Tag Archives: Judi Dench

Six Minutes To Midnight. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Eddie Izzard, Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, James D’Arcy, David Schofield, Carla Juri, Kevin Eldon, Nigel Lindsay, Rupert Holliday-Evans, Bianca Nawrath, Maria Dragus, Celyn Jones, Tijan Marei, Franziska Brandmeier, Joe Bone, Richard Elfyn, Nicole Kelleher, Maud Druine, Andrew Byron, Luisa-Celine Gaffron, Juliet Hartley, Toby Hadoke.

We like to think children and teenagers have become more sophisticated and more adapt in understanding how the world works, that in the way they can overcome technology and hold their own in conversation regarding ideas, they, like their adult counterparts, are still as susceptible to falling for the charms of fanaticism of any political persuasion, that the words of rhetoric can just be as much a thrill when spoken with the voice of authority, as the soft coercion holds the beauty of poetry aloft.

Six Minutes To Midnight. Film Review. full post

(575 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Staged. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Georgia Moffett, Lucy Eaton, Anna Lundberg, Simon Evans, Nina Sosanya, Judi Dench, Samuel L. Jackson, Adrian Lester.

To be inspired in difficult and trying times is to accept that the human condition requires stimulating, craves arousal of spirit, and whilst art has undoubtedly suffered without mercy during 2020, there is something of the eternal machine of hope that grinds on, that beats in the heart of every artist of every persuasion, that the show, in whatever format, must go on.

Staged. Television Review. full post

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

Red Joan, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Hughes, Laurence Spellman, Tereza Srbova, Ben Miles, Robin Soans, Kevin Fuller, Stephen Boxer,

The declaration and labelling of being a traitor is one that is arguably fraught with the agony that comes with not being able to present your side of the story to the nation without it being lost in the clamour of calls for your neck, to die at the hands of a public spurred on by mass media and the urging of government to dole out maximum punishment.

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

(530 words, estimated 2:07 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)

Tulip Fever. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Jack O’ Connell, Holiday Grainger, Tom Hollander, Matthew Morrison, Kevin McKidd, Douglas Hodge, Joanna Scanlan, Zach Galifianakis, Judi Dench, Christopher Waltz, David Harewood, Alexandra Gilbreath, Cara Delevingne, Sebastian Armesto, Michael Nardone, Cressida Bonas, Daisy Chadwick, Michael Smiley.

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

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

Murder On The Orient Express (2017). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Penelope Cruz, Willem Defoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Marwan Kenzari, Olivia Colman, Lucy Boynton, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Sergei Polunin, Tom Bateman, Miranda Raison, Paapa Essiedu, Michael Rouse, Joseph Long, Elliot Levey, David Annen, Kathryn Wilder, Phil Dunster.

It is a story that evokes images that many of us will never see, never experience and one that captures the raw cold hate of many emotions, as well as the beauty of the scenery that is on offer as one of the most famous pieces of engineering takes its passengers through Europe.

Murder On The Orient Express (2017). Film Review. full post

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

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Richard Gere, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, David Strathairn, Tasmin Greig, Tina Desai, Lillete Dubey, Diane Hardcastle, Shazad Latif, Zachary Coffin, Christy Meyer, Seema Azmi, Danny Mahoney, Denzil Smith, Eddie Bagayawa, Rajesh Tailang, Avijit Dutt, Gary Tantony.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Esio Trot, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Judi Dench, James Corden, Richard Cordrey, Lara Rossi, Pixie Davies, Katie Lyons, Jimmy Akingbola, Pik Sen Lim, Polly Kemp, Geoffrey McGivern, Lisa Hammond, Arran Mitra, Alexander Bracq, Joseph West, James Thomas Scott, Anna Cannings, Leo Umeh, Emily Ralph.

Esio Trot, Television Review. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

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.

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

(567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Skyfall, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Rory Kinnear, Helen McCrory, Ola Rapace, Ben Whishaw.

There will be detractors of Skyfall, there always is and always will be when it comes to the James Bond film series. There will be those that call them archaic, a remnant of an era that no longer exists. They give it disparaging names and in less than polite circles pat themselves on the back for being able to condemn a film for representing certain social stereotypes and they will point to America at leading the way in how these types of films should be presented. Never mind the film, forget everything you have seen on the screen. It is easier to denounce both film and main actor when there is an axe to grinds somewhere.

Skyfall, Film Review. full post

(593 words, 1 image, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)