Cinema review: Jurassic World

Films Reviews Mon, Jun 15, 2015

THERE IS a scene in the beginning of Jurassic Park, when we go through the huge iconic gates and the John Williams score kicks in, and if the hairs on the back of your neck don't stand up, I’m afraid, we can never be friends.

Cinema review: Spy

Films Reviews Mon, Jun 08, 2015

IN 2011 Bridesmaids was the sleeper hit studios dream of. It cost $30 million went on to gross nearly $300 million. It made Kristen Wiig a star and finally gave Paul Feig the hit he had coming. He had a stellar TV career - Freaks and Geeks, The Office - but he fumbled his first two attempts at the big screen.

Cinema review: San Andreas

Films Reviews Tue, Jun 02, 2015

WATCH THE trailer for this movie. After that, if you want to see it, then go. Do you want to see San Francisco shake? Great! Now you can see it shake with for two hours with beautiful people running around, gradually shedding garments and having near misses with falling buildings and flash floods. It is the Ronseal Quick Drying Varnish of movies. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

Cinema review: Tomorrowland

Films Reviews Mon, May 25, 2015

DISNEY STRUCK gold in 2003 when it turned one of its theme park rides into the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise that went on to gross $3.7 billion. Since then it has been looking for a similar live action franchise and not had much luck.

Cinema review - Mad Max

Films Reviews Mon, May 18, 2015

THE TRAILER for Mad Max: Fury Road is the best 2 minutes 30 seconds YouTube has to offer, indeed it is the best trailer I’ve ever seen. In the past I’ve been burned by great trailers. A good trailer can build up what you think will be a great movie and deliver only a good or sometimes a terrible one - I’m looking at you Godzilla and crappy Miami Vice reboot. So does Mad Max live up to the best trailer ever? Oh yes.

Cinema review: Hot Tub Time Machine 2

Films Reviews Mon, Apr 13, 2015

IT IS so hard to write about comedies. Comedy is, of course, incredibly subjective. It is, however, not hard to write about comedy sequels as they are nine out or 10 times complete rubbish.

Cinema review: Cinderella

Films Reviews Mon, Mar 30, 2015

KENNETH BRANAGH’S career continues to mystify me. In the early 1990s he was the poster boy for the RADA’s new wave, his peers included Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, and Jonathan Pryce, but it was Branagh who catapulted to fame first through adapting, directing, and acting in big budget adaptations of Shakespeare.

Cinema review: Wild Card

Films Reviews Mon, Mar 23, 2015

TWO ACTION movies are released this weekend, and while The Gunman with Sean Penn seems to have the bigger advertising budget, Wild Card, with the always watchable Jason Statham, was the one that caught my eye.

Cinema review: Kill the Messenger

Films Reviews Mon, Mar 09, 2015

KILL THE Messenger is the remarkable story of how a reporter from the tiny San Jose Mercury News managed to scoop The Washington Post and the New York Times to one the CIA’s biggest controversies of the 1990s.

Cinema review: The Boy Next Door

Films Reviews Mon, Mar 02, 2015

SINCE DRIVE there has been a steady stream of solid, slightly camp, low budget commercial movies. They have not always found the right audience but from 2011’s Hobo With A Shotgun to last years incredible The Guest, there has been a steady flow of B-movie action and erotic thrillers.

Cinema review: Cake

Films Reviews Mon, Feb 23, 2015

EVERY OSCAR season there are a few awkward films - often war movies or about mental or physical illness - that have clearly been produced and planned as a vehicle for an actor who feel s/he is due an award.

Cinema review: The Gambler

Films Reviews Mon, Jan 26, 2015

AN UNNECESSARY and boring remake halts what has been a sensational month of film in which each passing week has produced, if not a great movie, at least one worth going to see.

Cinema review: Whiplash

Films Reviews Mon, Jan 19, 2015

A CLAUSTROPHOBIC, unrelenting, tense, but maybe slightly unrealistic take on a tired formula, Whiplash is still gaining Oscar buzz week on week.

Cinema review: Foxcatcher

Films Reviews Mon, Jan 12, 2015

ANOTHER HOTLY tipped awards favourite is released this week as we enter the best time of year for going to the cinema. With its central themes of sports, fraternal relationships, and patriotism, Foxcatcher has all the makings of an Oscar winner.

Cinema review: The Hobbit - The Battle of the Five Armies

Films Reviews Mon, Dec 15, 2014

AFTER 13 years, six films, and 1,031 minutes finally we have come to the end of Peter Jackson’s incredible Middle Earth saga. Even if you are not a fan of the movies you must respect how Jackson has handled the immense project.

Cinema review: St Vincent

Films Reviews Mon, Dec 08, 2014

A BILL Murray movie is always time for celebration. Certainly one of the most beloved actors of all time, when he has a movie out you always have to see it - and he has been on an decent run lately, mainly thanks to his collaborations with Wes Anderson.

Cinema review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Films Reviews Mon, Nov 24, 2014

DESPITE REALLY enjoying the first two Hunger Games films I was apprehensive about this one. The third Hunger Games book is by some distance the worst of the trilogy and with the end of this incredibly lucrative franchise in sight the makers have taken the, no doubt purely artistic, decision to split the final book into two films.

Cinema review: The Imitation Game

Films Reviews Mon, Nov 17, 2014

THE INCREDIBLE story of Alan Turing is almost impossible to believe. This man invented the computer and, with a small team, ended WWII two years earlier than was thought possible, and in doing so saved the lives of 14,000,000 people.

Cinema review: Fury

Films Reviews Tue, Oct 28, 2014

AROUND THIS time of year we get our first look at the Oscar contenders. While the heavy hitters tend to emerge at the end of December and January, sometimes more genre based releases, like Gravity last year, are released a few weeks early.

Cinema review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Films Reviews Mon, Oct 20, 2014

Everyone who grew up in the nineties remembers the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Turtles, like Pogs, were certainly part of my childhood. In the world we live in of remakes, reboots, and sequels I cannot believe it has taken this long for a new live action Ninja Turtles picture (there was a animated movie TMNT in 2007 that went straight to DVD). The original movies from the early 90s were massive successes, in fact when the first film came out in 1990 it was the second highest grossing indie movie of all time. Sadly these films have not aged well which leaves the franchise ripe for a reboot. Unfortunately for us, producer Michael Bay has got his hands on the project and if his treatment of the Transformers franchise is anything to go by this will not end well.

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