For those of you who have been following me for a while you’ll already know that I am a big fan of mystery screenings, they are a great opportunity to watch films that might otherwise slip under the radar and whilst not every mystery screening delivers the goods, I have been able to discover some…
The Whale (2022) Film Review
I do love the post-Christmas flurry of award nominated films that come to the cinemas here in the UK, they help to pass those cold wintry days, but it is frustrating to hear all the buzz and excitement about certain films and then have to wait several weeks after the likes of the US before…
The Rig (2023) Series Review
Based on a Norwegian TV series, The Rig takes places on the Kinloch Bravo, an oil rig off the Scottish coast deep in the waters of the North Sea. At the end of their rotation, the rig’s crew are eagerly anticipating the helicopter that will return them to the mainland but when their communication systems…
Knock At The Cabin (2023)
Personally I quite enjoyed M. Night Shyamalan’s last two films, Old (2021) and Glass (2019), but neither of them set the box office alight or received much acclaim from critics and fans alike so it kind of feels as though Shyamalan needs something of a win. His latest endeavour Knock At The Cabin is an…
The Ten Films I’m Looking Forward To Most In 2023
As with other aspects of life, the last couple of years have been a bit of a shit show for the entertainment industry with cinemas struggling to stay open, movie opening dates being pushed back and studios opting for the blended simultaneous theatrical/streaming releases. With most of the postponed films now being released we seem…
M3GAN (2023) Film Review
Much like its Roman namesake, the month of January has two faces when it comes to the world of cinema, whilst the conversations are all abuzz with awards shows and accolades the actual theatrical releases tend to be a little lacklustre, especially in horror, but Master of the genre James Wan is here to break…
Top Ten… Worst Films of 2022
It’s a sorry state of affairs when you have a bigger shortlist for your worst films of 2022 than you did for your favourites but whether it’s nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, woke agenda’s being forced down your throat or the over reliance on big names as opposed to well thought out story-telling, honestly, the Silver…
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Film Review
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these ‘Modern Classic’ posts and I figured why not start the new year by finally crossing off The Shawshank Redemption from my must watch list. I know, I know… how can I write a movie blog or call myself a film fan when I haven’t seen…
Top Ten… Favourite Films of 2022
And in the blink of an eye, 2022 is over which means it’s time to rank by best films of the year. I’ll be honest, my choices were rather limited this year as we spent more of time gaming than we did at the cinema but there were a few gems that we really enjoyed….
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Film Review
Cast your mind back to 2009… British author Terry Pratchett received a knighthood, America had their first African-American President and Glee burst onto our TV screens in a blur of problematic storylines and surprisingly catchy covers and in the world of cinema, James Cameron released what would become the top grossing film of all time…
The Phantom of the Open (2021) Film Review
America may love their grand stories of great heroics but us Brits love to weave our twee tales of local eccentrics and ordinary everyday people ding extraordinary things; think The Full Monty, Calendar Girls and Fisherman’s Friends to name but a few classics of British cinema. Now we have the story of the ‘World’s Worst…
The Menu (2022) Film Review
Despite being what one might consider a ‘fussy eater’, I do like food and I’ve watched enough episodes of cooking programmes such as Masterchef and Great British Menu to have at least a basic understanding of, and appreciation for, fine dining. So, when I first saw the teaser trailer for screenwriter’s Will Tracy’s The Menu,…
Enola Holmes 2 (2022) Film Review
Re-reading my review of Harry Bradbeer’s surprisingly entertaining Enola Holmes from back in January 2021, I seem to have found myself in something of a time-loop… “I don’t really buy into the whole ‘New Year, New Me’ mentality but as January rolled around it seemed as though my desire to watch new content came back,…
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Film Review
If you’ve read any of my recent Marvel reviews then you will already know that I have become completely disillusioned with the franchise as a whole, even to the point where I don’t even care about spoilers anymore – which is a huge deal for me – yet I still find myself trudging into the…
Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Film Review
With the cinema-going audience getting a little bored of, what feels like, an endless stream of reboots, Hollywood found a new way to capitalise on the successes of the past through the revitalisation of nostalgic franchises decades after the original releases, also known as Legacy Sequels. And with the likes of Mary Poppins Returns, Bad…
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) Film Review
After something of a teaser in Marvel’s No Way Home, cinema-goers were expecting some fun-filled escapades across the infinite cosmos with the MCU’s latest film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Unfortunately, Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange failed to make much of a spark leaving room for Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Everything Everywhere All…
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) Film Review
The fact that I still haven’t finished the MCU’s series What If..? or Moon Knight and I couldn’t even motivate myself to write my reviews of Eternals (enjoyable but almost instantly forgettable) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (total shite – all nostalgia and very little else) are pretty good indications of just how completely bored…
