Category Archives: Film

The Mummy. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Marwan Kenzari.

There are times in which as a fan of the realm of the macabre and chilling, that you can actually find yourself missing the world of Hammer House of Horror, not through any type of morbid curiosity, but because it would have been perhaps more interesting to see how such creatures of British literature might have fared with a more diverse treatment rather than being arguably hung out to dry in the race to take on Marvel and D.C. in a world of heroes, villains, gods and monsters that Universal Pictures seems hell bent on creating.

The Mummy. Film Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Omnibus, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Alice Bunker-Whitney in Omnibus. Photograph by Brian Roberts.

 

Cast: Gemma Banks, Alice Bunker-Whitney, Eva McKenna, Joel Parry, Danny Burns, Eithne Browne.

It is always a cause for celebration when a production comes to the stage and truly brings an audience together in its humour and the way it showcases new writing, the positive ways it uses all the actors with equal clarity and the wonderful way in which it shows the genuine appreciation due its Director. When that celebration coincides with the soft re-opening of a much loved theatre after months of renovation and updating, then it is not just a case of bring out the decorations and congratulations, then it is the keen observance and salute that only an Omnibus can provide.

Omnibus, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(408 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Wonder Woman, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Gal Gadot, Robin Wright, Chris Pine, David Thewlis, Connie Nelson, Elana Anaya, Lucy Davis, Ewan Bremner, Doutzen Kroes, Danny Huston, Mayling Ng, Eleanor Matsuura, Samantha Jo, Eugene Brave Rock, Saïd Taghmaoui, Emily Carey, Florence Kasumba.

Forget the Testosterone, the heroes of old who have dominated the screen since Michael Keaton first donned the Batman suit, with unbelievable results obviously, for there is a true dominant force on offer, a heroine for the age and one that strikes back at the tired old clichés of femininity and valour, of fearlessness and boldness. For in Wonder Woman, there really is a hero that everybody, boy and girl, man and woman alike, can truly admire and one which takes a huge swipe at the misogyny that has been rampant in cinematic heroes for far too long.

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

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T.,Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Geoffrey Rush, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scoderlario, Kevin McNally, Golsifteh Farahani, David Wenham, Stephen Graham, Martin Klebba, Angus Barnett, Adam Browne, Giles New, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Paul McCartney, Bruce Spence.

 

Every tale has an ending, the circle completed and the finale one that can be passed down as being just as riveting or exciting as the original, the one that started the quest in the first place; if not then dead men and bored but faithful audiences tell no tales, for nobody likes a sequel to be a failure.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T.,Liverpool. full post

(538 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Snatched. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Ike Barinholtz, Wanda Sykes, Joan Cusack, Tom Bateman, Bashir Salahuddin, Christopher Meloni, Óscar Jaenada.

 

Mixed: a sense of neither engaging, being fun enough to overlook the obvious, or unresponsive enough to find certain aspects of the film entertaining; for Snatched, it might go down on its epitaph that this particular film is neither here nor there. Its ideas are laudable but not sincere, that it brings one of the greats of her time in Goldie Hawn back to the screen but then doesn’t relish the part that she plays as the once gregarious girl of the film’s past nor as the woman who made films such as Death Becomes Her and Private Benjamin such sublime pieces of art.

Snatched. Film Review. full post

(449 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Colossal. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson, Dan Stevens, Hannah Cheramy, Nathan Ellison.

 

There is a monster in all of us, how we keep it quiet, how we take on its virtues and its quirks is up to us, whether we drown it, whether we lull it to sleep with any type of substances or whether we allow it to consume us, to overtake our lives and subdue, to make us feel the guilt of all we have done, the thought behind it all may be too much to handle, it may just be too Colossal.

Colossal. Film Review. full post

(418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana, Aiden Gillen, Freddie Fox, Craig McGinlay, Tom Wu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Neil Maskell, Annabelle Wallis, Geoff Bell, Bleu Landau, Jacqui Ainsley, Georgina Campbell, Rob Knighton, Michael Hadley, David Beckham, Katie McGrath, Peter Ferdinando, Michael McElhatton, Mikael Persbrandt.

 

Legends come from stories long since handed down and embellished, made uncertain and then allowed to fade into the darkness of our collective memories, such is the fate of us all and without proof, who is to say that you also won’t become a myth.

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword. Film Review. full post

(631 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Beauty And The Beast. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Hattie Morahan, Haydn Gwynne, Gerard Horan, Ray Fearon, Ewan McGregor, Ian Mckellen, Emma Thompson, Nathan Mack, Audra McDonald, Stanley Cadenza, Clive Rowe, Adrian Schiller.

 

Heralded as one of the great Disney classics of all time, Beauty and the Beast is a scintillating tale of compassion over anger, of love over objectivity and quite rightly has become engrained in the heart of those who have taken its message of purity and simplicity against force and prejudice to its true place in the psyche; love conquers all they say and yet sometimes love is not quite enough to warrant taking a much loved animated film and turning into a live action feature, sometimes love just isn’t enough.

Beauty And The Beast. Film Review. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Miss Sloane. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Michael Stuhlbarg, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mark Strong, Jake Lacey, Alison Pill, John Lithgow, Sam Waterston, Douglas Smith, Dylan Baker, Ennis Esmer, Lucy Owens, Noah Robbins, Joe Pingue, Michael Cram, Meghann Fahy, Grace Lynn Kung, Sergio Di Zio.

 

There will be those that dare suggest that Feminism has no place in the 21st Century, that to them, disturbingly on the increase in the younger more affluent ends of female society, the word is dead, that it is meaningless to them; however without a construct and movement in place such as Feminism, it would be unlikely that a film of such intrigue and collective brilliance such as Miss Sloane would have ever been made.

Miss Sloane. Film Review. full post

(463 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Alien Covenant, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, Carmen Ejogo, Jussie Smollett, Callie Hernandez, Amy Seimetz, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, Benjamin Rigby, Uli Latukefu, Tess Haubrich, Lorelei King, Goran D. Kleut, Andrew Crawford, James Franco, Guy Pearce.

Perhaps once upon a time it would have been too much for a cinema audience to ask that the phenomenally superb and Box office smash Alien would ever get the treatment it deserved in sequels; to think it could happen in a prequel was beyond even the stretch of imagination of many a die-hard fan and yet lurking in the shadows, skulking with shiny black skin and acid for blood is the 21st Century equivalent of a nightmare made real, the outstanding Alien Covenant.

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

(545 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)