Category Archives: Film

Baby Driver, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, Micah Howard, Lily James, Morgan Brown, Kevin Spacey, Morse Diggs, CJ Jones, Sky Ferreira, Lance Palmer, Hudson Meek, Viviana Chavez, Hal Whiteside, Flea, Lanny Joon, Jamie Foxx, Clay Donahue Fontenot.

 

The heist, a cinematic idea that has stood the test of time and sometimes patience, a theme that still produces a feeling of warmth for many to whom cinema is the true meaning of escapism, the expression of being part of against the system but not getting your hands dirty.

Baby Driver, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(494 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Despicable Me 3, Film Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Nev Scharrel, Pierre Coffin, Steve Coogan, Julie Andrews, Jenny Slate, Michael Beattie, Andy Nyman, Adrian Ciscato, Brian T. Delaney, Katia Saponenko.

Not quite so Gru-some but still very enjoyable with overtones of brilliance; for the lovers of Despicable Me, this third outing of a villain turned hero, his adopted children and arguably one very special group of comedic sidekicks in the history of animation, is still of such quality that the whole family can go along to the cinema and come out with everybody happy and content.

Despicable Me 3, Film Review. full post

(357 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Churchill. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Brian Cox, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery, Ella Purnell, Julian Wadham, Richard Durden, James Purefoy, Danny Webb, Jonathan Aris, George Anton, Steven Cree, Angela Costello, Peter Ormond, Kevin Findlay.

Churchill. Film Review. full post

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

My Cousin Rachel. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sam Claflin, Rachel Weisz, Holliday Grainger, Iain Glen, Poppy Lee Friar, Andrew Knott, Andrew Havill, Vicky Pepperdine, Katherine Pearce, Harry Hays, Tristram Davies, Chris Gallarus, Bobby Scott, Freeman.

The very name Daphne Du Maurier is one surely that should conjure up the very essence of British writing and one that stands alongside the greatest of the 20th Century, Agatha Christie and Virginia Woolf, and yet for one of Cornwall’s greatest adopted daughters, her passionate, often moody but always multi-layered work, doesn’t get the screen treatment it deserves, and aside from the fantastic adaption of The Birds and Rebecca by the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, the writer has been pretty much left of the list of books that are ripe for bringing to an even greater audience.

My Cousin Rachel. Film Review. full post

(453 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

The Mummy. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Marwan Kenzari.

There are times in which as a fan of the realm of the macabre and chilling, that you can actually find yourself missing the world of Hammer House of Horror, not through any type of morbid curiosity, but because it would have been perhaps more interesting to see how such creatures of British literature might have fared with a more diverse treatment rather than being arguably hung out to dry in the race to take on Marvel and D.C. in a world of heroes, villains, gods and monsters that Universal Pictures seems hell bent on creating.

The Mummy. Film Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Omnibus, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Alice Bunker-Whitney in Omnibus. Photograph by Brian Roberts.

 

Cast: Gemma Banks, Alice Bunker-Whitney, Eva McKenna, Joel Parry, Danny Burns, Eithne Browne.

It is always a cause for celebration when a production comes to the stage and truly brings an audience together in its humour and the way it showcases new writing, the positive ways it uses all the actors with equal clarity and the wonderful way in which it shows the genuine appreciation due its Director. When that celebration coincides with the soft re-opening of a much loved theatre after months of renovation and updating, then it is not just a case of bring out the decorations and congratulations, then it is the keen observance and salute that only an Omnibus can provide.

Omnibus, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(408 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Wonder Woman, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Gal Gadot, Robin Wright, Chris Pine, David Thewlis, Connie Nelson, Elana Anaya, Lucy Davis, Ewan Bremner, Doutzen Kroes, Danny Huston, Mayling Ng, Eleanor Matsuura, Samantha Jo, Eugene Brave Rock, Saïd Taghmaoui, Emily Carey, Florence Kasumba.

Forget the Testosterone, the heroes of old who have dominated the screen since Michael Keaton first donned the Batman suit, with unbelievable results obviously, for there is a true dominant force on offer, a heroine for the age and one that strikes back at the tired old clichés of femininity and valour, of fearlessness and boldness. For in Wonder Woman, there really is a hero that everybody, boy and girl, man and woman alike, can truly admire and one which takes a huge swipe at the misogyny that has been rampant in cinematic heroes for far too long.

Wonder Woman, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T.,Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scoderlario, Kevin McNally, Golsifteh Farahani, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Martin Klebba, Angus Barnett, Adam Browne, Giles New, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Paul McCartney, Bruce Spence.

 

Every tale has an ending, the circle completed and the finale one that can be passed down as being just as riveting or exciting as the original, the one that started the quest in the first place; if not then dead men and bored but faithful audiences tell no tales, for nobody likes a sequel to be a failure.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T.,Liverpool. full post

(538 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Snatched. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, Joan Cusack, Tom Bateman, Bashir Salahuddin, Christopher Meloni, Óscar Jaenada.

 

Mixed: a sense of neither engaging, being fun enough to overlook the obvious, or unresponsive enough to find certain aspects of the film entertaining; for Snatched, it might go down on its epitaph that this particular film is neither here nor there. Its ideas are laudable but not sincere, that it brings one of the greats of her time in Goldie Hawn back to the screen but then doesn’t relish the part that she plays as the once gregarious girl of the film’s past nor as the woman who made films such as Death Becomes Her and Private Benjamin such sublime pieces of art.

Snatched. Film Review. full post

(449 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Colossal. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson, Dan Stevens, Hannah Cheramy, Nathan Ellison.

 

There is a monster in all of us, how we keep it quiet, how we take on its virtues and its quirks is up to us, whether we drown it, whether we lull it to sleep with any type of substances or whether we allow it to consume us, to overtake our lives and subdue, to make us feel the guilt of all we have done, the thought behind it all may be too much to handle, it may just be too Colossal.

Colossal. Film Review. full post

(418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)