Saving Mr. Banks, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Annie Buckley, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, B.J. Novak, Bradley Whitford, Ruth Wilson, Melanie Paxson, Victoria Summer, Kathy Baker, Rachel Griffiths, Dendrie Taylor, Kimberly D’Armond.

Saving Mr. Banks is a film that exemplifies the thought that somewhere between novel and film the life of the author is lost in the complexity of producing a cinema hit. The life of the writer, whose soul is poured into the painful birth of producing something that in a lot of cases is a cathartic way of exorcising a childhood memory, is overlooked. Cinema audiences, perhaps comforted in many cases by the end result, neglect the person who gave them the character in the first place.

Saving Mr. Banks, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

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

We Mocked The Devil, Chapter One.

Chapter One

Saturday Night, Early December.

Rumour had it that the old man had woken up and become a modern day Prometheus, some would even have it that he got out of the bed and pushed his nurse to her death out of the 15th floor window before crashing back into the coma that he had been in since someone had tried to take his life. Other people would have you believe that the scream the nurse made as she plummeted to her death was so loud that it woke up evil spirits in the bad-lands and stirred forgotten parts of the Wirral, both of which are pure nonsense. Me? I believe he certainly stirred but as for waking up completely, the man was half dead and only the will of the Council was keeping the old man in this realm.

We Mocked The Devil, Chapter One. full post

(2490 words, estimated 9:58 mins reading time)

The Day Of The Doctor, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, Jenna Coleman, Billie Piper, Jemma Redgrave, Joanna Page, Ingrid Oliver, Ken Bones, Nicholas Briggs, Jonjo O’Neill, Orlando James, Aiden Cook, Paul Kasey, Peter de Jersey, Tom Keller, Ankur Sengupta, Tom Baker, Peter Capaldi.

The Day of The Doctor…Thanks to the way the B.B.C. has taken very seriously the notion of the longest running science fiction programme of all time turning 50 years old, it’s been more like several months of snippet here, a smidgen of misinformation there, the release of a rumour, conjecture, assumption and speculation.

The Day Of The Doctor, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

J.F.K.: News Of A Shooting, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

History turns on the flash of a camera, of the captured moving moments in time which changes the world forever. It seems nothing now that is significant, noteworthy or even seemingly inconsequential is not captured by a reporter, a journalist or even the feed of any social network, it is all secured for future posterity. History was changed on November 22nd, for America and for the news organisations that came of age on that fateful day in Dallas as President Kennedy was assassinated.

J.F.K.: News Of A Shooting, Television Review. full post

(534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

An Adventure in Space and Time, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: David Bradley, Jessica Raine, Sacha Dhawan, Brian Cox, Jamie Glover, Jemma Powell, Claudia Grant, Anna-Lisa Drew, Reece Sheersmith, William Russell, Carole Ann Ford,  Sophie Holt, Nicholas Briggs, Sarah Winter, Jeff Rawle, Andrew Woodall, Ian Hallard, David Annen, Sam Hoare, Mark Eden, Lesley Manville, Cara Jenkins, Reece Pockney, Charlie Kemp, Roger May.

An Adventure in Space and Time, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(908 words, estimated 3:38 mins reading time)

Queens Of The Stone Age, Gig Review. N.I.A. Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 91/2 /10

There is something about Josh Homme, his demeanour, the personal swagger or even just the way he stands on stage infront of many thousands of fans, that even when he declares that if the crowd can be patient with him as he is feeling under the weather, it is a gig that is just utterly and simply a wall of ferocious sound. A gig in which a thousand suns exploding simultaneously across the galaxy would barely have audiences raising the eyes upwards and the muted wonderings of what dare disturb a man in full flight.

Queens Of The Stone Age, Gig Review. N.I.A. Birmingham. full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

We Mocked The Devil. Prologue. Ian D. Hall.

“What is past is prologue.”

Prologue

The ticking of the aged Grandfather clock had been going almost unheard for a full year. Nobody but her ever paid any attention to the constant gentle swinging of the pendulum and soft whirring of the mechanism. The moving parts in perpetual motion that had been kept alive in much the same way that the man in the bed on the other side of the room had been, by the careful hands of one the two attendant nurses.  She had kept the man topped up with the pain killers prescribed by the doctor; she had cleaned him every day and shaved the greying stubble that poked out through his death coloured skin diligently every day. She kept up his appearance in much the same way she kept up the appearance of normality, the rigid straight lines on her nurse’s uniform were creased perfectly and she looked respectable, even if she was hungrier and mentally exhausted than she ever thought she could be.

We Mocked The Devil. Prologue. Ian D. Hall. full post

(1595 words, estimated 6:23 mins reading time)

Steve Thompson & The Incidents. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is always heartening when you hear a band or artist bemoan the way that television and certain people making money from it has come to define music to a certain percentage of the population, so much so that you want to grab the musicians by the hand, shake it with vigour and a smile on your face and wish them all the luck in the world as they take on the televised corporation.

Steve Thompson & The Incidents. E.P. Review. full post

(389 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Richard Durrant, Christmas Guitars. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a consensus amongst many that Christmas has become too dominated by the idea of want, of commercialism bathing in some sort heavenly glow answering all the problems of the world with just a little help from a couple of double A batteries. It could be argued that is why so many have turned away from whichever deity or religion they were bought up to observe and openly state so in the national census. The often repeated music that gets released and played ad infinitum over many high street shops plays a hand in the apathy that is felt, come spend your money on gifts people don’t particularly need whilst you grow ever more weary of hearing the soundtrack to the season, shop after shop.

Richard Durrant, Christmas Guitars. Album Review. full post

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

Leaves’ Eyes, Symphonies Of The Night. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The profusion of great music that has come out of Scandinavia this last year, especially from its Metal genres is almost an embarrassment of riches. It has been relentless, a Metal take over from the traditional homes of the field in which for the vast majority of groups from the U.K. and America, with some very obvious exceptions, have been left floundering in their wake.

Leaves’ Eyes, Symphonies Of The Night. Album Review. full post

(355 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)