25 Feb

Make no mistake about it. Winning the Academy Award for Best Picture is ultimately a game of skill. Yes, the picture still has to be "good", but that's only half the battle. At some point, you have to become the frontrunner. The likely winner. The unstoppable force. The one piece of cinema Academy voters want to vote for. The winning team everyone is desperate to back. It's when to become the frontrunner that's the tricky part....

17:57 / Awards Season / Opinion
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26 Jan

Well, folks. Things went mostly to plan. When you pick 99 of the 123 nominees (I struck out in the Short film categories, so shoot me), you realise it was one of those predictable years. That's not to say there weren't a few shocks, surprises and snubs. Thankfully, there's far more to be happy about this year than previous years. So, let's get to it. The good There will be those that groaned when La La Land tied with Titanic and All About Eve in earning a record 14 nominations, but you know I...

15:00 / Awards Season / Opinion
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24 Jan

Well it's that time of year again. On the eve of the Academy's big Oscar nominations announcement, I'm laying down my final predictions. There's a lot up in the air here, so take them with a grain of salt. Sometimes I get it right. Sometimes I'm way off. Films have been flying up and down on the buzz-meter the last few weeks. Hidden Figures and Lion are coming on very strong at the end, so it's possible they could both do better than I'm speculating. Silence is the...

14:59 / Awards Season / Opinion
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04 Jan

2016. The year the world seemingly lost its damn mind. Natural disasters; terrorist disasters; and even election disasters. Losing brilliant entertainer after brilliant entertainer - most far too soon. Every single week, there seemed to be a fresh punch to the stomach, especially as the year drew to a close. My escapism from the madness of this world has always been (and will always be) the world of film. When life gives me lemons, I flee to the cinema. Thankfully, the cinema was always there this year, and...

16:50 / Opinion / Reviews
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03 Aug

After the swing-and-miss that was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (or at least the theatrical version), DC takes another shot at stealing Marvel's cinematic superhero crown with their hyper-coloured and hyper-charged extravaganza, Suicide Squad. Thankfully this time, they've managed to strike back with a flawed but entertaining piece of cinema. Much like Marvel's own "bad guys done good", the Guardians of the Galaxy, DC faces the similarly daunting task of introducing a whole host of new characters to a cinema audience unfamiliar with comic-book lore. And not just introducing...

02:00 / Opinion / Reviews
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16 Jul

Have you ever been watching a comedy in a packed cinema, and pretty much everyone is laughing except you? And you start to question whether you're in a room full of idiots or maybe you're the one with the problem? Welcome to my experience with Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates aka one of the most frustrating times I've had in a cinema this year. Now I say "frustrating" because I love a good comedy. Even the gross-out ones. A few of my favourites film of the past few...

16:57 / Opinion / Reviews
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21 Jun

Half the year has come and gone. It's brought many cinematic delights, and more than a handful of horrendous disappointments. Let's keep it positive and take a look back at the ten best films of 2016 so far. I've kept it brief and kept them alphabetical, so as to not waste/spoil all my best material before my annual end of year top 10 where several of these films will no doubt make another appearance. So, have we seen the best film of the year yet? Time will tell...

20:08 / Opinion / Reviews
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19 Jun

Given it has been 13 long years, it may be easy to forget the cultural impact Finding Nemo had on the zeitgeist of the early 2000s. Instantly adored, the film not only dominated the box-office (highest grossing animated film, at that point), but it stood (and still stands) as one of the best reviewed animated films there has ever been. It's little wonder it has taken Pixar and Disney this long to deliver the sequel. Given their hit-and-miss history with sequels (Cars 2, anyone?), how do you possibly top such a cinematic...

16:16 / Opinion / Reviews
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30 May

For a studio experiencing an impressive dream-run lately, Disney takes its first major misstep in months with Alice Through the Looking Glass; a film that improves on the previous chapter, but given that chapter was an insufferable bore, that's not really saying a whole lot. Following the well-worn "nobody really asked for this sequel, but the original made too much money not to make one" path, similarly paved earlier this year by Huntsman: Winter's War, James Bobin's Alice Through the Looking Glass unfortunately suffers from the same disappointing problem as Tim Burton's original film - visually impressive but narratively...

12:19 / Opinion / Reviews
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23 May

Perhaps the most awkwardly ironic moment during the over-bloated mess that is X-Men: Apocalypse, Bryan Singer's latest chapter in the X-Men reboot trilogy, takes place after several characters leave a cinema showing Return of the Jedi. In an obviously snarky stab at X-Men: The Last Stand, one character is heard to remark something along the lines of "We all know the third movie is always the worst." Pot, meet kettle...

14:28 / Opinion / Reviews
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