Film

By Michael McNulty For those trying to sex up Philip John’s debut feature, Moon Dogs, comparisons will be made to Alfonso Cuarón’s sexy, impulsive road movie, Y Tu Mama Tambien.  This would be a stretch at best. Moon Dogs, backed by Scottish, Irish and Welsh film boards, centres on two teenage stepbrother’s Michael (Jack Parry-Jones) and Thor (Christy O’Donnell), who live off the coast of northern Scotland on the Shetland islands.  The two share a strained relationship.  Michael plans to...

By Jim Mackney Hotel Salvation (Mukti Bhawan) is an allegorical film that deals with life, death, shame, and friendship. It is the first film by director, Shubhashish Bhutiani and despite the film’s small budget the piece uses this to its advantage by creating a film with a slow ambient rhythm, allowing the films bigger questions to be explored at their own pace. The film follows septuagenarian Daya (Lalit Behl) and his family, creating a sense of intimacy that is far...

On the surface American Made could look like Tom Cruise having a midlife crisis on screen. The flashy action sequences, topless shots showing off hours spent at the gym, and the kind of fast planes that made him famous could all be interpreted as an attempt to recapture the spirit of his early films. Described as a sort-of-true story, American Made follows Barry Seal (Tom Cruise), a commercial pilot recruited by the CIA and tasked with taking pictures of communist...

By Michael McNulty Roddy “Rowdy” Piper substitutes his spandex for a flannel shirt and some special shades in John Carpenter’s, cheesier than a croque monsieur, cult classic, sci-fi action thrill ride, They Live. Hitting the big screen in 1988 and scripted under a Carpenter pseudonym, They Live is based on Ray Nelson’s short story Eight O’clock in the Morning. A cocktail of John Rambo and Clint Eastwood’s man with no name, Nada (Roddy Piper) emerges from the early morning mist...

Set in 1967, Detroit opens with a police raid on an unlicensed club where the return of black veterans from Vietnam is being celebrated. Suspects are brought out onto the street and a mob forms around them. As the suspects are arrested the mob starts to through rocks at the officers and before long this escalates and the city is overrun by looting and fires. Army paratroopers and the National Guard are sent to aid the Detroit police. When a...

By Michael McNulty Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott deliver a dud in action thriller Bushwick. Lucy, Pitch Perfect’s Brittany Snow, emerges from a New York subway in Bushwick, with her boyfriend, off to visit Grandma. When a burning man runs through the ticket hall, the two realize something is amiss. Upon investigation, Lucy’s boyfriend is swiftly blown up, his body reduced to a smouldering mess of charred flesh. Bushwick is under siege by mysterious militants sporting black riot gear and...

FIRST TRAILER FOR THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER BRIMS WITH SUSPENSE STEEPED IN SUBURBAN GREEK TRAGEDY.   From Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos (THE LOBSTER, DOGTOOTH), starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. - IN UK CINEMAS NOVEMBER 17 - Horror Yorgos Lanthimos Style and we can't wait. Watch this chilling trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFdGfwChtw    

By Jim Mackney Edgar Wright appeared seemingly fully formed in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead and has continued to make exciting and engaging cinema ever since. Wright’s films bristle with energy and are composed with visual clarity and a strong focus on wit. Edgar Wright is a thrilling filmmaker that understands genre cinema inside out and uses pure filmmaking techniques that are often ignored in today’s CGI laden landscape. Long live, Edgar Wright! Films ranked in order of greatness:...

By James Mackney Move aside Minions, for 'Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie' is the family film of the summer. It has everything: fart jokes, an arch villain who looks like a cross between Albert Einstein and Professor Weetos, sly and silly cultural references and a caped-crusader - in just his underpants! It is a film that unashamedly celebrates the sheer creativity of children’s imaginations. Within the first 10 minutes there is a joke about Uranus being a gas giant....