Film Reviews by HW

Welcome to HW's film reviews page. HW has written 77 reviews and rated 77 films.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Denial

Great historical courtroom drama

(Edit) 22/07/2025

A gripping depiction of a fascinating true event. Great British cast, especially Timothy Spall depicting Irving the holocaust denier as a smug, unpleasant man. As well as delivering good plot and tension, this film makes you think about history and people’s different views on history, as well as the impact that horrific atrocities like the Holocaust continue to have on culture. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Broken Trail

Best western of the 2000s?

(Edit) 22/07/2025

For a TV movie, this is such an incredible and original addition to the western genre. For western fans, this is a real treat with all the classic generic elements done well. There’s magnificent natural scenery, beautiful horses, an epic depiction of a horse drive and natural cowboy performances from a rather grim Thomas Haden Church and the loveable Robert Duvall. When the cowpokes come across five Chinese women being taken across the prairie to be sold into prostitution, the films become unique for exploring the plight of both women and Asian immigrants in 1800s America. While the films could be accused of enforcing a white saviour plot line, it’s still sweet to see a group of mixed characters overcoming barriers and differences to work and thrive together on the trail. You’ll like this if you liked ‘Lonesome Dove’, ‘Open Range’ and ‘The Homesman’. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Basil the Great Mouse Detective

The Sign of the Paw

(Edit) 13/07/2025

A fun, heartfelt tribute to the Sherlock Homes stories, with a surprising amount of references and a great Victorian atmosphere. Of course, most of the loveable characters are now mice. Even the monstrous Professor Ratigan (voiced with glee by horror legend Vincent Price) claims to be a ‘mouse’. A bit patriotic at times, as Basil ends up trying to save the ‘Mouse’ empire, while reuniting a lost girl with her father. There are however some nice messages here of not giving up, appreciating the people around you and not getting too arrogant! One objection though: it’s not really a musical adventure if there’s just one song from the villain! 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Muppet Treasure Island

Beware the one-legged muppet

(Edit) 21/06/2025

I couldn’t believe that you could make the classic adventure ‘Treasure Island’ even better, but you can! With songs, gags and muppets! I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to see this film. You are not a true fan of cinema until you’ve seen this. Tim Curry and Billy Connolly naturally shine as nautical rogues amongst the hilarious casting of the Muppets as Stevenson’s classic characters. Most uproariously, the fabulous Miss Piggy as the marooned Ben Gunn! Sorry Benjamina, Kermit’s (sorry, Captain Smolly’s) jilted and enraged fiancé. Could this be even more enjoyable than Muppets Christmas Carol? Maybe… 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Salem's Lot

Small-town Dracula

(Edit) 15/06/2025

Decent and faithful adaptation of the novel, with some interesting changes: for example, turning Barlow from the smooth, charming Dracula-ripoff to the hissing Nosferatu rat-man. The performances are surprisingly good, there’s dread suspense and the vampires are genuinely creepy: maybe even creepier than I imagined. The vampire boy materialising at his friend’s fog-wreathed window will haunt me. The movie did make me afraid to look out of my windows at night. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Texas bbq!

(Edit) 07/06/2025

Proof that you can make an absolutely gnarly, nasty horror film without resorting to buckets of gore. This film gets under your skin immediately. The farmhouse sets, with its low-budget decorations of bones and other gruesome trophies, looks like a genuine serial killer’s den. I can’t think of a horror climax either that’s more of a nerve-shredding, emotionally exhausting terror than the one here. It’s hard to imagine the shock and impact this movie had in the early 70s: like ‘Psycho’ on acid. This film must have raised the bar on horror more than any other. The American dream literally being chain-sawed apart. Probably didn’t do a lot for the Texas tourism board though.  

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Testament of Youth

A period drama to beat period dramas

(Edit) 07/06/2025

There are few films I’ve seen that engulf the audience in the pain and grief of those left behind during wartime. Through Vikander’s raw performance, we feel every loss that piles up in this WW1 epic drama. We also experience a woman’s viewpoint of war in the typical role of a nurse, along with the physical and emotional exhaustion that went along with it. A very effective anti-war argument that challenges any notion that war can be a good idea without having to show graphic scenes of combat, while also challenging the blaming games that take place after a conflict. In this film, everyone is humanised and everyone suffers. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Poltergeist

Always check where your new house is built

(Edit) 26/05/2025

Personally, this might be my favourite ghost story film. Although films like ‘The Haunting’ show how much you can scare an audience with subtle effects and cinematic skills, ‘Poltergeist’ deserves recognition for its impressive -  nay, mind-boggling - array of practical effects and bonkers imagery. I like how it’s both a sentimental Spielberg-produced drama about an average, loving American family (yuck) and also a relentless terror trip from director-horror veteran ‘Texas Chainsaw’ Tobe Hooper, taking full advantage of the film’s big budget. For instance, a touching discussion of life after death is followed by a character pulling his own face off in a bathroom mirror. Just a real ride that shows up a lot of the repetitive, over-serious ghost horrors from the last few years and a reminder that ghostly horror can be found in the most unlikely, modern and average of homes. Although this is not strictly a movie about poltergeists, I like the back-story with its message of respecting the dead. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Sisters Brothers

