransom. While the core premise remains intact across both versions, Spike Lee’s execution may prove divisive.
Marking his fifth collaboration with Lee (Inside Man, BlacKkKlansman), Denzel Washington stars as David King, a high-profile music mogul living in a luxury apartment overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge. While negotiating the buyback of his record label, King’s world shatters when his son, Trey, is kidnapped—only for him to later discover that the real target is Trey’s best friend Kyle (Elijah Wright), who also happens to be King’s godson and the son of his chauffeur, Paul (Jeffrey Wright).
This sets up the central moral dilemma: Will King hand over 17.5 million Swiss francs to save another man’s child or will he use the money to secure his company and legacy?
Lee’s film stays true to the themes of the source material, exploring King’s inner conflict as he weighs his crumbling business, his reputation, and the devastating consequences of refusing to pay the ransom. The tension between personal responsibility and moral duty keeps the drama compelling and thought-provoking.
Unsurprisingly, Washington delivers. As always, he commands the screen, embodying King as a sharp, unyielding businessman who nevertheless reveals moments of vulnerability. Every line carries weight—delivered with Washington’s signature mix of ease, pain and intensity.
Jeffrey Wright brings depth to Paul, a man with a troubled past who has since rebuilt his life as a devoted father. His relationship with King adds layers to the narrative, especially since King played a role in his redemption. Watching Wright go toe-to-toe with Washington only underscores his versatility.
Unfortunately, the film falters in tone and pacing. Lee struggles to decide whether this is primarily a crime thriller or a character study of a mogul’s downfall. The kidnapping unfolds abruptly, followed by a motorcycle chase that lacks real urgency. A later confrontation between King, Paul, and the antagonist is clumsy at best and downright cringeworthy at worst.
Even more distracting is the soundtrack. For a film centered on a music mogul, the score feels amateurish and wildly mismatched to the tone. It’s baffling that a story about a man with “the best ears in the business” could feature such uninspired music.
Beneath the uneven execution, there’s a sharper, better film struggling to break through. At its best, Highest 2 Lowest is gripping and powerful. At its worst, it’s frustratingly misguided. It tries to be everything at once—crime drama, morality play, industry critique but never fully coheres. That’s the real disappointment: Spike Lee’s films usually carry weight and purpose. Here, too much gets lost in the noise. (And let’s not even bring up his Oldboy remake.)
MOVIE RATING:
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Director: Jay Roach
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, Allison Janney, Belinda Bromilow, Ncuti Gatwa, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene)
Released By: Walt Disney
Official Website:
Opening Day: 4 September 2025
Synopsis: Life seems easy for picture-perfect couple Ivy (Olivia Colman) and Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch): successful careers, a loving marriage, great kids. But beneath the façade of their supposed ideal life, a storm is brewing – as Theo’s career nosedives while Ivy’s own ambitions take off, a tinderbox of fierce competition and hidden resentment ignites. The Roses is a reimagining of the 1989 classic film The War of the Roses, based on the novel by Warren Adler.
Movie Review:
Marriage can be one of the hardest things in the world to sustain. There are countless books and videos on how to keep love alive but one piece of advice always surfaces: communicate clearly and often.
In hindsight, the Roses should have followed that advice from the very beginning. Theo (Benedict Cumberbatch), a successful architect turned stay-at-home dad and Ivy Rose (Olivia Colman), an up-and-coming chef turned thriving restaurateur, find their marriage unraveling.
More than a decade in, Ivy feels jealous and regretful for missing out on most of her twins’ milestones, while Theo believes Ivy has neglected her family in pursuit of her expanding crab shack business. Attempts at rekindling things through a short vacation or marriage counseling only fan the flames.
Despite being a modern reworking of both the 1981 novel "The War of the Roses" and its 1989 film adaptation directed by Danny DeVito (and starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner), The Roses falls flat. Ironically, two of Britain’s finest contemporary actors, Cumberbatch and Colman, headline the project and deliver sharp, convincing performances as a once-loving couple turned bitter rivals. Their efforts, however, cannot mask the shortcomings of the film itself.
Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) and screenwriter Tony McNamara (The Favourite) take the bones of the source material but sand it down into something resembling a safe, commercial rom-com. The energy, chaos and biting satire of the earlier versions are stripped away, leaving behind mild verbal sparring that rarely lands beyond a snicker.
