This is very spoilery, including the ending – though there are also lots of questions raised in Alive that are really interesting even if they aren’t always explained. If you only want the final big spoiler, scroll down and it’s in bold. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments. It’s easy to… It’s alive! THAT ending (yes SPOILERS) Read More
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga 4 stars
When aspiring musicians Lars and Sigrit are given the opportunity to represent Iceland at the world’s biggest song competition, they finally have a chance to prove that any dream worth having is a dream worth fighting for. This is a film in praise of small towns, big dreams and even bigger hamster wheels; of too-tight… Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga Read More
Snowpiercer 4 stars
In a future where a failed climate-change experiment has killed all life except for the lucky few who boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, a new class system emerges. You can’t get more uber-Lockdown than Snowpiercer, Bong Joon-ho’s electrifying, horrifying and witty 2013 thriller about an uprising on board a luxury… Snowpiercer Read More
Butt Boy 3.5 stars
After a child goes missing, a newly sober detective suspects that his sponsor has a super power that makes animals, objects, and humans disappear in his butt. *** Read my interview with writer / director / star Tyler Cornack *** As Sherlock Holmes said, “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains,… Butt Boy Read More
The Hunt 3 stars
In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, a group of elites gathers for the very first time to hunt ordinary Americans for sport. But the elites’ master plan is about to be derailed because one of The Hunted knows The Hunters’ game better than they do. Clearly made by just my kind of woolly… The Hunt Read More
Blow The Man Down 4 stars
Teenage sisters Mary Beth and Priscilla Connolly, who have recently lost their mother, attempt to cover up a gruesome run-in with a dangerous man. To conceal their crime, they must go deeper into Easter Cove’s underbelly and uncover the town matriarchs’ darkest secrets. In this clever, layered thriller, the three older ladies of Easter Cove… Blow The Man Down Read More
Angel Has Fallen 4 stars
American movie presidents can only make us wistful nowadays, and in Angel Has Fallen the White House is graced by Morgan Freeman himself, as President Allan Trumbull. Yes there is a god, probably also played by Morgan Freeman. Trumbull has been promoted since London Has Fallen, Mike Banning’s last batshit outing, when taking on hundreds… Angel Has Fallen Read More
Replicas 1.5 stars
There’s something pleasingly pointed about a man jokingly claimed to be immortal starring in a movie about creating a form of immortality. Sci-fi cloning film Replicas was also co-produced by Keanu Reeves, whose youthful visage and apparent appearances in portraiture through the ages baffles many who apparently can’t tell the difference between two men with dark… Replicas Read More
The Vanishing 4 stars
Three lighthouse keepers on the remote Flannan Isles find a hidden trunk of gold, leading to their mysterious disappearance. There’s a brutal scene half-way through The Vanishing, director Kristoffer Nyholm’s “what if?” take on the Flannan Isle mystery. It’s a fight between lighthouse keepers James Ducat (Gerard Butler) and Thomas Marshall (Peter Mullan), and two violent… The Vanishing Read More
The Children Act 3.5 stars
Ever wanted to rewind a particular scene while at the cinema, to try to track back on any tiny movements that might clarify intent or instigation? There’s a scene in The Children Act between Emma Thompson’s Mrs Justice Maye and Adam, a teenager recovering from leukaemia, that seems so unlikely and out of place I… The Children Act Read More
New Life 2 stars
New Life – the title has several meanings that become clear as the story unfolds – isn’t saying anything new. But it is lifted by a nicely-pitched central performance from an actress who just gets better as her character is tested to the max. As a young boy Ben (Jonathan Patrick Moore) moves to the… New Life Read More
Geostorm 3.5 stars
“Look at you, girl!” Get me a sexy bearded Scotsman who looks at me the way Jake Lawson looks at the International Space Station on his first visit there for three years. Three years, since his younger brother Max (Jim Sturgess) fired him as head of Dutch Boy, the system of protective satellites that has… Geostorm Read More