Reviewed by Freda Cooper Comedians have notoriously unfunny private lives, so Jon S Baird’s Stan And Ollie faces an uphill task right from the get-go. It’s multiplied by the fact that Messrs Laurel and Hardy were at their peak some 80 years ago, which means the film has to walk something of a tightrope. On the one hand, avoiding patronising members of the audience who are familiar with the duo’s…
Read MoreFilm Review: The Favourite
Reviewed By Freda Cooper A Yorgos Lanthimos movie has become something of a tradition at the London Film Festival. The Lobster made its debut in 2015 and last year it was The Killing Of A Sacred Deer but his 2018 offering comes with the loudest fanfare. After winning big at Venice – the Grand Jury Prize and the Best Actress award for Olivia Colman – The Favourite is already looking…
Read MoreLFF 2018 – Five Must-Sees
Freda Cooper picks her 5 must see film in this year’s London Film Festival programme. For any self-respecting film fan, the London Film Festival is a tantalizing mix of heaven and hell. Heaven is the prospect of some wonderful films, events, red carpets and more than a sprinkle or two of good old fashioned glamour and glitz. Hell is working out how many of the 225 features in this year’s…
Read MoreMission: Impossible – Fallout Review
Reviewed by Freda Cooper (@FredaTalkingPix) Ethan Hunt is back! It’s the sixth instalment of the Mission:Impossible franchise, but let’s put aside the logic that says there should only ever have been one film with that title. The same argument applied to the original TV series and it never bothered them, so why should Tom Cruise worry about it? After all, this is not a series that demands too much of…
Read MoreFilm Review: Den Of Thieves
Reviewed by Freda Cooper There are two Gerard Butler films around at the moment. One sees him explaining Scottish slang. The other is Den Of Thieves. This is a movie that’s bursting to be something else. With its chases and gunfire, it fancies itself as the DeNiro/Pacino face-off, Heat (1995), but its ambitions don’t stop there. It also sees itself as something of a Sicario (2015), especially when a gun…
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 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: Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle
Reviewed by Freda Cooper The word Jumanji immediately conjures up misty eyed memories of the 1995 family comedy starring Robin Williams and a young Kirsten Dunst. With a magical board game at its heart, it boasted some special effects that weren’t just impressive for their day, they also stand up surprisingly well now. 22 years later, we have an updated version for today’s generation, in theory a standalone, but who…
Read MoreFilm Review: Brigsby Bear
Reviewed By Freda Cooper If you ever obsessed over a TV series as a kid, then you’ll have more than a little sympathy for James (Kyle Mooney) in Brigsby Bear. He’s grown up with Brigsby Bear Adventures, a weekly show about a loveable teddy in outer space, part fun, part education. He knows every plot line down to the minutest detail, can recite chunks of dialogue and his bedroom is…
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