Reviews, thoughts and ideas on music, movies and more
Coming to it on Blu-ray rather than in the cinema meant I approached Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with slightly different expectations to many. Certainly the shade of the late Chadwick Boseman hangs heavy over it and, while I had enjoyed the first film enough and liked the character of T’Challa, I’m not sure I had... Continue Reading →
If you’ve followed this blog for a while you’ll know I have more than a slight interest in the ‘space race’ of the 1950s and 60s, and more recent space exploration, from The Right Stuff to Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 and beyond (including having visited the Space Shuttle Endeavour in Los Angeles) but Theodore... Continue Reading →
There’s no denying the Thor part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a mixed bag and, while I liked the first in the series for having the essence of the classic God Of Thunder, the second was one of the worst entries in the Marvel canon and the third, Ragnarok, was fun if forgettable,... Continue Reading →
Before the hit and miss collection of movies including Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, V For Vendetta and The Matrix sequels, and even before the undeniable classic that was the original Matrix film, The Wachowskis somewhat proved their mettle with 1996 neo-noir thriller, Bound. Despite being made in the mid-1990s, and featuring a level of sex... Continue Reading →
After watching Taxi Driver a few weeks ago, and with a desire for some more gangster movie style stuff, I thought I’d skip nearly twenty years ahead in the careers of director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro and check out a film that has long been a gap in my viewing, Casino. In... Continue Reading →
Released in 1975, Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Jaws remains an undisputed classic that changed the face of mainstream cinema (for good or ill) but, somewhat less revered these days, is the book on which it was based, released only a year before and written by Peter Benchley. Inspired by tales of shark attacks off... Continue Reading →
Back in the late 1990s, when John McNaughton’s Wild Things (in some territories less subtly titled simply, Sex Crimes) first dropped on DVD, there were a few obvious reasons it would appeal to a young man, however, behind that, I’d always thought there was something more going beyond the clearly lurid. Revisiting now, I think... Continue Reading →
After watching Gangs Of New York recently I thought I’d go back a couple of decades to some undeniably classic Martin Scorsese, his 1976 film, Taxi Driver. From the start it establishes a fantastically off beat atmosphere as Bernard Herman’s almost 1950s feeling score combines with visuals of rain soaked, garish, neon lights and sleazy... Continue Reading →
While Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet remains a stand out movie for me and his Moulin Rouge holds something of a place in my film watching history, I found his more recent work, specifically The Great Gatsby, far less engaging so I hit play on Elvis with my expectations more than in check and really... Continue Reading →
When Rian Johnson’s Knives Out appeared on the screen a few years ago it was a breathe of fresh air and originality in cinemas packed with superhero fare (not that there’s anything wrong with those but sometimes it gets a bit much) so, when a sequel was announced, in the form of the intriguingly titled... Continue Reading →
Tommy Girard 