-
THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016)
It’s easy to condemn Disney for adapting its animations into live-action, as it seems like a creatively bankrupt endeavour, but the success of 2015’s Cinderella provided reason to hope it’s less cynical than it seems. Thankfully, Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book continues what could be a successful trend from the studio, as his film finds…
-
OUTLANDER, 2.1 – ‘Through A Glass, Darkly’
Readers of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels were in for a bit of a surprise this week with the broadcast of “Through A Glass, Darkly”, season 2’s opener of Starz’s adaptation of the historical fantasy drama. In Gabaldon’s second novel, Dragonfly in Amber, nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe)—holidaying in the Scotland of 1945 and whisked away to the Jacobite…
-
VINYL, 1.8-9 – ‘E.A.B’ & ‘Rock & Roll Queen’
I don’t know whether I’m suffering from full-blown Stockholm system, or whether Vinyl has improved tremendously over the course of its run, but I genuinely enjoyed the two latest episodes. “E.A.B” and “Rock and Roll Queen” were a strong mix of the better parts of the music plot lines (the fact that American Century isn’t…
-
BETTER CALL SAUL, 2.9 – ‘Nailed’
Given the title “Nailed”, you’d be forgiven for thinking the big climax of Better Call Saul’s penultimate hour would involve an exciting set-piece where Mike (Jonathan Banks) uses his homemade ‘spike strip’ on one of Hector Salamanca’s drug-carrying trucks. Instead, it came down to Chuck (Michael McKean) simply arguing with an employee of a xerox…
-
BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR (1990)
What stops me joining the cult of Re-Animator is how reductive the franchise is. Stuart Gordon’s original 1985 movie is a schlocky update of a 1921 novella by H.P Lovecraft—entitled Herbert West—Reanimator—widely regarded as the author’s worst effort. A lame parody of Mary Shelley’s trailblazing Frankenstein, Lovecraft himself admitted he only wrote it for the…
-
DAREDEVIL – Season Two
It’s fair to say Netflix’s Daredevil was one of 2015’s biggest surprises, because it did something fresh with a superhero indebted to Batman, in a show with conceptual similarities to The CW’s Arrow, while overcoming a negative perception of Daredevil thanks to a misfiring 2003 movie. In going darker and meaner than everything else in…
-
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (2016)
Midnight Special is the kind of film that drip-feeds information rather than dole out exposition. The film starts with two men acting shiftily in a motel room, while the news anchor on TV tells us that one of them is wanted by the police. The other man’s history will remain a mystery for much longer.…
-
THE AMERICANS, 4.4 – ‘Chloramphenicol’
I’ll admit that I was initially reluctant when asked to cover The Americans for Frame Rated. It’s not that I’m not a big fan of the show—I’ve been hooked since the pilot’s incredible Fleetwood Mac-scored opening sequence, and it’s never let me down. My hesitation had more to do with why I love the show, which has little…
-
THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR (2016)
Snow White and the Huntsman was the kind of film that was perfectly enjoyable in the moment, but you forgot about almost as soon as the credits roll. A dark-fantasy adapting the classic Grimm fairy tale, Snow White boasted beautiful visuals and a scene-stealing turn from Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen, but it was…
-
BETTER CALL SAUL, 2.8 – ‘Fifi’
We’re hurtling towards the season finale now, but things remain surprisingly sedate in the world of Better Call Saul. I’ve heard grumblings from people that season 2’s been a disappointment, but I wouldn’t go that far. It’s just understandably tougher to turn the life of a crooked lawyer into gripping spectacle, and the writers are…
