Film Reviews

Godzilla Minus One is a gigantic return to formHow does the latest instalment in this monstrous franchise add to the Godzilla universe?

Godzilla x Kong Brings Another Light-Hearted Monster ThrillTen years into the MonsterVerse franchise, does the latest instalment deliver?

Celebrating Godzilla's 70th Anniversary: A Guide to Five Essential Films for Newcomers to the FranchiseMarking the 70th anniversary as Japan's most infamous lizard wreaks havoc across the world, we take a look at the top five adaptations that must be watched!!

Shin Ultraman is a triumphant reimagining of the classic 60's giantA staple of Japanese media for almost sixty years, one of our writers does a deep dive into the new Ultraman

The Swimmers: Sisterly bonds through a raging crisisThe new Netflix film may be moving but is no masterpiece

How Messy Can Tokusatsu Be? Let's Look At Kamen Rider Kiva! Kiva isn’t a popular one. Western Kamen Rider fans tend to have a disdain for this entree, claiming it has awfully-written characters, inconsistent writing and a bad handle on its concepts. Look at Japanese polls for the best Kamen Rider series and it usually ranks near the bottom of the barrel. This came as a bit of a surprise after initially admiring its unique horror aesthetic and bold soundtrack for quite a time before watching it. While most Rider seasons tend to have a couple of main the

Le Mans 66 Closely Shaves the Perfect Lap Christian Bale and Matt Damon combine their unmatched chamaeleonid forms into what must be one of the riskiest films of the year. The racing genre has embarked on a risky road for quite some time, often selling out consistently loud colourful races in place of creating narrative structures and characterisation above the levels of a sleeping komodo dragon documentary. But what’s initially striking about Le Mans 66’s main principles is its narrative of a proud business’ struggle with competition

Knives Out is an Agatha Christie homage worth celebrating A very welcome return-to-form whodunit, Knives Out starts off on a typical suicide case of a renowned author which may or may not have been, as our main detectives uncover underlying tensions the man had with his family in their business. Now an investigator Daniel Craig with the heftiest southern accent an Englishman can seduce leads a trail down the family line suspects to open any loose ends, centring his judgements solely around a family birthday party the night before, which gets revisit

Frozen 2 Is A Revolutionary Achievement In Animation and Film In GeneralWhat a chilling breeze of fresh animated ingenuity this exceptional sequel scatters down to ragingly-anticipated audiences found between the two narratively-focused polar ice caps! While the first Frozen struck a chord with animation-enthusiasts worldwide, Frozen 2 not only unveils the inevitable truth that Disney is at the top of its creative game but that 3D animation has been steadily proving itself a fluent cinematic successor to outdated effortless hand-drawn 2D. Our intricate cast of magne

Little Women is a roaring cinematic-literary success Aspiring New York writer Jo nervously reassures herself before submitting her papers over to a hard-eyed publisher. Obviously, a writer doesn’t draw experiential linguistic power out of thin air, as we then delve into her lengthy childhood backstory of maturing into womanhood alongside her three close but often conflicting sisters in a nostalgic view of the ballroom-bantering 1800s. Merging a classic literature work and its definitive charm onto the film screen is a considerably challenging tas

What makes Eyes Without A Face a surrealist masterpiece? In 1960, Georges Franju released what was to become one of the most influential pieces of poetic French cinema to ever be released. Surrealist psychological horror Eyes Without a Face remains an uneroded masterpiece by how it transcends the concrete horror genre through its poetic sadness and loneliness, with enough intricate symbolism to curiously branch out from one’s mind for days. For a director to successfully communicate an intense sadness and philosophical message onscreen, then he need

The Gentlemen is a Vibrant Ride Through the Criminal Empire 4 / 5 Matthew Mcconaughey brings his iconic charisma into a very fitting suit and flat-cap image of drug lord Mickey Pearson: a retiring kingpin who decides to sell off his multimillion-dollar marijuana empire before transitioning to a family life with the retired world of golf and English countryside. While this friendly bargain seems like a pronto in-out agreement, Pearson finds his buyer (Jeremy Strong) to be quite the parsimonious type, which results in the usual groaning lashings of blac

Birds of Prey puts a thriving Margot Robbie in another circus mess 2.5 / 5 Given how Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Harley Quinn was regarded by many as one of the very few highlights of the abysmal 2016 dumpster fire that was Suicide Squad, it only makes sense to have one of the few remaining nudges at making the DC Cinematic Universe actually functional a solo Margot Harley spin-off. As you’d expect with any grounds-laid antihero sequel, this entrée embraces as many zany, colourful antics one can muster into a screen and tries to stretch as many familiar co

