Author Archives: Sam S-P
Review: Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Some of you may remember THOR: THE DARK WORLD wasn’t that good. It wasn’t that bad either, but between storytelling falling over itself to cram in more of a certain God of Mischief after the fact and the worst villain … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Gerald’s Game (2017)
There’s such fine, detailed character work here and such a limited pool of performers and locations that you can imagine GERALD’S GAME working as well on stage as it does on film. Sooner or later, one of the usual Stephen … Continue reading
Review: Death Note (2017)
DEATH NOTE isn’t very good. That’s not to say the premise isn’t clever, or the original Japanese source material not worth your attention, but Adam Wingard’s American film adaptation agonisingly squanders potential at every turn. This upsets me, because I … Continue reading
Review: The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN is an absolute delight. This is a really funny, sweet, real movie. Of course thirteen year-old Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) curses God for her uncanny resemblance to “Vote for Pedro” as she hits puberty. As she hits … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Loving (2016)
LOVING is glacial in pacing, almost apologetically low-key and the thick-as-treacle accents can be just as tricky to translate as in writer-director Jeff Nichols’ other work. The two grounded performances at its heart (career bests from both Joel Edgerton and … Continue reading
Review: Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Good things come to those who wait. Sometimes they’re really good. BLADE RUNNER 2049 not only builds on the world created by Philip K Dick and visualised by Ridley Scott, but it takes the ideas behind both much further and … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Life (2017)
For what it is (which is essentially THE THING if it was on a space station), LIFE is very watchable. The characters are of the stock variety and you can plainly see what order they are going to die horribly … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Hidden Figures (2016)
HIDDEN FIGURES is a gentle take on a crucial story. Why do more people not know the names Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson? All three were key figures in the Space Race and remarkable, nigh-on-miraculous in their … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 
This is not going to go the way you think…
Something happened last night (or this morning in the UK). There was a disturbance in the force and millions of voices cried out in jubilation, not to be silenced until December. The first full trailer for STAR WARS: THE LAST … Continue reading →