Tag Archives: film review

Blue Jasmine, Film Review. FACT Cinema.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Andrew Dice Clay, Bobby Cannavale, Max Casella, Michael Stuhlbarg, Joy Carlin, Peter Sarsgaard, Richard Conti, Annie McNamara, Daniel Jenks, Glen Caspillo, Tammy Blanchard, Kathy Tong.

Every male director needs his absolute leading lady, every screenwriter needs the one person who can carry a film from start to finish and have the audience utterly absorbed by that person’s story. Woody Allen, long since one of the masters of this art, has perhaps the distinction of being able to bring the very best out of the actors who grace his films. The excellent Diane Keaton stands out in his early works as being a gem of comedy and now as Woody Allen comes to the other side of his long career, the outstanding Cate Blanchett gives one of the finest performances of her life in the superb Blue Jasmine.

Blue Jasmine, Film Review. FACT Cinema. full post

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

Rush, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Natalie Dormer, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, Christian McKay, Sean Edwards, Martin J. Smith, Rob Austin, Tom Wlaschiha, Alistair Petrie, Julian Rhind Tutt, Stephen Mangan.

One of the greatest sporting rivalries of all time certainly deserves the finest attention, the doting and sometimes critical eye of one of Hollywood’s premium directors and a script that captures the imagination and complexity of two of the motor-racing world’s most enduring figures. Ron Howard’s Rush delivers everything you could ever want in a film that looks at the relationship of man and machine…or in this case two men who dominated the sport in 1976, Britain’s James Hunt and Austria’s Niki Luada, the ultimate sporting playboy who revelled in the excess of life and the cool reserved detachment of a man born to be a winner.

Rush, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

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

About Time, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lindsay Duncan, Lydia Wilson, Richard Cordery, Joshua McGuire, Tom Hollander, Margaret Robbie, Will Merrick, Vanessa Kirby, Tommy Hughes, Clemmie Dugdale, Harry Hadden-Paton, Mitchell Mullen, Lisa Eichom, Jenny Rainsford, Catherine Steadman, Graham Richard Howgego, Kenneth Hazeldine, Natasha Powell, Richard E. Grant, Richard Griffiths.

About Time, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(657 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

A Scanner Darkly. One From The Collection. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane, Mitch Baker, Natasha Valdez, Mark Turner, Chamblee Ferguson, Angela Rawna, Eliza Stevens, Sarah Menchaca, Melody Chase, Leif Anders, Turk Pipkin, Alex Jones, Lisa Marie Newmyer, Ken Webster, Hugo Perez, Rommel Sulit, Dameon Clarke.

Watching a film adaptation of any Philip K. Dick story is likely to leave you scratching your head, pondering the meaning of existence and wondering if the directors have kept hold of their own sanity whilst working on a man’s work who was undoubtedly brilliant but whose words were riddled with the idea of a man searching for his own personal identity, even more so than any protagonist he wrote about in his novels or short stories.

A Scanner Darkly. One From The Collection. Film Review. full post

(863 words, estimated 3:27 mins reading time)

Kick Ass 2, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jim Carrey, Clark Duke, Olga Kurkulina, Lindy Booth, John Leguizamo, Iain Glen, Morris Chestnut, Garrett M. Brown, Claudia Lee, Augustus Prew, Donald Faison, Danial Kaluuya, Tom Wu, Andy Nyman, Steven Mackintosh, Monica Dolan, Benedict Wong.

Sequels are almost inevitable, especially when the first film outing was seen as something new and exciting to grab the attention of those pleasantly surprised by what they see on the big screen. Sometimes though it may be better to leave the story where it ended, with the credits rolling and the audience giving plaudits. The news that Star Wars is to have yet another follow-on and with no conclusion in sight is one such film franchise, the other unfortunately is perhaps Kick-Ass 2.

Kick Ass 2, Film Review. full post

(544 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

The Lone Ranger, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Johnny Depp, Arnie Hammer, Ruth Wilson, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale, Helena Bonham Carter, Mason Cook, J D Cullum, Saginaw Grant, Harry Treadaway, James Frain, Joaquin Cosio, Damon Herriman, Lew Temple, Leon Ripley, Stephen Scoot.

The Lone Ranger, Film Review. full post

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

The World’s End, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, Pierce Brosnan, Bill Nighy, David Bradley, Mark Heap, Steve Oram, Jasper Levine, Reece Shearsmith.

 

Is there nothing that Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright cannot put together that isn’t just pure British comedy gold? For the first fifteen minutes of the latest film to come from the warped and surreal imagination of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, The World’s End, it felt as if though the run had finally come to a crashing and disturbing end. Not so much comedy, not so much a film bought together by some of the most talented people around but the sinking feeling that this was more about a pool of writers and actors finally admitting defeat and waving a white flag but making a tedious journey round of jokes concerning the drinking culture of the U.K.

The World’s End, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

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

The Wolverine, Film Review. Crosby Plaza Cinema.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tao Okamato, Rila Fukushima, Ken Yamamura, Famke Janssen, Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Haruhiko Yamanouchi, Brian Tee.

The Wolverine has barely got going when perhaps one of the most explosive and thought provoking starts to a film ever hits the screen. From that point on, the film is exactly what you want from a motion picture depicting one of Marvel’s most loved characters, it is also exactly what you expect to get with just a few fine touches to separate it from the X-Men origins film which now seems lacklustre and filmed in a fairly half-hearted and to set up the next instalment of Marvel’s mutant team.

The Wolverine, Film Review. Crosby Plaza Cinema. full post

(664 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

World War Z, Film Review. FACT Cinema.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Fana Makoena, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, David Morse, Ludi Boeken, Peter Capaldi, Matthew Fox, Abigail Hargrove, Sterling Jerins, Fabrizio Zacharee Guidoas, Pierfrancesco Favino, Ruth Negga, Moritz Blebtreu, Ernesto Cantu, David Andrews, Elyes Gabel, Lucy Aharish, Julia Levy-Boeken.

There is nothing like a good apocalyptic film to send people in their droves worrying about the next big thing that will decimate humanity to the point of extinction. Rising sea levels and the air stream suddenly going into meltdown, asteroids that will leave big holes in the round and Morgan Freeman as the last decent man on the planet, a rampaging monster destroying half of Japan (take your pick) or perhaps the daddy of them, nuclear Armageddon in which Sheffield gets destroyed in perhaps the finest example, Threads.

World War Z, Film Review. FACT Cinema. full post

(630 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Much Ado About Nothing, Film Review. FACT Cinema.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Denisof, Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Sean Maher, Spencer Treat Clark, Riki Lindhome, Ashley Johnson, Emma Bates, Tom Lenk, Nick Kocher, Joshua Zar, Paul Meston, Romy Rosemont, Elsa Guillet-Chapuis.

Quite simply, every actor and director really wants to get their hands on big budget version of one of William Shakespeare’s works. The doom laden chorus who persistently suggest that the man, who along with William Tyndale can be seen as one of the fathers of modern English, is not hip, not important enough to young cinema goers and that the language leaves people cold, could do worse than actually attend the screening of Much Ado About Nothing as it revels in the language, makes it completely accessible and performs superbly.

Much Ado About Nothing, Film Review. FACT Cinema. full post

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