Articles + Quotes on Film & TV

The plan is for the family to celebrate the grandfather's 75th birthday up in Scotland, but like a lot of best laid plans, the whole thing rapidly goes to pot, in a perfectly off kilter way. The film has been marketed and trailered as a family comedy, but here is the disclaimer - its not completely that. Fair warning: there are some teary moments, and its a pity the MTV Movie Awards' "Best WTF Moment" nominees have been announced, because there are several in this film that would probably wipe the board on that one. Doug (David Tennant) and Abi (Rosamund Pike) and their three young kids (who steal the show) Jess, Lottie and Mickey (Harriet Turnbull, Emilia Jones and Bobby Smalldridge respectively) travel up to Scotland to Doug's brother Gavin's (Ben Miller) and his wife Margaret (Amelia Bullmore) house. Their son Kenneth, is portrayed by Lewis The grandfather, Gordie - portrayed by Billy Connolly - really, who else could do that role, is the perfect foil ...

Whenever a new historical drama (or sometimes comedy) comes along, there are always those who nitpick and say its not historically accurate. And there are those that enjoy a good drama, historical or otherwise and appreciate the storytelling for what it is - a story. To the former, I would say, find a documentary and watch that, and to the latter, I would say - watch Sons of Liberty because it is the best historical drama I have watched in a while. The story starts in 1765, a full eleven years before the words 'declaration' and 'independence' were used in the same sentence to mean something significant - so already we're looking at an old story in a new way. That's something that will never get old - no matter which historical event (or person) you look at, there are at least three or more different sides you can take and probably more ways of using them in a story to make it fluid enough to make some sense. With this one, the familiar names are all here...

The other day, I was watching the very end of The Spiderwick Chronicles. From memory, this film did not do too well at the box office. It was released back in 2008. So multiple spoilers ahead, sorry. Anyway, the scene I was watching involved David Straithairn's character Arthur Spiderwick coming back and seeing his now very grown up daughter Lucinda (Joan Plowright) and taking her with him. The piece of score for this particular scene sounded very familiar and I remembered that it was in the film Casper (its the scene when Cat's Mum comes back and tells her Dad what needs to be said and later when Casper is dancing with Cat near the end of their little dance) and a little research later confirmed it was in fact the same composer: James Horner. It's not the first time this has happened, there have been many overlaps, a lot I've noticed from the action genre of films, classics like Con Air, Broken Arrow, Bad Boys and the sequel, to present for films like The Sorc...

Superhero films in general, usually have the most unhealthy helping of corniness imaginable. Not just supers, its also shows like the remake of Hawaii Five O, it grew and it lost me as a viewer. It doesn't help much as far as good story-lines, the script, characters etc are concerned. Some love this, I mean, look at the level of support for characters like Superman, the X-Men crew, Batman, Spiderman, Daredevil, Elektra. The list goes on. I haven't been a fan of the superhero classics, I mean, come on Superman puts on a pair of glasses and that instantly makes him invisible. Maybe its the old Emperor's New Clothes principle at work, we buy into it because we want to enjoy the overall story. Either way, too much corniness can overwhelm - read piss off today's viewer, which is why I am heavily enjoying watching the most recent superhero adaptation: The Flash. Like the main character, the focus on a specific tone, moves just as fast from really serious to sad to...

I watched this film a little while ago and I'm still thinking about it. It is a political thriller, set in London, after a bombing of the Borough Markets. With a suspect - Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto) in custody, all that remains is a trial and therein lies the rub. Because of national security and risks that an open trial might incur, a closed session is planned and in an opening scene, the Attorney General (portrayed by Jim Broadbent) whole heartedly defends this decision in a radio interview. Kenneth Cranham is Cameron Fischer, a head in the English law courts. Martin Rose (portrayed by Eric Bana, complete with English accent) enters as a defence barrister and Claudia Simmons-Howe, (Rebecca Hall) as the special advocate. Neither are that keen on working together but I won't say why. Devlin (Ciaran Hinds) comes in to work with both of them, not an enviable position but his character does keeps up the levity with some well written lines that may not provoke a ...

Ben Whishaw gives his voice for the title character and after seeing the film I could not think of anyone better for it. And after portraying characters like Sebastian in Brideshead Revisited, John Keats in Bright Star, its not hard to wonder why. Sorry Colin Firth. The rest of the film was similarly well cast, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins - as Mr and Mrs Brown (they have two children - Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin), Julie Walters as Mrs Bird, Peter Capaldi as Mr Curry all bring something special to their characters, as does Nicole Kidman, as a sort of more active Cruella De Vil type, but she too makes Millicent her own. Mark King (known to a lot as Super Hans in Peep Show) pops up, as does Geoffrey Palmer, Jim Broadbent and Matt Lucas and Michael Gambon and Imelda Staunton. It is a family film first and foremost and that carries on into the main theme of the story. That gives the film its heartwarming quality, but secondly its a comedy, so get ready fo...

Like the last two films, they have perfectly adapted the first half of the third book in Suzanne Collins trilogy to make a thoroughly thrilling and well made film. Since the events of Catching Fire, Katniss is now in district 13, the until now unknown underground district that is now leading the would be rebellion against the capitol. And the president of 13, Alma Coin (portrayed by Julianne Moore) wants Katniss to accept the figurehead position of the Mockingjay, something that she is joined in by Plutarch Heavensbee, (portrayed by the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman) ex gamemaker from the capitol, but Katniss is forever changed, and not for the better. She and Finnick (Sam Claflin) may have been "saved" from the last games, but Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) wasn't and he, Johanna (Jena Malone), andAnnie (Stef Dawson) are stuck in the Capitol, under Snow's (Donald Sutherland) unforgiving thumb. It takes a lot to get her to perform, thankfully, she still has Gale ...