Author: Tom Beasley

DVD & Blu-ray Featured Reviews 

Blu-ray Review – ‘Laura’ is a snappy, satisfying 1940s film noir

14/01/2019 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 1944, 2019, Blu-ray, Certificate: PG, Clifton Webb, Dana Andrews, Dorothy Adams, Gene Tierney, January 2019, Judith Anderson, Laura, Noir, Otto Preminger, Thriller, Vincent Price

Otto Preminger’s 90-minute noir Laura is an enthralling and entertaining film noir that never outstays its welcome.

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Featured Reviews 

Christmas and New Year Review Round-up: Holmes & Watson, Bumblebee, The Favourite, Welcome to Marwen

11/01/201915/01/2019 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, 2019, Bumblebee, December 2018, Emma Stone, Etan Cohen, Hailee Steinfeld, Holmes & Watson, January 2019, John C Reilly, John Cena, Leslie Mann, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes, Review Round-up, Rob Brydon, Robert Zemeckis, Steve Carell, The Favourite, Travis Knight, Welcome to Marwen, Will Ferrell, Yorgos Lanthimos

Reviews of some of the films that hit the UK over Christmas, including Oscar-tipped The Favourite and comedy Holmes & Watson.

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Reviews 

Review – Climbing doc ‘Free Solo’ is scarier than 99% of horror movies

09/01/2019 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, Alex Honnold, Certificate: 12, December 2018, Documentary, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Free Solo, Jimmy Chin, Rating: Pop, Sanni McCandless, Tommy Caldwell

Climber and professional holder of a death wish Alex Honnold is the subject of the terrifying documentary Free Solo.

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Articles Featured Lists 

Review of the Year – Worst Films of 2018

08/01/2019 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, A Simple Favour, A Wrinkle in Time, Brad's Status, Death Wish, Den of Thieves, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Father Figures, Fifty Shades Freed, Halloween, Hurricane Heist, Life of the Party, Monster Family, Mute, Patrick, Review of 2018, Show Dogs, Slender Man, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Super Troopers 2, The Equalizer 2, The Happytime Murders, The House That Jack Built, The Nun, Worst Films of 2018

The last 12 months marked a great year at the cinema, but there were some turkeys, so here are the worst movies of 2018.

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Articles Featured Multimedia Podcast 

The Popcorn Muncher Podcast: Episode 131 – “So are we seriously still doing this podcast in 2019?”

07/01/201906/01/2019 Tom Beasley 0 Comment BAFTAs, BAFTAs 2019, Bumblebee, Emily Blunt, Emma Stone, Hailee Steinfeld, Jordan Peele, Mary Poppins Returns, Olivia Colman, PGA Awards, Podcast, Rachel Weisz, The Favourite, The Popcorn Muncher Podcast, Travis Knight, Us, Yorgos Lanthimos

On the first podcast of 2019, we take a look at The Favourite, Bumblebee and Disney musical Mary Poppins Returns.

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Featured Reviews 

Review – ‘Life Itself’ is maudlin nonsense that will exhaust even the most patient of viewers

04/01/2019 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2019, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Certificate: 15, Dan Fogelman, Drama, January 2019, Laia Costa, Life Itself, Olivia Cooke, Olivia Wilde, Oscar Isaac, Rating: Poop, Sergio Peris-Mencheta

Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde and other famous faces slum it in Life Itself, which is an awful drama from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman.

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Articles Featured Lists 

Review of the Year – Best Films of 2018

31/12/201830/12/2018 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, A Quiet Place, Anna and the Apocalypse, Annihilation, Avengers: Infinity War, Best Films of 2018, Black Panther, Coco, Creed 2, First Man, First Reformed, Ghost Stories, Hereditary, Lady Bird, Love Simon, Mandy, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Phantom Thread, Red Sparrow, Revenge, Review of 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, The Shape of Water, Venom

From Avengers: Infinity War to Phantom Thread and Hereditary, here are the best films of 2018 from the Popcorn Muncher Podcast team.

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Featured Reviews 

Review – The terrific ‘Bumblebee’ realises Transformers movies are for kids

24/12/201823/12/2018 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, Action, Adventure, Angela Bassett, Bumblebee, Certificate: PG, December 2018, Dylan O'Brien, Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Justin Theroux, Pamela Adlon, Peter Cullen, Rating: Pop, Stephen Schneider, Transformers, Travis Knight

Travis Knight brings warmth and childlike wonder to the Transformers franchise in Bumblebee, which puts character over spectacle.

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Featured Reviews 

Review – ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ has oodles of charm to fill its originality gap

24/12/201823/12/2018 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, Angela Lansbury, Ben Whishaw, Certificate: U, Colin Firth, Comedy, December 2018, Dick Van Dyke, Drama, Emily Blunt, Emily Mortimer, Joel Dawson, Julie Walters, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Returns, Meryl Streep, Musical, Nathanael Saleh, Pixie Davies, Rating: Pop, Rob Marshall

Emily Blunt steps into Julie Andrews’s toe-tapping shoes for Disney’s musical sequel Mary Poppins Returns.

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Reviews 

Review – ‘Mortal Engines’ is an exercise in snoozepunk

23/12/2018 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, Adventure, Certificate: 12, Christian Rivers, December 2018, Fantasy, Hera Hilmar, Hugo Weaving, Jihae, Leila George, Mortal Engines, Patrick Malahide, Peter Jackson, Rating: Poop, Robert Sheehan, Ronan Raftery, Stephen Lang

Peter Jackson writes and produces YA adaptation Mortal Engines, in which Hugo Weaving gets villainous at the helm of a predator city.

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Featured Reviews 

Review – Lars von Trier shows us his rotten soul in ‘The House That Jack Built’

23/12/2018 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, Bruno Ganz, Certificate: 18, David Bailie, December 2018, Drama, Jeremy Davies, Lars von Trier, Matt Dillon, Rating: Poop, Riley Keough, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, The House That Jack Built, Thriller, Uma Thurman

Cinema’s top provocateur Lars von Trier delivers something very personal with the distasteful serial killer epic The House That Jack Built.

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