Articles + Quotes on Film & TV

Anyone familiar with The Vampire Diaries, will remember The Originals. The Original vampires, most dysfunctional (and long living) family ever. Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson all with a thousand year history, find themselves in New Orleans, once their home, which is now ruled by another vampire. The charismatic and charming, Marcel Gerard. (Portrayed by Charles Michael Davis) Much like Mystic Falls, New Orleans has every kind of supernatural, vampire, witch, werewolf, all vying for power and life in the French Quarter. Klaus (portrayed by Joseph Morgan) (hybrid) is there, the currently downtrodden witch community have made contact and he wants to know why. (Phoebe Tonkin portraying Hayley, a werewolf, is a big part of it.) Elijah (portrayed by Daniel Gillies), the big brother of the family, known for being noble and polite, keeping his word, is there to find out what the witches want from his brother. Rebekah, (portrayed by Claire Holt) there is no love lost be...

Finding a good thriller these days, is tricky. There are many different factors that have to be taken into account, to ensure it's genuine. The Bourne Legacy came close, the more recent Die Hard went every which way before deciding what was going on and Premium Rush was pretty much - fine. This new Jack Ryan film, the first to not be based on one of Tom Clancy's books, (but based on the characters) is the best thriller I've seen for a long time, far surpassing all the rest. A great thriller, among other things, should have your pulse racing, not stopping until the credits, this film ticked that box most assuredly. It does proud the Tom Clancy name and reputation for excellent story telling and adds its own new energy, with the help of a top rate director, cast and crew. Director first. Kenneth Branagh has directed films before, most recently the first Thor film, mentioned here as like this one, the direction was flawless. A lot of action films these days have s...

There are many actors these days, who can convey so much with just their facial expressions. In fact, if technology took a huge step back and we were back in the silent film era, they'd be fine. Keanu Reeves, not so much. Joining this long list of actors, is Nicholas Hoult, who is in this film portrays R, a zombie, which typically involves a lot of grunting and shuffling around. Combined with some first point of view character narration and yes - first class facial expressions that keep the story progressing nicely. Fans of Being Human (UK version) can rejoice, the black comedy in this film is remarkably similar in tone and somehow feels like a continuation of the episode "Type 4". (Series 3, episode 3 if you're curious.) The setting of this story is the zombie apocalypse and one of the surviving humans, is Julie (Teresa Palmer) and after the typical fight/bloodbath, between the two warring communities, she is 'taken in' by R, who is feeling something f...

No, not a sequel to the Peter Weir escape from Gulag film starring Colin Farrell and Jim Sturgess. Sorry if the title gave that illusion. This is more a coming of age kind of film, the main character Duncan, is struggling to find his own identity, more of a challenge than usual, his mother's boyfriend is a complete douche (understating things remarkably, but for now, we'll keep the language PG) and constantly belittling him. The story starts once they all arrive at the boyfriend's summer house (Steve Carell on douche duty) and Duncan's mother (Toni Colette) attentions are taken up by the boyfriend's friends and their kids. Annasophia Robb appears here, as Allison Janney's daughter, matching the caliber of acting set by the adults. With the help of a pink bike, Duncan escapes and finds his way to the local water park, where one of the employees Owen (Sam Rockwell acts the hell out of this part) takes him under his wing. This is movie worth watching, thr...

On and on it goes, round and round - is what I think when watching the opening scenes of this film. No surprises, the focus is on a playing record, spinning, and the main actors, doing the same thing. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton are Adam and Eve, a very old couple, deeply in love and when the film opens, Adam is in Detroit, and Eve, Tangiers. And they are vampires, although the word is never mentioned in the entirety of the film, just visual clues to let the audience know. Much like Byzantium, only the supporting characters use that word. This film was directed by Jim Jarmusch and considering all the other usual story lines and probable plot devices that a film of this subject that they usually follow, it made a refreshing change to see him use a different one. Most literature in this subject, focus on the physical differences and emotional, less. This one used more psychological and emotional themes and also used the starkness of both filming locations (Detroit and Ta...

The old rule of the sequel not living up to the first, of being shoddy quality etc, is fast being eroded by the high quality of those now being made. Catching Fire, Star Trek into Darkness, the Harry Potter films, and now this one. The real strength of this film are the actors and accordingly, the focus is on them for the full two hours and twenty minutes. (That and the off the wall - literally, special effects) Andrew Garfield is truly a wonder and in this he brings the torment of the young and torn superhero to the screen in a skilful fashion. Joining him once more - Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey, his off again, on again girlfriend and Sally Field, his aunt May, worrying and caring for him in near equal measure. Joining him for the first time, Dane DeHaan as his long lost friend Harry Osborn (his father is portrayed by Chris Cooper), and Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon, who becomes the title villain of this piece. Marton Csokas, is a doctor and Paul Giamatti pops in too, near the end. ...

Bryan Singer, director of the X Men films (most of them), directs this thrill a millisecond ride to perfection. Millisecond may be overstating things, but considering this film has giants as the bad guys, with the incomparable Bill Nighy as their two headed leader, well - overstated turns to understated, very quickly. Stanley Tucci and the rest of the cast are quite excellent too. Nicholas Hoult, known for Wah Wah, Warm Bodies, X Men Origins (and soon the sequel) portrays the archetype Jack, here a farm boy with his head in the clouds, who soon is swept up into them - literally, when some beans, water and a Princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) come into his life. The plot line kind of has a Shanghai Noon vibe to it, which is interesting. He joins the King's (Ian McShane) men on a mission to rescue her, which includes Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner and Eddie Marsan. With some spectacular special effects, giant bean stalks are climbed on and the giants' world is something else to l...