A ludicrously long-range sniper assassination of a target on a moving train sets Gemini Man up in the best way possible. Could we have another top-quality modern spy film in our midst? Unfortunately not as, after a pretty darn entertaining and fast-paced opening half an hour, the film completely loses its way. It’s a real shame as Gemini Man has a lot going for it (despite the bad title.) It’s a jet-setting, good looking movie with an enticing premise (the only candidate good

An ACE Chemicals vat of acid, a child circus performer, the death of an unborn child, Red Hood. We’ve seen a few different origins for the Joker, the most famous of Batman’s legendary Rogue’s Gallery. In The Dark Knight and Suicide Squad, the decision was made to forgo an origin at all and the character still stands tall as one the best villains on page or screen. Against all odds, especially considering DC’s most recent output on screens small and big, Todd Phillips has just

The modern space film, the ‘science-fact’ rather than the ‘science-fiction’ variety, has given us much to celebrate in recent times although it’s perilously close to being oversaturated. Despite the overwhelming infinity of space itself, the lack of ‘fantasy’ in these films often leaves a frustrating sense of déjà vu as we’re hit with the same themes, characters and performances. James Gray’s Ad Astra is the latest movie to take off and sits squarely within these limiting and

We’ve seen a lot of iconic character entrances in the movies from Vader to Bond, Indy to Sparrow, Joker to Rabbit (Jessica). Add to that poster-worthy list Jennifer Lopez’s Ramona Vega in Hustlers. Strolling into the film through a whirlwind of dollar bills you’ll find yourself quoting Django Unchained: “You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.” Hustlers is based on the New York Magazine article of the same name, the true life tale of a Robin Hood-esque band of fo

The story behind James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces is a convoluted one. A celebrated work of literary linguistics and language publicly shamed and exposed as embellished fraud rather than the warts-and-all (and-all) memoir it was initially sold as. The kerfuffle surrounding it is a crying shame as the book is a masterwork and a vitally important comment on addiction and recovery. Commissioning a film is interesting for a number of reasons. Clearly, Sam and Aaron Taylor-Joh

Drug deals, sex dolls, attacks on frat boys, sex swings, beer theft and sex toys are just some of the things you can expect to see in Good Boys, a comedy detailing a few days in the life of some sixth-grade 12-year-olds. That might seem like an odd concoction until you look at the team behind this movie which features various 'The Office US' alumni as well as Jonah Hill and the creators of Superbad: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Pitching Good Boys as a 'younger Superbad' is a

“Another runner in the night, blinded by the light.” Bruce Springsteen has always spoken for those seeking the American Dream but Gurinder Chadha’s new film, based on the memoir of Bruce superfan Sarfraz Manzoor, translates Springsteen’s voice of the everyman to smalltown Luton in the 1980’s. Blinded by the Light is the coming-of-age tale of Javed (Mansoor’s onscreen representation), stuck in a town he hates and a town, with a large National Front presence, that hates him bac

You can broadly file Quentin Tarantino’s filmography into three distinct stages, each encompassing three films. The first, his imperial and most widely-celebrated, tells the ‘real-world underworld’ stories of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, all loosely ‘gangster, criminal’ related but imbued with more cultured dialogue. These three films, along with his writing on True Romance and Natural Born Killers, established Tarantino as the pop culture-inspired enfant te

We all love a good story. Stories are the bedrock of our culture and tell our history. We’ll tell the same stories over and over again and pass them down generations. Disney know this and Disney are one of the great exponents of storytelling. Morality tales and fables, both original and interpreted, that delight both kids and adults in equal measure. Their 'operation remake' of recent times is confirmation that these stories all have a place in our hearts with big box office

You can always rely on a small-scale, brisk buddy comedy at this time of the year. It’s one of those cinema tropes that seems to go down well, never doing enough to demand serious attention but leaving those who do see it with a smile on their face. This year’s iteration is the really rather awfully named Stuber which concerns, you guessed it, an Uber driver called Stu (file this with Tak3n.) Into Stu’s life, and car, comes hardboiled cop Vic, partially sighted after an eye o

We were so gripped by the intense drama in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame that we didn’t think of the myriad repercussions of Thanos’ snap. Just think of the impact that would have on pop culture! It’s a pondering that Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis probably didn’t have when putting together Yesterday, but it’s fun to think of all the same. Imagine a world without The Beatles. When 'Nowhere Man' musician Jack Malik is hit by a bus during a power outage 'Across the Univers

Picking up the gauntlet (pun very much intended) from the incredible Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame double header and tasked with properly closing Phase 3 falls to our friendly, neighbourhood Spider-Man: Far From Home. The webslinger always stood more chance of bearing this heavy load than poor Ant-Man and the Wasp, which fell victim to its placement in the saga, and this is a fun and light breath of fresh air with which to leave proceedings until next year. Sure, Peter Parke