“Adrift” Something that is genuinely impressive about Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is that he understands the need to slide up the scale as he goes. A prologue scene aside, The Fellowship of the Ring began with … Continue reading TV REVIEW: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power 1.02
“Is This Not Real Magic?” Comedy is a very subjective genre, and what works for one viewer is not necessarily going to work for another. There has been a bit of a social media frenzy in the past few days … Continue reading TV REVIEW: She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law 1.04
One of numerous studio-backed potboilers to have largely fallen out of the public memory, Michael Apted’s Class Action is an almost entirely formulaic legal drama that benefits from – and is immeasurably lifted by – stars Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth … Continue reading REVIEW: Class Action (1991)
John Hillcoat’s Triple 9 (2016) mixes good ideas and bad. It is well-cast and slickly directed, but it is also messily written. In many ways it is a solid pastiche: part-James Ellroy, part-Training Day, and part-Grand Theft Auto V. It also subverts … Continue reading REVIEW: Triple 9 (2016)
“The People vs Emil Blonsky” At the three episode mark you would expect that a new series would have found its tone and rhythm, and that certainly seems to be the case with She–Hulk: Attorney–at–Law. If anything the show most … Continue reading TV REVIEW: She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law 1.03
“A Shadow of the Past” While watching the first episode of The Rings of Power, the latest big-budget television play for streaming audiences, I found myself desperately craving a little reality. I do not mean this in terms of genre … Continue reading TV REVIEW: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power 1.01
Or, if you lived in the right country back in 1987, A Night on the Town. This 1987 teen comedy marked the directorial debut of Chris Columbus, already a successful screenwriter via Gremlins (1984) and The Goonies (1985) but working here from … Continue reading REVIEW: Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
I have written in the past about how the announcement of James Cameron’s The Abyss triggered a mad rush of competing film projects, each intended to profit from audience expectations by getting their own cheaper undersea thrillers into theatres first. Of … Continue reading REVIEW: Deepstar Six (1989)
With cinemas now awash with overly long, overly expensive, visual effects-driven franchise pieces – as they have been for some time – it is an absolutely relief to now and then stumble on a modest, small-scale, 90-minute movie. You probably … Continue reading REVIEW: Golden Arm (2020)
There is a superbly tense sequence in Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World: Dominion. Co-protagonist Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is crawling through the undergrowth while a hulking feathered dinosaur with absurdly long blade-like claws sniffs the air in search of her. She … Continue reading REVIEW: Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)
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