Category Archives: Film

Long Shot. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Charlize Theron, Seth Rogan, June Diane Raphael, O’ Shea Jackson Jr, Ravi Patel, Bob Odenkirk, Andy Serkis, Tristan D. Lalla, Alexander Skarsgard, Aladeen Tawfeek, Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris, Shawn Stockman, Isla Dowling, Aviva Mongillo, Lisa Kudrow.

Rags to riches, we all dream of bettering the hand we have been played, to take on the phantom dealer of the cruel hand of fate and lending our name to the appropriate nature of immortality. Few though hold their nerve by sticking to their principals, by refusing to yield to temptation that such rapid rise might entail, and whilst they will probably end up forever having their dreams dashed, at least they can do so with a clear conscious and a heart that is light and with sign no sign of corruption in their soul.

Long Shot. Film Review. full post

(598 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Tolkien. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Lily Collins, Pam Ferris, Adrian Schiller, Colm Meaney, Owen Teale, Derek Jacobi, Craig Roberts, Harry Gilby, Laura Donnelly, Guillermo Bedward, Nia Gwynne, Kallum Tolkien, Tony Nash, Michael Bryceson, Andrew Bissell, Patrick Gibson, Anthony Boyle, Tom Glynn-Carney, James MacCallum.

Subconsciously driven by the exotic use of imagination or shaped by the events we observe, there is a tale in each of us that demands to be told, and in which regrettably few of us choose to pursue.

Tolkien. Film Review. full post

(610 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Tobias Segal, Anjelica Houston, Said Taghmaoui, Jerome Flynn, Randall Duk Kim, Margaret Daly, Robin Lord Taylor, Susan Blommaert.

Keanu Reeves is a conundrum, arguably one of the most sincere actors of his generation, an instantly likeable man, and someone who has that rare quality of being thoroughly decent to all. Yet on occasion the real is replaced by the puzzling, the mystifying, how else do you balance the honourable with a series of films in which the body count is off the scale and in which you cannot help but argue that is the epitome of violence for violence sake, and one that seriously asks how far American culture has gone down the route of almost being addicted to the sound of gunfire and its relationship with world of gaming.

John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum. Film Review. full post

(468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Dragged Across Concrete, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White, Thomas Kretschmann, Jennifer Carpenter, Laurie Holden, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Fred Malamed, Justine Warrington.

Robbery against the large faceless institutions, unlike murder, is one when presented in either fact or fiction produces a dichotomy of feelings for the average person, on one hand is rejoiced as a blow against the system which will happily see all bend under the strain of financial constraint whilst those that impose economic sanctions continue to thrive and prosper, on the other hand, the moral indignation takes hold and inside asks what makes such actions necessary, why should a thief get away with their actions when all the rest of society behaves and hopes for better days.

Dragged Across Concrete, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(503 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Red Joan, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Laurence Spellman, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles, Robin Soans, Kevin Fuller, Stephen Boxer,

The declaration and labelling of being a traitor is one that is arguably fraught with the agony that comes with not being able to present your side of the story to the nation without it being lost in the clamour of calls for your neck, to die at the hands of a public spurred on by mass media and the urging of government to dole out maximum punishment.

Red Joan, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Shazam!, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Zachary Levi, Michelle Borth, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Marta Milans, Meagan Good, Grace Fulton, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Stephannie Hawkins, Cooper Andrews, Lovina Yavari, D.J. Cotrona, Natalia Safran, John Glover, Caroline Palmer, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Ava Preston, Jovan Armand, Evan Marsh, Andi Osho, Carson MacCormac, Lotta Losten.

Shazam!, Film Review. full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Hellboy (2019), Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 7/10

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Stanley, Brian Gleeson, Nadya Keranova, Maria Tepavicharova, Ana Tabakova, Penelope Mitchell, Terry Randal, Mario de la Rossa, Christopher Mata, Atanas Srebrev, Dawn Sherrer, Michael Heath, Alistair Petrie, Rick Warden, Nitin Ganatra, Sophie Okenedo, Marckos Routhwaite, Ilko Iliev, Joel Harlow, Dimiter Banenkin, Vanessa Eichholz, Kristina Klebe, Charles Shannon, Carl Hampe.

Some characters are so defined by the actor portraying them that is a near impossible task for the audience to imagine anyone else in the role, especially in the cinematic world which holds arguably a greater sway on the mind that of the other visual medium of television and certainly in the realm of theatre.

Hellboy (2019), Film Review. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Missing Link, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zach Galifianakis, Zoe Saldana, Timothy Olyphant, Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Armrita Acharia, David Walliams.

It quite often take what is considered a younger person’s film to bring a sense of truth to the adult mind, a connection, a bond to what we understand in our dotage to the tremendous appeal of discovery we yearned for when our imaginations were first forming and the world was a playground waiting to be discovered.

Missing Link, Film Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Sisters Brothers, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

Cast: John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, Rebecca Root, Allison Tolman, Ruger Hauer, Carol Kane, Patrice Cossonneau, David Gasman, Lenuta Bala, Ian Reddington, Aldo Maland, Theo Exarchopoulos, Sean Duggan, Raymond Waring, Johannes Haukur Johannesson, Gerard Cooke, Frederic Siuen, Trevor Allan Davies.

The Western was arguably a victim of its own success and the realisation that it held no meaning in an age where certain moments of history were being subject to closer and rightful scrutiny; the gung-ho feel of the interpreted hero and fatalism of the native American’s story not being considered beyond anything other than the role of the villain all combining to make The Western distasteful, to leave a sense of lies captured in the story.

The Sisters Brothers, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(502 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Wild Rose, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * *

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters, Sophie Okonedo, Craig Parkinson, Jamie Sives, Gemma McElhinney, James Harkness, Bob Harris, Ashley Shelton, Tracy Wiles, Daniel Campbell, Blair Kincaid, Janey Godley, James McElvar, Rachel Pearl, Vanya Eadie, J. Thomas Bailey, Sondra Morton, Lee Ann Maloney, Justin Hand, Patti Aagaard, Stuart Nisbit, Neil MacColl.

A film that relies on the visual cliche, no matter how well intentioned, is going to surely, and regrettably, be seen as nothing more than touching the very basic of emotions in an audience more than used to a more than likely ending, series of conflicting acts that lead up to the resolution and the moment of telegraphed outcomes that are going to be signalled from the opening scenes.

Wild Rose, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)