Category Archives: Film

Kicking Off, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Warren Brown, Greg McHugh, Alistair Petrie, Danielle Bux, Mark Bright, Geoff Hurst, Tim Major, Bailey Patrick, Jon-Paul Gates, Robbie Savage.

To many, football is a religion, it is the reason they get up in the morning, it is the devouring of knowledge, the talking point during the day and the bonding across the social strata, football is the motivation and the rationale but when it goes wrong, when the suffering of relegation is experienced, the humiliation of being the worst team possible, some might curse their own personal favourite deity; some might even consider ill will to the man in the middle who may have been the cause of the downfall of the gods, it might lead to the fan Kicking Off.

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

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Miles Ahead, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Keith Stanfield, Christina Karis, Nina milow, Austin Lyon, Theron Brown, Jeffrey Grover, Joshua Jessen.

Maverick, genius, individual, eccentric and a rebel to the point of sheer musical indulgence; there are many touched by such unconventional thought but few perhaps that typify the very human nature that circles within us all as Miles Davis.

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

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Louder Than Bombs, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg, Devin Druid, Amy Ryan, Ruby Jerins, Megan Ketch, David Strathairn, Rachel Brosnahan, Russell Posner.

All we are looking for is a connection, a reason to hold onto certain memories and recollections about our lives and those we hold dear to our lives. When that reason to have and hold is taken away in the blink of an eye, when Time reminds us with no quarter given, that all can be lost and shattered as easily as bones in an accident, then connection is frustrated and we have to make our own way, unguided and censured; the only companion is silence and it is one that is Louder than Bombs, more destructive than loneliness.

Louder Than Bombs, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

The Jungle Book (2016), Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Neel Sethi, Ritesh Rajan, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Garry Shandling, Brighton Rose, Jon Favreau, Sam Raimi, Russell Peters, Madeline Favreau.

There are remakes of films in which the audience should always ask the question, why did they do this, what point does it serve, what on Earth did they do that was any different? The feeling of a sacred bond between cinema and film lover being shattered by the gnawing pain that it comes down to money and conceit, never an easy feeling to shake off; however, in the live action remake of one of Disney’s finest films, The Jungle Book is a film of absolute beauty and fine film craft and much of it comes down to Jon Favreau direction and flag waving cause.

The Jungle Book (2016), Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Eye In The Sky, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Richard McCabe, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Monica Dolan, Iain Glen, Babou Ceesay, Phoebe Fox, Aaron Paul, Faisa Hassan, Aisha Takow, Armaan Haggio, Gavin Hood, Ebby Weyime, Lex King, Andrew Ahula, Ali Mohamed.

There are many reasons in which to take Eye In The Sky for a simple film about choice, its after effects and the consequences of decision; there are many reasons in which to understand that sometimes the greater good is served by the action of several bad and potentially evil people being taken out and one good person losing their life because of it; what it doesn’t prepare you for is the harrowing nature in which some decisions are formed.

Eye In The Sky, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

The Huntsman: Winter’s War. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt, Jessica Chastain, Charlize Theron, Nick Frost, Sheridan Smith, Alexandra Roach, Rob Brydon, Sam Hazeldine, Robert Portal, Sope Dirisu, Annabelle Dowler, Colin Morgan, Ralph Ineson, Liam Neeson.

Winter is always coming; it just depends on how far you are willing to go in which to protect yourself against the savagery of war that plunges mortal beings into the ways of the warrior. Frost calls and the Huntsmen go in search of more lands to steal; it might not sound like a fairy tale but The Huntsman: Winter’s War is no story in which to consult The Brother’s Grimm over, this is a made up sequel of its own creation.

The Huntsman: Winter’s War. Film Review. full post

(433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger, Paul Hamy, Percy Kemp, Zaid Errougui-Demonsant, Victor Pontecorvo, Michael Dauber, Franck Torrecillas, Chem Eddine, Phillipe Haddad, Jean-Louis Coulloc’h, Hubert Rollet, Rachid Hafassa, David Colombo, Rabia Elatache, Arthur Vercken, Serge Michel, Anais Couette, Christian Bianchi.

All films have potential, by their very nature they are there to entertain or even inform; some though are baffling to the point of unpleasantness, they do nothing but argue with themselves about their role and like a pair of lovers quarrelling over who last paid for a night out, the position of what could be beautiful is replaced by a dark intrusion and one that brings the film into the arena of the fundamentally objectionable.

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

(378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, Tao Okamoto, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa.

There are moments of cinema so longed for that when they finally arrive it is always with a touch of hesitation of whether the viewer will actually believe in the finished article. The ultimate match-ups, the suspense, the nature of heroism, the costumes, the fights, the unexpected and the one cruel eye of misfortune waiting in the wings like an errant spider, swollen, ready to pounce on anything that makes the film stand out in a way that just doesn’t fit in with the idealistically placed images running around the fan’s mind.

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

10 Cloverfield Lane, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., Bradley Cooper, Suzanne Cryer.

It was only ever going to be inevitable that the strikingly excellent film Cloverfield would eventually bring some sort of sequel, after all J.J. Abrams is not known for leaving a story alone when there is a glimmer of hope that it can be taken just that next stage further. The presentation of the sequel though would always be seen as a testing ground for just how far a story regarding an alien invasion and the destruction of the world could be taken; monsters in the end are everywhere in such a premise.

10 Cloverfield Lane, Film Review. full post

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

High Rise, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast; Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss, Keeley Hawes, Dan Renton Skinner, Sienna Guillory, Enzo Cilenti, Peter Ferdinando, Reece Shearsmith, Augustus Prew, Stacy Martin, Leila Mimmack, Tony Way, Neil Maskell, Alexandra Weaver, Emilia Jones, Victoria Wicks, Bill Paterson, Dylan Edwards, Toby Williams, Eileen Davies, Maggie Cronin.

Brutal and dark, deeply disturbing and a tremendously excellent film, it seems strange then in that case that it has taken the best part of four decades to get J.G. Ballard’s High Rise to the screen but then it would not have had arguably the best actor for the role of the slowly mentally disintegrating Dr. Robert Laing in Tom Hiddleston.

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

(563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)