Our Father (2022) Film Review
Who am I? Where did I come from? These are questions that people have been asking themselves for generations. Whether it is down to self-reflection and some profound deep-dive it one’s own psyche or asked in a more literal sense, the need to know oneself has ignited a booming market in genealogy services that is…
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) Film Review
From calls to ‘cancel’ Harry Potter creator JK Rowling for her transphobic comments on social media to the ongoing and highly publicised Amber Heard/Johnny Depp domestic abuse saga that led to the recasting of Deep’s Grindlewald, the Fantastic Beasts franchise – and by extension, the HP universe as a whole – has been plagued by…
Operation Mincemeat (2021) Film Review
If you’ve been following Love Popcorn for a while then you might already know that biographical pictures are my most favourite genre of them all, learning about stories that might otherwise go unknown and unappreciated. Couple that with the calibre of war films that us Brits deliver – The Imitation Game, 1917 and The Reader…
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story (2022) Series Review
In my opinion, Netflix have delivered some excellent documentary films and series over the last couple of years, and although their latest offering, Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story isn’t their strongest, it does deliver exactly what it says on the tin. Knighted by the Queen, publicly lauded for his fundraising and charity work –…
Oscars 2022 – Best Picture
After the rather chaotic calendar of the last couple of years, the Academy Awards are back to their normal schedule meaning that it’s only a couple more weeks until the awards season is closed out with the most coveted prize of all – the Oscar. We’ve already taken a look at the Best Actor/Actress and…
Oscars 2022 – Best Animated Picture
After the rather chaotic calendar of the last couple of years, the Academy Awards are back to their normal schedule meaning that it’s only a couple more weeks until the awards season is closed out with the most coveted prize of all – the Oscar. Last month we took a look at the Best Actor…
The Batman (2022) Film Review
As someone who LOVED Matt Reeve’s two instalments of the Planet of the Apes trilogy, cites The Riddler as their favourite comic book villain and is married to a bonafide comic book nerd, it was hard not to get excited about Reeve’s take on the source material and the visualisation of Robert Pattinson in the…
Uncharted (2022) Film Review
Despite typically being poorly received, I do enjoy a video-game inspired flick and with some of my favourite game franchises – Assassin’s Creed, Tomb Raider – already receiving the Hollywood treatment it was time for Nathan Drake to head to the big screen with Tom Holland tasked with bringing Naughty Dog’s treasure hunter to life…
Oscars 2022 – Best Actor
After the rather chaotic calendar of the last couple of years, the Oscars are back to their normal schedule meaning that the January Blues have been somewhat brushed away with the announcement of the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards. We’ve already taken a look at the Best Actress nominations so let’s gender-flip it and…
Oscars 2022 – Best Actress
After the rather chaotic calendar of the last couple of years, the Oscars are back to their normal schedule meaning that the January Blues have been somewhat brushed away with the announcement of the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards. First up, the nominations for Best Actress. Jessica Chastain – The Eyes of Tammy Faye…
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (2022)
As fans of cinema and TV we do have a certain level of tolerance for the ridiculousness that sometimes comes with our favourite form of escapism. We like to poke holes in the logic of science-fiction, roll our eyes at the bad guy’s terrible aim in action movies and throw our hands up in exasperation…
Top Ten… Worst Films of 2021
Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the same can be said for movies, so seeing as my previous blog post ranked my ten favourite films of last year it is only fitting that I counter-act that with my least favourite films from 2021….
Top Ten… Favourite Films of 2021
After the first year of the 2020’s turned out to be a complete and utter write-off, not just in terms of cinema but pretty much every aspect of our lives, we all went into 2021 with a quietly optimistic sense of hope. Twelve months later, we’re still talking about pandemics, social distancing and vaccinations but…
Hawkeye (2021) Series Review
If you cast your mind back to late 2018, before pandemics, lockdowns and social distancing were common everyday phrases, Disney announced the release of their own streaming service to be launched in 2019 (or March 2020 for us Brits). Whilst everyone was excited about the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, it was the announcement of…
Scream (2022) Film Review
Twenty-five years ago Wes Craven’s Scream breathed new life into a flagging genre spawning three sequels and the hilarious parody series Scary Movie. For many, this franchise sparked a love of horror but for eight-year old me it gave me a suitably terrifying boogeyman and something of a love-hate relationship with the slasher genre as…
The King’s Man (2021) Film Review
Despite the hubby being a fan of the graphic novels that are the source material for Matthew Vaughn’s surprising 2014 smash hit, there was something about Kingsman that really didn’t appeal to me and it took several years before I finally got round to checking it out, instantly falling in love with the self-deprecating humour…
Encanto (2021) Film Review
