December 2018

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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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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Featured Guest Posts Reviews 

Review – ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ celebrates the character’s rich legacy

23/12/201823/12/2018 Patrick Wilson 0 Comment 2018, Action, Animation, Bob Persichetti, Brian Tyree Henry, Certificate: PG, Comedy, December 2018, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, John Mulaney, Kathryn Hahn, Kimiko Glenn, Liev Schreiber, Lily Tomlin, Mahershala Ali, Nicolas Cage, Peter Ramsey, Phil Lord, Rating: Pop, Rodney Rothman, Shameik Moore, Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Superhero, Zoe Kravitz

The madness of Marvel’s comic book multi-verses is brought to the fore in superhero animation Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

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Featured Guest Posts Reviews 

Review – ‘Aquaman’ goes straight in as a top-end DC film

22/12/201821/12/2018 Luke Stevenson 0 Comment 2018, Action, Amber Heard, Aquaman, Certificate: 12, DC, December 2018, Dolph Lundgren, Fantasy, James Wan, Jason Momoa, Julie Andrews, Nicole Kidman, Patrick Wilson, Rating: Pop, Superhero, Temuera Morrison, Willem Dafoe, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

Aquaman, directed by horror maestro James Wan, is a mad and unhinged superhero blockbuster, but it’s up there with the best of DC.

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Featured Guest Posts Reviews 

Review – Technically stunning ‘Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle’ lacks identity

18/12/201821/12/2018 Patrick Wilson 0 Comment 2018, Adventure, Andy Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Certificate: 12, Christian Bale, December 2018, Eddie Marsan, Fantasy, Mowgli, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, Naomie Harris, Peter Mullan, Rating: Poop, Rohan Chand, Tom Hollander

Andy Serkis’s long-gestating take on The Jungle Book has finally arrived, but Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle has a great deal of problems.

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DVD & Blu-ray Guest Posts Reviews 

DVD Review – ‘The Equalizer 2’ is a flat, jumbled action sequel

18/12/2018 Patrick Wilson 0 Comment 2018, Action, Antoine Fuqua, Ashton Sanders, Bill Pullman, Certificate: 15, December 2018, Denzel Washington, DVD, Melissa Leo, Orson Bean, Pedro Pascal, Rating: Poop, Sakina Jaffrey, The Equalizer, The Equalizer 2, Thriller

Denzel Washington stars in his first ever sequel with Equalizer 2, but leaves you wondering why this caused him to break his golden rule.

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DVD & Blu-ray Featured Reviews 

Blu-ray Review – ‘The Festival’ remains an anarchic comedy highlight of 2018

10/12/201809/12/2018 Tom Beasley 0 Comment 2018, Blu-ray, Certificate: 15, Claudia O'Doherty, Comedy, December 2018, Emma Rigby, Hammed Animashaun, Hannah Tointon, Hugh Coles, Iain Morris, Jemaine Clement, Joe Thomas, Kurt Yaeger, Lizzy Connolly, Nick Frost, Noel Fielding, Rating: Pop, The Festival, Theo Barklem-Biggs

Joe Thomas reunites with Inbetweeners creator Iain Morris for the anarchic comedy The Festival, which is now out on DVD and Blu-ray.

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