1917 is Sam Mendes' new war-torn cinematic masterwork 4 / 5 The four-year Great War holds infinite possibilities to creating cinematic masterpieces. Focusing on a lone soldier trudging through the battlegrounds of man-made hell can provide quite the meditation on human mortality, with many directors continuously proving viewers wrong about the shrinking originality of films retelling the countless needless massacres of the young and brave. While one may think the war genre cannot be topped after witnessing the rapidly-shot up-front brutality of

The Lighthouse is a ruthless psychological descent with wine-aged style 5 / 5 Stretching a rumbling feeling of dread through 109 minutes is no small task, even with two stellar performances from Willem Daefoe and Robert Pattinson. Multiple stylistic methods are needed to make an arthouse gamble like The Lighthouse work, and the result is one of the most psychologically-daunting, immaculately-paced thrillers of the year. The many unusual cinematic choices by director Robert Eggers all work to portray the black-hearted voids of distrust and disconnection between t

Kermode's Secrets of Cinema retraces more significant steps Just what the doctor ordered to lift the UK’s spirits with an awful pandemic, the UK’s most well-renowned film critic embarks on a new page on the series Secrets of Cinema, this one being the sledgehammer-influence of the superhero film genre. With millions of Marvel fanatics supporting today’s cape-wearing box-office smashers while critics such as Scorsese generalise the whole ballpark as zero-substance drizzle, can Kermode bring the two extremes together like (insert super-strength scene her

Netflix opens up the mysterious case of Malcolm X's murder Malcolm X’s political powerhouse figure needs no introduction with his sledgehammer impacts on the black ethnic American communities’ stance against political and social injustice and his striking public speaking as a reformed Muslim man. But the man’s assassination is a different matter. With his tensioning relationship with his ex-religious-leader Elijah Muhammad and controversial preaching content that sparked great concern with the FBI, Malcolm’s brutal death from a five-man shooting durin

Tenet is mundane rock bottom for Nolan1.5 / 5Christopher Nolan has demonstrated he’s able to bring deep but accessible concepts to refresh the blockbuster format with entrees like Inception. Tenet continues this mind-boggling concept gifting with time travelling abilities being given to CIA agents that allow them to relive past moments in reverse to undertake special missions. This concept certainly looks appealing on paper and seems to hold much potential with cinematic spectacle. The main problem with the film is absolutely everyt

The Hater is a tour de force gaze into internet power abuse 4 / 5 One of the more intriguing films brought to the table by Netflix this year, The Hater tells the story of Tomasz, a narcissistic, disgraced law student who joins an internet troll farm. His love for a girl goes unrequited and her politically-immersed family that finance him end up disowning him. This feeds his dedication to causing turmoil amongst political candidates using Facebook groups and fake accounts. Young Tomasz continuously refuses to realise these online ways of venting his

Glass - It's A Pane To Sit Through ‘Did you know that superman originally couldn’t even fly?’ exclaims a philosophical Casey trying to prove humans are capable of powered feats. Well yes, I did, but did YOU know that Unbreakable and Split go together like water and oil? Because that’s what Shamalam’s final film in his superpower trilogy tries to do and given how it can’t even mix two things written for an already-set trilogy, Glass was bound to shatter from the start. A psychiatrist, played infuriatingly pathetically by Sarah Pa

Stan and Ollie Goes Over The Blue Mountains It wasn’t until the immaculate responses reeled in that I took interest in the biographic retelling of the later lives of the black and white duo, which is surprising, looking back, given Laurel and Hardy are a staple part of my childhood and I fondly remember more than a handful of their ingenious slapstick skits to this day. I’d say this is due to my admitted distaste of biography films, which are slowly flooding the modern cinema world, and usually end up as a mediocre bore to me or ignore m

Tetsuo the Iron Man: The Surrealist Machinist Nightmare Regarded as a surrealist cyberpunk interlink between exaggerated styles and emotions, Tetsou the Iron Man by Shinya Tsukamoto is one of the most hyperbolically nightmarish pieces of cinematic art ever made. After being unleashed to some of the most visually horrific and sometimes paradoxically entrancing oddities put on film, its cult-classic status is rightly earned. It is, essentially, a perverse link between pain and pleasure, exaggerated by its own links between man and metal. Loud crashing

