Ad Astra - the most realistic vision of the future yet depicted on screen

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 26, 2019

AD ASTRA is Apocalypse Now meets 2001: A Space Odyssey - I do not claim to be the first to make that comparison - but that is a pretty great combination of stories, and surprising it has not been done already.

Extra Ordinary - 'Ghostbusters meets The Van'

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 19, 2019

MAEVE HIGGINS plays Rose, a lonely, yet happy, shy, driving instructor in her thirties. Once a well regarded exorcist and paranormal investigator, she gave it all up after an accident involving her father which cost him his life.

It: Chapter 2 - an uneven adaptation

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 12, 2019

FIRST OF all, do not go see this movie if you have not seen the first one, as it is a direct sequel and you will not have a clue as to what’s going on. In Chapter 2 catch up with the gang from Chapter 1 27 years later.

The Souvenir - a unsettling depiction of an abusive relationship

Films Reviews Thu, Sep 05, 2019

JULIE IS a film student in London in the late 1980s. She is trying to escape her life of privilege, but lives in her parents' flat in Knightsbridge. Yet, her attempts to make a film in Sunderland about a working class family are honest and admirable.

Good Boys - not a great movie, but a funny movie

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 29, 2019

MAX, THOR, and Lucas, are three best friends about to enter their teenage years. They struggle with hormones and growing up. They know lots of grown up words but not exactly what they mean: “She’s a nymphomaniac, it means she has sex on land AND on water."

Tarantino's indulgent love letter to Sixties Hollywood

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 22, 2019

ONCE UPON A time in Hollywood is the ninth film from Quentin Tarantino, and if he is to be believed, it is his penultimate movie. He maintains that no director has directed a good film after his tenth. To that I say, what about Claire Denis, Akira Kursowa, or Stephen Spielberg?

The Current War - not exactly electrifying

Films Reviews Thu, Aug 01, 2019

THIS IS the story of Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and their competition to bring electricity to America. Westinghouse working with Alternating Current and Edison working with Direct Current.

The Lion King - a film that feels like a cover song

Films Reviews Thu, Jul 25, 2019

THE LION King is the latest Disney movie to get the live action treatment, but it is not live action. No lions were filmed for this. It is entirely computer generated. So it is animation?

Galway made westerns continue with Never Grow Old

Films Reviews Thu, Jul 18, 2019

IT HAS become almost a tradition now that the Galway Film Fleadh closes with a western. Being one of my favourite genres I have no problem with that, but Never Grow Old has a lot to live up to after last year's Black 47 and 2017's An Klondike.

Peter Parker grapples with a post Endgame world

Films Reviews Thu, Jul 11, 2019

IN A post-Avengers: Endgame world we catch up with Peter Parker who is back in school and who is trying to come to terms with the death of his mentor, Tony Stark.

Yesterday - imagine if Black Mirror was upbeat and fun

Films Reviews Thu, Jul 04, 2019

YESTERDAY IS a kind of a positive feature length episode of Black Mirror - a pretty basic surreal concept but some pretty exciting talent behind the camera in director Danny Boyle, and writer Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill).

Toy Story 4 proves a worthy entry in the series

Films Reviews Thu, Jun 27, 2019

I WAS pretty nervous about this. It is tough to follow an almost perfect trilogy and it felt completely unnecessary to make a fourth Toy Story. However, Pixar recently fired it's studio head John Lasseter after sexual harassment claims, so right now, the company really needs a win.

Thunder Road - pathos and power on a shoestring

Films Reviews Thu, Jun 13, 2019

THUNDER ROAD opens at Jim's mother's funeral. He is the only one of her three children to attend and he is very emotional. He suffers though an ill prepared eulogy, and begins to look deranged when going off on tangents about himself.

Wafer thin plot results in disappointing Pikachu movie

Films Reviews Thu, May 23, 2019

TOM GOODMAN is a young insurance salesman with no interest in a seemingly global obsession with Pokemon - the little creatures who co-inhabit the world with humans and most humans have a Pokemon familiar.

Charlize Theron and Seth Rogan shine in Long Shot

Films Reviews Thu, May 16, 2019

SETH ROGAN is Fred Flarsky, a left-wing investigative journalist for a news website akin to The Daily Beast or buzzfeed. When it is bought by a Rupert Murdoch-like news mogul named Parker Wembley he quits.

Avengers: Endgame - saving the best until last

Films Reviews Thu, May 02, 2019

FINALLY WE are at the end of Marvel's incredibly ambitious film saga - 22 films, several TV shows, lots of toys and comics, so much money made, and now comes Avengers: Endgame, a direct sequel to last year's Avengers: Infinity War.

Eighth Grade - a social media film for our times

Films Reviews Thu, Apr 18, 2019

OSCAR NOMINATED already, Eighth Grade is the debut feature from YouTube star Bo Burnham, and while it is easy to be apprehensive of a movie from a 27-year-old stand-up comedian, this is a strikingly good debut.

The Sisters Brothers - dark, funny, and nihilistic

Films Reviews Thu, Apr 11, 2019

THE SISTERS Brothers is French director Jacques Audiard’s English-language debut. Audiard first came to attention in 2005 with The Beat That My Heart Skipped, and enjoyed wide acclaim for 2009's magnificent A Prophet.

Dumbo - Tim Burton's bad run of movies continues

Films Reviews Thu, Apr 04, 2019

DUMBO IS the first of three Disney live action remakes out this year, the others being Aladdin and The Lion King, and the company seems to have taken a different approach to each one.

Us - Jordan Peele dives further into horror

Films Reviews Thu, Mar 28, 2019

IN 1986, Adelaide wanders away from her parents in a theme park, and into a seemingly abandoned house of mirrors. Inside there, she is confronted by her doppelgänger who spends the rest of her life stalking her in visions.

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