Given the rather lukewarm reaction to 2020’s The Prom and the epically spectacular failure of a Cats revival in 2019, you would be forgiven for thinking that musical theatre movies would slink away into the shadows for a while licking its wounds until enough time had passed for us to forgive – but never forget – the…
The Marvel Cinematic Universe TV Series Ranked Worst To Best
After some Covid-19 related delays and timeline reshuffles, Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe officially began and the MCU’s post-Endgame era saw them expand their catalogue with a foray into the world of television, to varying degrees of success. As a loyal (or indoctrinated) fan of the Marvel films – and for fear of…
Don’t Look Up (2021)
Although Adam McKay’s previous offering, Vice, managed to rack up an impressive eight Oscar nominations, including one win, it didn’t exactly go down as much of a fan favourite – unlike his earlier films, including Anchorman and Step Brothers, that have developed quite a cult following – although personally I really enjoyed it, it even…
Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) Film Review
Looking at my ever-expanding watchlist it’s chock full of powerful dramas, epics sagas and inspiring biopics that have been recommended by my cinema-going peers, or new releases that have landed on Netflix and the like, but sometimes I just really fancy something silly, stupid and slightly crass and going by my memories of the trailer…
Last Christmas (2019) Film Review
For me, Christmas movies tend to fall into two camps, both of which I’m pretty happy with. We’ve got the watch-a-billion-times classics such as The Holiday, Love Actually and Arthur Christmas that become part of the fabric of our Christmas traditions and then we have the overdosed-on-sugar, over-the-top schmaltzy gems that are so bad that…
Dune (2021) Film Review
According to Wikipedia, Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel ‘Dune’ is widely considered to be the world’s best-selling science fiction novel and has already spawned one failed attempt at a film adaptation – from Oscar-nominated director David Lynch no less. Thirty-seven years later, Denis Villeneuve takes up the challenge and despite his Dune being one of the…
Home Alone (1990) Film Review
When it comes to Christmas, there are some trends that come and go – remember when fidget spinners and adult colouring books were all the rage? – but others become part of the fabric of the season, something that never loses its charm no matter how many times we see, hear or eat it. I…
Love Hard (2021) Film Review
When the nights start drawing in, the weather turns frosty and the bombardment of Christmas begins in the supermarkets, there’s only one thing to do and that is embrace the Christmas spirit and bust out the festive movies. As well as the good old faithful’s like It’s a Wonderful Life and Love Actually, there’s always a wide variety of gloriously…
Clickbait (2021) Series Review
A few weeks before the Korean series Squid Game exploded onto our screens and dominated the Netflix top ten, Clickbait was enjoying it’s fifteen minutes of fame. The eight-part limited series, created by Tony Ayres, is a clever suspenseful thriller that is kicked off in quite spectacular fashion after a video appears on the web…
Bombshell (2019) Film Review
Bombshell Definition (noun) An unexpected and surprising event, especially an unpleasant one. A very attractive woman The irony of the double meaning of the word ‘bombshell’ is not lost on the cast and crew of the 2019 biographical drama from director Jay Roach. A little over a year before the Harvey Weinstein scandal rocked Hollywood…
Voyagers (2021) Film Review
From invading aliens attacking the White House to a runaway virus turning the world into flesh-eating zombies to forcing children to fight each other to the death for the entertainment of the rich and wealthy, catastrophe and global destruction is not really anything new in the world of cinema but one common concept is becoming…
Last Night In Soho (2021) Film Review
Coming from my neck of the woods, Edgar Wright is the epitome of country boy making it good in the big city, garnering himself quite a following with cult comedy classic like Spaced and Shaun of the Dead alongside dramatic and cinematic masterpieces (yes, I stand by the word) such as Baby Driver. For his…
Christopher Nolan’s Movies Ranked
Christopher Nolan’s one of my favourite directors and I have been trying to write this post ever since I started my blog almost three years ago but my ranking changes every single time, so you need to take this post with a pinch of salt because it is pretty much a certainty that I would…
No Time To Die (2021) Film Review
My knowledge and experience of the Bond franchise before Daniel Craig controversially stepped into the role is pretty non-existent and what I have seen I didn’t really care that much for, the whole thing feels a little cheesy and outdated for my tastes. Even within the Daniel Craig era, my experiences with the legendary agent…
Army Of Thieves (2021) Film Review
If you’ve read my review of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead then you may remember that I wasn’t exactly a huge fan of the big budget zombie/heist movie amalgamation that was far too much style and not enough substance, and I was more than a little dubious of an entire ‘Army’ cinematic universe but,…
Midsommar (2019) Film Review
Considering Ari Aster’s feature length debut, Hereditary, won the not-so-coveted top spot on my worst films of 2018 list, I can’t say I was particularly enthusiastic heading into his Scandinavian follow up, Midsommar, especially considering the reviews were as similarly divided this time around. Not one to judge a book by its cover, or a…
The Guilty (2021)
Jake Gyllenhaal is one of Hollywood’s most consistent, and consistently under appreciated, actors working today – and I’ll admit I am guilty of it myself (pun not intended) – but he, once again, delivers the goods in Antoine Fuqua’s remake of the 2018 Danish film The Guilty. Joe Baylor (Gyllenhaal) is a disgraced police officer…