Category Archives: 2016 Reviews

Movie Review – Arrival

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TL;DR – A beautiful story of loss, change, the role of language,  and how it’s better to work together than apart, a movie we kind of need at the moment.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Arrival - Image Credit: Paramount Pictures

Review – Arrival, based on the short story by Ted Chiang, is a really interesting movie as it looks at issues that are not usually covered in science fiction or indeed movies in general. It is a fascinating look into language and its role in shaping culture and society but also what happens when the unknown actually happens and how do we respond to that. While I loved Arrival its one of those movies that I think will be quite polarising as you may indeed find it either meditative or ponderous, I myself fall into the first camp.

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Movie Review – Hacksaw Ridge

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TL;DR – Hacksaw Ridge might be one of the best war movies I have ever seen, stunning visuals, a strong cast and emotive storytelling, I highly recommend going to see Hacksaw Ridge

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Hacksaw Ridge. Image Credit: Lionsgate.

Review –

So here we are in 2016, the Cubs are doing well at baseball, England voted to leave the European Union, and I’m talking about a Mel Gibson directed film which may just be my film of the year … ok at this point we all just have to agree that 2016 has been a really weird year. But strange as it may be, nothing can take away from the power that is Hacksaw Ridge, it is a stunning film, but also a really emotional film, and all of that comes down to the amazing power of the cast, the work of Mel Gibson with direction, and the rest of the crew in producing such a powerful film.

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TV Review – Class ‘first three episodes’ review

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TL;DR –  Class does what the last season of Doctor Who couldn’t, it got me engaged with this franchise again, with interesting mature stories that feel like they have some weight to them.

Score – 4/5 Stars

Class. Image Credit: BBC.

Review –

As I mentioned in my Top 30 TV Shows Countdown, some way through season 9 I fell out of interest with Doctor Who, I can’t put my finger on any one thing, I just lost track of the episodes and found I did not really care to chase them down and catch them up. So when this new Doctor Who spin-off series hit my feed, I almost passed it up, because as at this point why bother. Well, I’m glad I didn’t, because Class is the most engaging entry into the Doctor Who universe that I have seen in a while.

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Movie Review – Doctor Strange

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TL;DR – This is visually one of the best Marvel films ever produced, strong cast, overall a great film, though I do have to say these Marvel films are starting to feel a bit safe.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

P.S. There is a mid and end credit sequence

Doctor Strange. Image Credit: Marvel/Disney.

Review –

Well, this Marvel machine keeps on churning, earlier this year we had the fantastic Captain America: Civil War [See Review] which at the time of writing is still on track to be my film of the year, but now Marvel takes a different tack and jumps into the world of the ‘mystical’. In many respects, Doctor Strange is an interesting film because at times it is almost at arms distance from the rest of the cinematic universe, yet also it is almost the most ‘Marvel’ film Marvel has put out.

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Video Game Review – Civilization VI

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TL;DR – This is a fantastic entry into the series, and it had its One More Turn hooks into me from the start,  beautiful music and art, solid gameplay, however, there are a couple of small issues with some systems and UI

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Civilization VI. Image Credit: Firaxis Games.

Review –
So here we are and the year of 4X continues, and this time it is the granddaddy of all 4X, the next entry into the Civilization franchise. Now I am probably ageing myself here, but I have played every entry in the series so far from Civ1’s square everything and Palace that you could build, all the way to Civ5’s One-Unit-Per-Tile shake up and I have loved each entry. However, Firaxis’ last game Beyond Earth, while having some interesting ideas, left many people feeling more than a little meh, and while its one expansion pack Rising Tide [See Review] really improved the game, it left me and others wondering could they pull off a sequel to their flagship franchise? Well not to jump ahead, but can they even, Civilization 6 got its hooks into me right away, to the point I think I am done with Civilization 5 and I have (now this is a judgment-free space, I won’t judge you from watching every episode of Gilmore Girls if we just gloss over the next bit) over 1500 hours in that game. That’s not to say Civ 6 doesn’t have its issues, because it does, but most of them are minor compared to everything they get right.

