Articles + Quotes on Film & TV

A little context: when I was around ten, we got on video, three episodes of Batman: The animated series. This was my first introduction to the character of Harley Quinn, a little short on her marble collection (given her company, hardly a distinction) but clearly just as able to hold her own up against the other crazies in Gotham. Given this was the nineties and live DC heroines were limited to Batgirl, Harley Quinn became my new favourite. I decided to ignore the fact she was a villain. And while it seemed that every other DC character was given the live action treatment, this one was getting passed over each time. When the trailer for Suicide squad was released, my inner ten year old was whooping with joy, more so seeing the character come to life on the big screen - then bitterly disappointed with the rest of the film. Thanks to the combined efforts of director Cathy Yan director and writer Christina Hodson, we finally have a Harley Quinn movie that surpasses Suicide Squad in e...

Regardless if you enjoyed the two Sherlock Holmes films, or thought the new reimagining of Aladdin was exciting, or the King Arthur film was epic - nothing really gets you moving to the cinema quicker, than the thought of Guy Ritchie returning to make a proper gangster film. And thank whatever person was responsible for getting this idea to the big screen and for Mr Ritchie to get behind the camera (and on the proverbial typewriter - along with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies) because this was a great one. Great acting skills aside, what this film called for most, is screen presence. It's all well and good writing some menacing lines, but you have to be able to believe who's speaking them. And you definitely believe Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell, along with Eddie Marsan, Henry Golding and Michelle Dockery - are going to deliver on the violence coming. Along with  Jeremy Strong and Tom Wu (once again a George in a Guy Ritchie film) plus some of the other...

Despite the authorship of the book this is based on being by the combined powers of Neil Gaiman and the late great Terry Pratchett, this has a strong whiff of the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - something Neil Gaiman himself commented on in an interview. Given the strong (funny, entertaining) material in the book, all that was really needed was the cut, copy and paste option for the script, and a strong cast to bring the characters to life. (Plus a few special effects, music and fancy camera work.) And Frances McDormand to narrate the whole thing, as God. Because, really, who else can master that? Enter David Tennant and Michael Sheen, who portray the demon Crowley and angel Aziraphale respectively. They clearly had a ball making this, both devour their roles with obvious glee and their scenes together are an absolute delight. (So, if someone else can team these two up for something, hurry up please!) The story, told in six episodes, centres on the end of the world, and th...