John Goodman’

Film Review: Smurfs; not even new Rihanna music can save truly bizarre “family” flick

If you’ve seen the marketing for the latest Smurfs film – which is serving as a soft reboot of the series, disregarding the live-action features from 2011 and 2013, and the animated retooled “sequel” from 2017 – you would notice that they’ve been very much banking on the voice casting of Rihanna as Smurfette.  There’s…

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First Impressions: Pixar’s Monsters At Work is facile family viewing that should entertain young audiences

Supported by Pixar but not specifically animated by them, Monsters At Work serves as a direct continuation of 2001’s Monsters, Inc., picking up in the hours after learning the laughter of children is a much more efficient way to energise their city over the nightmarish screams they used to evoke. Despite the sequel feel of…

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Film Review: Kong: Skull Island (USA, 2017) proves that the simplest pleasures can be the most spectacular

Monster movies were my jam back when I was a kid. Just seeing two colossal creatures beating each other with whatever environment they are in at their disposal was such an incredible delight. With fantastic examples like the various Godzilla films, King Kong films, Mighty Peking Man, The Host (2006) and War of the Gargantuas,…

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Film Review: Peter Berg offers a spirited homage to “Boston Strong” with Patriot’s Day (USA, 2017)

There is no way for Peter Berg’s Patriot’s Day to avoid being labelled as exploitative and “too soon”, if even just for the title. For the past few weeks critics have been piling onto the director’s dramatic retelling of the bombings which took place during the annual Boston Marathon in April of 2013, killing three…

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Get a first look at Luc Besson’s next sci-fi epic, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Luc Besson’s has revealed new details and a first look at his upcoming sci-fi film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets in a new interview over at Entertainment Weekly.  Based on French comic Valerian and Laureline, the film stars Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, John Goodman, Ethan Hawke and Rihanna. As part of the…

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Film Review: Trumbo (USA, 2015)

Dalton Trumbo was a political activist, a writer, a family man, and a man of principle. In Trumbo, a new film starring Bryan Cranston in the leading role, we’re taken back to a time when going against the grain was grounds for treason and imprisonment.  It’s one of the most intriguing – and ghastly –…

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Film Review: The Hangover Part 3 (USA, 2013)

The Wolfpack is back in the third and final installment of The Hangover franchise. You would think after the last two films that there would be not much more in the way of shenanigans these guys could partake in, but clearly director/writer Tom Phillips had other ideas.

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