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Movie Review – Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

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TL;DR – The action is there, the characters are there, but something is just missing from this sequel that stops the film from excelling.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. Image Credit: Paramount.

Review –

So full disclosure I didn’t watch the first Jack Reacher, nor have I read the books in the series by Lee Childs, and I was kind of tired of the film before I even went to see it because you could not open a Twitch stream, nor YouTube video without having to suffer through the trailer (yep that one right above you here). So I may not have come into the film with the best mindset but then honestly I don’t think you needed to see the last film or read the book to get the narrative because the writers use the opening sequence to pretty much set up the character of Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) and his motivations, and thankfully it is that one scene in rural America with the sheriff and a phone call that you have probably already seen over and over again and they get it out of the way right at the start. So as far as American PG-13 action films go, Jack Reacher is not bad, however, it did feel like something was missing and because of that, it fell short of being a great film.

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Movie Review – Keeping Up with the Joneses

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TL;DR – On the one hand this film does nothing new, and follows the same patterns and tropes of the genre, on the other hand, everybody commits to their roles, so it actually turns out quite good.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Keeping Up with the Joneses. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review –

When you go to a Hollywood movie that describes itself as an ‘action-comedy’ especially an American PG-13 ‘action comedy’, it tends to follow a very predictable route, characters are put into a zany situation, there will be some risqué subject material, but not too risqué, and they will drop their one F-Bomb at some point in the film and Keeping Up with the Joneses does not deviate from this at all. Indeed The Joneses fits very comfortably within the buddy-cop, or fish out of water genre, by taking two very different couples and then playing them off each other, and in that interplay hopefully some humour can be found. So the question then becomes can The Joneses solid enough film to sustain its premise for the whole film whilst still being entertaining, and well for me, I think they pulled it off.

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Movie Review – Inferno

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TL;DR – A competently produced National Treasure like film, that really hopes you don’t start thinking through the plot points too deeply.

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Inferno. Image Credit: Sony.

Review –
I should start this review with a quick clarification, I have not seen any of the films in this series (The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno) nor have I read the source books, this is not because I have any dislike for books in general, indeed I have too many shelves full of them, but just honestly The Da Vinci Code never seemed to be that good. So with the third one of these films coming out and the ability to still get Tom Hanks and Ron Howard involved in something that feels like a straight to DVD release it did have me intrigued, have I misjudged this series? is there actually something here? So with this in mind, I decided to give it a watch with the worst case scenario I get something to write a rant about it. However, what I saw was not a bad film, but it’s not a good one either.

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TV Review – Luke Cage ‘Ep. 1, 2, and 3′ review

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TL;DR –  Luke Cage starts the season with a slow build, but the tension it creates is amazing, and more importantly it hooks you in for the long run.

Score – 4 out of 5 Stars

Luke Cage. Image Credit: Netflix/Marvel.

Review –

Well off the back of both a movie series that keeps going from strength to strength (Team Cap all the way) and some groundbreaking TV adaptions (like who knew that Daredevil could be likeable) Marvel is simply killing it at the moment. Indeed the Netflix experiment itself is still growing exponentially, it’s a service that can show everything from Chef’s Table to Stranger Things and all in between. Within all this, we get the next in the Marvel/Netflix joint project Luke Cage (after Daredevil and Jessica Jones), and like its predecessors, Luke Cage is provocative, but also brilliantly made. For this review we are going to look at the first three episodes ‘Moment of Truth’, ‘Code of the Streets’ & ‘Who’s Gonna Take the Weight’ because they clearly set the scene and the tone for the rest of the season. Now we are going to be talking about these episodes in detail, so to be clear spoilers are now in effect.

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Movie Review – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

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TL;DR – A solid film with intrigue and a unique premise, it is well filmed and acted, but also surprisingly reserved by the director

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox.

Review –

So I should start my review with the proviso that I have never read the book (though this is something I am going to fix) so I can’t tell you if Miss Peregrine’s is a good adaptation of the source material, but what I can tell you is that it is a fascinating film in its own right. I should also point out, this is probably not a film for young children, as there are a number of horror elements to it.

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