Film Reviews & Essays

Here you will find a centralised hub for all of the film reviews & essays on this website & We Made This for ease of access…

2020

• Ammonite
• Babyteeth
• Bill and Ted Face the Music
• I Am Greta
• I Used To Go Here
• Mank
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #21 – Fincher, Welles and the Auteur
• One Night in Miami…
• Relic
• She Dies Tomorrow
• Shirley
• Soul
• Tenet
  • Podcast Extra: Between the Notes #20: Tenet & The Best of Ludwig Goransson
• The Roads Not Taken
• The Social Dilemma
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #15: The Discourse

2019

• A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
• Ad Astra
• Annabelle Comes Home 
• Bombshell
• Brexit: The Uncivil War
• Diego Maradona
• Doctor Sleep
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #4 – ‘Stephen King’s America’
• El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
• Gemini Man
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters
• In Search of Darkness
• John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
• Jojo Rabbit
• Joker
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #2 – ‘Anti-Hero Ethics’
  • The Dark Knight Jokes: How Joker builds on Nolan’s revolutionary thesis
• Le Mans ’66 aka Ford vs Ferrari
• Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
• Memory: The Origins of Alien
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #10 – ‘One Year On’
• Rambo: Last Blood
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #1 – ‘Geri-Action’
• Rocketman
• Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
• Velvet Buzzsaw

2018

• Annihilation
  • Podcast Extra: The Projection Booth #423 – Annihilation
• Darkest Hour
• Funny Cow
• Ghost Stories
• Happy New Year, Colin Burstead
• I Kill Giants
• Life Itself
• Love, Simon
• Mary Poppins Returns
  • Podcast Extra: The Movie Palace #22 – Mary Poppins
• Mute
• Ready Player One
  • Ready Player God: Technology, Spirituality & Nostalgia in Modern Fiction 
• The Cloverfield Paradox
• Tomb Raider

2017

• Baby Driver
• Carnage
• Dunkirk
  • Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk and his Cinematic Ideology
• It Comes at Night
• Murder on the Orient Express
• Okja
• The Beguiled
• The Big Sick
• The Greatest Showman

2016

• Don’t Breathe
• Headshot
• Lights Out
• The Girl on the Train
• The Girl with All the Gifts
• The Neon Demon

2015

• The Big Short
• The Childhood of a Leader

2012

• Django Unchained

2008

• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2004

• Wolf Creek

2003

• Love Actually

2001

• Hannibal
• Save the Last Dance

2000

• 2000 In Film
  • 1 – The Hurricane
  • 2 – Next Friday
  • 3 – Down to You
  • 4 – Eye of the Beholder
  • 5 – Scream 3
  • 6 – The Beach
  • 7 – The Whole Nine Yards
  • 8 – Wonder Boys
  • 9 – The Next Best Thing
  • 10 – Mission to Mars
  • 11 – Erin Brockovich
  • 12 – Romeo Must Die
  • 13 – The Road to El Dorado
  • 14 – Rules of Engagement
  • 15 – 28 Days
  • 16 – U-571
  • 17 – Frequency
  • 18 – Gladiator
    • “Am I Not Merciful?!” Gladiator, Commodus and the Rise of the Populists
  • 19 – Battlefield Earth
  • 20 – Road Trip
  • 21 – Mission Impossible II
  • 22 – Shanghai Noon
  • 23 – Titan A.E.
  • 24 – Shaft
  • 25 – The Patriot
  • 26 – Scary Movie
  • 27 – X-Men

1997

• Preaching to the Perverted

1995

• Waterworld

1993

• In the Line of Fire
• Last Action Hero

1991

• The Doors (StudioCanal review)

1988

• Red Heat
• Scrooged
• The Abyss

1984

• Romancing the Stone

1982

• Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Eureka review)

1980

• The Dogs of War (Eureka review)

1971

• A Fistful of Dynamite aka Duck, You Sucker! (Eureka review)
• Fright (StudioCanal review)

1967

• The Incident (Eureka review)
• The Night of the Generals (Eureka review)

