Tag Archives: Liverpool

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Nicole Kidman, Michael Gambon, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Imelda Staunton, Matt Lucas, Madeline Harris, Samuel Joslin, Matt King, Tim Downie, Geoffrey Palmer, Jim Broadbent, Michael Bond, Alice Lowe, Simon Farnaby, Dominic Coleman, Will Smith, Javier Martez.

In even the most unassuming of people, there is the potential for greatness and joy. The tales of Paddington Bear are amongst the most loved in children’s literature television, and yet the stories are so well imagined and presented, that like all the best characters from British Literature they appeal right across the age spectrum and the latest incarnation for the cinema is just as enjoyable and just as much fun as an audience member could ever hope for.

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

(595 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

The Hobbit, The Battle Of The Five Armies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Luke Evans, Richard Armitage, Lee Pace, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Billy Connolly, Graham McTavish, Ken Stott, Ian Holm, Sylvester McCoy, Ryan Gage, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy, William Kircher, Adam Brown, Aiden Turner, Manu Bennett, Hugo Weaving, Dean O’ Gorman, Christopher Lee, James Nesbitt, Stephen Fry, Mikael Persbrandt.

The Hobbit, The Battle Of The Five Armies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(666 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

Men, Women And Children, Film Review. Picturehouse@ F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Gardner, Rosemarie Dewitt, Judy Greer, Dean Norris, Emma Thompson, J.K. Simmons, Timothée Chalamet, Olivia Crocicchia, Kaitlyn Dever, Ansel Elgort, Katherine C. Hughes, Elena Kampouris, Will Peltz, Travis Tope, David Denman, Dennis Haysbert, Tina Parker, Shane Lynch, Phil LaMarr, Jason Douglas.

Men, Women And Children, Film Review. Picturehouse@ F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(706 words, estimated 2:49 mins reading time)

Sex And The Three Day Week, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Catrin Aaron, David Birrell, Natalie Casey, Edward Harrison, Javier Marzan, Robin Morrissey, Eileen O, Brien, Lucy Phelps, Graeme Rooney, Voice of Ken Dodd.

History has a way of repeating itself, what goes round will no doubt come round again. It is the comfort in the despairing knowledge that for every action…the same mistakes will be played out, over and over again and the same fortitude shown in national absurdity relied upon. For those old enough to remember the period in which an inept leader of the country was finally shown the door and the nation stumbled upon the lost ideals of the Sexual Revolution, Stephen Sharkey’s Sex And The Three Day Week is an homage to the strife, internal conflict of repressed sexuality and people making the most of the black-outs.

Sex And The Three Day Week, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Peter Gabriel, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Peter Gabriel at the Echo Arena, Liverpool. December 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

For many, Peter Gabriel is still seen as “The Progfather”, the man who defined a generation and stunning musical narration with a theatrical bent and who still gets talked of lovingly as perhaps being able to capture those moments of outstanding early Genesis releases. To others he is the man who played his part in bringing down a regime so vile and disturbing that it sends a shiver down the spine when images from that time are shown on television.

Peter Gabriel, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(796 words, 1 image, estimated 3:11 mins reading time)

Linnea Olsson And Jennie Abrahamson, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is perhaps beyond the compression or wildest dreams of any fan of music to understand what must go through the minds of the support act when they open up for what is considered a living legend. For many in a crowd just being in the vicinity of the front row of the gig is a claustrophobic and overwhelming prospect.

Linnea Olsson And Jennie Abrahamson, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

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

St. Vincent, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’ Dowd, Terrance Howard, Jaeden Lieberher, Kimberly Quinn, Lenny Venito, Nate Corddry, Dario Barosso, Donna Mitchell, Ann Dowd, Scott Adsit, Reg E. Cathey, Deirdre O’Connell.

Vincent is a man whose life seems to be one of which has gone the way of so many in cities and rural areas in America. The dream that once encapsulated that arguably captured all that was good in the land of the free has soured and gone past its sell-by date, all there is to look forward to for many is the daily existence granted by fate in which the daily struggle is just another excuse to be kicked in the face by a country that has forgotten them.

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

(690 words, estimated 2:46 mins reading time)

The Wicked And The Divine, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The ancients arguably had a better idea of what makes Humanity tick than the so called enlightened era in which the notion of one deity, in which ever guise you prefer to believe in, sits in judgement or peace loving affection you care to mention. Whether through the inter-changeable Gods of Rome and Greece or the Gods of Norse mythology and British Paganism, there was personal God for everybody and whichever one you believed in surely stoked the fires within you.

The Wicked And The Divine, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(643 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)

Stephen Langstaff, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Stephern Langstaff at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. December 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

One of the ways in which to measure a person is how they can be weighed up in a situation not of their making or in the face of impossible insurmountable mounting odds; the quality of a person is not in what they eat, what they wear or how much stuff, gadgets, cost of house, money or seeming how popular they are after they have bought a round of drinks but in how they cope with a new challenge being thrown at them there and then on the spot and the power of how they are viewed.

Stephen Langstaff, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(562 words, 1 image, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Science Of The Lamps, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

The Science of the Lamps at The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. December 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It doesn’t matter how long it has been since you last saw Science of the Lamps perform, some things are timeless enough to go at least a week without seeing. No more than a week though if you can ever help it and the twin dilemmas of appropriate funds and urging vocalist Kaya Herstad Carney to play more often with the imagery she deals out with utterly delicious precision are stacked in your favour.

The Science Of The Lamps, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(469 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)