REVIEWS
Here's my views on the latest releases. Feel free to agree or disagree via social media or the contact form on the home page!
Note I may stray into tiny spoilers at times, but I try to keep the big 'uns safely under wraps. I'll always give a [spoiler] heads-up before revealing any major plot points.
1917 -- 5/5
11th January 2020Writing this the morning after watching, the film has stayed with me, emotionally, which is always a good sign. Walking out the cinema I had to steady myself as I was put in mind of great uncles and aunts who never lived past 1918 or 1945. I had spent...
FIRST MAN -- 4/5
13th October 2018Damien Chazelle's 4th feature is a biopic charting Neil Armstrong's passage from NACA test pilot to lunar pioneer. The film splits its time between [spoilers] the often tragic advance of the Space Race, and Armstrong's sometimes...
IT COMES AT NIGHT -- 5/5
9th July 2017Another in a spate of fantastic chillers in recent years, It Comes At Night preys on the very relevant concerns of isolationism and distrust.
Perhaps misled by the title and trailer, the general public consensus has been underwhelming, but...
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING -- 2/5
8th July 2017For me, the third incarnation this millenium of everybody's favourite neighbourhood spider-man is a victim of saturation. Whilst the writing steers clear of yet another origin story (Uncle Ben is conspicuous by his absence, although rumours abound...
BABY DRIVER -- 4/5
7th July 2017Edgar Wright returns with a very American crime caper built around a stylish soundtrack. Protagonist Baby is one last job away from paying back Kevin Spacey's crime boss, when things turn sour.
At times the film plays out like a music video,...
ALIEN: COVENANT -- 3/5
22nd May 2017The Alien universe is reopened five years after the underwhelming Prometheus. This instalment is set years after that origin story, when terraformers explore the deeper reaches of space, and are distracted on their journey by a signal from an...
COLOSSAL -- 4/5
21st May 2017A genuinely entertaining update on the buddy comedy slash monster movie, but Colossal is, handily, much more than that.
Anne Hathaway takes the lead as jobless party animal Gloria, whose relationship is on thin ice on account of her endless...
LADY MACBETH -- 4/5
7th May 2017The virtues of simple storytelling exude in this period tale set in the rugged northeast and based upon Nikolai Leskov's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District.
Thrust into a phoney marriage as part of a meagre land deal, Katherine is housebound and...
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 -- 3/5
6th May 2017A second outing for the wise-cracking antiheroes of the Marvel universe. This time around, the unanswered questions of Quill's heritage are dealt with, whilst the characters of Rocket and Nebula are afforded screentime to establish their...
MINDHORN -- 3/5
3rd May 2017A very jolly outing for Julian Barrett as Richard Thorncroft, as Mindhorn, the 80s TV detective and now out-of-work actor who is recruited by the police to catch an obsessed fan of his crime-fighting alter-ego..
There are some side-splitting...