Sibling squabbles with guns

(Edit) 18/05/2025

A very close adaptation of the book. In fact, I feel like they streamlined the plot in a more satisfactory way, although you do lose more of the humorous brotherly bickering. Cool cast as well (John C. Reilly is great), and the messages of the book (family over greed and violence) are not lost. Within the western genre, this is definitely an oddball and an acquired taste. As a western lover, I’m still scratching my head about it but that’s what makes it original. Decent shootouts too and a striking score. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

True Grit

Don’t shoot a teen girl’s daddy

(Edit) 11/05/2025

Decent adaptation of the novel, with great performances (especially from Jeff and Hailee). Grateful to watch it with subtitles as I couldn’t follow all the dialogue in the cinema! Scenery, action and costumes all good for a western. Still not sure if I prefer John Wayne’s fun performance, but this is a closer adaptation of the novel, including its darker scenes. I liked seeing the Coen brothers doing a proper period western, but I think I prefer their more imaginative work on ‘Ballad of Buster Scruggs’. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Substance

Try not to be aroused

(Edit) 04/05/2025

I’m surprisingly enjoying modern horror at the moment. This might be the best, most savagely original horror film to come out in years. Yes, it’s stealing imagery from a LOT of classic horror films but it dissects (literally) a very relevant topic with the timeless message of ‘be careful what you wish for’. A very extreme criticism of beauty standards, feminine expectations and obsessing with perfection, paying tribute to gruesome 80s body-horror prosthetics with spectacular transformation and body warps. While you couldn’t call this subtle, it does deliver some truly unnerving and (dare I say) MOVING scenes and performances amidst the mayhem. A great concept, just not a great date movie. 

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Apt Pupil

When your old neighbour has some extreme views…

(Edit) 04/05/2025

I watched this because I read the crazy Stephen King ‘novella’ (except it was over 200 pages so practically a novel). The film is a slightly more toned down, subtle version of the more gross, violent book, but still harrowing. The biting satire of a golden American boy admiring a Nazi war criminal is not lost. The boy playing the sick adolescent was captivating, but Sir Ian McKellen was incredibly and disgustingly compelling as the sly, murderous Dussander. A lot of the key events and dialogue were kept from the book, with some intriguing changes. Crazy to see David Schwimmer co-starring in such a dark movie, and to think that the director would go on to do ‘X-Men’ next. Sometimes evil is just around the corner…. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Dead Don't Hurt

Viggo likes being outside and riding horses

(Edit) 04/05/2025

Viggo’s love for the western really comes through in his Labour of love. This feels both like a traditional, sweeping romance with enough stark, original twists to make it stand out from other cowboy films, like a non-linear narrative. Thanks to Viggo’s direction, this film looks and sounds beautiful (especially since he composed the melancholic score). The story and performances are both touching and raw. I also like how Viggo tried to portray America as a land of emigrants rather than rootin-tootin cowpokes. This is more of a lyrical period drama than your average action western, but the violence is still brutal and shocking for the community, like in ‘Unforgiven’. Nice one, Viggo. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

The Martian

Robinson Crusoe in space

(Edit) 06/04/2025

‘Castaway’ for the 21st century. It was fascinating to see what travelling to and living on Mars could be like. The science behind everything felt intricate and believable too (although I wouldn't mind hearing an actual scientist’s take on this, as I’ve read a few online comments poking holes in this film). Matt Damon gives a captivating performance, although his character’s cockiness does get annoying at times. However, in that situation you would need an insane amount of self-belief to get through everything and stay sane. Ridley Scott doesn’t skimp on his talent for visuals either, delivering a convincing Mars landscape. Impressive supporting cast too. So not a complicated sci-fi but very watchable and gripping. Gives you faith in humanity, when so many people work together to bring one man back… believable? 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.

Write your review

100 characters remaining
4000 characters remaining

See our review guidelines and terms.

Hellboy: The Crooked Man

Hellboy gets spooky

(Edit) 23/03/2025

A surprising delight. Not only is this the most faithful adaptation to the plot of a Hellboy comic but it’s also the scariest Hellboy movie so far. Brian Taylor proved to Neil Marshall (director of the last Hellboy movie) that you don’t make Hellboy adult and edgy with a load of swearing and gore. This film genuinely packs a dread, creeping atmosphere and the effects are horribly impressive. The actor playing Hellboy is great too, playing him as gruff with a sardonic sense of humour. The rest of the cast also successfully bring Mignola’s characters to life. Anyone who likes Hellboy, horror and comic book movies should enjoy this impressive indie effort. 

0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
123456