Those expecting scuffles and slapstick violence will need to wait until the final 20 minutes, when Theo’s meticulously designed home (funded, ironically by Ivy) becomes the stage for mayhem. By then, the pacing has dragged, with much of the film devoted to petty sabotage and simmering jealousy that never quite escalates into anything memorable.
The supporting cast includes Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon as the Roses’ American friends, along with a brief but scene-stealing cameo by Allison Janney as Ivy’s no-nonsense divorce lawyer. McKinnon provides the biggest laughs with her politically incorrect advances toward Theo but overall, the supporting players leave little impression.
In the end, this is the least satirical take on The War of the Roses yet. It’s less dark, less witty and ultimately forgettable. Marriage woes are as old as time but it’s surprising to see a 2025 adaptation so toothless in exploring them.
Movie Rating:
(Even an ensemble cast giving it their all can’t save this weakly written comedy)
Review by Linus Tee
Genre: Drama/Crime
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Lily Collias, Jimmy O. Yang, Peter Dinklage
Runtime: 2 hr 5 mins
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website:
Opening Day: 23 October 2025
Synopsis: Based on an unbelievable true story, Roofman follows Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), an Army veteran and struggling father who turns to robbing McDonald's restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname: Roofman. After escaping prison, he secretly lives inside a Toys "R" Us for six months, surviving undetected while planning his next move. But when he falls for Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a divorced mom drawn to his undeniable charm, his double life begins to unravel, setting off a compelling and suspenseful game of cat and mouse as his past closes in.
Movie Review:
COMING SOON
Movie Rating:
Genre: Action/Crime
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio, Griffin Dunne, Benito A Martínez Ocasio, Carol Kane
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Rating: M18 (Coarse Language And Violence)
Released By: Sony Pictures
Official Website:
Opening Day: 23 October 2025
Synopsis: Hank Thompson (Austin Butler) was a high-school baseball phenom who can’t play anymore, but everything else is going okay. He’s got a great girl (Zoë Kravitz), tends bar at a New York dive, and his favorite team is making an underdog run at the pennant. When his punk-rock neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of threatening gangsters. They all want a piece of him; the problem is he has no idea why. As Hank attempts to evade their ever-tightening grip, he’s got to use all his hustle to stay alive long enough to find out… Caught Stealing is directed by Academy Award® nominee Darren Aronofsky, screenplay by Charlie Huston, based on his book of the same name.
Movie Review:
If there’s one thing about Darren Aronofsky, it’s that he never repeats himself. From a harrowing drug addiction drama to a washed-up wrestler, a biblical epic and an obese English teacher, Aronofsky consistently surprises audiences. Now, he’s back with Caught Stealing, an ultra-violent crime thriller starring the increasingly magnetic Austin Butler.
Based on Charlie Huston’s cult pulp novel not exactly a household name but Huston himself penned the screenplay. Caught Stealing introduces us to Hank Thompson (Butler), a former baseball player turned bartender. There’s a chilling reason behind his fall from grace and the film repeatedly reminds us why his past continues to haunt him. Hank numbs his days with alcohol, shares tender daily phone calls with his mother and maintains a loving but casual relationship with Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), a paramedic.
Things unravel when Hank’s punk-styled neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) leaves for England to tend to his ailing father, asking Hank to care for his cat, Bud. But Bud isn’t the only baggage Russ leaves behind. Soon, two menacing Russian thugs and a Puerto Rican gunman (Bad Bunny) come knocking, searching for Russ. Hank’s life starts to spiral into chaos. Add a tough cop named Roman (Regina King) and two ruthless, bearded Jewish assassins played by Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio and Hank finds himself in serious trouble.
There’s a lingering expectation that Hank might evolve into a hardened antihero who dishes out vengeance. But Caught Stealing isn’t that kind of crime thriller. From the moment he gets his bruised kidney removed, Hank endures every blow imaginable. Perhaps it’s a subtle message: Hank must confront his past instead of drowning in booze and ignoring his lost potential in baseball.
Aronofsky and Huston keep the pace relentless, leaving little room to breathe amid the constant chases. Double-crosses and sudden deaths abound, true to the genre’s mobster roots. Russ provides a touch of comic relief and his cat Bud might just deserve a pet Oscar. But in Hank’s world, humor is scarce.
Cinematographer Matthew Libatique collaborating with Aronofsky for the tenth time clearly relishes shooting on location. Though set in 1990s New York, the film convincingly blends backlot grit with authentic cityscape, creating a vivid, believable atmosphere. Even if Caught Stealing doesn’t capture a wide audience, it stands as one of Aronofsky’s most accessible works. It’s a relentless crime caper that prioritizes character study over spectacle. That said, there’s a standout car chase through Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, home to the iconic Unisphere.