Love Death & Robots: Picking Out the Best Bits Netflix’s latest animated series is a show I’d never have imagined being made. Each short episode consists of a completely different animation-style, plot and general emotion to the point of it being bizarre as to why these increasingly contrasting episodes are being brought together in the first place, unlike, for instance, Black Mirror, which has a consistent narrative atmosphere and relating themes. Here, episodes range from being apocalyptic and a science-fictional spectacle, to being unne

The Dead Don't Die Will Zombify You If the Dead Don’t Die’s true purpose was to actually turn the viewer into a zombie then I must congratulate it as a revolution in the zombie genre. If not, then it is the long-lost holy grail of how not to make a film. Bill Murray and Adam Driver star as cop partners in a sleepy town of disconnected people. After the earth changes rotation, strange things start occurring and it does indeed look like zombies are coming. Lovely. Now it’s all up to the townsfolk to fend for themselves against this

Spiderman Far From Home's Greatness Is No Illusion! After Homecoming paved the way for a modern, punchier telling of the wall-crawler’s story, Spiderman: Far from Home follows up as a much worthy successor. Dynamic twists turn every moment between Peter’s student and superhero life, leading to a spectrum of greatly executed colourful action through his school trip in Europe and possibly Marvel’s best scripted villain to date. As an essential element to Spiderman old and new, the naturally awkward high school drama tropes with Peter’s crush MJ an

The Oddest Episode of Ultraseven: The Boy Who Cried UFO One of the most least looked-upon episodes in the franchise and for a rather obvious reason. The Boy Who Cried UFO follows no loud saucer-shooting and instead follows the slow tale of a lonely factory-worker named Saboru. He leads a bored, isolated existence and finds an everyday escape from life in late-night stargazing, with his telescope as his only friend. This is the show’s only character-study episode revolving around a one-off protagonist and it abandons the status quo to harness the sh

Once Upon A Time in Eh-llywoodMr Tarentino has always made it clear fans should always enter with blank expectations into his films, for nearly all have made unpredictable plot and character turns in styles drawn from the guy’s current film obsession. But Kill Bill’s slow dramatic revenge drama flown down a 80s kung fu flick doesn’t quite come off as weird as Tarentino’s latest film, which explores 60’s Hollywood through the lens of today’s. But beyond its initial expected weirdness, can Once Upon A Time In Hollywood be cons

Crawl: Just Another Rainy Day In Florida It’s a normal summers’ day in Florida…. …what? That’s the film. You’re telling me metre-high cyclone floods and bloodbaths of gator attacks aren’t normal over there? Guess I’ll have to delete some of my notes of Crawl being an excellent documentary then… One look at the poster and most would flick past Crawl as a typical creature feature with a survivor trying to fight off a mediocre cgi animation that goes nom nom at anyone who walks down a dark cellar while trying to survive the hellish en

Why Kamen Rider Hibiki is a Modern Masterpiece Few shows can be as confused in a glance as Kamen Rider and its not too hard to see why. If you’re not familiar with the live-action Japanese franchise, allow me to summarise the heart traits between each entrée: a man is bestowed the ability to transform into a colourful superhero by a mysterious belt, which gives him the power to fight against a legion of world-hungry tyrants in martial art fistfights and pyrotechnic-blazing kicks. Yes, very simple campy escapism that can just be considered a

Sing For Absolution - Ad Astra review McBride is an ageing, disconsolate astronaut who embarks on a mission to Neptune to investigate the cause of several power surges coming from a lost voyager ship, which have been wreaking havoc on earth’s electric systems and threatens all life on the planet. This lost ship also coincidentally belongs to McBride’s father, who has been missing for 15 years after leaving on a voyager mission to find non-human intelligent life. Now he embarks on a personal mission to try to reconnect with his fat

If You Didn't Catch King of the Monsters.....You Didn't Miss Much The well-renowned Godzilla franchise is cult-classic’d for two main reasons: its creative practicality with its rubber monsters and its message on the dire consequences of nuclear warfare. 2019’s King of the Monsters not only has neither but goes the downwards-to-hell Transformers route in thinking that blitzing the screen with computer-generated action always equates to excitement and a superior adaptation of the source material. With this in mind, I can guarantee you if I saw this in the big

Gemini Man Isn't Actually Half Bad Among countless Hollywood stars, Will Smith is one of those top faces who seems to appear in any offered role in mainstream film, which nowadays usually slums down to mediocre hashes like Aladdin and After Earth. With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why some would see him, along with other stars like Bruce Willis, as little more than charismatic faces on a poor product. Now if there were two of those faces of the exact same actor on the poster of an obscure upcoming project, how would you im

