Category Archives: Film

Sleepless, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Michelle Monaghan, Scoot McNairy, Dermot Mulroney, T.I., David Harbour, Gabrielle Union, Octavious J. Johnson, Tim Connolly, Drew Sheer, Sala Baker, Tim Rigby.

The story of the corrupt cop is always one that can enthral an audience, to see someone who is supposed to uphold the law cross the thin blue line to the other side, normally for money, is one that is as old as Hollywood and as poignant as modern day society. It is also a tale which has been assuredly been done every way possible, that in many respects it is no longer shocking because we live in a world where moral boundaries have become blurred and downright insensible; we have become immune to it because we understand it goes on all the time, the chronic Sleepless feeling we have is the only defence to the constant news about it.

Sleepless, Film Review. full post

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

The Promise. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, Marwan Kenzari, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Sarafyan, Tom Hollander, Numan Acar, Milene Mayer, Igal Naor, Tamer Hassan, Alicia Borrachero, Abel Folk, Jean Reno, James Cromwell, Kevork Malikyan.

 

You may believe you know a story, you may bury it in the past in an effort to move on, to think that humanity has learned its lessons and we have become more attuned to dealing with the atrocities a nation can inflict upon its people, on another group of people just because they are different, because they pray a different way, because their customs are not your own, that they perhaps are more successful so bitter jealousy comes into play; humanity never learns, humanity keeps repeating the same sense of the damned and inexcusable and it is a lesson sharply delivered in The Promise.

The Promise. Film Review. full post

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

Unlocked, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Michael Douglas, Toni Collette, John Malkovich, Akshay Kumar, Adelayo Adedayo, Tosin Cole, Brian Caspe, Aymen Hamdouchi, Jessica Boone, Philip Brodie, Affaello Degruttola,

Unlocked, Film Review. full post

(608 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Lady Macbeth, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Florence Pugh, Christopher Fairbanks, Cosmo Jarvis, Naomi Ackie, Bill Fellows, Paul Hilton, Golda Rosheuvel, Ian Cunningham, Fleur Houdijk, Rebecca Manley, Kema Sikazwe, David Kirkbride, Joseph Teague, Cliff Burnett, Anton Palmer.

 

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

(527 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Guardians Of The Galaxy: Volume Two. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Laura Haddock.

All the fun of the original but with added family angst, if you are going to describe Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume Two in any way that resembles a nutshell then you can only go by that, a great family film that has kept Marvel Studios firmly in the top racoon place when it comes to portraying superheroes on film and that D.C. has a long way to go.

Guardians Of The Galaxy: Volume Two. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Forgettable, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Rosario Dawson, Katherine Heigl, Geoff Stults, Cheryl Ladd, Whitney Cummings, Robert Wisdom, Isabella Kai Rice, Simon Kassianides, Jayson Blair, Marissa Morgan, Aline Elasmar.

It should be a refreshing take on an idea, the real life animosity that resides in the heart of a spurned ex-wife over the new woman in the man’s life, the lies, the sense of fragile and the broken manifesting itself as a potential weapon, of a rage boiling to its maximum, to the end point where the terrifying spectacle of what you see is the representation of all that can go wrong when women fight over a man. It is not the nicest thing on Earth to witness and it does leave you wondering exactly what women see in the opposite gender to make them go down the path of no return.

Forgettable, Film Review. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Department Q: A Conspiracy Of Faith. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Pål Sverre Hagen, Jakob Ulrik Lohmann, Amanda Collin, Johanne Louise Schmidt, Jakob Oftebro, Signe Anastassia Mannov, Søren Pilmark, Michael Brostrup, Morten Kirkskov, Olivia Terpet Gammelgaard, Jasper Møller Friis, Louis Sylvester Larsen, Lotte Andersen, Benjamin Kitter, Maria Rossing.  

 

Faith is to be admired, even if you don’t follow a religion, a certain devotion to the conviction in a higher spirit, for to see someone take heart from the road they entrust to their faith is to feel at times blessed, assured that through their eyes the picture before you is arguably bigger, more focused; if it makes them happy and content to keep going through life’s most strenuous ordeals then who are you to knock them down.

Department Q: A Conspiracy Of Faith. Film Review. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Their Finest, Film Review. Picturehouse@ F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sam Clafin, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Paul Ritter, Rachael Stirling, Richard E. Grant, Henry Goodman, Jake Lacy, Jeremy Irons, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory, Hubert Burton, Claudia Jessie, Stephanie Hyam. Michael Marcus, Gordon Brown, Patrick Gibson, Lily Knight, Francesca Knight, Clive Russell, Cathy Murphy, Emma Cunniffe.

 

It is not always about who has the best and the finest body of men to call upon, the biggest bombs or the most modern equipment that can win a war, it is sometimes, more often than not, about the one individual who can add something a little extra, the one who sees the picture in the theatre of war just a little differently and who can add the element of propaganda to the rallying call of the nation.

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

(599 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Rules Don’t Apply. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Matthew Broderick, Martin Sheen, Hart Bochner, Candice Bergen, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Lily Collins, Steve Coogan, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt, Ed Harris, Paul Sorvino, Taissa Farmiga.

The story you don’t know is the one that is often the most factual, cinema has a way of unfolding the tale and only offering the sanitised version of someone’s life, the mistakes, they are erasable, the darkness, the redemption found, the eventual downfall, covered in a semblance of sepia toned grace; for in cinema the Rules Don’t Apply, most of the time they are made up on the spot and changed randomly.

Rules Don’t Apply. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(441 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Department Q: The Absent One, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Pilou Asbaek, Danica Curcic, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Johanne Louise Schmidt, Marco Ilso, Beate Bille, Peter Christoffersen, Soren Pilmark, Michael Brostrup

It is perhaps one of the quirks of cinema that a film can achieve much on the big screen and yet its two follow ups seem to drift away from the limelight without even being seen by anyone, such is the precarious nature sometimes of producing a modern noir that might seem unpalatable to anyone outside of the fan or the seriously interested viewer.

Department Q: The Absent One, Film Review. full post

(455 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)