If you’re drawn to manic violence, outrageous characters, and the ever-charming Austin Butler fighting to survive the chaos, Caught Stealing is worth your time.
Movie Rating:
(It may have the vibe of a B-movie, but with Aronofsky’s steady hand, it becomes a wild, stylish ride)
Review by Linus Tee
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ROBERT REDFORD (1936 - 2025)Posted on 16 Sep 2025 |
Genre: Romance/Fantasy
Director: Kung Siu Ping
Cast: Greg Hsu, Angela Yuen, Jack Tan, Stephen Tung, Chan Fai Hung, Thor Lok, Natalie Hsu, Yoyo Tse
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Violence)
Released By: Purple Plan and Golden Village
Official Website:
Opening Day: 3 October 2025
Synopsis: After a massive earthquake, the world is split into two—Aurora Zone and Evergreen Zone—separated by the Wall of Gravity, which distorts time and gravity differently on both sides. One day in the Aurora equals an entire year in the Evergreen. The barren Evergreen suffers from shortages of clean air, flowers, medicine, and even food. On her first weekly visit to the Evergreen, Anne-Jean, a member of the White Doves from the Aurora, runs into a thirteen-year-old petty thief named Tato, who falls in love with her at first sight. Wanting to be closer to her, he decides to join the White Doves.
Movie Review:
It was envisioned as a tender, dreamlike moment. Anne-Jean, the heroine, was to rise gently into the air, while Tato, the male lead, would soon follow, floating toward her until the two hovered together in the skies. The scene was probably meant to capture the feeling of love so powerful that it transcends gravity itself.
But when the sequence played out on screen, the intended magic didn’t quite take flight. The CGI effects, which were supposed to lend a sense of weightless wonder, looked a little awkward. Instead of gasps of awe, some chuckles were heard at the preview screening we were at.
The two characters’ ability to float stems from the strange physics of their world — one torn apart by an earthquake that split it into two realms: the Aurora Zone and the Evergreen Zone. Between them stands the Wall of Gravity, a divide where time and gravity twist and fold in unpredictable ways. In this fractured reality, a single day in the Aurora equals a whole year in the Evergreen. This crucial bit of world-building is revealed through text at the very start of the film — so make sure you’re not late for the movie.
Anne-Jean (Angela Yuen) hails from the Aurora Zone, a land of abundance and light — a stark contrast to the Evergreen, where people struggle daily with polluted air and scarce medicine. She’s part of the White Doves, a compassionate team of doctors who cross into the harsh Evergreen to bring aid and hope. It’s there that she meets 13-year-old Tato, and — as the script would have it — the two form a bond that blossoms into love. Thanks to the warped flow of time between the two worlds, it doesn’t take long before Tato grows up into the handsome Greg Hsu. (Remember: a day in the Aurora equals a year in the Evergreen.)
And so it begins — a romance that viewers can sense from the outset is headed for a less-than-perfect ending. Directed by Kung Siu Ping, this high-concept film brims with ambitious ideas that sound compelling on paper but turn convoluted — and at times unintentionally silly — when translated to screen. The overcomplicated storytelling distracts from what should have been the emotional core: the bittersweet love between Anne-Jean and Tato. One can’t help but wonder if the film might have resonated more deeply had it been grounded in a simpler, more relatable setting.
But all is not lost. Die-hard fans of the ever-charming Greg Hsu will no doubt flock to cinemas to support their idol. The Taiwanese star delivers a decent performance, and it’s easy to see why he remains such a bankable leading man, with his effortless charisma and soulful gaze. Angela Yuen holds her own as Anne-Jean, convincingly portraying a woman torn between love and destiny. Elsewhere, Malaysian actor Jack Tan turns in a touching performance as Tato’s long-suffering younger brother, while veteran Hong Kong action choreographer Stephen Tung adds gravitas as the enigmatic ferryman. This ambitious project is an uneven film, but one lifted — at least partly — by its cast.
Movie Rating:
(A high-concept but uneven romance that manages to stay afloat with the cast's earnest performances)
Review by John Li
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MCDONALD'S HK CELEBRATES 50 YEARS WITH A "CHEF NIC" STARRING SHORT FILMPosted on 17 Sep 2025 |
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