Category Archives: Film Review
Review: Alien: Covenant (2017)
There’s a reason ALIEN: COVENANT re-adopts the parent franchise title. PROMETHEUS seemed stuck in an identity crisis, whereas Covenant is proudly a proper Alien movie. You’ll get everything you expect and then some from Ridley Scott’s real return to marshaling … Continue reading
Series Retrospective: Scott-directed Aliens
Just in time(ish) for the release of ALIEN: COVENANT, I thought I’d look back at Ridley Scott’s two previous encounters with Xenomorphs, Engineers and Last Women Standing. ALIEN (1979) It’s sometimes hard to believe that this was only Ridley Scott’s … Continue reading
Review in Brief: Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)
JUSTICE LEAGUE VS TEEN TITANS was the best superhero movie of 2016, and it was only 80 minues. With TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT, the animated arm of Warner Bros once again manage to embody what DC heroes represent so … Continue reading
A Few Thoughts More: Guardians Vol. 2
This following contains spoilers for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.2. I still stand by my initial review of Guardians Vol. 2. It’s definitely a better film on the second pass, and better still on IMAX. No, I still don’t think … Continue reading
Review in Brief: The Accountant (2016)
THE ACCOUNTANT, about an autistic money launderer/assassin is beautifully obsessive in its visuals, less careful elsewhere. Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is only autistic when it suits the plot and he is able to turn on the charm and have social … Continue reading
Review: The Raid (2011)
THE RAID, or: the Fine Art of Ultraviolence, as it really should be subtitled (subtitled REDEMPTION in the USA, which is sort-of a spoiler) was the finest martial arts film for a decade when it was rolled out over 2011-12 … Continue reading
Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Expectations can be a powerful thing. Nobody expected GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY to turn out quite as well as it did three years ago. And yet the batty space-opera starring Marvel Comics D-List characters and directed by the guy who … Continue reading
Review: The Handmaiden (2016)
THE HANDMAIDEN is unmistakably a Park Chan-wook film. A polished tale of control featuring sadistic torture and plot-reevaluating twists, this is far beyond the ordinary bodice-ripper. During the Japanese occupation of Korea, a thief (Kim Tae-ri) masquerades as a handmaiden … Continue reading
Review: Free Fire (2016/17)
Does Ben Wheatley ever sleep? Over the past eight years the British polymath has produced kitchen sink drama, folk horror, black comedy, Avant-garde, period-sci-fi-satire and DOCTOR WHO. He never does the same project twice and tends to mix it up … Continue reading
5 Years On: The Avengers (2012)
In 2012 it finally arrived – the blockbuster to end all blockbusters (as if). There was so much riding on THE AVENGERS, so many moving parts and so many things that could have gone wrong. Thankfully they didn’t, and it … Continue reading
SSP Thinks Film 