Posts Tagged Film Review
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December 8, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
The Comeback Trail: Film
The Comeback Trail Director: George Gallo Cloudburst Entertainment / March On Productions One of the worst things about this Pandemic Year is that shite films arrive with hype and fanfare since it’s hard work getting people to the cinemas, and/or there hasn’t been anything new for ages, and/or marketing hacks gotta live. (Apparently).Archive
November 27, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Stardust: Film
Stardust Director: Gabriel Range Salon Pictures / Wilding Pictures / IFC Films Stardust is a little movie. That could have been fine. There are some wonderful small pictures. But Stardust is also a terrible movie. Plagued by many things – not just a lack of Bowie’s music, and distancing from the estate. For a start, […]Archive
November 16, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
The Postcard Killings: DVD
The Postcard Killings Director: Alison Ellwood GFC Podcard / Good Films Collective / Hindsight Media / Madman Based on a bestselling James Patterson crime novel (is there any other kind?) The Postcard Killings arrives on DVD and blu-ray about a decade after the book. And though I’ve not read the source material I had fairly […]Archive
November 16, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Laurel Canyon: DVD
Laurel Canyon Director: Alison Ellwood Canyon Films, LLC / Madman It’s hard to see this as anything more than a boomer circle-jerk: Oooh, we had the best music didn’t we… Laurel Canyon is this near-mythical place in songs, in albums, in bands’ biographies. It is real. It was a place; a place where a large […]Archive
November 13, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Alive: DVD
Alive Director: Rob Grant Vamanos Films / Madman Alive is by no means great, but it can be quite good. It starts off feeling like a run-of-the-mill torture-porn horror, and yes, I’m almost embarrassed by how jaded and bored I was when I delivered that line…almost…Archive
November 4, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Ava: DVD
Ava Director: Tate Taylor Voltage Pictures / Freckle Films / Vertical Entertainment / Madman Ava starts off okay – but boy does it slide. And quickly. And when I say it starts off okay I mean okay in a same-old-story, lazy-night-on-the-couch, female-assassin action-film way. You’ve got your trackies on and your expectations low. Unfortunately by […]Archive
October 16, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Lazy Susan: DVD
Lazy Susan Director: Nick Peet SHOUT! FACTORY Lazy Susan is, quite extraordinarily, the worst comedy film you might ever see. In that it’s only joke – pretty much the literal lone ‘joke’ – is that the female character of Susan is played by a man. That man is Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) who […]Archive
August 14, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Vivarium: DVD
Vivarium Director: Lorcan Finnegan Vertigo Releasing / Umbrella Entertainment Vivarium is a debut feature by Lorcan Finnegan (loosely based on the short story ‘Foxes’ by Finnegan and Garret Shanley; Shanley developed it into the screenplay) – and so it deserves a big thumb’s up for the effort. But the simple truth is it falls away, […]Archive
August 6, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
The Booksellers: Film
The Booksellers Directors: D. W. Young Greenwich Entertainment / Madman The Booksellers is very much a does-what-it-says-on-the-tin doco; the clue is in the title. Couldn’t be more obvious if it was displayed like a sign in a shop window…er, kinda like the poster and all the branded imagery relating to the film and its marketing.Archive
June 30, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Richard Jewell: DVD
Richard Jewell Director: Clint Eastwood Malapaso Productions / Appian Way Productions / Warner Bros. Pictures Richard Jewell is the story of a security guard that went from national hero to chief suspect in a crushing blow for his own health and sanity and in an awful trial-by-media persecution that is just part of the downfall […]Archive
June 21, 2020 by Simon Sweetman