Feast of Film

Two actors who can't believe their luck - they get big paydays and don't even have to show up to promotional events and pretend the movie is not crap. John Wick: Chapter 4 (JW4) is the best of the Wick sequels, not just because it isn't 2 or 3, which we all need to admit were subpar and move on, but because it brings the series to a moderately satisfying conclusion and does so at a good pace. Let's get one key element of modern day cinematic efforts out of the way right now.  This film runs 170 minutes, which is far too long for any motion picture. The problem of length has nothing to do with Tik Tok attention spans, weak bladders or even the woeful state of Hollywood scriptwriting in the post-Marvel and woke Hollywood.  A medium-sized popcorn cup and drink exhaust themselves before what should be an intermission. If a director is going to force an audience to sit through 3 hours of something, a toilet and restocking break should be provided.  Nevertheless, JW4 keeps i

John Lithgow thanking his agent and calling his lawyer after being cast in this movie. What sort of movie does a 15-year-old sci-fi geek go and see in 1984? Well, he goes and sees the film adaptation of George Orwell’s novel, 1984 . He also goes to see this. The plot: Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) is a brain surgeon, rock musician, scientist and adventurer. His team are the Hong Kong Cavaliers. Buckaroo invents a machine to take him to the eighth dimension and back.  It’s been done before, by Dr Emilio Lazardo (John Lithgow), except he returned insane and wants to steal Buckaroo’s device and use it to conquer our dimension.  Assessment: This is a classic 1980s low budget sci-fi movie with a crazy plot, effects that really don’t deserve the adjective ‘special’. But what it doesn’t have in lasers, warp speed and quality dialogue it makes up for it in crazy plot and one of the most eclectic array of actors from the ‘80s, many of whom we all know as stars today In addition to Peter Weller

Looking out into the cold, dark, deep waters ahead, not knowing where and when the pack of wolves will come for him, his crew and their precious cargo. Tom Hanks is one of the few actors today who has the star power to achieve the feat of making this film - and having it bought for AppleTV+ to boot! See what I did there? I threw in a pun that relates to a classic WWII German submarine film - if you don't know it, then watch it. Greyhound attempts to show a singular experience in the Second World War that has not been as well documented in films of the past couple of decades.  We've seen them storming the beaches again via Saving Private Ryan , fighting on the Eastern Front via Enemy at the Gates , the horror of the Holocaust via Schindler's List and how not to make a movie about the pacific war in the execrable Pearl Harbor ( Midway helped salvage that somewhat).  Then, of course, there were Clint Eastwood's twin triumphs of Letters from Iwo Jima and Flag

  Sandra Bullock: Carrying a feature film without punching anyone. Sandra Bullock gives an excellent performance in what is one of the films of the year (2013). Cinematography will certainly deliver Gravity an Oscar, and I suspect Bullock will be in line for best actress in both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Doctor Ryan Stone (Bullock) is on her first Space Shuttle mission, alongside George Clooney's veteran on his last mission. If that's all there was, that would be a tad boring, so for good measure a mass of space debris destroys the Shuttle, leaving Sandra and George alone in space, trying to survive. There is nothing more that can be said without ruining the film, so tune out now for the spoiler. Precise character exits The timing of characters entering and leaving a film - dying or moving away is exceedingly important. Gravity achieves the masterfully in killing off George Clooney. As an actor he talks too much, being George Clooney - he d

Eek! Are they staring at the end of their film careers? Review to follow once I've actually seen the film. I never bothered to see it - knew it would be a disappointing effort from a group of entitled know-it-all teens.

More than meets the eye... Now this is a moon landing conspiracy theory I can accept. Optimus and team return to battle the evil Decepticons in a phenomenal, action-packed 2+hour marathon. To top it all off, appearances by Buzz Aldrin and Leonard Nimoy ! Oh, yes, there's also Rosie. The plot: Turns out that the moon landing was just a cover for a secret mission to investigate a crashed alien space ship on the dark side of the moon - Buzz confirms this himself. The ship was carrying a very important package and when he finds out, Optimus must get there to save his mentor and former leader of the Autobots - Sentinel Prime. On the other end of the 'importance' scale, Sam Witwicky ( Shia LeBeouf ) is stuck with a presidential medal but no prospects for a job. Though he seems to have stuffed up the relationship with Megan Fox and fallen into a relationship with Carly Spencer ( Rosie Huntington-Whiteley ) - the poor guy. She's an assistant to a super-rich guy played by Patri