About Sam S-P
Writer and film fanatic fond of black comedies, sci-fi, animation and films about dysfunctional families.
I read A MONSTER CALLS over Christmas in preparation for this. What took me so long? Conor (Lewis MacDougall) doesn’t have the luxury of a happy childhood. Between his mother (Felicity Jones) losing her battle against cancer, his icy grandmother … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Review
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Tagged A Monster Calls, Drama, Fantasy, Felicity Jones, Film, Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, JA Bayona, King Kong, Lewis MacDougall, Liam Neeson, Monster Movie, Movies, Pan's Labyrinth, Patrick Ness, Sigourney Weaver
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I have a confession to make…I actually quite like GODS OF EGYPT. I enjoyed watching the film that made Alex Proyas aggressively lambast film critics for not giving him a chance, pretty much from when the first trailer dropped. I … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Feature, Film Review
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Tagged Alex Proyas, B-movie, Chadwick Boseman, Dark City, Film, Flash Gordon, Geoffrey Rush, Gerard Butler, Gods of Egypt, Jason and the Argonauts, Movies, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, Ridley Scott, Shakespeare, The Crow, Tolkien, Transformers
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Here are the very best, and the very worst films I’ve seen this year. MOONLIGHT, LA LA LAND and MANCHESTER BY THE SEA aren’t out in the UK for another few weeks, so don’t look for them here. Absent also … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Feature
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Tagged Abigail Hardingham, Adam Sandler, Adult Life Skills, Animation, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Blaine Brothers, Blockbuster, Chris Pine, Cian Barry, Comedy, David Mackenzie, David Spade, Disney, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Film, Get a Job, Grimsby, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Hell or High Water, Horror, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Jeff Bridges, Julian Dennison, La La Land, Manchester By the Sea, Mark String, Moonlight, Movies, Netflix, Nina Forever, Rian Johnson, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Romance, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sam Neill, Star Wars: Episode VIII, Suicide Squad, T2:Trainspotting, Taika Waititi, The Do-Over, War for the Planet of the Apes, Warner Bros, Wonder Woman, Zootopia, Zootropolis
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2016 has been a terrible year in the multiplexes, not to mention a particularly black one for art and entertainment in general. Blockbusters have rarely been so lacklustre or downright awful. Mercifully the indie film scene has had a far … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Feature
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Tagged 10 Cloverfield Lane, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Amy Adams, Anna Kendrick, Arrival, Bill Nighy, Blockbuster, Craig Roberts, Dad's Army, Dan Trachtenberg, David Lynch, Denis Villeneuve, Film, Independent Film, Jim Ward, Lotje Sodderland, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Movies, My Beautiful Broken Brain, Nicolas Winding Refn, Paul Rudd, Ricky Gervais, Special Correspondents, The Fighter, The Fundamentals of Caring, The Neon Demon, Under the Shadow, Zac Efron
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Was the emotionally bereft GODZILLA remake just a blip for Gareth Edwards? Thankfully yes it was. There is more genuine humanity, imagination and enjoyment to ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY than there was not only in the ill-advised giant … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Review
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Tagged A New Hope, Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn, Blockbuster, Diego Luna, Fantasy, Felicity Jones, Film, Forest Whitaker, Gareth Edwards, Godzilla, Lucasfilm, Mads Mikkelsen, Movies, Platoon, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Saving Private Ryan, Sci-fi, Star Wars, The Force Awakens
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There are three film franchises that have impacted me above all others. First, there came STAR WARS, which kept me happy throughout my first decade (on VHS – sadly I’m too young to have seen the original trilogy on the … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Feature, Film Review
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Tagged Alice in Wonderland, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Fantasy, Film, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Howard Shore, Ian Holm, Ian McKellan, Liv Tyler, Movies, Narnia, Peter Jackson, Sean Astin, Snow White and the Huntsman, Star Wars, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Viggo Mortensen, Weta Workshop
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For many, SPOTLIGHT was the surprise winner at last year’s Oscars. The true events the film is based on might be ripe for dramatic adaptation, but with its low-key performance and style, and actors that did not subject themselves to … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Review
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Tagged Brian d'Arcy James, Drama, Film, Josh Singer, Mark Ruffalo, Movies, Oscars, Rachel McAdams, Room, Spotlight, The Big Short, The Revenant, Tom McCarthy
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Six years ago it seemed like Tim Burton had found the perfect material to marry with his distinctive visuals and irreverent take on the world: Lewis Carroll’s Alice books. The resulting film, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, may have been colourful but … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Review
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Tagged Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Fantasy, Film, Helena Bonham Carter, HG Wells, James Bobin, Johnny Depp, Lewis Carroll, Mia Wasikowska, Movies, Sacha Baron Cohen, Terry Pratchett, The Time Machine, TIme Burton
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If there’s a film I never expected THE LEGEND OF TARZAN to remind me of, it was THE LONE RANGER. Both films are beautiful looking genre pieces with entertaining set pieces and shudder-inducing cultural insensitivity. Johnny Depp should never have … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Review
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Tagged Alexander Skarsgard, Christoph Waltz, David Yates, Djimon Honsou, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Fantasy, Film, Guy Ritchie, Johnny Depp, Margot Robbie, Movies, Samuel L. Jackson, Sherlock Holmes, The Legend of Tarzan, The Lone Ranger, The Lord of the Rings
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ARRIVAL is nothing like the way it was marketed (though you can’t blame the marketing guys for trying to get people through the door by making it out to be a disaster movie). Denis Villeneuve’s latest is a razor-sharp conceptual … Continue reading →
Posted in Film, Film Review
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Tagged A Nightmare on Elm Street, Academy Awards, Amy Adams, Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, Eric Heisserer, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Jeremy Renner, Oscars, Sci-fi, The Thing, Up
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SSP Thinks Film 