1956

• Moby Dick

1952

• High Noon (Eureka review)

1951

• The African Queen (Eureka review)

1950

• All About Eve

1920

• Der Golem (Eureka review)

Filmography

• Neil Jordan
  • 1 – Angel (1982)
  • 2 – The Company of Wolves (1984)
  • 3 – Mona Lisa (1986)
  • 4 – High Spirits (1988)
  • 5 – We’re No Angels (1989)

James Bond

• James Bond Will Return: Should Continuity Come With Him?
• What if killing off Daniel Craig’s James Bond makes sense?
• SPECTRE suggests Bond’s ‘team ethic’ future
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #12 – James Bond & Spectre – Five Years On

Marvel

• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
• Black Panther (2018)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
  • Podcast Extra: The 250 #77 – Avengers: Infinity War
  • Marvel, Gatekeeping and the ‘Problem’ with Avengers: Infinity War
• Avengers: Endgame
  • Podcast Extra: Between the Notes – Avengers: Endgame / Top 5 Superhero Scores
  • Podcast Extra: The 250 #129 – Avengers: Endgame
  • End Game of Treks: is Time-Travel becoming a storytelling crutch?
• Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Men in Black

• Forget the Past: Men in Black and Neutralising History

Miscellaneous pieces

• Anon: The Quandary of the Joint Home/Cinema Release
• Bill, Ted and the Dark Fate of the Legacyquel
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #14: Legacyquels
• Chadwick Boseman and the Mourning of Personal Icons
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #13 – A Tribute to Chadwick Boseman
• Christopher Nolan has his own Pledge, Turn and Prestige
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #11 – Insomnia & the Evolution of Christopher Nolan
• Cinematic Universes: the divisive wave of cinema’s future
• Host is the next step in found footage horror
• Justice League: Modern Superheroes and the God Complex
• Milking the Franchise: Star Wars, Marvel & beyond
• Nobody Did It Better: Losing Sean Connery
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #17 – A Tribute to Sir Sean Connery
• Should we be scared of The First Purge?
• Some Nerve: Social Media and Modern Cinematic Voyeurism
• Revolution & Rebirth: The Dark Knight Rises imagined America’s fire almost a decade ago
• What’s Your Pleasure? Experiencing the Hellraiser franchise

Mission Impossible

• Mission Impossible (1996)
• Mission Impossible II (2000)
• Mission Impossible III (2006)
• Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
• Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)
• Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018)

Planet of the Apes

• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Star Trek

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) 
• Scene by Scene: Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan (1982)
  • Pt I – A No-Win Scenario
  • Pt II – Surely, the Best of Times
  • Pt III – Something We Can Transplant
  • Pt IV – Death and Life Together
  • Pt V – First Best Destiny
  • Pt VI – ‘Round Perdition’s Flames
  • Pt VII – The Word is Given
  • Pt VIII – By the Book
  • Pt IX – There Always Are… Possibilities
  • Pt X – Sauce for the Goose
  • Pt XI – Live Long and Prosper
• Scene by Scene: Star Trek Nemesis (2002)
  • Pt I – A Generation’s Final Journey Begins
  • Pt II – Captain’s Prerogative
  • Pt III – Unsafe Velocities
  • Pt IV – Sailing Into the Unknown
  • Pt V – A Better Way
  • Pt VI – A Violation
  • Pt VII – The Echo Over the Voice
  • Pt VIII – Waiting for the Dawn
  • Pt IX – Goodbye…
  • Pt X – Blue Skies

Star Wars

• Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
• Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017)
  • The Last Jedi: from Space Fantasy to Space Equality
  • Star Wars and why Fandom can’t “let the past die”
• Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
  • Skywalker Rising: Star Wars, Abrams and Familiar Territory 
  • The Importance of Being Rey: Star Wars’ Exceptionalism Problem
  • Podcast Extra: Motion Pictures #7 – ‘The Heroes’ Journey’

X-Men

• X-Men (2000) 
• X2: X-Men United (2003) 
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) 
• X-Men: First Class (2011) 
• X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) 
• X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) 
• X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019)