As Halloween approaches, Tom Jolliffe looks at the Horror genre, and why it needs more respect… As a movie lover with a wide ranging taste in films I’ve long been fairly open to an array of genres. It was recently though, and perhaps in part this stems from writing a few horror features of late, […]
Revisiting 80’s Fantasy Films: The sublime, the ridiculous and the underrated
Tom Jolliffe takes a jaunt back to the 80’s to see how some of the decade’s biggest fantasy films have aged… Growing up as a young sprog in the 80’s I was treated to all manner of eye-catching fantasy films. A lot of these ‘kids’ films were completely savaged by critics at the time. I […]
Let’s Get Weird! Cinematic Oddities
Tom Jolliffe looks at the weird wonders of cinema… There are pretty standard films when it comes to cinema. It could be straight horror (masked killer stalks teens) or Die Hard formula (terrorists take over something, everyman hero stops them). Sometimes a film lowdown tells you everything you need to know about what you’re about […]
The Martin Scorsese/Marvel Debate
Tom Jolliffe on the Martin Scorsese and Marvel debate… One of cinemas greatest living directors, with around 50 years of crafting artistry behind him caused a storm recently with his comments dismissing Marvel films as ‘not cinema’ and ‘theme parks.’ Quite a few fired back (with plenty of politeness it should be said) who have […]
River Phoenix as Joker? Parallel Universe Castings
Tom Jolliffe looks at the idea of River Phoenix as the Joker and other parallel universe castings… It’s 2019. It’s an era of perpetual rebooting. For some, we’d barely settled on the idea that Jared Leto was cast as the clown prince, before it was announced that Joaquin Phoenix would don the make up in […]
Die Hard on a Shoestring: The Low Budget Die Hard Clones
Tom Jolliffe takes a look at some low budget Die Hard clones… It may not have been the first of its kind, but when Die Hard came out, from the moment Bruce Willis entered the Nakatomi plaza, a new sub-genre all of its own was launched – ‘The Die Hard Movie’. None have compared, whether […]
The Disturbed Outsider: A Cinematic Pathway Leading to Joker
In the wake of Joker’s success, Tom Jolliffe looks at similar cinematic examples of the disturbed outsider… With a quarter billion in takings and counting, as well as divisive reviews, media attention up the wazoo, and a status (particularly among the 18-30 viewers) as a cinematic masterpiece, Joker’s depiction of disturbed isolation and disconnect from […]
The Matrix 4: Can It Work?
Tom Jolliffe looks at the prospect of The Matrix 4… 2019 signalled a number of cinematic anniversaries and milestones. It is after all, the year of Blade Runner (the setting of the original film). It also marked the 20 year anniversary of a certain Keanu Reeves-led film that revolutionised visual effects and re-galvanised a sci-fi […]
Joker: Selective Uproar and a Questionably Timed Rating Plunge
Tom Jolliffe looks at the controversy surrounding Joker and an apparent drop in critic’s ratings in the aftermath… So after a year of furious anticipation and excitement, Joker has finally been released upon the cinematic world. A month or so ago we were looking at what critics were describing as exceptional, a masterpiece, an Oscar […]
Is there any life left in the Terminator franchise?
Tom Jolliffe looks at Terminator: Dark Fate and the prospect of further films… James Cameron approaches most of his projects with a certain confident swagger. He is the King of the world after all. When he left the Terminator franchise, with Arnold Schwarzenegger being slowly lowered into cyborg retirement he’d left behind two genre defining […]