Tom Jolliffe on when real life stories are sugar coated in film… A good biopic can be fascinating. There are characters, through TV and print media, biographies, documentaries and more, that we learn the most fascinating things about. Documentaries of course have the goal of showing us (when done right) both sides of a personality, […]
Filmmaking With No Money and Big Ideas
Tom Jolliffe offers an insight into no budget film-making, and why you should aim as high as those means can reach… I won’t claim to be Steven Spielberg (or even Steven Spielbergo) but aspiring film-makers can learn a lot from not just the industry masters of past and present, but from each other. I’ve spoken […]
Movie Review – Josie (2017)
Josie, 2017. Directed by Eric England. Starring Sophie Turner, Dylan McDermott, Kurt Fuller, Jack Kilmer and Robin Bartlett. SYNOPSIS: Hank, a solitary man living a dull existence in the sleepy, Southern town raises eyebrows when he develops a questionable relationship with Josie, a recently transplanted high school student. Occasionally a film opens in a way that […]
A dose of Venom for the worldwide box office and an end to blaming critics for failure?
Tom Jolliffe takes a look at the surprising worldwide commercial success of Venom… Earlier in the year the first trailer for Venom dropped. It looked pretty awful, not least about 15 years out of date (particularly the initial trailer’s CGI polish). A few more trailers followed and fanfare seemed fairly low. Then came the reviews. […]
Why Maniac Cop is the remake you didn’t know you needed
Tom Jolliffe looks at the long rumoured remake of Maniac Cop… Hands up who’s seen Maniac Cop… Okay, a fair few cult movie enthusiasts of a certain age. Bruce Campbell and Tom Atkins facing off against a vengeful, presumed dead ex-cop, played by the late, most granite jawed actor in history, Robert Z’Dar. It’s pure […]
The 30th Anniversary of the Ultimate Christmas Film: Die Hard
Tom Jolliffe celebrates Die Hard on its 30th anniversary… When a film hits a significant anniversary, say 30 years old, there are two things that happen. In one, for those who were but wee blighters when they first saw the film, it will make you feel old. I first saw Die Hard on video, a […]
Movie Review – Backtrace (2018)
Backtrace, 2018. Directed by Brian A. Miller. Starring Ryan Guzman, Matthew Modine, Sylvester Stallone, Meadow Williams, Christopher McDonald, Colin Egglesfield, Lydia Hull, Tyler Jon Olson, Sergio Rizzuto, and Swen Temmel. SYNOPSIS: The lone surviving thief of a violent armored car robbery is sprung from a high security facility and administered an experimental drug. With Sylvester Stallone giving […]
Blockbuster Alternatives: Films to Watch Out For in 2019
Tom Jolliffe offers an alternative list of must watch films in 2019… We’re just beginning the new year, and as per normal, there are a lot of looks ahead to what we should watch this year. Blockbusters generally rule the world as far as the majority of Most Anticipated because of course on the other […]
Reboot, Reset, Mulligan, Ad Nauseam: The Ever-Increasing Frequency of Reboots
Tom Jolliffe looks at the ever-increasing frequency of reboots… This won’t come as any surprise but the notion of the reboot, remake, or whatever you call it is nothing new. We’ve all seen three live action Spider-Man incarnations in just 10 years from Tobey Maguire’s final fling, through Andrew Garfield, to Tom Holland who is […]
The Problem With Streaming Monopolies
Tom Jolliffe looks at Amazon and Netflix, as physical media slowly dies out with every increase in their market share… A lot has been said recently about Netflix’s huge push in 2019 with original content. It’s not necessarily true to say people have been banging their door down demanding they create this original content (or […]