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl: It's A Thing And It's Marvellous If you’ve seen any Japanese film, you’re likely to know the country’s taste in story and style is usually a tad bit crazier and messier than the west’s more straightforward ways of storytelling. You’d also be likely to know of the country’s soft spot for excessive violence, with severed limbs shooting out geyser fountains of fake blood in countless martial art films, with renowned director Quentin Tarentino even taking an admiration to this gory hyperbole in his Kill Bill films to add a colour

Zombieland: Double Tap Sports Bangs and Brainlessness . The new long-awaited sequel to the film that put a daft, entertaining spin on the zombie genre and made up for a less than original post-apocalyptic narrative with a laughably misfitting cast, including Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, has arrived and its fair to say not many expected it. Ten years ago, Zombieland showcased all the energetic, stylish zombie apocalypse drama as little more than a playground for our conflict-bouncing cast to bond and humorously strengthen over with a writin

The Irishman Is the Ultimate Send-Off . . As for what must be a dream come true for millions familiar with the textbook definition of ‘gangster film’, Scorsese returns yet again, teeth dug right into his roots for a mob film featuring not only the iconic duo of Robert De Niro and Jo Pesci but, for his first ever appearance in the director’s filmography, Al Pacino. The three come together to deliver a familiar yet stylishly-modernised tour de force of power relations and the bonds of friends in high places in The Irishman. A grey ou

Blinded by the Light Gleams Between the Lines Javed is a struggling Pakistani teen growing up in a jobless, discriminatory 1987 Thatcher-struck neighbourhood in Luton. His father pushes him towards hard business while he secretly pursues his passion of writing poems in his sixth form. Facing an identity crisis in a place with little opportunity and his passion being dismissed by his family and best friend Matt, who claims the lyrics he writes are ‘depressing’, he discovers a new world of self-discovery when his schoolmate, a Sikh called Ro

Frozen 2 Is A Revolutionary Achievement In Animation and Film In GeneralWhat a chilling breeze of fresh animated ingenuity this exceptional sequel scatters down to ragingly-anticipated audiences found between the two narratively-focused polar ice caps! While the first Frozen struck a chord with animation-enthusiasts worldwide, Frozen 2 not only unveils the inevitable truth that Disney is at the top of its creative game but that 3D animation has been steadily proving itself a fluent cinematic successor to outdated effortless hand-drawn 2D. Our intricate cast of magne

The Crimes of Grindelwald is anything but Fantastic So, after witnessing the monstrosity that is Crimes of Grindelwald, I can clearly state JK Rowling isn’t half as good a screenwriter as she is a novelist. While its nice of her to at least try, that didn’t make my experience of this infuriatingly boring and confusing stain on the wizarding world any more tolerable. Before I dig into my thoughts on the sequel to the surprisingly good first Fantastic Beasts film, I must first say that this is the first film in all my seventeen years of living I’v

Ultraseven episode review #6 - Dark Zone With breaching, foiling, guns and violence consuming the Ultra Garrison’s focus for the first five episodes, its exciting to see Tsuburaya putting down the dirty-work instruments so soon to orchestrate a more philosophical and humane entrée. But while manipulating the shadows sounds like a concept with enough potential (at least for Tsuburaya) for another simple assault episode, we’re instead given one of the most morale-challenging and wholesomely bittersweet episodes that still holds to thi

Ultraseven episode review #7 - Space Captive 303Probably the most small-scaled episode of Ultraseven, Space Captive 303 can be regarded as Tsuburaya’s take on an early mass-murder slasher film. What makes it a bit of a black sheep for the series is how nearly all the show’s humanoid aliens have some sort of plan in mind. Some sinister intention to exploit humanity or wipe it out to suit their desires for this flourishing planet. This episode, however, shows a completely new side of extra-terrestrials. The nemesis is no mastermind with a cleve

Ultraseven episode review #8 - The Targeted Town Every ultraman fan has a different insight into what makes The Targeted Town one of the most impeccable pieces of tokusatsu of all time. But selecting just one moment or element takes away what it stands for: just about every camera shot and dialogue is seamlessly woven together to feel like a truly surreal, almost entrancing chinatown mystery with a build-up that’s obscure in the best way with stunning cinematography, lighting and sound. It is, in nearly every way, flawless. After attending

