Category Archives: Film

Mad Max: Fury Road, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, John Howard, Richard Carter, Angus Sampson, Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer, Coco Jack Gillies.

There are times when a long chase sequence is played out in front of a cinema audience and the heart just groans under the pressure of being subjected to the Director’s whim and fancy. It can be viewed upon as just being delivered as if the Director has no other idea of what to place into the film’s story line than have several cars or vehicles race round for a couple of hours with no discernible universal truth being explored. It is basically a testosterone fight but with petrol pumping through the heart instead of blood; it’s been done so many times that it has almost become a pastiche of itself.

Spooks: The Greater Good, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Kit Harrington, Peter Firth, Tuppence Middleton, Jennifer Ehle, David Harewood, Tim McInnerny, Lara Pulver, Elyes Gabel, Eleanor Matsuura, Laura Swift, Shina Shihoko Nagai, Ronan Summers, Elizabeth Conbiy, Michael Wildman, Cosmo Jarvis, Lasco Atkins, Elliot Levvy, Graham Curry, Lee Asquith-Coe, Hugh Simon.

Just because the threat to national security is not to be seen, doesn’t mean it’s not there. The same goes it seems for television programmes; just because they are not on every week and being part of the nation’s lunch time natter, doesn’t mean that stories haven’t been envisaged, it just means that when the opportunity strikes, it is wheeled out without due recourse or consideration.

Unfriended, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Heather Sossaman, Courtney Halverson, Matthew Bohrer, Jacob Wysocki, Mickey River, Cal Barnes, Christa Hartsock.

The abundance of the Horror film is almost reached a point in recent years where there is almost nothing new to in which to truly be seen as a unique angle. The Blair Witch Project  and possibly the original Saw were arguably the last of the genre to put a completely new spin on the subject matter and other since have been pale imitations, with just a few coming through that have captured the imagination for the way they dealt with the isolating factor that fear holds.

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf, Michael Maertens, Imogen Kogge, Kirsten Block, Uwe Preuss, Eva Bay, Jeff Burrell, Megan Gay, Claudia Geisler-Bading, Daniela Holtz, Max Hopp, Nikola Kastner.

For many the thought of being able to start anew after the ravages of World War Two were enough to change their name and what they may have done during the dark days of brutal darkness that shrouded Europe, the tyranny, the domination and the suffering, either endured or administered. For many that survived the absolute horrors of the concentration camps and the sickening depravity that humanity can sink to in the death camp of Auschwitz, a change of name was not enough, some had to undergo surgery to wipe away the terrors visited upon their faces and their bodies at the hands of the Nazis, to rise if they could like a Phoenix from the ashes. .

Far From The Madding Crowd (2015), Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.CT., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple, Tilly Vosburgh, Mark Wingett, Dorian Lough, Sam Phillips, Bradley Hall, Hilton McRae, Jessica Barden, Harry Peacock, Victor McGuire, Jody Halse, Pauline Whitaker, Belinda Low, Leonard Szepietowski, Jon Gunn, Andrew Price, Thomas Arnold, Richard Dixon.

The Falling, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Maisie Williams, Maxine Peake, Florence Pugh, Anna Burett, Greta Scacchi, Rose Caton, Lauren McCrostie, Katie Ann Knight, Evie Hooten, Monica Dolan, Mathew Baynton, Morfydd Clark, Joe Cole.

The Falling is full of style, intrigue; a cast dominated by wonderful actresses and full of potential and yet, despite all this, leaves the cinema goer feeling flatter than an uncooked pancake sitting in a café, untouched, alone and as indigestible as a school meal in the 1970s.

Child 44, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Mark Lewis Jones, Joel Kinnaman, Fares Fares, Karel Dobrey, Agnieszka Grochowska, Petr Vanek, ana Stryková, Jason Clarke, Ursina Lardi, Michael Nardone, Jemma O’Brien, Lottie Steer, Barbora Lukesová, Petr Semerád, Paddy Considine, Zdenek Barinka, Finbar Lynch, Ned Dennehy, Vincent Cassel, Hana Frejková, Gary Oldman, Tara Fitzgerald, Charles Dance, Xavier Atkins.

 

The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.CT., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Hayley Atwell, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, James Spader, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Bettany, Idris Elba, Cobie Smulders, Linda Cardellini, Andy Serkis, Stellan Skarsgård, Lou Ferrigno, Stan Lee, Claudia Kim, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Thomas Kretschmann.

Dark Horse, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are many names that sit like Kings of old on the throne of the nation’s favourite race horse and whatever the rights and wrongs of which there are plenty on either side of the argument, the fact that an animal is so revered is one of the great pleasures in life for many millions of people.

A Little Chaos, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kate Winslet, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Ehle, Alan Rickman, Helen McCrory, Matthias Schoenaerts, Steven Waddington, Danny Webb, Adrian Schiller, Adrian Scarborough, Pauline Moran, Phyllida Law, Morgan Watkins, Henry Garrett, Alistair Petrie, Adam James.

There are films in which the abundance of talent on offer simply overwhelms the story line, the procession of acting nobility so engulfing, so crushing, that the film dies a thousand scripted deaths; it never truly lives up to the dignity envisioned off screen and the grace offered in the initial stages of casting. Thankfully this is not the issue when it comes to A Little Chaos.