Category Archives: Film

The Spy Who Dumped Me. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Hasan Minhaj, Gillian Anderson, Dustin Demri-Burns, Mirjam Novak, Jane Curtin, Paul Reiser, Ivanna Sakhno, Fred Melamed, James Fleet, Carolyn Pickles, Justin Wachsberger, Kevin Ezekiel Ogunleye, Tom Stourton, Roderick Hill, Olafur Darri Olafsson.

When a film doesn’t know what it wants to be, perhaps the best thing that an audience can do is allow it to flow naturally and under its own progression. Putting a film into a genre specific box sometimes doesn’t fit, too many square edges, a piece of corner missing, and allusion to subtext which has no space to breathe; and yet flow it does, it somehow squeezes past defiance and nestles in the hole it has walked with confidence into and refuses to budge.

The Spy Who Dumped Me. Film Review. full post

(528 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Christopher Robin. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Bronte Carmichael, Mark Gatiss, Oliver Ford Davies, Ronke Adekoluejo, Adrian Scarborough, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Ken Nwosu, John Dagleish, Amanda Lawrence, Katy Carmichael, Orton O’ Brien, Tristan Sturrock, Jasmine-Simone Charles, Paul Chahidi, Simon Farnaby, Mackenzie Crook, Jim Cummings, Brad Garrett, Nick Mohammed, Peter Capaldi, Sophie Okonedo, Sara Sheen, Toby Jones.

It is, with hindsight, easy to suggest that humanity in the 20th Century lost its way, that we as a collected species lost our wonder and our innocence to a new way of thinking, a rational that arguably had its genesis in the self-imposed, stiff upper lipped facade philosophy created by the Victorians and to which even now has eaten away at our ability to forget the dreams we had as children and the wondrous stories we could weave.

Christopher Robin. Film Review. full post

(556 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Ant-Man And The Wasp. Film Review

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Coggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, T.I., David Dastmalchian, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Forston, Randall Park, Divian Ladwa, Goran Kostic, Rob Archer, Sean Kleier, Benjamin Byron Davis, Michael Cerveris, Riann Steele, Hayley Lovitt, Langston Fishburne, RaeLynn Bratten, Madeleine McGraw, Tim Heidecker, Suehyla El-Attar, Stan Lee.

 

Ant-Man And The Wasp. Film Review full post

(611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Mission Impossible: Fallout. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michell Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Wes Bentley, Frederick Schmidt, Liang Yang, Kristopher Joner, Wolf Blitzer.

The more the series goes, the bolder, more intricate, daring, it arguably gets, if played out right, the ideas keep coming, the bond between the actors grows stronger and like a team that has ascended the same mountain range every year, the more sure-footed they become, the more trust there is between the cast.  In Mission Impossible: Fallout that trust not only shows, it is indomitable, even with the new addition of the excellent Henry Cavill coming into the series as the C.I.A. hitman and enforcer August Walker.

Mission Impossible: Fallout. Film Review. full post

(511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Hotel Artemis. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, Zachery Quinto, Charlie Day, Dave Bautista, Kenneth Choi.

It is almost impossible to hold antipathy towards Jodie Foster, there is no rhyme or reason to look at her contribution to the art of cinema as nothing less than favourable and with some incredible memories along the way, from Taxi Driver through films such as Bugsy Malone, The Accused, the unforgettable performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs, and even in 1993’s Sommersby, Jodie Foster has sealed her reputation as an actor of outstanding quality, she has been one of the industry’s most forthright and passionate of spokeswomen.

Hotel Artemis. Film Review. full post

(481 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

The First Purge. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Y’Lan Noel, Lex Scott Davis, Joivan Wade, Mugga, Patrick Darragh, Marisa Tomei, Luna Lauren Velez, Kristen Solis, Rotimi Paul, Mo McRae, Jermel Howard, Siva, Christian Robinson, Steve Harris, Derek Basco, D.K. Bowser, Mitchell Edwards, Maria Rivera, Chyna Layne, Ian Blackman, Melonie Diaz, Naszir Nance.

If you hold a mirror up to society you can see the image, the sheer ugliness of the truth reflected back; if 2018 will be remembered in cinematic terms for two things, then the age of the superhero truly caught the public’s imagination in the excellent Black Panther, and the absolute truth played out in The First Purge.

The First Purge. Film Review. full post

(549 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Incredibles 2. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, Brad Bird, Jonathan Banks, Michael Bird, Sophia Bush, Phil LaMarr, Paul Eiding, Isabella Rossellini, Bill Save, John Ratzenburger, Barry Bostwick, Jere Burns, Adam Rodriguez, Kimberly Adair Clark, Usher.

Heroes never die, they just become engrained into the picture, drawn from the world and to face obscurity, a faded hope that slowly gets replaced by the champion in which the world at that time deserves.

Incredibles 2. Film Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Skyscrapper. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Pablo Schreiber, Chin Han, Roland Moller, Noah Taylor, Byron Mann, Pable Schreiber, Hannah Quinlivan, Kevin Rankin, Elfina Luk, Adrian Holmes.

If you are going to make a film that takes the very best ideas of two cinema classics then not only do you have to own that decision, but you must ensure it works phenomenally well, that there is room for the film to become its own stand out feature, and not just a hybrid that people will reflect upon throughout their time in front of the screen.

Skyscrapper. Film Review. full post

(481 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Adrift. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin, Jeffrey Thomas, Elizabeth Hawthorne, Grace Palmer, Kael Damlamian, Siala Tunoka, Luna Campbell, Zac Beresford.

There will always be those that decry the nature of heroism, citing their disdain as folly those who see the world as a place in which to seek out the new, the challenges, they shout the idea of recklessness as if it was not in our nature to explore, to push our bodies to the limits, and the mind just that little further onwards.

Adrift. Film Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Tag. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ed Helms, Lil Rel Howery, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Isla Fisher, Hannibal Buress, Nora Dunn, Steve Berg, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones, Indiana Sifuentes, Trayce Malachi, Jock McKissic, Thomas Middleditch.

We should never grow tired of being able to remember what it was to be carefree, of playing a game that would keep us on our toes and sharpens our wits, that made us become friends with those that we might see as different, more passionate and creatively devilish, than any of those that we come into contact later in life with. If we cannot play then how do we grow, the dull routine of staid and affected boredom is not one we should ever fall into, we should retain the sparkle of childhood, of those teenager years when someone slapped you on the back and run off claiming you were it.

Tag. Film Review. full post

(473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)