Sian

Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart” just one of the many wise quotes from everyone’s favourite bear-of-little-brain, Winnie the Pooh. His latest film, CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, does just that: Fill your heart. What HOOK did for young-at-heart grown ups in 1991, CHRISTOPHER ROBIN is doing for adults of 2018. The flick offers a nostalgic and fantastical cinematic outing that ...

In the current day of snappy computer programs whipping out sophisticated effects in a flash, it’s endearing to see studios such as Aardman stubbornly persevering with stop frame animation. With each animator labouring all day to complete a mere 3 to 4 seconds of footage by knock-off time, I can’t help but take my hat off to them…even if the finished product is a little underwhelming. Set at the d...

Oh, how very different the worlds news was prior to the internet! Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks team up again  – that’s five times now – to bring us political drama THE POST…oh yeah, did I mention it also stars Meryl Streep? Talk about a power house trio! When documents revealing a Government cover up that spanned four U.S Presidents fall in to the hands of the press, the ...

Omne trium perfectum. Loosely translated: Good things come in threes. Um, well, “aca-scuse me” but I may have evidence to suggest otherwise. Cashing in on the box office success of the first two flicks, PITCH PERFECT 3 revisits the beloved Bellas post-college as they struggle to make a mark on the real world. After the heights of winning the World Acapella Championships, they’ve ...

This time last year, LA LA LAND took the world by storm. Despite its niche jazz undertones, it enjoyed wide critical and box office success, suggesting live-action original musicals (that aren’t aimed at children) may still have a market. 2017’s holiday musical offering, THE GREATEST SHOWMAN, isn’t quite as bold or adventurous, but it’s still an admirable addition to the mo...

DARKEST HOUR: A movie that is essentially about a speech. Britain has done it before – to great success – with THE KING’S SPEECH (2010). Have they done it again? Unlike THE KING’S SPEECH, which featured the all-too-easy-to-feel-sorry-for King George VI, our hero in DARKEST HOUR is the less likeable Winston Churchill. Set during the early days of World War II, Britain faces ...

Netflix continues to up its film distribution sector, with another original release to add to the growing pile. This time it’s American comedy-drama THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED). Receiving a reported four-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, and with such a stellar cast, it’s surprising to see this flick picked up by Netflix as opposed to a cinema distributor. With a...

It’s adaptable in more ways then one: LEGO is like the McDonalds of the toy industry – it knows how to stay in business. Over 80+ years LEGO has evolved from wooden toys, to plastic bricks, theme parks and TV shows. They’re on a roll it seems, churning out two movies in six months. This latest flick is based on (but diverges from) the TV series LEGO NINJAGO. It follows 16-year-old Lloyd who ...

Fade in. A man dressed in a crisp tuxedo is engaged in a ‘high speed pursuit’ with police. His getaway vehicle? A tractor. The man desperately shouts his apologies to the bemused officers, but persists with his attempted getaway. A title card flashes on the screen: “A true story, unfortunately”.  I was hooked. Hailed as “the first Muslim rom-com”, ALI’S WE...

Japanese manga-turned-American-horror courtesy of Netflix movies? Sure, I’m game! Based on the Japanese manga series by Tsugumi Ohba, DEATH NOTE follows an intelligent student called Light Turner (Nat Wolff) who stumbles across a supernatural notebook that has the power to kill any person whose name he writes inside. Cue a well-intentioned God complex, as Light uses the notebook to cleanse the wor...

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon; the Kings of deadpan dinners and impressive impersonations are off on another cheeky tax deductible holiday. After jaunts through Northern England (THE TRIP, 2010) and Italy (THE TRIP TO ITALY, 2014), Coogan and Brydon are back on the road, embarking on a third culinary crawl – this time across Spain. With the pair hitting middle age, there’s wonderful opportunit...

OKJA is tipped by many to be Netflix’s first blockbuster…do we agree? Films made for / released straight to “on demand” media rather than cinema sparks great debate. It could be argued for the positive; that streaming outlets allow wide release of films that may otherwise never seen the light of day. Others insist it’s detrimental to the cinema industry. As for me? Well, the jury is st...