REVIEW: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

It’s weird to call a blockbuster an unexpected hit, but 2018’s Venom was a rather modest affair for a superhero movie.

Intended to spin-off Sony’s part ownership of Spider-Man into a cinematic universe of their own, Venom made more than $800 million at the global office; a sum to rival Sony’s Jumanji reboot from the year before.…

PODCAST: The Suicide Squad & Jungle Cruise [Movie RobCast]

Episode 122 of The Movie Robcast casts an eye over James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and the Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt starring Jungle Cruise.

Rob D’s eye is a little grumpier than the kind-hearted Rob W, so you’ll have to listen and see which team you’re on.…

PODCAST: Zack Snyder’s Justice League (AKA The Snyder Cut) [Movie RobCast]

In episode 112, Robs Daniel & Wallis are joined by frequent Robcast contributor Ian Bird to talk all things Zack Snyder’s Justice League AKA The Snyder Cut.

Mr. Bird is rather positive of this 4-hour version of the little-loved 2017 film, Rob D was not a fan, and Rob W is somewhere in the middle, looking for unity.…

PODCAST: Wonder Woman 1984 [Movie RobCast]

In episode 108 the Robs review the much-delayed Wonder Woman 1984.

As this ep was recorded on the 23rd December 2020, there are some Christmas references and, despite plenty of Trump and America talk, no mention of January 6th’s insurrection in the Capitol Building.…

PODCAST: Joker [Electric Shadows]

In episode 70 of The Electric Shadows Podcast, Robs Daniel and Wallis set their laughing gear to discussing Todd Phillips’ Joker.

A controversial film being hailed as a masterpiece, the two Robs are baffled as to why.

They both talk about why the film left them unimpressed and non-plussed, from the slavish homage to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy to Joaquin Phoenix’s mannered performance.…

PODCAST: Justice League [Electric Shadows]

In episode 33 of The Electric Shadows Podcast, myself and Rob Daniel take a look at Justice League. And, you know what? We find stuff to like in there!

Sure, it’s a mess and clearly the work of two different people.…

Logan: an elegiac, sincere, and bloody end to an era

SPOILER-FREE

“You should take a moment, feel it.”

We’ve come a long way since a fresh-faced, devil-haired Wolverine first popped his claws in an Alberta biker’s bar back in the original X-Men.

Now, seventeen years and nine films later, Hugh Jackman is heading down south of the border for Logan; a farewell letter to the role that took him from a London production of Oklahoma!

X-Men: Apocalypse blows through quickly and entertainingly enough

 

In the hinterland between the extreme competency of Marvel and the trainwreck-clusterfuck that is the DC Cinematic Universe there lies the X-Men.

With its respectable (but by no means perfect) batting average and increasingly dysfunctional relationship with continuity, the franchise is a fairly unique position with regards to superhero movies.…

Deadpool is one half fourth-wall-breaking fun, one half totally run-of-the-mill superhero movie


Okay, let’s do this.

Hard-bitten cop “Dirty” Harry Callahan must save San Francisco from a killer who’s bumping off resident celebrities. No, wait, sorry: that’s The Dead Pool. Deadpool is the latest addition to FOX’s Not-Quite Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s their Guardians of the Galaxy with the weirdness factor ramped up to eleven.

More coming-of-age dramas should take a page from Diary of a Teenage Girl

 

Is there any story more immediately relatable than the coming-of-age?

After all, we’ve all grown up; all felt, to one extent or another, the confusion of feeling yourself changing, of becoming someone new. While Boyhood, for instance, documents the scope and detail of twelve whole years of maturation, Diary of a Teenage Girl focuses on the awakening of its protagonist’s sexuality over the course of a few key months.…