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…
Category: Film Review
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Dry (2020) Film Review
Adapted from Jane Harper’s 2016 international bestseller, our latest randomly selected watch, The Dry, is a solid Australian slow burner of a crime drama starring Eric Bana. With Eric Bana in the lead, The Dry tells the story of Federal Agent Aaron Falk (Bana) as he reluctantly returns to his drought-stricken hometown in rural Australia…
Retro Review: The Birds (1963)
It seems as though Halloween brings out my retro side, considering most of my ‘Retro Reviews‘ so far have been classic horrors or thrillers and my latest first time viewing continues that tradition, as I take another dip into the film catalogue of the great Alfred Hitchcock with his 1963 offering, The Birds. Director: Alfred…
Help (2021) Film Review
Whenever there is a massive news worthy event, there’s always a question in the back of my mind – “How long before it is turned into a movie?” – but with the Covid-19 pandemic we were still in national and global lockdowns when the films started to churn out of the mill. Some, like Adam…
Free Guy (2021) Film Review
Unfortunately for gamers the world over, movies adapted from or inspired by video games don’t tend to have much luck in cinema, although some have been more successful than others – check out my post ranking my top ten game-to-film adaptations for my favourites – the latest attempt to unite video games and cinema is…
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021) Film Review
For those still reeling from the loss of some of our favourite superheroes, the likes of WandaVision and Loki, have acted as a bridge from the Marvel Cinematic Universe of old to the scary unknown of the new. And whilst it may offer something of a comfort to know that familiar faces are still there, with Hawkeye coming to Disney+ in November…
Untold: Breaking Point (2021) Film Review
With Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from this year’s French Open and Simone Biles dropping out of a couple of events at the Tokyo Olympics there has been a huge amount of discussion and focus on mental health in sports recently which perhaps makes Breaking Point, the fifth and final episode in Netflix’s Untold series, the most…
Untold: Crime And Penalties (2021) Film Review
From the film’s introduction, and the revelation that a seventeen year old high school student was given the ownership of a hockey team, I was expecting Crime and Penalties to be a story about some entitled and immature brat, that didn’t understand or appreciate the value of money, running the team into the ground but…
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Film Review
After watching a BBC documentary on foxes, I had an overwhelming urge to re-watch Wes Anderson’s brilliant adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic story, Fantastic Mr. Fox, a film that I actually hated the first time round but very quickly grew to love and appreciate. Surprisingly, I always seem to forget Anderson whenever I think about…
Untold: Caitlyn Jenner (2021) Film Review
Netflix’s five part documentary film series is delivering above and beyond my expectation with fascinating stories from all around the world of sport, from basketball to hockey to boxing. The third episode tells the story of Caitlyn (‘Bruce’) Jenner’s journey to Decathlon Olympic gold, her struggles with her identity and the eventual transition to her…
Modern Classic: 500 Days Of Summer (2009) Film Review
Hey everyone!! It’s been a little while but I think it is high time for another ‘Modern Classic’. For those of you who are new to the blog, or just need a little reminder, I am trying to work my way through those (retro and modern) classic films that I, rather shamefully, haven’t got around…
Wreck-It Ralph (2012) Film Review
After what feels like an age, but is actually less than 3 years ago, I wrote and published my first ever film review on Ralph Breaks The Internet, the follow up to what is, in my humble opinion, one of Disney’s best films. Although the sequel was a rather massive disappointment, and my review wasn’t…
Untold: Deal With The Devil (2021) Film Review
Netflix’s Untold, the new five-part documentary series that takes a look at some of most notorious events in modern sporting history, with a new feature length documentary released each week got off to a powerful start with their frank and open look at the brawl that shook the basketball world. The second instalment (released 17th…
Charlie’s Angels (2019) Film Review
I was a little apprehensive going into the new Charlie’s Angels, as twelve year old me loved the 2000 version and I am still kind of in two minds about straight out and out remakes. They tend to have a ‘been there, done that’ kind of vibe – a la 2016 Ghostbusters – but the…
Beckett (2021) Film Review
As someone who writes about film and TV you would think that I would try and keep on top of all the upcoming films but I really don’t. Part of the reason is because I want to try and go into a movie with no prior expectations or pre-conceptions, the other (somewhat larger) part is…
Untold: Malice At The Palace (2021) Film Review
Regardless of the sport, whether it be the likes of football, rugby or basketball, for some die-hard fans sport is life. Whilst I admire that level of passion, personally I’m a much more laid back sports fan saving myself for the big tournaments such as World Cup’s, Grand Slams or the Olympics. Timed to perfection,…
Nobody (2021) Film Review
From John Wick to Bryan Mills, the idea of an ex-something or other being dragged back into a life they managed to escape is not exactly new but writer Derek Kolstad (who gave us the John Wick franchise) gives his 2021 story Nobody a fresh spin for Bob Odenkirk’s Hutch Mansell it’s not a kidnapped…