Category Archives: Film

The Unholy. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Crocket Brown, William Sadler, Katie Aselton, Cary Elwes, Diogo Morgado, Bates Wilder, Marina Mazepa, Christine Adams, Dustin Tucker, Gisela Chipe.

Faith is an acquired taste, too much of it can either be a blessing in the eyes of the devout, not enough, and the accusations and whispers start to float through the air as if caught on the winds of scandal; whispers that can be misinterpreted, rumours that can lead to exile, gossip that can unleash Hell on Earth and guide the faithful to take a life.

The Unholy. Film Review. full post

(519 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Godzilla vs. Kong. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eliza González, Julian Dennison, Lance Reddick, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Kaylee Hottle, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Ronny Chieng, John Pirruccello, Chris Chalk.

When Titans collide it is either a simple case of love or hate for the audiences who cannot but help pick a side, cheer on the winner, take cheap pot shots and boo with bravado the expected loser; this is hard enough to convey with any appropriate meaning when it is two boxers slugging it out in the ring, their signature moves keenly studied and reported, the grudges they bare against each other, but when you transfer that sense of toxic, animalistic brutality to a wider, less human shape, you can end up with a Battle Royale that you cannot keep your eyes from watching, and your heart from pumping with excitement.

Godzilla vs. Kong. Film Review. full post

(590 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Jungle Cruise. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall, Edgar Ramirez, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcón, Dani Rovira, Quim Gutiérrez, Dan Dargan Carter, Andy Nyman, Raphael Alejandro, Simone Lockhart, Pedro Lopez.

The adventurous romp, the quest for something more than we can conceive in the everyday avenue of life, has always been one to draw cinema crowds in to the darkened room, but it remains, it a post-Covid world, something that the producers of such films might have to look at with a finer eye if they are to keep the thrill of the chase paramount and not relegated to that of a mere show, of  whimsy without the necessary spectacle.

Jungle Cruise. Film Review. full post

(532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Simu Liu, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Awkwafina, Ben Kingsley, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh, Wah Yeun, Florian Munteanu, Andy Le, Paul W. He, Jayden Zhang, Elodie Fong, Arnold Sun, Stephanie Hsu, Tsai Chin, Jodi Long, Dallas Liu, Ronny Chieng, Stella Ye, Fernando Chien, Michael-Anthony Taylor, Zach Cherry, Raymond Ma, Benedict Wong, Jade Xu, Shelley Xu, Alistair Bates, Dee Bradley Baker, Brie Larson, Tim Roth, Mark Ruffalo.

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings. Film Review. full post

(626 words, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O’Connor, Sarah Catherine Hook, Julian Hillard, John Noble, Eugenie Bondurant, Shannon Kook, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Keith Arthur Boldon, Steve Coulter, Vince Pisani, Ingrid Bisu, Andrea Andrade, Ashley LeConte Campbell, Sterling Jerins, Megan Ashley Brown, Mitchell Hoog, Paul Wilson, Charlene Amoia.

The darker the days, the more we seem to look to omens, signs, and wonders to see us through our existence. We may believe we have reached a point in our evolution, in our collected history and ability to weave stories, that the unexplained is by its own insistence, is rationalised, efficiently excused, and our reasoning enhanced…and yet there are mysteries that continue to confound, that cannot be explained by cold logic, nor blamed upon human irrationality.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Film Review. full post

(561 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Free Guy. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Taika Waititi, Aaron W Reed, Britne Oldford, Camille Kostek, Mark Lainer, Mike Devine, Sophie Levy, Vernon Scott, Naheem Garcia, Anabel Plamenco, Kenneth Israel, Michael Malvesti, Colin Allen, Michael Tow, High Jackman, Dwayne Johnson, Tina Fey, John Krasinski, Alex Trebek.

The inevitable love child of The Truman Show and Tron, with more than a little help in being raised by the house of mouse; and yet despite having the backing, the insight and imagination, as well as the decades in the advancement in studio techniques to pull of such a daring story, Free Guy does not have the same appeal to all as its more illustrious parents had when they first hit the cinema screens.  

Free Guy. Film Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Black Widow. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weiz, David Harbour, Ray Winstone, William Hurt, Olga Kurlenko.

It was the film the franchise needed, it just seemed to come at the wrong time.

Marvel have barely put a foot wrong in over a decade’s worth of film and television serials which have caught the public’s attention and imagination, and if looked upon as a stand-alone film within the franchise, Cate Shortland’s Black Widow has all the hallmarks of being a heavy hitter within the ranks; not only for the dynamic framed between Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh as Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova respectively, but for the way that the film is not afraid to tackle the murky waters of young children being groomed for war.

Black Widow. Film Review. full post

(371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Superintelligence. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, James Corden, Bobby Cannavale, Brian Tyree Henry, Sam Richardson, Ben Falcone, Michael Beach, Rachel Ticotin, Jessica St. Clair, Karan Soni, Jean Smart, Ken Griffey Jr., Octavia Spencer, William Daniels, Steve Mallory, Courtney Patterson, Usman Ally, Jenna Perusich, Carolyn Trahan, Jay Lay, Sarah Baker, Mac Alsfeld, Damon Jones, Eduardo Franco, Patrick Bristow.

Superintelligence. Film Review. full post

(581 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Gunpowder Milkshake. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Karen Gillan, Lena Hedley, Paul Giamatti, Paul Ineson, Carla Cugino, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Chloe Coleman, Mai Duong Kieu, Michael Smiley, Samuel Anderson, Jack Bandeira, David Burnell IV, Ivan Kaye, Joanna Bobin, Freya Allan, Ed Birch, Adam Nagaitis, Joshua Grothe, Hannes Pastor, Billy Buff, Lee Huang.

Women with attitude and girls with guns, not the combination so cinema goers or film buffs of a certain persuasion will find room for in their lives, but a subject of perspective that is always fascinating, and in many ways necessary.

Gunpowder Milkshake. Film Review. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Bombshell. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Allison Janney, Malcolm McDowell, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Liv Hewson, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Rob Delaney, Mark Duplass, Stephen Root, Robin Weigert, Amy Landecker, Mark Moses, Nazanin Boniadi, Ben Lawson, Alanna Ubach, Andy Buckley, Brooke Smith, Bree Condon, D’Arcy Carden, London Fuller, Sedina Fuller, Kevin Dorff, Richard Kind, Michael Buie, Marc Evan Jackson, Anne Ramsey, Holland Taylor, Jennifer Morrison, Ashley Greene, Ahna O’Reilly, Lisa Canning, Elisabeth Röhm, Alice Eve.

Bombshell. Film Review. full post

(531 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)