Author Archives: admin

Creed, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Andre Ward, Tony Bellew, Ritchie Coster, Jacob ‘Stitch’ Duran, Graham McTavish, Malik Bazille, Ricardo McGill, Gabe Rosado, Wood Harris, Buddy Osborn, Rupal Pujara.

Hollywood and sport doesn’t exactly mix, football, golf, rugby, ice hockey, all end up being seen as a pale imitation of what can happen on the field of play and the reason it mostly comes down to is the ability to replicate the dramatic vision of the spectacle is almost non-existent. The film revels too much in the prowess of the team event to be carried off in spectacular fashion, it looks clumsy and forced, the poetry of the game stunted and fluffed out, it is overdone and over produced.

Creed, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(400 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Room, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson, Sandy McMaster, Matt Gordon, Amanda Brugel, Joe Pingue, Joan Allen, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Cas Anvar, William H. Macy, Jee-Yun Lee, Randall Edwards, Justin Mader, Ola Sturik, Rodrigo Fernadez-Stoll, Rory O’ Shea, Tom McCamus, Kate Drummond, Jack Fulton.

Room, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Once What Moved In New York City.

Once what moved in New York City,

I offer you to see, my lad.

I offer you up

to observe the flourish of excited youth

and play in what was up till recently

the waste ground of desire and poor human contact,

and yet it held magic, abiding spirit and conscious

unsurpassed, true beauty in a bubble.

 

I offer you my son

the chance to be an English man

abroad, to witness first hand

all that I saw, all that I loved

and all who took me by the hand

Once What Moved In New York City. full post

(201 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

Anna Corcoran, Easier Than Falling. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is so much strength in the world, so much hidden from plain view that sometimes the extraordinary is obscured by the feelings of jaded despair and noisy waste that flourishes in the absence of mouth watering musical beauty. For Anna Corcoran, that magical beauty, of the glorious and divine that comes across in her music is not just full of great strength but the imagery it provides is like the clear waters in a large and mighty lake, the whole sense of creation and its purpose there for all to see and in Ms. Corcoran’s measured way of producing intelligently subtle music, creation, beauty is far Easier Than Falling.

Anna Corcoran, Easier Than Falling. Album Review. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Move Over Moriarty, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Maggie Fox, Sue Ryding.

The eeriness of the London Fog, the sound of a violin playing somewhere down a fashionable street in West London and the inevitable descent into the criminal underworld that stalks and terrorises Victorian England, all trade-marks that make Sherlock Holmes the man to solve even the most heinous of crimes, especially one as dangerous, as perplexing as The Garibaldi Biscuit Affair; this is not a case where Lip Service is just paid to the Gothic, it is dunked completely and raises many current questions.

Move Over Moriarty, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

The Smile That Went For A Walk.

The tarnished anger in her eyes

never once betrayed the lack

of emotional pity that her voice

played tricks with;

that her brittle anger disguised

deep seated resentment for all things

that smiled.

 

The smile, confused and beautiful,

shrank her in wake

as she waged war, voluntarily despised

the tears of flowing radiance;

yet somewhere deep inside the smile

raised the flag of disarmament, of peaceful

solution, the smile would just not appear

in her presence, instead it would save

itself for someone empty of hatred.

The Smile That Went For A Walk. full post

(146 words, estimated 35 secs reading time)

Autograph, Louder. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A key signature may change over time, the inscription fade, no longer resemble the strong force of a passionate and courage filled pen and yet the Autograph remains vivid, noteworthy and collectable, if not for its memory then for the stature it represents and the autograph of the dedicated will always survive in one form or another.

Autograph, Louder. E.P. Review. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Midsomer Murders: The Incident At Cooper Hill. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Gwilym Lee, Fiona Dolman, Manjinder Virk, Sian Webber, Steve Toussaint, Tanya Fear, Michelle Collins, Steve Oram, Alison Steadman, Pip Torrens, Sheena Bhattessa, Alister Austin, Lee Armstrong, Steve Evets, Jennie Dale, Belinda McGinley.

There is more in the Universe than can ever be contemplated in the philosophy of a Detective Inspector in rural England, however the only thing alien about the county of Midsomer is that the murderer always believes that the bigger the elaborate death, the chances of them getting away with it; for that Inspector John Barnaby has both feet firmly planted in the real and on planet Earth.

Midsomer Murders: The Incident At Cooper Hill. Television Review. full post

(376 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Pigeons And Other Animals.

The stone feathers barely ruffle

in the effigy to the fallen fowl

misled as the funny fatal flaw

in avian folklore recklessly finds

that the community that flocks together

far below them in the passageways,

the streets of the important town,

group together, finding friends like seagulls

perching, fiendishly watching, squalling

for the left over bits of fish dropped

from frowning Government semi-official,

offal like folk.

 

Ian D. Hall 2016

 

 

Permanent link to this post (75 words, estimated 18 secs reading time)

Hozier, Gig Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It feels as though it is only a short time that Hozier burst onto the scene and took a new army of fans under his wing. In that short time, fuelled by a rampant merciful and laid back attitude, of songs so strong that they find themselves competing in competitions on beaches with their musical muscles rippling in the off shore breeze and the bronzed tan glistening in the summer sweat, has not been wasted. It has been fully developed and brought to the point of flourishing abundance and as the crowd at the Empire Theatre gave thanks in their hundreds for each and every song that appeared Genie like before them.

Hozier, Gig Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)