Legendary British comedian, actor and writer Eric Sykes has died aged 89 after a short illness. Born in Oldham in 1923, Sykes went to become one of the country’s best-loved comic talents through his radio, film, television and stage work, enjoying a career that spanned seven decades and saw him collaborate with a host British […]

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2012. Directed by Marc Webb. Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Irrfan Khan and Chris Zylka. SYNOPSIS: Teenager Peter Parker begins to develop super powers after being bitten by a genetically engineered spider. You might remember that I expressed a few negative thoughts about The […]

Berberian Sound Studio, 2012. Written and Directed by Peter Strickland. Starring Toby Jones, Tonia Sotiropoulou, Susanna Cappellaro and Cosimo Fusco. SYNOPSIS: A mild-mannered English foley artist is drafted in to the production of a 70s Italian horror movie. Entirely unused to either Italian passions or the horror genre, he struggles to find his place. Berberian […]

If you’ve been following the development of Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man at all, then you’ll no doubt be aware that director Marc Webb has overseen big changes to the Spider-Man franchise, and we don’t just mean replacing Tobey Maguire with Andrew Garfield. Out of all of the changes to the Spidey mythos, one of the […]

Killer Joe, 2011. Directed by William Friedkin. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Gina Gershon, Juno Temple and Thomas Haden Church. SYNOPSIS: In debt to a local gangster, a small-time drug dealer puts out a hit on his own mother to collect her life insurance, which attracts the interest of a policeman who moonlights as a […]

Exit Elena, 2012. Directed by Nathan Silver. Starring Nathan Silver, Kia Davis, Jim Chiros, Barbara White, Gert O’Connell, Cindy Silver and Lawrence Balin. SYNOPSIS: Elena, a newly qualified live-in nurse, moves in with the Akerman family to nurse their aging grandmother. Unfortunately, the clingy mother makes it difficult for her to stay professional. Exit Elena […]

The Rise and Fall of a White Collar Hooligan, 2012. Directed by Paul Tanter. Starring Nick Nevern, Simon Phillips, Rita Ramnani, Peter Barrett, Ricci Harnett, Rebecca Ferdinando, Roland Manookian and Billy Murry. SYNOPSIS: A casual football hooligan is sucked into the murky world of credit card fraud and soon becomes seduced by the money and […]

Cleanskin, 2012. Directed by Hadi Hajaig. Starring Sean Bean, Abhin Galeya, Charlotte Rampling, James Fox, Tuppence Middleton, Shivani Ghai and Michelle Ryan. SYNOPSIS: A secret service agent deep undercover in London’s criminal underbelly is tasked with eliminating a terrorist cell. After the 9/11 attacks, the movie industry took a different stance in portraying its terrorists […]

Holy Franchise, Batman! Bringing the Caped Crusader to the Screen was released this past Friday, and a few new reviews have popped up over the weekend… First up is a review from Rob Smedley of CultBox; here’s an extract: “Holy Franchise, Batman! makes the bold claim of being ‘the Caped Crusader fan’s bible’, and lives […]

Luke Owen reviews the fifteenth season of South Park, which is released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK today… It’s amazing to think that some little TV series I once stayed up late to watch air on Channel 4 in 1997 with terrible animation and crude-but-not-that-crude humour would not only be in its 15th […]