Tag Archives: film review

The Wolf Of Wall Street, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Joanna Lumley, Cristian Milioti, Christian Ebersole, Shea Whigham, Katarina Cas, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee, Barry Rothbart, Jake Hoffman, Madison McKinley, Spike Jonze, Bo Dietl.

American Hustle, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Jack Huston, Saïd Taghmaoui, Michael Peña, Shea Whigham, Alessandro Novola, Elisabeth Röhm, Paul Herman, Robert De Niro, Anthony Zerbe.

In the minds of many this side of the great ocean divide that separates the United States of America from the U.K. the glitz and glamour that is seen in various television shows and films centres on the likes of Miami and Las Vegas, further down the list is Atlantic City, a bolt hole for gambling in the upper portion of the great state of New Jersey but one in which too few ballads, poems or dreams are made of.

The Railway Man, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgård, Sam Reid, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tanroh Ishida, Marta Dusseldorp, Masa Yamaguchi, Keiichi Enomoto, James Fraser, Shoota Tanahashi, Akos Armont.

 

The Railway Man might face strong competition for the title of Best British film in 2014 but it won’t for the want of being an absolutely brilliant film with a cast that shines throughout and with the horrors of war not glossed over and forgotten. It is not a film to be taken lightly; it should be approached, just like the other film out this weekend, 12 Years A Slave, as not just a piece of cinema, to be sat through and then left discarded at the foot of the mind as other films get shown throughout the year, but as a piece of history, cinematic or otherwise.

12 Years A Slave, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Sarah Paulson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Adepero Oduye, Paul Giamatti, Garret Dillahunt, Scoot McNairy, Taran Killam, Chris Chalk, Michael K. Williams, Kelsey Scott, Alfre Woodward, Quvenzhane Wallis, Devyn A. Taylor, Cameron Zeigler, Rob Steinberg, Jay Huguley, Christopher Berry, Bryan Batt, Bill Camp, Dwight Henry, Ruth Negga.

Nebraska, Film Review. F.A.C.T Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Stacy Keach, Bob Odenkirk, Mary Louise Wilson, Missy Doty, Angela McEwan, Rance Howard, Devin Ratray, Roger Stuckwisch, Tim Driscoll, Glendora Stitt, Elizabeth Moore, Kevin Kunkel, Dennis McCoig, Ronald Vosta, John Reynolds, Jeffrey Yosten, Neal Freudenburg, Eula Freudenburg, Ray Stevens, Lois Nemec, Francisco Mendez, Jose Munoz, Catherine Rae Schutz, Terry Lotrous, Dennis McCave.

If the latter part of 2013 has anything to show for it then the quality of films that have come out in the last six months have been exemplary. None so less as the Alexander Payne film Nebraska.

Saving Mr. Banks, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Annie Buckley, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, B.J. Novak, Bradley Whitford, Ruth Wilson, Melanie Paxson, Victoria Summer, Kathy Baker, Rachel Griffiths, Dendrie Taylor, Kimberly D’Armond.

Saving Mr. Banks is a film that exemplifies the thought that somewhere between novel and film the life of the author is lost in the complexity of producing a cinema hit. The life of the writer, whose soul is poured into the painful birth of producing something that in a lot of cases is a cathartic way of exorcising a childhood memory, is overlooked. Cinema audiences, perhaps comforted in many cases by the end result, neglect the person who gave them the character in the first place.

Gravity, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris, Orto Ignatiussen, Phaldut Sharma, Amy Warren, Basher Savage.

There are seminal moments in cinema, moments of pure genius that you have to applaud and make note of to tell your grandchildren just how exceptional the film was so they can be inspired to find their own defining film moment. The instant when you knew that all your cinema going days had been but a test for your senses to get acclimatised to for the sheer majesty that is about to hit them in Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron’s mouth-watering, jaw dropping, heart thumping spectacle, Gravity.

Philomena, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Mare Winningham, Michelle Fairley, Neve Gachev, Charlie Murphy, Simone Lahbib, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Charles Edwards. Xavier Atkins, Wunmi Mosaku, Alan Davis.

True stories that are given celluloid treatment usually veer into the realms of films that gloss over certain aspects of life just in case it upsets someone of a particular calling, not so in the case of Philomena. This is a film that doesn’t shy away from the monstrous way in which some girls were treated in Ireland when they became pregnant.

Le Week-End, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, Olly Alexander, Brice Beaugier, Xavier De Guillebon, Marie-France Alvarez, Denis Sebbah, Charlotte Léo, Lee Breton Michelsen, Sébastien Siroux

Prisoners, Film Review. F.A.C.T Cinema.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Mario Bello, Terrance Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano, Dylan Minnette, Zoe Borde, Erin Gerasimovich, Kyla Drew Simmons, Wayne Duvall, Len Cariou, David Dastmalchian, Jeff Pope.

There is nothing more emotionally complex or disturbing than the chance that your child may be taken from you by a person or person’s unknown. Just the thought of it is enough to give people nightmares and keep their children under close supervision. Denis Villeneuve takes this fear and gives it added depth, unblemished and raw treatment to make the thriller genre stand up and take notice of how these sensitive subjects should be approached in the film Prisoners.