Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time review: A fascinating portrait of genius July 21, 2022 Fascination with the life and work of Kurt Vonnegut, the celebrated author of science-fiction novel Slaughterhouse-Five, lives on well past his death fifteen years ago. And duly, new documentary Unstuck In Time feels like it was conceived through adulation. A culmination of decades of work, filmmaker Robert B Weide was initially approached by Vonnegut to [...]
McEnroe film review: Reveals fragility beneath tennis star’s bravado July 16, 2022 Wimbledon may have finished, but here’s an opportunity to get into the mind of one of its most famous champions. This documentary by Barney Douglas (2019 cricket documentary The Edge) features the American legend as well as family, friends, and rivals talking about his unique rise to stardom, his famous temperament, and what drove his [...]
Explorer film review: Honest, revealing portrait of Sir Ranulph Fiennes July 16, 2022 Sir Ranulph Fiennes has devoted his life to travelling the world’s most inhospitable climates. Among his credits are being the first person to visit the North and South Pole by surface, the first to cross Antarctica by foot, and he climbed Everest at the age of 65. Using archives, interviews, and footage following the great [...]
The Railway Children Return review: A weary reboot July 16, 2022 Like ET, The Wizard of Oz and The Great Escape, The Railway Children -the 1970 original which spawned reboot The Railway Children Return – is a movie most of us have absorbed at some point, probably during Christmas or a bank holiday. The 1970 movie is one of the beloved British movies of all time, [...]
Brit comedy Brian and Charles is the new Lars and the Real Girl July 9, 2022 Artificial Intelligence in cinema usually doesn’t end well. From 2001’s HAL to Aliens’ Ash, there’s usually something evil lingering underneath the circuits. In the new British comedy Brian and Charles, however, all the robot star wants is a train pass. Ricky Gervais collaborator David Earl writes and stars as Brian, a lonely man living in [...]
Thor: Love and Thunder is a fun romp but this franchise is getting old July 9, 2022 Despite eight Marvel Cinematic Universe titles planned for this year (three films, five TV shows plus specials), audiences show no sign of superhero fatigue. May’s Doctor Strange is the second highest grossing release of the year, while Moon Knight and Ms Marvel have introduced new facets to the entertainment juggernaut. Can Taika Waititi, the man [...]
New drama Tigers takes a microscope to the beautiful game July 6, 2022 As documentaries like Broke and Last Chance U have illustrated, modern sport is a money machine that can chew up youngsters hoping to change their lives. While US sports have been well covered in this respect, new drama Tigers takes that microscope to The Beautiful Game. The film is a dramatisation of the real story [...]
Beavis and Butt-Head take their fart jokes into outer space July 5, 2022 With nostalgia more popular than ever in Hollywood, streaming service Paramount+ is bringing back foul mouthed 90s cartoon Beavis and Butt-Head. The pair became cultural icons thanks to their MTV shorts that skewered pop videos, and would go on to duet with Cher, feature on Friends, and break home video records. Twenty-five years after the [...]
Minions: The Rise of Gru will see smaller viewers rolling in the aisles July 5, 2022 The second prequel to the Despicable Me trilogy is set in the seventies and follows a 12-year-old Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), who dreams of becoming a super villain. When his idols, the Vicious 6, interview for a replacement, Gru steals a precious stone in order to impress them. However, a series of accidents mean [...]
Live action Halo is finally here – but is it any good? July 4, 2022 A live action adaptation of the Halo game franchise has been in the works almost since the Xbox first launched. Peter Jackson, Guillermo Del Toro and Neill Blomkamp are among the names to have attempted a feature film in the 2000s, while this Steven Spielberg-produced version was first announced in 2013. The series finally arrives [...]