Tag Archives: Liverpool

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Sean Harris, Toby Jones, Sam Reid, David Dencik, Blake Ritson, Ned Dennehy, Charity Wakefield, Michael Ryan, Kim Bodnia, Ana Ularu.

There are those that say that the great American epic is dead. That the days of the great American cinematic nature/love/natural landscape story is as over, torn apart by the digitisation and CGI effects on offer to the 21^st Century audiences. It is hard to disagree with that assertion, no matter how much grief and pain it may cause when viewed from the darkness of a cinema screening of Serena.

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

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

The Boomtown Rats, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Bob Geldof at the o2 Academy, Liverpool, October 2014. Photgraph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

On a night like this…where the decades are rolled back, when the silent regret of Time sheds a tear for the lack of decency and improvement in the lives of those that inhabit the fragile Earth. In which the bullet and the bomb, the political scorn kicking downwards and the rise of a party in which right minded people should be doing all they can to make sure they never get a grasp on even a seat in the next election, let alone have a say in running the country. The Boomtown Rats returned to Liverpool and for those in the crowd at the o2 Academy old enough to remember, gave the type of performance for which audiences at Eric’s would have raved about for weeks on end.

The Boomtown Rats, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(729 words, 2 images, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, Leighton Meester, Ken Howard, Emma Tremblay, Balthazar Getty, David Krumholtz, Grace Zabriskie, Denis O’Hare, Sarah Lancaster, Lonnie Farmer, Mark Kiely, Matt Riedy, Jeremy Holm, Catherine Cummings, Tamara Hickey, Paul-Emile Cendron, Ian Nelson, Frank Ridley, Carol S. Austin, Ras Enoch McCurdie.

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

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

’71, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jack O’ Connell, Paul Anderson, Sam Reid, Seam Harris, Charlie Murphy, Sam Hazeldine, Killian Scott, Richard Dormer, Barry Keoghan, David Wilmot, Martin McCann, Corey McKinley, Valene Kane, Paul Popplewell, Amy Molloy, Joshua Hill, Eric Campbell, Ben Peel, Jack Lowden, Nicola-Jayne Wells, Lee Bolton, Babou Casey, Liam McMahon, Denise Gough, Paul Bergquist, Dawn Bradfield.

In any war there are always two sides to the tale. Both sides normally deserve airing, with certain objections to history and they deserve to be told with the greatest of respect and humility; a chance for an understanding to be reached before the apportioning of blame, retribution and justice can be sought.

’71, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(548 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Psychodrome. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse, Robert Whitelock, Phil Mulryne, Camilla Power, Bethan Walker.

We are made up so many different facets in our genetic and mental make-up that it somewhat surprising that more is not made of the split personality within the world of Science Fiction. For The Doctor, the many personalities that have lived and also have the potential to do so hides perhaps a frightening question, does the Doctor ever really know himself, even he meets parts of him in someone else?

Doctor Who: Psychodrome. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(603 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

Michael Palin: Travelling To Work, The Auditorium, Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The world never seems to have enough of Michael Palin. From the early sprouting of comedy genius that resided in the Yorkshire soul, to the creative overload that burgeoned in Monty Python to becoming one of television’s leading travel presenters, throughout it all he remained one of Britain’s favourite and captivating sons.

Michael Palin: Travelling To Work, The Auditorium, Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

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

Fables: March Of The Wooden Soldiers. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When those who drove you from your home, took your families hostage, killed, murdered, those you love and destroyed everything you have peaceably raised and seen flourish begin to come into the land you have settled in, made new homes and lives but with always a rememberance to the past in your heart, then do you make a stand and draw the biggest line possible; do you say no more or do you run once more?

Fables: March Of The Wooden Soldiers. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Bright Phoenix, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Rhodri Mellir as Spike in Bright Phoenix. Photograph by Jonathan Keenan.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Carl Au, Paul Duckworth, Rhian Green, Penny Layden, Rhodri Mellir, Mark Rice-Oxley, Cathy Tyson, Keiran Urquhart, Laura J. Martin, Vidar Norheim.

Somewhere over the rooftops of Liverpool, a haunting soliloquy is sang softly by one of the people the new renaissance taking place in the city couldn’t touch. In Lime Street an old ghost comes home to face the past and a group of children’s memories are re-awoken. The Futurist Cinema may be gone but its soul still resonates in those that made it their home and for the future, a Bright Phoenix stirs from the ashes of a crumbling society.

Bright Phoenix, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(570 words, 1 image, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Clybourne Park, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * * *

Cast: Liam Tobin, Judith McSpadden, Paida Mutonono, Richard James Clarke, Chris Jack, Simon Hedger, Samantha Meisner.

Said&done have come back to the Unity Theatre with Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park, a play set in America in the 1950s and then later on in 2009. The play was originally written by Norris as a response to Lorraine Hansberry’s, A Raisin in the Sun, and looks at race relations in America over the last fifty years. Set in a fictitious Chicago neighbourhood, Russ and Bev are all ready to pack up and move on having sold their house to a coloured family, but very quickly learn how things really are in a society still not ready to move on with the times.

Clybourne Park, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Gone Girl, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, Casey Wilson, Missi Pyle, Sela Ward, Emily Ratajkowski, Kathleen Rose Perkins, Lisa Banes, David Clennon, Scoot McNairy, Boyd Holbrook, Lola Kirke, Cyd Strittmatter, Leonard Kelly-Young.

The female of the species is more deadly than the male, when it comes to Amy Elliott-Dunne, you don’t get much more deadly, you don’t feel the need more to make sure you never meet someone like them for if you do, you will be devoured, spat out and left to rot and it will be all blamed upon you.

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

(755 words, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)