Reviewed by Linda Marric Sticking to what he does best, this week sees the return of Liam Neeson in yet another action packed thriller which is as ridiculously outlandish as we have come to expect from this most unlikely of action stars. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop, Orphan, House of Wax), The Commuter is the kind of production which doesn’t seem to care about convincing story-wise, nor does it seem…
Read MoreFilm Review: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Reviewed by Freda Cooper It was only a matter of time. One of the brothers McDonagh had to hit the jackpot. Big brother John Michael had made The Guard, Calvary and, more latterly, War On Everyone. Martin had In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths under his belt. And now he brings Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri to the screen – the most cumbersome of titles for a film which is the…
Read MoreFilm Review: All The Money In The World
Reviewed by Freda Cooper Only two months ago, a large question mark hung over the fate of Ridley Scott’s All The Money In The World. We all know why and we all know what happened next. Rather than have his film shelved, the director reverted to his original choice of Christopher Plummer to play billionaire J Paul Getty and re-shot his scenes in just six weeks.
Read MoreFilm Review: Walk With Me
Reviewed by Rachael Kaines The introspective and sedate documentary Walk With Me, from directors Marc J. Francis and Max Pugh, works as a soothing balm to a hectic mind, much like the mindfulness practice that the Zen Buddhist pioneer Thich Nhát Hanh introduced to the west. Thich Nhát Hanh was forced to leave Vietnam in the sixties when his efforts towards peace were not appreciated. Now 91, Walk With Me…
Read MoreFilm Review: Brad’s Status
Reviewed by Lee Hill Ben Stiller is Brad Sloan, a Generation Xer suffering from a serious case of mid-life crisis blues. On the surface, Brad seems to have a pretty good life in suburban Sacramento. He is married to an attractive loving wife, Melanie (Jenna Fischer) works in the California state legislature, while Brad runs a small NGO that links worthy charities to philanthropists. Their only child, Troy (Austin Abrams),…
Read MoreMost Anticipated Movies of 2018
By Freda Cooper So that was 2017, the year when horror became the genre of choice and broke a few boundaries into the bargain. When every month had at least one blockbuster, or a superhero movie – or both. When some superheroes weren’t exactly super. And when fan backlashes became the norm, from La La Land to The Last Jedi. But, most importantly of all, people still kept going to…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Greatest Showman
Reviewed by Matthew Turner The trailer for The Greatest Showman goes out of its way to convince you that it’s not a musical, and that it is, in fact, an uplifting let’s-do-the-show-right-here biopic of 19th century circus impresario P.T. Barnum. However, a musical it most emphatically is, while its biographical details have received something of a revisionist tweak. The feature debut of Australian director Michael Gracey (who has a background…
Read MoreFilm Review: Song of Granite
Reviewed by Ian McMillan So. Slow-paced, black-and-white, atmospheric films are not exactly my go-to thing for a weekend evening, but I’m a sucker for anything in the Irish language, and the trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBbfPpWPuoE) for Song of Granite, despite the English-language title, was just chock full of lovely natural Irish and I couldn’t resist.
Read MoreThe 10 Best TV Shows of 2017
Rachael Kaines picks her favourite TV shows of 2017. Do you agree? We have been blessed by yet another great year for television, with the golden age showing no signs of ending or even slowing down. Deciding a top ten is very difficult this year, it could have easily included things like Catastrophe, Big Little Lies, Game of Thrones, Easy (why is no one talking about this show?), and, of…
Read MoreFilm Review: Pitch Perfect 3
Back for another dose of a capella shenanigans, Pitch Perfect 3 makes its way onto our screen this week, but is it any good? Matthew Turner gives us his verdict. The original Pitch Perfect was a charming and very funny hit in 2012, but it blotted its copybook with a dismal follow-up in 2015 that failed to hit any of the right notes. Unfortunately, this third and supposedly final entry in…
Read More