Tag Archives: Ian McKellen

The Good Liar. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Russell Tovey, Johannes Haukur Johannesson, Jim Carter, Mark Lewis Jones, Lily Dodsworth-Evans, Phil Dunster, Michael Culkin, Laurie Davidson, Celine Buckens, Dino Kelly, Aleksander Jovanovic, Stella Stocker, Nell Williams, Bessie Carter, Patrick Godfrey.

In a world looking for companionship and love, the warning of not trusting those who advertise on-line has perhaps never been more acute, more relevant. The older we get, the more it is possible to see the depth of our footprints in the sands of time and for those who might take the plunge in holding a hand out for that special someone, you have to ask, have we walked the path where my footprints lay, together before.

The Good Liar. Film Review. full post

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

All Is True, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Lydia Wilson, John Dagleish, Kathryn Wilder, Sam Ellis, Alex MacQueen, Jack Colgrave Hirst, Margaret Wheeler, Gerard Horan, Doug Colling, Lolita Chacrabarti, Philip Dunster, Freya Durkan, Flora Easton, Matt Jessup, Sabi Perez, Michael Rouse, Kate Tydman.

It is a beautiful story and one that will break the heart of anyone with half a romantic soul in their body and yet like all beautiful whispers that we seek to take advantage of by seemingly learning something of the poet’s soul, fiction, that forgiving beast of bounty, leads to a comedy of inaccuracies and yet we still pursue it as if it were a fair maiden covered in buttercup petals or a rueful youth displaying muscles and brawn on the beach.

All Is True, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

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

Beauty And The Beast. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Hattie Morahan, Haydn Gwynne, Gerard Horan, Ray Fearon, Ewan McGregor, Ian Mckellen, Emma Thompson, Nathan Mack, Audra McDonald, Stanley Cadenza, Clive Rowe, Adrian Schiller.

 

Heralded as one of the great Disney classics of all time, Beauty and the Beast is a scintillating tale of compassion over anger, of love over objectivity and quite rightly has become engrained in the heart of those who have taken its message of purity and simplicity against force and prejudice to its true place in the psyche; love conquers all they say and yet sometimes love is not quite enough to warrant taking a much loved animated film and turning into a live action feature, sometimes love just isn’t enough.

Beauty And The Beast. Film Review. full post

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

The Dresser, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ian McKellen, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Watson, Sarah Lancashire, Edward Fox, Vanessa Kirby, Tom Brooke, Matthew Cottle, Ian Conningham, Helen Bradbury, Isabelle Estelle Corbusier, John Ashton, Annalisa Rossi.

The Fool and his King are soon parted and the Fool will always regret being so in thrall of a man who despises him. The fine robes of stately oratory soon shed, the Fool sees his master as nothing but rags and as man whose life is but a mask.

The Dresser, Television Review. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Mr. Holmes, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hattie Morahan, Patrick Kennedy, Frances de la Tour, Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allam, Philip Davis, Nicholas Rowe, Madeleine Worrall, Sarah Crowden, Takako Akashi, Zak Shukor, Michael Culkin, Sam Coulson, Frances Barber, John Sessions, Colin Starkey.

There is perhaps a question of whether age diminishes the achievements that have been made in youth or whether to be seen as fallible, to be seen as mortal actually enhances the great strides made when life was to be moulded, when Time was not feared and the weakness that must come to us all as frailty and memory forsake the owner.

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

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

The Hobbit, The Battle Of The Five Armies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Richard Armitage, Lee Pace, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Billy Connolly,  Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Ian Holm, Sylvester McCoy, Ryan Gage, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy, William Kircher, Adam Brown, Aiden Turner, Manu Bennett, Hugo Weaving, Dean O’ Gorman, Christopher Lee, James Nesbitt, Stephen Fry, Mikael Persbrandt.

The Hobbit, The Battle Of The Five Armies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(666 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

X-Men: Days of Future Past, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,  Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Shawn Ashmore, Omar Sy, Daniel Cudmore, Evan Peters, Fan Bingbing, Josh Helman, Ellen Page,  Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, Adan Canto, Booboo Stewart, Lucas Till, Evan Jonigkeit, Gregg Lowe, Mark Camacho, James Marsden, Famke Janssen.

X-Men: Days of Future Past, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

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

The Hobbit, The Desolation Of Smaug. Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly,  Benedict Cumberbatch, James Nesbitt,  Sylvester McCoy,  Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Luke Evens,  Graham McTavish, William Kircher, Stephen Hunter, Dean O’ Gorman, Aiden Turner, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, Adam Brown, Mikael Persbrandt, Ryan Gage.

There is no better way to round off an outstanding year in cinema that too return to the Lonely Mountain, through a forest of spiders and a tangle with the web that Elvish Men weave and via one of the finest dialogues captured throughout the whole of the Lord of the Rings trilogies and a journey involving a reluctant thief, a Wizard and a gang of Dwarves than to immerse yourself fully into the world of The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug.

The Hobbit, The Desolation Of Smaug. Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Vicious, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Frances de la Tour, Iwan Rheon, Marcia Warren, Philip Voss.

The new I.T.V. comedy Vicious has two very big surprises attached to it. The first is that it must have been a hell of meeting when they announced that two of the biggest names of British theatre were to be cast in the lead roles and secondly that it was actually enjoyable. I.T.V. may be on top when it comes to excellent drama, the channel really having pulled out all the stops in its determination to be considered to be the natural home of the thriller and dramatic story line but its comedy has not been that well received.

Vicious, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis, Ken Stott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Sylvester McCoy, Barry Humphries, James Nesbitt, Stephen Hunter, Mark Hadlow, Dean O’ Gorman, Aiden Turner, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, Aiden Turner.

 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Film Review. full post

(522 words, 1 image, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)