Category Archives: Film
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
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
SSP Thinks Film 