Author Archives: Sam S-P
Review: Ready Player One (2018)
A thought kept occurring to me while watching Steven Spielberg’s READY PLAYER ONE: what would a director like Paul Verhoeven have done with this material? The movie would certainly have had more bite. Spielberg isn’t prepared to step over that … Continue reading
Review: Annihilation (2018)
Fear not, viewers outside North America, despite reaching us through Netflix ANNIHILATION is not another straight-to-streaming stinker. In fact, Alex Garland’s second film as director is a thought-provoking, odd and uniquely beautiful beast. A military-science expedition into a quarantined area … Continue reading
Review: Game Night (2018)
GAME NIGHT is an unexpected delight. Something that could just be raucous and crude in the hands of the guys behind the VACATION remake from a couple of years back ends up being not only a really sharp comedy but … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Colossal (2016/17)
When I first heard about COLOSSAL – premise: giant monster is mysteriously linked to drunk Anne Hathaway – I thought, yes, that does sound like just my kind of movie. And you know what? It is! Hathaway and Jason Sudekis … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Jigsaw (2017)
While JIGSAW isn’t a bad movie, not even particularly low down in the wider SAW franchise (for the record it goes I, III, VI then Jigsaw) but it’s hard to love. Expect pleasing references to the earlier movies, new traps … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Their Finest (2016/17)
Yes, it’s probably destined to be a perennial Sunday afternoon favourite along with all the other cosy feelgood historical fare, but THEIR FINEST has a fair bit of bite to it as well. It has what SUFFRAGETTE (dignified as it … Continue reading
Review in Brief: The Vault (2017)
THE VAULT isn’t a very good…anything. Marketed as a horror-thriller (haunted bank vaults: why isn’t that a genre go-to?) but it just doesn’t work because it’s not scary and it’s not exciting. I think they might have been going for … Continue reading
Review: Lady Bird (2017)
While we’re up to our eyeballs in father-son stories on film, even pretty frequently seeing father-daughter and mother-son stories (both examples involving sons tend to be dysfunctional, because aren’t we just the worst?), there are relatively few really good mother-daughter … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Mute (2018)
I’m so pleased Duncan Jones got this one out of his system. It’s just a shame MUTE doesn’t feel fresher or more complete. Speechless protagonist Leo (Alexander Skarsgard, cast for his big sad eyes) is Amish . Except for when … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 