Tag Archives: film review

Black Widow. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, Rachel Weiz, David Harbour, Ray Winstone, William Hurt, Olga Kurlenko.

It was the film the franchise needed, it just seemed to come at the wrong time.

Marvel have barely put a foot wrong in over a decade’s worth of film and television serials which have caught the public’s attention and imagination, and if looked upon as a stand-alone film within the franchise, Cate Shortland’s Black Widow has all the hallmarks of being a heavy hitter within the ranks; not only for the dynamic framed between Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh as Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova respectively, but for the way that the film is not afraid to tackle the murky waters of young children being groomed for war.

Black Widow. Film Review. full post

(371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Cruella. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, John McCrea, Emily Beecham, Mark Strong, Kayvan Novak, Kirby Howell-Baptiste Jamie Demetriou, Leo Bill, Tipper Seifert-Cleveland.

For all the great characters that the Disney studios have created or adapted in their time as one of the influential film makers of the last 100 years, it is perhaps the incredible villain Cruella de Vil who stands out alongside the likes of Captain Hook and The Evil Queen as ones who give children and adults alike their glimpse of how the twisted nature of humanity can be taken down a road of self-indulgence, possessed by want, and turned ugly within by their greed.

Cruella. Film Review. full post

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

The Comeback Trail. (2020). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, Morgan Freeman, Zach Braff, Emile Hirsch, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Kate Katzman, Eddie Griffin, Chris Mullinax, Patrick Muldoon, Julie Lott, Blerim Destani, Vincent Spano, Paul Witten, Aighleann McKiernan, Melissa Greenspan, Joel Michaely, Jermaine Washington, Desiree Geraldine, Morse Bicknell, Danno Hanks.

Like the Blues, it seemed inevitable that the days of the Western movie being cinematic gold had long since departed in a wave of nostalgia and fond memories, and whilst the audience might miss the gun smoke, the sense of identifying with the lone pioneer of days long past, the constant signalling and portrayal of the Native American people as the casting villain, the rampant stereotyping, and negativity is something that is not missed at all.

The Comeback Trail. (2020). Film Review. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The New Mutants. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 3/10

Cast: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Alice Braga, Blu Hunt, Henry Zaga, Adam Beach, Thomas Kee, Colbi Gannett, Happy Anderson, Dustin Ceithamer, Jacinto Vega SpiritWolf, Chuck, Marilyn Manson, Jeffrey Corazzini, Mickey Gilmore, Max Schochet.

It is a tale of divided generations, the ones that have been fortunate, blessed even, to find themselves in a time when cinematic adaptions of their favourite Marvel characters has by and large been positive, the reception for example of the transfer to television with some of what may be considered minor hitters from the long list of heroes and villains finding themselves to be just as  rightly adored as the perpetual is a symbol of the staying power of the dominance that Marvel has over its rivals in creating the hero for our time.

The New Mutants. Film Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Happily. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kerry Bishe, Joel McHale, Al Madrigal, Natalie Zea, Paul Scheer Billie Wolff, Stephen Root, Natalie Morales, Jon Daly, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Shannon Woodward, Charlyne Yi, Brecklin Meyer, Brea Grant.

Of all the emotions that humans suffer, jealousy is arguably one of the worst, it brings out a certain vileness, a baseness of feeling which can lead to unpleasantness, contempt, and in the end the destruction of friendships and love through a lowness of action that is on par with despicability.

Happily. Film Review. full post

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

The Silencing. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Annabelle Wallis, Zahn McClarnon, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Lisa Cromerty, Leland Assinewai, Kayla Dumont, Shaun Smyth, Jason Jazrawy, Brielle Robillard, Melanie Scrofano, Charlotte Lindsay Marron, Patrick Garrow, Mark Charles Cowling, Heather Stevenson, Tiahra Tulloch, Danielle Ryan, Caleb Ellsworth-Clark, Josh Cruddas. 

We have learned through hundreds of years of written storytelling, and thousands of years of oral narrative, that the woods and forests, whilst beautiful to look at, hold many secrets, untold dangers, and creatures that hunt for the sheer exhilaration of the chase, and to feed on those unsuspecting souls who pay no heed to the warnings, or are clouded by the romanticism that has filled their heads of the beauty in the trees.

The Silencing. Film Review. full post

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

Spontaneous. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Yvonne Orji, Hayley Law, Piper Perabo, Rob Huebel, Chris Shields, Marlowe Percival, Laine MacNeil, Clive Holloway, Doralynn Mui, Kaitlyn Bernard, Jared Ager-Foster, Mellany Barros, Chelah Horsdal, Luvia Petersen, Jarrett Carlington, Peter Bundic, Bzhaun Rhoden, Braeden Shrimpton, Eva Day.

A film should not have to rely on age or a viewer’s monocled taste to be seen, and perhaps admired for what it brings to the screen, like any art form the more people that see it, the more perhaps life can be understood, the snapshot of thought is not what we ignore, but what we are willing to embrace.

Spontaneous. Film Review. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

To Olivia. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, Darcey Ewart, Isabella Jonsson, Geoffrey Palmer, Sam Heughan, Conleth Hill, Michael Jibson, Sam Philips, Grant Crookes, Bobby O’ Neill, Bodhi Marsan, Robert Jarvis, Sarah Beckett, Jane-Charlotte Jones.

The life of the artist, the writer, the poet, is quite often one of doubt, frustration, isolation and damnation, and when they find even the one person who will listen to the fear wrapped up in the measures of beauty, at the back of their mind they know one day they might lose them, who might move on to new adventures told in a different way, or that like any adult, simply fade away, the shadow of their attention dissipating into the ether, like water from a tap that is slowly being turned off, the flow only matters if it is constant and observed.

To Olivia. Film Review. full post

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

Shazam!, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Zachary Levi, Michelle Borth, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Marta Milans, Meagan Good, Grace Fulton, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Stephannie Hawkins, Cooper Andrews, Lovina Yavari, D.J. Cotrona, Natalia Safran, John Glover, Caroline Palmer, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Ava Preston, Jovan Armand, Evan Marsh, Andi Osho, Carson MacCormac, Lotta Losten.

Shazam!, Film Review. full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Hellboy (2019), Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 7/10

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Stanley, Brian Gleeson, Nadya Keranova, Maria Tepavicharova, Ana Tabakova, Penelope Mitchell, Terry Randal, Mario de la Rossa, Christopher Mata, Atanas Srebrev, Dawn Sherrer, Michael Heath, Alistair Petrie, Rick Warden, Nitin Ganatra, Sophie Okenedo, Marckos Routhwaite, Ilko Iliev, Joel Harlow, Dimiter Banenkin, Vanessa Eichholz, Kristina Klebe, Charles Shannon, Carl Hampe.

Some characters are so defined by the actor portraying them that is a near impossible task for the audience to imagine anyone else in the role, especially in the cinematic world which holds arguably a greater sway on the mind that of the other visual medium of television and certainly in the realm of theatre.

Hellboy (2019), Film Review. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)