Author Archives: Sam S-P
Review in Brief: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Luc Besson has never been short on ideas, and what a story to carry those ideas, the one that inspired much of the aesthetic of both THE FIFTH ELEMENT and STAR WARS. VALERIAN opens with a hypnotic and feel-good montage … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT somehow feels like an arse-achingly long sit but incredibly rushed at the same time. I don’t blame Michael Bay and his writers room for putting out the silliest Transformers movie yet, but maybe cutting the amount … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Yep, it’s definitely an S Craig Zahler film. Much like his Western BONE TOMAHAWK, BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 is intense, drip-feedy in its pacing and almost cartoonishly ultraviolent. Also like Tomahawk it seems to become an entirely different film … Continue reading
Review: Justice League (2017)
JUSTICE LEAGUE is the most boring superhero extravaganza (or should that be urgh-stravaganza?) I’ve ever seen. You’ve got six superheroes to provide spectacle and colour, how do you end up with something so dull? Superman (Henry Cavill) is dead, but … Continue reading
Review in Brief: The Fate of the Furious (2017)
FATE OF THE FURIOUS starts with Vin Diesel winning a race, whilst driving backwards, and on fire. This is the movie being subtle: later there’s a scene in New York that has cars doing acrobatics in the streets and raining … Continue reading
Review: Paddington 2 (2017)
If there’s a film cure for what ails you, it’s surely PADDINGTON 2. The concept of Paddington being sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit sounds like a particularly twisted ROBOT CHICKEN sketch, but it’s actually the route … Continue reading
Review in Brief: The Mummy (2017)
Well, it’s not the worst film of 2017. The latest take on Universal’s THE MUMMY has Tom Cruise running, jumping, shooting, swimming with all his usual aplomb, the problem is there is nothing likeable, even redeemable about his character Nick … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2017)
The fifth instalment of the ridiculously lucrative PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise is cinematic flotsam. Actually, it’s probably more accurately jetsam because some panicked throwing overboard of everything from plot to character motivations was definitely involved in the making of … Continue reading
My Favourite…Animation
My favourite animated film is THE IRON GIANT. Brad Bird’s big-screen directorial debut is magical, pure and simple. It preserves the central themes of the Ted Hughes story on which it is based, but makes them far more hard-hitting by … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 
This does put a smile on my face…
There’s a palpable crackle in the atmosphere, enough to make a teenager’s Spidey-sense kick in. That can only mean one thing: Marvel have given us an early Christmas present with the first trailer for next year’s AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. So … Continue reading →