Green Book - outstanding performances outweigh a flawed script

Films Reviews Thu, Feb 07, 2019

THE GREEN Book was a guide for black people in America who were traveliing south in the 1960s, containing names of hotels and restaurants that were friendly for the 'Negro Traveller'.

Bale is brilliant, but Vice is patronising and over stylised

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 31, 2019

WITH ALL the attention on the current White House administration, comes Vice, a full blown Hollywood blockbuster about Dick Cheney, the vice president of the USA from 2001 to 2009.

Saorise Ronan excels, but Queen Mary film is below par

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 24, 2019

MARY STUART returns to Scotland in 1561 after being married off at a young age to a French prince. Her husband now dead, she has returned to make a claim on the English throne.

Beautiful Boy - a run of the mill addiction story

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 17, 2019

THAT BEAUTIFUL Boy stars Timothee Chalamet means no one can accuse the title of false advertising. Chalamet plays Nic Sheff, a young boy who seems to have it all. He gets into every college he applies to, has a great relationship with his family, and seems kind and polite.

The Favourite - Olivia Colman on course for an Oscar?

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 10, 2019

SET IN 1708, Britain is at war and the monarchy has absolute rule. However the country is stuck with a childish, petulant, and depressed Queen who has no real interest in ruling.

Roma - the best film of the 2010s?

Films Reviews Thu, Jan 03, 2019

ONE OF my New Years resolutions is to rein in the hyperbole. The world today is in an awful state, so blindly claiming everything is either the worst or the best ever is not good for us. I’m as guilty as anyone, just last week I claimed to have had the best pint of Guinness in my life several times.

Wreck It Ralph 2 - school holiday fodder

Films Reviews Thu, Dec 13, 2018

IN WRECK it Ralph 2, we catch up with Ralph and Vanellope, our heroes from the first movie, right where we left them, enjoying life as sentient 1980s video arcade game characters.

A lot wrong, and a lot right with Creed II

Films Reviews Thu, Dec 06, 2018

AFTER HIS defeat in Rocky 4, Ivan Drago was ostracised by Russia and abandoned by his allies, including his wife. He comes out from the wilderness with his son, Viktor, a young boxer who is so comically large he looks like he has been CGI’d.

Wildlife - domestic unbliss in Montana

Films Reviews Thu, Nov 29, 2018

SET IN 1960s Montana, married couple Jerry and Janette and their son Joe have recently relocated. Though not said, it is implied they left their last home when Jerry lost his job, and it is not the first time this has happened.

Fantastic Beasts: The Grimes of Grindelwald

Films Reviews Thu, Nov 22, 2018

I WAS 11 when the first Harry Potter book came out, the same age Harry is in the story. I read those books - and only those books - repeatedly for a good 10 years (If I’m being honest 20 years).

Widows - a heist move, but not as you know it

Films Reviews Thu, Nov 15, 2018

WIDOWS, THE latest film from British director Steve McQueen, is the last thing I expected from him. In fact when I heard his next project was based on a 1980s TV show, I was slightly concerned.

First Man - the space race without the American jingoism

Films Reviews Thu, Oct 25, 2018

FIRST MAN is an adaptation of the book by the same name by James Hansen. A biography of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, it tells the story of his personal life leading up to the Apollo 11 mission.

What happens when you try and fail to be Pulp Fiction

Films Reviews Thu, Oct 18, 2018

BAD TIMES At The El Royale is the second film from director Drew Goddard, his first was the brilliant Cabin In The Woods, the hilariously meta horror movie from 2012.

Lady Gaga on course for an Oscar with A Star Is Born

Films Reviews Thu, Oct 11, 2018

AGEING, GRIZZLY, self-destructive, country singer Jackson Maine’s (Bradley Cooper) career is on the slide. An alcoholic, he is starting to lose his hearing and his passion.

A peek into crazy rich lifestyles of insane luxury

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 27, 2018

BASED ON Kevin Kwan's best selling novel of the same name, Crazy Rich Asians is the highest grossing rom-com since the Sex In The City film, and the first Hollywood movie since Joy Luck Club with an all-Asian cast and director.

Predator - not as much fun as he was in the 1990s

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 20, 2018

THE PREDATOR is back on our screens, and why not? Every other moderately successful film from the 1980s and 1990s is getting a sequel, prequel, or reboot. It was only a matter of time before it came to Predator.

A Nun too good horror

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 13, 2018

IN A church in Romania in 1952 a nun commits suicide. Sensing something sinister the Vatican sends an exorcist and a young nun to investigate. The mysteries, however, are only just beginning.

Cinema review: Upgrade

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 06, 2018

SET IN the not too distant future, Grey Trace is a technosceptic, stay at home car mechanic, who specialises in old fashioned muscle cars in a world of driverless iPhone like vehicles.

Cinema review: BlacKkKlansman

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 30, 2018

BASED ON the true story of Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer in Colorado Springs and who managed to infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan, BlacKkKlansman feels like a spiritual successor to director Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Do The Right Thing.

Film review: The Festival

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 23, 2018

WHEN OUR hero Nick is dumped publicly at his graduation, his best friend Shane insists they go on a rite of passage by attending a music festival, and doing loads of drugs in a muddy field in the middle of England - this is basically The Festival's entire premise.

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