Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Hannah McGowan, Esther Larkin, Jamie Brownson, Pete King, Ian Warburton.
The internet may be many things, it has the opportunity to mimic the human interactions of being a force for good and the huge potential for evil, it is the machine that is only as reliable as the content put in it and at times it makes you despair for the world and what people perceive they have to do to leave their mark on the fragile and scarred Earth.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Josh Helman, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Lucas Till, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Hardy, Alexandra Shipp, Lana Condor, Olivia Munn, Ally Sheedy, Tómas Lemarquis, Hugh Jackman, Stan Lee.
Uncanny as it seems but The X-Men are a franchise that keeps giving, not only in their graphic novel form but in the outline and grizzled affair that is cinema. This is certainly true as the first class trilogy comes to its conclusion in the exciting and worthy X-Men: Apocalypse.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Helberg, Nina Arianda, John Kavanagh, David Haig, John Sessions, Mark Arnold, Aida Garifullina, Christian McKay, Thelma Barlow, Nat Luurtsema, David Mills.
It seems that in the more cynical days of the 21st Century, to offer yourself up as having creativity run through you is too paint a target on your back and shout loudly, please kick me, please bring me down. Regardless of your ability, if you have the courage to offer a piece of your soul in the name of art then surely you should be allowed the brief respite of illusion.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Macon Blair, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, David W. Thompson, Mark Webber, Eric Edelstein, Brent Werzner, Lj Klink, Taylor Tunes.
America is built on many great cornerstones of achievement and sacrifice, on the blood of many in its home land, on its own soil, such great deeds have been fought and many acts of huge regret encountered; it is also a place where in the shadows, in dark corners and out of the way of prying eyes, certain ways of life, particular individuals wait and prosper by spreading their ideology to the forgotten and disaffected.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Damien Lewis, Naomi Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Mark Stanley, Alicia Von Rittberg, Mark Gattis, Jeremy Northam, Saskia Reeves, Alec Utgoff, Pawel Szajda, Khalid Abdalla, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Velibor Topic, Dolya Gavanski, Radivoje Bukvic, Marek Oravec.
It is only right that John Le Carré’s work is still seen as being amongst the finest of post Second World War espionage and spy fiction, from the remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to the hit television series Night Manager, John Le Carré’ is revered and respected, yet somewhere along the line that blurs one ideology from another, an author’s work can be muddled when adapted by another for the big screen; it is a fate that awaits what should be a good interesting film, Our Kind Of Traitor.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 0/10
Cast: Idris Elba, Richard Madden, Kelly Reilly, Charlotte Le Bon, Alexander Cooper, Anatol Yusef, José Garcia, James Cox, Laura Hydari, Karl Farror, Eriq Ebouaney, Daniel Westwood, Jorge Leon Martinez, Alex Martin.
There are times when you do have to wonder if some film makers actually know the difference between a good film with a plot that doesn’t tax the brain too much and that where they make a film just purely for the credit or the financial gain that might come their way, the plot as weak as a watered down soup from a vending machine in a bus terminus, the acting as interesting as mould growing in a Petri dish and all the action of a night in the morgue, where the only excitement is seeing just how badly the film runs towards its bitter and thankful conclusion.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, Martin Freeman, Marisa Tomei, John Kani, John Slattery, Hope Davis, Alfre Woodard, Gene Farber, Stan Lee.
The world hangs in a deadly balance, the world’s mightiest heroes are being reined in by their own kind and their friends and divisions and sides are being forged and broken; the world is used to such fun and games, countries routinely flip in their pursuit of self interest and government greed but to do this to those charged with protecting the planet, it all gets very murky indeed.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, Judah Lewis, C.J. Wilson, Polly Draper, Malachy Cleary, Debra Monk, Heather Lind, Wass Stevens, Blaire Brooks, Gregory Haney.
Grief is a peculiar beast; it affects people in different ways. Some will look at it as a time of reflection, some will plough themselves into their work till they become ill and others will find themselves finding a very different approach to dealing with the hurt, pain and absolute heartache of losing someone they love. The heart will grieve regardless and it is the moment of final deconstruction that most will come through the other side and find a reason to smile again.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor, Noah Emmerich, Boyd Holbrook, Rodrigo Santoro, James Burnett, Sam Quinn, Maisie McMaster, Jenny Gabrielle, Alex Manette, Piper Sheets, Celia Kessler, Linda Martin.
It seems the old west is becoming more flavoursome once more, it certainly has had a lot of time to find its niche market again and thankfully move away from the tired and almost disgraceful, fetish like voyeurism of the 1950s and 60s in which generations of cinema goers were treated to the version of events that depicted the wars and slaughter of native Americans and their European invaders. The old west now seems to venture into more realistic territory and yet occasionally it can blow its own trumpet too hard and offer a film that just doesn’t fit in either camp; it is neither truly awful nor astonishingly good but nevertheless it still is a piece of artistic interpretation worth exploring.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Michael Schenker’s contribution to the world of rock is such that it doesn’t bear thinking about what might have been had the young man not joined The Scorpions or U.F.O., what the world would have missed out on in the last few years with the outstanding Temple of Rock. The brain of the Rock fan, one that is always cerebral and contemplative due to the sheer cool of the genre, would go into meltdown if Michael Schenker had gone on to sit in a bank or become an estate agent; the waste of exciting and guitar brutal talent would just be too much too cope with.