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SHOW ME A HERO – Part Four
The wheels finally came off Nick Wasicsko’s (Oscar Isaac) mayorship this week, as the oleaginous Henry Spallone (Alfred Molina) promised the white residents of Yonkers just enough to squeak into office. Of course, once there Spallone discovered, like the two mayors before him, that there’s no reversing Judge Sand’s decision: that public housing will be…
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HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD (2015)
When you think of environmental activism, Greenpeace is likely the first name that pops into your head. Today the organisation is synonymous with campaigns like Save the Whales, and known for its high-profile protests against oil drilling in the Arctic Circle. But how did the organisation, start? And who started it? That’s the story that…
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NO ESCAPE (2015)
Try not to take the title of No Escape too seriously. If you’ve seen any of the trailers you’ll know that there are, of course, numerous escapes. Indeed, the very act of escaping from ludicrous scenarios is the fuel for the plot of this film, which is all about instinct taking over as a family…
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DOCTOR WHO – Series Eight, Part Two
In the lead up to Series Nine of Doctor Who in September, my review of Series Eight examines the merits and pitfalls of four episodes, from “Time Heist” to “Mummy on the Orient Express”, in the middle of 2014’s run. They demonstrate a series trying to find new ways of refreshing genre conventions while driving…
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AGENT CARTER – Season One
There’s been a lot of chatter over the past few years about Marvel’s inability to release a female-led superhero movie. Despite having a roster of comic-book superheroines prime for a trip to the big screen, the studio won’t unleash its first female-led movie until Captain Marvel debuts in 2018. Thank heavens, then, for Agent Peggy…
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HANNIBAL, 3.13 – ‘The Wrath of the Lamb’
“The bluff is eroding. There was more land when I was here with Abigail. More land still when I was here with Miriam Lass. Now you’re here with me, and the bluff is still eroding. You and I are suspended over the roiling Atlantic. Soon all of this will be lost to the sea.” Throughout “The Wrath…
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WITNESSES – Series One
Following their success with French supernatural drama The Returned (Les Revenants) two years ago, it’s hardly surprising that Channel 4 are keen to keep a toehold on the Euro Noir bandwagon. Viewed from a distance, their latest French buy-in, Witnesses (Les Témoins), looked like another wise acquisition… However, as BBC Four have discovered to their…
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SHOW ME A HERO – Part Three
Things got ever more sticky for our increasingly beleaguered hero this week as Nick (Oscar Isaac) found himself desperately trying to save Yonkers from Judge Sands’ (Bob Balaban) bankruptcy measures, even as his own lawyers conspired to keep him out of the most important conversations. From attempting to cajole figures within the Democrat party (a…
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HITMAN: AGENT 47 (2015)
There’s no real reason why films based on video games shouldn’t work. However, there can also be no denying that the vast majority of such attempts to appeal to the gaming crowd fail. At some point, as happened with comic-book movies, it’s possible that one of these films will really be a hit with viewers and the…
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DOCTOR WHO – Series Eight, Part One
The trailers are already playing on BBC One and very soon we’ll be joining Peter Capaldi for his sophomore outing as Doctor Who. However, before the ninth series arrives on 19th September, let’s look back on how Capaldi acquitted himself last year. More than that, I’ll also consider the significant question of self-doubt that overshadowed…
