MoviesHow on Earth has it taken me so long to get round to watching Terry Gilliam’s classic dystopian Sci-Fi comedy? To paraphrase Admiral Kirk from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn” (stay with me): I’ve managed to see just about every film it’s influenced but like a poor marksman, I’ve kept missing the target. ..
Doctor Who*SPOILERS* After the melodramatic melancholy of “Hell Bent”, there was only one direction “Doctor Who” could go for this year’s Christmas showstopper, especially with it coming so quickly after the series finale. “The Husbands Of River Song” playfully picks up with the Doctor’s old would-be paramour and takes him on one of her adventures, with ..
MoviesContinuing their recent strong run, Disney Animation Studios have dipped into the more obscure corners of corporate stablemate Marvel’s back catalogue and picked out a winner. But before we even get to the main event, we’re served up another treat as Disney continues its adoption of Pixar’s habit of including a supporting feature. “Feast” is ..
MoviesAmerica’s favourite brand of flavourless beefcake (available in regular and extra dour) are the marquee names in this tediously grimdark superhero tale, co-written and directed by Jeff Chan and based on his crowdfunded short film of the same name released in 2016. Like the original short, this feature-length take is set in a world where ..
Horror
HorrorThe Simpsons Halloween Special XXV sees the series in celebratory and self-congratulatory mood . The titles are announced over a gallery of clips from previous (and as yet unaired Halloween scenes) while a galaxy of announced celebrity guest stars are dismembered to spell out the name of the show. School Is Hell “I want to ..
MoviesDespite its intriguing premise and impressive pedigree, “Allied” resembles nothing as much as a lavish big screen reimagining of “’Allo ‘Allo”. In 1942, a Canadian RAF spy encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission Vichy occupied Morocco. Later reunited in London, their relationship blossoms into love but as the war grinds on, ..
MoviesFast X is very much Dominic Toretto’s Infinity War For a franchise which features more heel/ face switcheroos than WWE (and, to be fair, more than its fair share of WWE alumni too), it’s fun to see it push its villains so far that even the seemingly endless Fast & Furious family willingness to embrace ..
MoviesWith a likeable veteran cast, “Red” was something of a pleasant surprise when it was released in 2010. Like a more refined version of “The Expendables”, it brought together a classy group of actors to kick butt in a lightweight, fun and action packed spy caper involving the obligatory high level conspiracies and long buried ..
Movies“Crazy Rich Asians” may open with some awful British racism, but it’s an effective shorthand way of introducing fearsome matriarch Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeo) and putting us firmly in the Young family’s corner. And it’s a necessary step too because we’re about to embark on a visually lavish exploration of the trials and tribulations of ..
MoviesAfter the disinterested and flat direction of “Jersey Boys”, Eastwood seems to have regained some of his mojo with this film which despite a few flaws emerges as a faithful if a little too respectful adaptation of Chris Kyle’s 2012 autobiography. Structured into four chapters to parallel Kyle’s four tours of duty in Iraq, “American ..
MoviesThe stoner movie to end all stoner movies – literally. Seth Rogen’s latest is a drug, alcohol, sex and Milky Way-fuelled comedy blowout with an apocalyptic bite as he sends up himself, his friends and the celebrity LA lifestyle. This could be the perfect watch for those who like to smoke cannabis, whether medically or ..
MoviesMore of a holiday dramedy than a jolly seasonal RomCom, director Clea DuVall’s loosely autobiographical “Happiest Season” seeks to invert the traditional Christmas movie tropes but inadvertently finds itself trapped by the conventions of the genre and a too glib approach to seasonal redemption. Abby (Kristen Stewart) and Harper (McKenzie Davis) have been dating for ..
MoviesA beautifully understated indie dramedy, “Brigsby Bear”, directed by Dave McCary and produced by The Lonely Island, is a heartfelt and poignant paean to the importance and power of fandom. When James (Kyle Mooney) finds out that his whole life has been a lie concocted by his kidnappers Ted and April Mitchum (Mark Hamill & ..
HorrorThere are a plethora of openings to choose from in 2010’s Simpsons Halloween Special XXI but rather than previous year’s throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach, the problem this year seems to be too many good ideas to cram in. The spitefully violent fight between Homer and Bart is the least of the introductory gags, with Professor Frink’s parody ..
