Category: Film Reviews

★★★★★

Academy Award winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead) has returned to the war film genre but this time it’s set in WWI and is shot to look like a continuous take. 1917 is an immersive film about two Lance Corporals who need to deliver a message to another troop to order an attack to stop as the British have realised it is a trap. What’s more is that one of the men’s brother is part of those 1,600 men who will be killed if the message isn’t delivered before dawn.

We absolutely loved this film. Gripped from the very beginning, we couldn’t take our eyes off it. In our opinion it’s one of the best war films of recent times and is so unique in the way it’s been shot and edited. Read on for five reasons to see 1917!

★★★★★

The Second World War is coming to an end and amidst the impending defeat of Germany, 10 year old Johannes “Jojo” Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is joining the Hitler Youth to dedicate his life to his country and it’s leader. Trying to quench his soft nature through blind nationalism, Jojo doesn’t get off to a good start. Led by his mother (Scarlett Johansson) towards the right path, Jojo faces some moral choices…

We absolutely loved Jojo Rabbit and can’t recommend this bonkers comedy enough. Check out our five reasons to see it below!

★★★

Since it’s original stage production in 1981, Cats has never had its own feature film adaptation until now. Off the back of his well received version of Les Misérables, director Tom Hooper has been given the reigns to another classic musical in a bid to win over audiences to a show that notoriously has a marmite effect. Cats tells the story of a group of cats all competing through song and dance at the Jellicle Ball to become the “chosen one” to move onto a new life (the Heaviside Layer) and be reborn. When the first trailer appeared 5 months ago, lots of people were pretty disturbed by what they saw, us included. It’s worth nothing here that this is our first encounter with the musical in any capacity at all! So without further adieu, let us tell you what we thought of it.

★★★★★

Dare we say it, Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1868/69 novel has once again had another on-screen adaptation. From countless TV series and this being the fourth big-screen attempt at portraying Alcott’s work, we aren’t short of (pun intended) Little Women films. We expected the story to now be a tired thing that’s been seen multiple times and another re-make unnecessary – how wrong we were. Greta Gerwig has carefully tweaked the story and is telling it in a way that hasn’t been seen before by using parallel narratives from the two parts between each character’s childhood and adulthood. With a stellar cast of fantastic women, this feminist story is a joy to watch and packs in the emotion too. Check out our five reasons to see Little Women below!

★★½

Raise your lightsabers, the Skywalker saga has come to an end. Across the 9 episodes from the last 5 decades we have had some highs and lows, with the latest trilogy receiving really mixed reviews from fans (we loved The Force Awakens and weren’t too sure on The Last Jedi). We caught the final chapter to the saga on the opening night filled with anticipation and excitement, but felt pretty torn as we left the cinema. While the film was good fun and had exciting parts, we felt it didn’t land with us emotionally and had us pondering on some storyline decisions where things were reversed, hence our average review. Regardless, we’ve pulled together five reasons so see The Rise Of Skywalker below!

★★★★

Continuing from the success of 2017’s Netflix series The Haunting Of Hill House, writer, director and horror film aficionado Mike Flanagan is at the helm of Stephen King’s follow up novel to The Shining, now with Danny Torrance at the centre of the narrative. Packed with masterclass acting, a unique story and plenty of references to Stanley Kubrick’s original adaptation (which Stephen King famously hates), this sequel is one that has been worth the wait. Check out our five reasons to see Doctor Sleep below!

★★★★★

In the wake of cancelled plans to create a Joker film starring Jared Leto and mediocre critical response to 2016’s Suicide Squad, another Gotham villain film was the last thing audiences expected. Tipped as a psychological thriller and created by Todd Phillips, the man behind the Hangover trilogy, this origin story wasn’t on many “one to watch” lists. However, Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix being cast in the title role, an eight-minute standing ovation and “Best Film” award at the Venice Film Festival this summer certainly gave Joker momentum for it’s October release.

★★★★

Pennywise, hailed as one of the scariest clowns of pop culture is back gracing our screens once again. Created originally by Stephen King in his 1986 novel, It, and after a successful TV miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace in 1990 starring Tim Curry in the iconic role, it falls to director Andy Muschietti (Mama (2013)) and actor Bill Skarsgård to respectively take this story and character into the 21st century and onto the big screen (with a little more help from CGI). The second half of Muschietti’s two part adaptation has got big shoes to fill with the success of the first film. IT Chapter 2 sees the “Losers Club” of Derry all grown up and brought back together to once again fight the killer clown who is fatally terrorising their hometown.