Category Archives: Film

The Fifth Wave, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Gabriela Lopez, Bailey Anne Borders, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Zackery Arthur, Dave Maldonado, Paul Ryden, Charmin Lee, Parker Wierling, Tony Revolori, Terry Serpico, Derek Roberts, Maria Bello, Cade Cannon Ball, Alex MacNicoll, Nadij Jeter, Maika Monroe, Flynn McHugh, Alex Roe, Matthew Zuk.

There are some films that offer so much on paper that once seen you cannot understand how it was possible to be regarded as such a let-down as a cinematic experience. Such is the twisted fate of The Fifth Wave, such is the divine introspection available to all when viewing something that arguably would have worked better as a television special spread over three nights.

The Fifth Wave, Film Review. full post

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

The Big Short, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Rafe Spall, Rudy Eisenzopf, Casey Groves, Maria Frangos, Hunter Burke, Bernard Hocke, Shaunna Rappold, Brandon Stacy, Aiden Flowers, Peter Epstein, Tracy Letts, David Zalkind, Adepero Oduye, Hamish Linklater, Karen Gillan.

The Big Short, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(442 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: Leonardo diCaprio, Tom Hardy, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, Forrest Goodluck, Paul Anderson, Kristoffer Joner, Joshua Burge, Duane Howard, Melaw Nakehk’o, Fabrice Adde, Arthur Redcloud, Christopher Rosamond, Robert Moloney, Lukas Haas, Brendan Fletcher, Tyson Wood, McCaleb Burnett, Emmanuel Bilodeau, Grace Dove, Chesley Wilson.

There are extraordinary feats of human endeavour that you just have to marvel at, lessons from people in the past to how they conducted themselves under severe pressure and extremes and how perhaps as young infants of the 21st Century we have lost that natural affinity to stretch ourselves against such adversity.

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

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

Paul Carrack, Soul Shadows. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

You might always have a sneaking suspicion that one of Britain’s much loved and endearing song writers will always pull something special out of the bag when it comes to releasing an album of new songs,. Something that touches the listener in ways that remind them of the first time they saw a rainbow in the sky after a week’s worth of rain, a moment in time when the first sip of champagne at a wedding caught their taste buds and revelled in the simple but undeniable pleasure of a rite of passage; that effortless elegance, the uncomplicated grace that resides in the heart of Paul Carrack and his latest album, Soul Shadows, is one of purity and conviction.

Paul Carrack, Soul Shadows. Album Review. full post

(378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Creed, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Andre Ward, Tony Bellew, Ritchie Coster, Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran, Graham McTavish, Malik Bazille, Ricardo McGill, Gabe Rosado, Wood Harris, Buddy Osborn, Rupal Pujara.

Hollywood and sport doesn’t exactly mix, football, golf, rugby, ice hockey, all end up being seen as a pale imitation of what can happen on the field of play and the reason it mostly comes down to is the ability to replicate the dramatic vision of the spectacle is almost non-existent. The film revels too much in the prowess of the team event to be carried off in spectacular fashion, it looks clumsy and forced, the poetry of the game stunted and fluffed out, it is overdone and over produced.

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

(400 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Room, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson, Sandy McMaster, Matt Gordon, Amanda Brugel, Joe Pingue, Joan Allen, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Cas Anvar, William H. Macy, Jee-Yun Lee, Randall Edwards, Justin Mader, Ola Sturik, Rodrigo Fernadez-Stoll, Rory O’ Shea, Tom McCamus, Kate Drummond, Jack Fulton.

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

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

The Hateful Eight, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Coggins, Demien Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, James Parks, Channing Tatum, Dana Gourrier, Zoë Bell, Lee Horsley, Gene Jones, Keith Jefferson, Craig Stark, Belinda Owino.

Not so much a Western, but a murder mystery wrapped in the backdrop of post civil-war America and into which the bleakness of the situation, the desperation of the unfolding events will have many surely comparing Quentin Tarantino’s eighth film, The Hateful Eight in no small measure to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None or any derivation of the name.

The Hateful Eight, Film Review. full post

(400 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

A War, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Pilou Asbæk, Dar Salim, Tuva Novotny, Søren Malling, Charlotte Munck, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Alex Høgh Andersen, Jakob Frølund, Philip Sem Dambæk.

There are no winners in war, just people who are alive and those who have died and sometimes those that are in between the two states, their hearts functioning but ground to stone and whose thoughts are too preoccupied with what they have witnessed to ever find solace in humanity again. War is meaningless at the best of times, when it sees the split second decision enforced upon someone, to let someone else die or a comrade, then the futility of it is heart-breaking and obvious, such is the madness of A War.

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

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

The Danish Girl, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Eddie Redmayne, Adrian Schiller, Amber Heard, Emerald Fennell, Ben Whishaw, Pip Torrens, Matthias Schoenaerts, Nicholas Woodeson, Sebastian Koch Rebecca Root, Henry Pettigrew, Richard Dixon, Sonya Cullingford.

The Danish Girl has been a film in the making for so long, that has had so many stars attached to it that it began to feel as though it might never materialise. Yet time has a way of making cinema goers wait for what could be seen as a groundbreaking and informative film, and they don’t come much more groundbreaking than a story about one of the first recorded gender reassignment procedures on record.

The Danish Girl, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Joy, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, Édgar Ramírez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Dascha Polanco, Elisabeth Röhm, Susan Lucci, Laura Wright, Maurice Bernard, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Ken Howard, Ray De La Paz.

Everybody has an idea; everybody has something to offer the world and should never be discouraged from attempting to bring it to fruition, to at least say they tried without having it rammed down their throat when the project goes wrong. The trouble is when money gets involved or when the scheme goes well, everybody wants a piece of the action and rather than congratulating the person, the bitter pangs of jealousy rear their head. Everybody has an idea, however the committee that thought Joy would make a great film seriously needs to look deep into their heart and ask themselves why they allowed it make it to the screen.

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

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