HorrorKnowing very little of the original property, I didn’t know what to expect going in to “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark”. What I got was a competently made and good looking anthology film where the framing narrative – an interesting idea in itself – is constantly interrupted by the need to service fans ..
MoviesProvocative, dark, disturbing and brutally violent, “You Were Never Really Here” envelops you in the dissociated world of Joe, a traumatized veteran who tracks down missing children for a living. When a routine job spirals out of control, Joe finds himself caught up in a conspiracy of violence and murder, spinning out of control and ..
Shark Weak“Empire Of The Sharks” scores an early win with a mention of ‘trained ninja sharks’, a formidable weapon on a post-apocalyptic, flooded ecosystem. A biosphere covered entirely in water. An oceanic globe. An aquatic planet. Hmm. If only there was an easy way of saying it… On a future earth where 98% of the surface ..
MoviesNot content with transforming the franchise-based movie making model, Marvel have also been revolutionising the home media experience by creating a series of shorts which not only tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe but enrich and deepen the connections between the movies they support. Although they started by enhancing, re-cutting and adding to existing footage ..
MoviesThe Avengers have been chasing down the remnants of Hydra and trying to locate and retrieve Loki’s staff. The mission is a success despite the intervention of two ‘enhanced’ individuals and the sceptre is returned to Avengers Tower where Bruce Banner and Tony Stark work to unlock its secrets in the hope of bringing their ..
HorrorPity poor Dracula (Christopher Lee)! Last time we saw the contentious Count, he’d been impaled on a golden crucifix but as if that wasn’t indignity enough, it turns out his demise – into a pile of rust-coloured dust – was witnessed by Weller (Roy Kinnear), a travelling salesman who was hurled from his coach by ..
Doctor WhoBefore it was the social media battle cry of an embittered faction of Whovian fandom railing against the casting of Jodie Whittaker, “Leave the girl, it’s the man I want!” was the portentous opening line to DOCTOR WHO’s latest narrative – and real-life – regeneration as the series exploded back to life in 1987 with ..
HorrorA minimalist horror-comedy, “Stalled” could be viewed as a horror version of “Waiting For Godot”. With zombies. In a toilet. If you squint a bit. Maybe. A blackly comic take on the zombie trope, it tells the story of a hapless maintenance worker who gets trapped in the ladies’ toilets of an office building during ..
MoviesCourt is back in session and first in the dock is jolly 1988 sci-fi romantic comedy “My Stepmother Is An Alien”. When a Klystron tube experiment conducted by Dr Steven Mills (Dan Aykroyd) runs out of control and sends a radar beam to a distant galaxy, the inhabitants send Celeste (Kim Basinger) on a secret ..
MoviesHaving the title character of your well-known story sing a song with the repeated refrain “You’re Going To Know My Name” reeks of redundancy, a redundancy which plagues this lacklustre retread of CINDERELLA from the first frame to the very last. Writer/ Director Kay Cannon may have been the author of all three PITCH PERFECT ..
MoviesStaggering its way into cinemas, “Blockers” strikes a clumsy blow for equality by showing that dumb, crass, tasteless teenage sex comedies aren’t just for boys anymore. Yay, equality? Three friends make a pact to lose their virginity on prom night but when one of their parents accidentally intercepts a text conversation, their parents band together ..
MoviesIn a world where supervillains are commonplace, two estranged childhood best friends reunite after one devises a treatment that gives them powers to protect their city but in a world of portentous and pretension movie criticism, is there even room for a movie like THUNDER FORCE? Netflix’s latest original movie doesn’t have anything particularly original ..
MoviesWhen he popped up in the end of credits stinger on “Guardians Of The Galaxy” (I’m not posting a spoiler warning for that because any right-thinking person has already seen that movie at least twice by now, and if you haven’t, stop what you’re doing and go watch it right now) , I knew it was time. ..
MoviesAdapted from his own play, based on his memoir, Alan Bennett’s “The Lady In The Van” is a wonderfully poignant meditation of the nobility of the human spirit and the importance of kindness, compassion and understanding. It tells the [mostly] true story of Bennett’s unusual friendship with an eccentric homeless woman called Miss Mary Shepherd, ..
Doctor Who*SPOILERS* So…he’s back – and he’s not hiding from his enemies. If anything, he’s doing the exact opposite and trying to provoke them: cavorting around the universe like his own private playground, having a blast and taking on his fiercest foes with a brash confidence and an almost complete absence of f**ks to give. I ..