[Review] The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

I’m not sure how many people remember the original Man From UNCLE, which isn’t much of a surprise since it was a fairly light and silly series to begin with, but I adored it growing up. The cast was terrific and it delivered a consistent stream of fluffily enjoyable spy shenanigans, finding a comfortable middle […]

[Review] Fantastic Four

The name Fantastic Four suggests a certain joie de vivre, a delight in its own comic book silliness. When Marvel’s first family were translated to the big screen by Tim Story in 2005, and again for a 2007 sequel, that lightness of touch unfortunately slipped into kitschy smugness, with the excessive focus on camp humour […]

[Review] Shaun The Sheep Movie

This review is being re-posted to coincide with its U.S. release. Aardman’s wonderful plasticine productions have never worked quite as well in the cinema as they do on television. In part that’s because their television work includes the immaculate The Wrong Trousers, arguably the most perfectly paced and ambitiously staged animated shorts ever produced. And […]

[Review] Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

In my recaps of the Mission: Impossible movies last week, I postulated that even in this most unpredictable of series, where tone, narrative and character are defined not by formula but the vision of whomever happens to be behind the camera, the movies tend to alternate between the character-driven suspense of the first and third […]

On Cecil The Lion, Walter Palmer and the Morality of Hunting

Anyone with an internet connection can hardly have missed the outpouring of grief which accompanied Walter Palmer’s murder of Cecil the lion outside Hwange wildlife sanctuary in Zimbabwe last month. The nature of Cecil’s death was particularly nasty, having been lured from the sanctuary with meat, only to be severely wounded with a crossbow bolt […]

Series Recap – Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

After Mission: Impossible 3‘s straight-faced, character-driven approach made a messy attempt at returning the series to the first movie‘s cereberal roots, Ghost Protocol seems a natural companion piece to Mission: Impossible II. For one thing, Ethan’s hair has grown long again, while the movie adopts the same all bombast, all the time style which John Woo […]

Series Recap – Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)

Following the widely-derided Mission: Impossible 2, the series remained dormant for a full six years before JJ Abrams, then best known for his work on TV spy series Alias, was brought onboard to try and resurrect it. Star Tom Cruise was also in need of a vehicle to win back his place in the heart […]

Series Recap – Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

While Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible was a financial and criticial success, questions about its hard-to-follow plot were seemingly taken to heart when producers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner sought to redirect the sequel away from the original’s atmospheric blend of summer blockbuster and old-school action thriller and into more unashamedly spectacular action territory. The […]