Tag Archives: film review

The Two Faces Of January, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Oscar Isaac, Kirsten Dunst, David Warshofsky, Daisy Bevan, Yigit Özsener, Nikos Mavrakis, Prometheus Aleifer, Ozan Tas, Socrates Alafouzos, James Sobol Kelly, Evgenia Dimitropoulou, Omiros Poulakis, Brian Niblett, Mehmet Esen, Pablo Verdejo, Okan Avci, Kosta Kortidis, Karayianni Margaux, Peter Mair.

The Two Faces of January is a film in which the tension, fuelled by the appearances of unrivalled brinkmanship and matchless testosterone, excels. It delves into the culture of violence briefly but that is the point, it is an intelligent enough adaptation to realise that films don’t need to go down the route of overwhelming forceful aggression to make it worth watching. The violence that happens is more through circumstance of two men caught in a trap of their own making and of jealousy. The prize is not just freedom in the end it seems.

The Two Faces Of January, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(419 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Godzilla (2014), Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, CJ Adams, Ken Watanabe, Carson Bolde, Sally Hawkins, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn, Richard T. Jones, Victor Rasuk, Patrick Sabongui, Jared Keeso, Luc Roderique, James Pizzinato, Catherine Lough Hagguist, Eric Keenleyside, Primo Allon, Ken Yamamura, Hiro Kanagawa, Yuki Morita.

Every generation gets the Godzilla they deserve. The 1990’s debacle starring Matthew Broderick thankfully can now be put to bed as the nightmare it was and audiences in the second decade of the 21st Century can breathe easy knowing they at least have got a monster so cool that it practically makes all other versions somehow seem vastly inferior.

Godzilla (2014), Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(696 words, estimated 2:47 mins reading time)

Bad Neighbours, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Brian Huskey, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo, Halston Sage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lisa Kudrow, Jerrod Carmichael, Craig Roberts, Ali Cobrin, Hannibal Buress.

 

It seriously makes you worry for the future of American comedy if all a studio can come up with is a film that relies far too much displaying the bodily differences between the two main male leads, more needless swearing than you find underlined in a dictionary by somebody with limited vocabulary and an over reliance on showcasing the university fraternity system and their spat with modern day suburbia. It has been down before, with better artistry, finer scripts and with a couple of notable exceptions with better leads and supporting cast. Bad Neighbours is no Animal House. It even has the dubious pleasure of somehow managing to make the National Lampoon films seem like gold dust.

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

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scott McNairy, Tess Harper, Matthew Page, Hayley Derryberry, Travis Hammer, Mark Huberman, Jamie Powers, Kevin Wiggins, Stephen M. Hardin, Paul Butterworth, Morse Bicknell, Jessica Stotz Harrell, Crystal Miller, Alex Knight, Lauren Poole, François Civil, Abe Bueno Jallad, Philip David Pickard, Katie Anne Mitchell, Bruce McIntosh, Jean Effron, J.B. Tuttle, Laura-Love Tode, Andy Brooks, Jordyn Aurora Aquino, Dean Satriano, Rosalind Adler.

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

(570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Blue Ruin, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves, Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb, David W. Thompson, Brent Werzner, Stacy Rock, Sidné Anderson, Bonnie Johnson, Daniel L. Kelly, Ydaiber Orozco, Erica Generaux Smith.

 

When one plots revenge they had better dig two graves…but once revenge is thrust into the hands of the meek and mild the body count could be a lot higher as the film starring the superb Macon Blair, Blue Ruin, more than ably shows.

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

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Locke, Film Review. Picturehouse@Fact, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Hardy, Nqabilezitha Mhlonga, Olivia Coleman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Ben Daniels, Tom Holland, Bill Milner, Danny Webb, Alice Lowe, Silas Carson, Lee Ross, Kirsty Dillon.

American cinema may have invented the concept of the “Road Movie”, just as they did with the beat poetry that used the idea as metaphor to describe life but surely in the hands of one film, British cinema has shown exactly what can be done with the genre. The wide open spaces that run the width of the United States is can be argued is a poor substitute to the tediousness that is inflicted upon drivers in the U.K., the road in America takes you to the place you want to be, the road in Britain takes you where you need to be. For that prospect alone makes Locke one of the finest films dealing with solitude and everyday realism that you are likely to come across.

Locke, Film Review. Picturehouse@Fact, Liverpool. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Film Review. Picturehouse @ F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHann, Sally Field, Campbell Scott, Paul Giamatti, Embeth Daviditz, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Marton Csokas, Louis Cancelmi, Max Charles, B.j. Novak, Sarah Gadon, Michael Massee, Helen Stern, Stan Lee, Jorge Vega.

For all the good Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst bought to the Spiderman films of the previous decade, there is huge appeal in watching Andrew Garfield play the Marvel Comic book hero and the excellent Emma Stone as the immensely enjoyable Gwen Stacy in the latest Amazing Spider-Man film.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Film Review. Picturehouse @ F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(725 words, estimated 2:54 mins reading time)

Muppets Most Wanted. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey, Tony Bennett, Hugh Bonneville, Sean Combs, Jermaine Clement, Rob Couddry, Mackenzie Crook, Celine Dion, Dexter Fletcher, Lady Gaga, Zach Galifianakis, Josh Groban, Salma Hayek, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hollander, Toby Jones, Frank Langella, Ray Liotta, Ross Lynch, James McAvoy, Chloë Grace Moretz, Usher Raymond, Miranda Richardson, Saoirse Ronan, Til Schweiger, Russell Tovey, Danny Trejo, Stanley Tucci, Christoph Waltz

Voice artists: Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel, Peter Linz, Louise Gold.

Muppets Most Wanted. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(498 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Rade Serbedzija, Yasmin Paige, James Fox, Phyllis Somerville, J. Mascis, Sally Hawkins, Cathy Moriarty, Chris O’Dowd, Paddy Considine, Chris Morris, Georgie-May Tearle, Craig Roberts.

What happens when your worst enemy is you? Not psychologically, at least not in the beginning but you, your face is their face, your life is slowly becoming their life and no matter what you do, your existence is being erased, you become even more of a non-entity, a being of such unimportance that people forget your name when they shake your hand, would you fight back to restore your individuality and own self-worth? This is the problem facing the superb Jesse Eisenberg in Richard Ayoade’s dark, almost 1984 like black comedy The Double.

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

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins, Douglas Booth, Leo McHugh Carroll, Frank Langella, Dakota Goyo, Marton Csokas, Madison Davenport, Nick Nolte, Mark Margolis, Kevin Durand, Nolan Gross, Adam Griffith, Gavin Casalegno, Skylar Burke

It seems odd that it has taken this long to make a film about one of patriarchs and prophets of Judaism and Christianity when so many others have been touched upon in one way or another since the early days of cinema. For a film titled Noah it is going to be hard for many to get past the big elephant in the ark, as well as all the snakes and the odd Silverback Gorilla. It’s going to take willpower for some not to let a great story get in the way of something so old and too some so sacred.

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

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