Ultraseven episode reviews #3 - Secret Of The Lake Wow. On to one of the most recognised episodes already, hm? While it may hold none of the full-fat themes of socio-political problems and other ills of the human condition which Ultraseven is renowned for, The Secret Of The Lake spins some juicy new elements for the show that serves as an enjoyably mysterious, almost dream-like episode full of meaty suitmation and one of the best utilised locations in the show that fluidly unfolds the plot. After getting reports of an unidentified object, Dan

Ultraseven episode reviews #4 - Max, Respond While flying ships and plant-insect aliens are what might draw you to this episode, other than a few creative writing choices, there isn’t fundamentally that much to give it a beefy identity and ends up lurking as a rather run-of-the-mill hand-wringing alien story. With the alien invasion formulae being more-or-less firmly grasped now, this episode feels more like a breather with a play-it-safe format, feeling sort of like Shoot The Invaders from the original in some aspect. But as far as Ultr

Ultraseven episode reviews #2 - The Green Terror The Green Terror is a pretty under-acknowledged episode with fans of Ultraseven, which isn’t really that hard to see why. The vast quantity of sci-fi elements and huge scale The Invisible Challenger had would’ve likely have led to a lighter feel for its following episode, with the show now free from introductions and being allowed to run wild, so the awkwardness in getting a hard grip on utilising its science fictional writing and pacing is all sort of felt here. While The Green Terror does pro

Heat analysis: The Black And White Of American LonelinessMicheal Mann’s Heat is one of the most revolutionary films to date and is renowned as a masterpiece due to its amplified use of slick style to carve out its themes and emotions while sustaining its brutal realism to provide a crime thriller that shows the flip-side of modern society’s coin and pushes the boundaries of its genre. Vincent Hanna, a veteran LAPD detective is having a hard time accepting a life with his stubborn, self-absorbed wife and the distressing, constantly demanding nature of

Captain Vidal from Pan's Labyrinth character study: The Wounds Of HypocrisyCaptain Videl is the tyrannical fascist leader and antagonist of Pan’s Labyrinth who enforces iron-solid standards and harsh or dismissive treatment of those around him and smokes out and crushes any opposition towards his fascist rule. Throughout the film he’s shown torturing innocents and rebels, ruthlessly tearing through social situations to show he’s in charge as well as taking immense care of anything that may continue his legacy. However, his influence on the film leaks out in some ways t

American Psycho analysis: But Nobody CameWhat is it that defines a person’s depth? What use is it in trying to fit into a shallow herd of sheep that never change? How much have we sacrificed of ourselves to avoid society's judgement? American Psycho, directed by Mary Hallon (and novel written by Bret Easton Ellis) is a satire psychological film reflecting on the aspects of wealthy American yuppie culture: eroding creativity and individuality with money, drinking and desire. Patrick Bateman is a man who despises his position surrounded

Taxi Driver: A tale of depression and existentialismTravis, an honourably-discharged marine now working as a taxi driver, seems to tie himself down by getting addicted to the lowest pits of humanity, mentally separating himself from the world and encases himself in a taxi as a means to stay behind and ‘look down’ on the prostitutes and scum without even taking notice of the actual good areas that simply wouldn’t dare travel to the lower pits, he doesn’t realise this is the cause of his lowliness. The scum of New York is somewhat of an addiction,

Ultraseven episode reviews #1- The Invisible Challenger The episode to kick off the sci-fi ride of Ultraseven is, fundamentally, a really solid start to the show, but in comparison to most tokusatsu and sci-fi shows, it’s a bit of an oddball in how it utilises its main elements for a starting episode. For starters, I love how it immediately plunges you into the suspenseful, alien vibes to get to grips with the show’s mood before even revealing any characters. I particularly admire one of the first shots of blurred-out car headlights coming forth

Sins Of The Father: Black Panther reviewWhen it comes down to superhero movies, it’s quite likely your mind will split into two defining sectors between Marvel and DC: one bright, explosion-y, and stuffed to the point of bursting with cheesy one-liners, the other: gloomy, edgy cinematography-reliant, and packed with as many references from every possible comic with no context. With Marvel on a spree of covering every possible hero from the obscure colourful universe, you’d expect Black Panther, a not-too well-recognised secondary hero

Oh Hai Mark: The Disaster Artist reviewAmongst all the horrendous films put on screen, leaving you baffled to how it was remotely acceptable for them to get published, few have been as fascinatingly misconducted in practically every single way and been as strangely thoroughly enjoyable for the sheer fact of how reverse it is to the rules of a decent film than The Room. Directed by the infamous Tommy Wiseau: director, producer, and lead actor in this nearly-inhuman production that’s been as beloved and cherished amongst audiences for

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