Mark Strong – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

ATLAS – Review by Nadine Whitney

May 23, 2024May 25, 2024 Nadine Whitney Abraham Popoola, Atlas, Brad Peyton, jennifer lopez, Lana Parrilla, Mark Strong, netflix, Simu Liu, Sterling k brown

Whatever Jennifer Lopez is doing in Atlas is enough to make you doubt she’s ever been in a movie before. Lopez isn’t given a stellar script to work with but that doesn’t excuse her abominable performance. Simu Liu is easy to believe as an AI synthetic because he has precisely one emotional state. Sterling K. Brown is solid as the heroic ranger who probably should have listened to Atlas, but he isn’t in the film enough to make enough of an impact. The fact that the most relatable character is the AI running the ARC is more than likely deliberate but speaks to how badly written and acted Atlas Shepard is.

Reviews

CRUELLA – Review by Martha K Baker

June 3, 2021June 6, 2021 Martha K. Baker (Archived Contributor) craig gillespie, cruella, emma stone, emma thompson, Jenny Bevan, Joel Fry, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong, Paul Walter Hauser

A so-called “prequel,” Cruella quotes more than it originates. Set in the punking ’70s in London, the film traces the early days of the evil-doer known as Cruella back to the time that she was Estella. Even as a child, her white and black hair symbolized her good and evil sides.

Reviews

CRUELLA – Review by Lois Alter Mark

May 26, 2021May 30, 2021 Lois Alter Mark craig gillespie, cruella, emma stone, emma thompson, Jenny Bevan, Joel Fry, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong, Paul Walter Hauser

Cruella just may be the best movie of the year, daaaaaahling. It’s Wicked mixed with The Devil Wears Prada, and it’s so edgy and full of life (and, yes, some death), it brings Disney into the 21st century.

Reviews

CRUELLA – Review by Pam Grady

May 25, 2021May 30, 2021 Pam Grady craig gillespie, cruella, emma stone, emma thompson, Jenny Bevan, Joel Fry, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong, Paul Walter Hauser

You’ve got to hand it to the Mouse. Disney can make a princess out of anyone, even one of its legendary villains, Cruella De Ville, a kind of hard-hearted Snow White whose Evil Queen is her designer boss, the Baroness. For those of us who grew up loathing that simpering, eventually sleeping princess, this is more like it: a princess who gives as good as she gets.

Reviews

CRUELLA – Review by Susan Wloszczyna

May 25, 2021May 30, 2021 Susan Wloszczyna craig gillespie, cruella, emma stone, emma thompson, Jenny Bevan, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong

What’s black, white and wittily wicked fun all over? Disney’s Cruella, an origin story of the puppy-snatching villainess from the studio’s 101 Dalmatians franchise that was launched 50 years ago with the much-beloved original animated canine classic In that version, the pelt-wearing, skunk-haired crone with jutting cheekbones swanned about as she waved her cigarette holder while plotting to make a black and white fur coat from puppies.

Reviews

CRUELLA – Review by Susan Granger

May 25, 2021May 30, 2021 Susan Granger craig gillespie, cruella, emma stone, emma thompson, Jenny Bevan, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mark Strong

Opening nationwide in theaters and streaming, Cruella is an all-new, live-action origin story, recounting the early days of the screen’s most notorious – and infamously fashionable – dog-napping villainess, the legendary Cruella de Vil from Disney’s 1961 animated classic 101 Dalmatians.

Reviews

STOCKHOLM – Review by Martha K. Baker

April 25, 2019 Martha K. Baker (Archived Contributor) 0 Comments Ethan Hawke, Mark Strong, noomi rapace, Robert Budreau, stockholm

Stockholm Syndrome means that a hostage falls for the person in charge — the thief, the kidnapper, the dictator. Most everyone knows that. But what most everyone does not know is the 1973 incident that insinuated as criminal jargon and concept. The absurdist film Stockholm seeks to educate the unenlightened.

Reviews

SHAZAM – Review by Brandy McDonnell

April 8, 2019April 13, 2019 Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments DC Comics, Mark Strong, Shazam, Zachary Levi

Although it’s clearly crafted as a colorful and jokey countermeasure to dark and brooding DC movies like “Batman v Superman” – it’s set in a world where these superheroes are accepted as real and actively operating – “Shazam” also boasts some of the darkest material I’ve seen in a PG-13-rated comic-book movie.

Movie of the Week Reviews

AWFJ Movie of the Week, Nov. 24-30: THE IMITATION GAME

November 24, 2014September 20, 2018 Nikki Baughan 0 Comments anne brodie, Benedict Cumberbatch, jennifer merin, Keira Knightley, Mark Strong, matthew goode, nell minow, Pam Grady, Sandra Kraisirideja, Sheila Roberts

Opening Nov. 28, AWFJ’s Movie of the Week is The Imitation Game, the compelling real-life story of how mathematical genius Alan Turing (played to perfection by Benedict Cumberbatch) and a team of numerologist cracked the Nazi’s Enigma code, bringing an early end to World War II. Read on…