Film reviews and more
★★★☆☆ Based on the bestselling novel by American author Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas (2013) comes to UK DVD after a short legal battle quashed any possibility of a theatrical release. Directed by Stephen Sommers, whose mild-horror track record has been demonstrated with films such as The Mummy (1999) and Van Helsing (2004), this […]
★★★☆☆ Muscle Shoals, which lends its name to Greg Camalier’s doc, is an Alabama city based on the southern banks of the Tennessee River (population 12,000). Back in the fifties it was even smaller, a rural smudge on the map, but it was in the neighbouring town of Sheffield that record producer Rick […]
★★☆☆☆ Largely ignored by cinema audiences both in the UK and across the pond, directing duo Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s Girl Mostly Likely (2012) may also struggle to find adoration on the small screen. Whilst there are occasional moments of fun insight, it largely fails to harness the sharp comedic skills […]
★★★★☆ A TV series such as Bates Motel, based on a film as iconic as Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), would appear to have the odds stacked against from the off. However, this ten-parter – starring Vera Farmiga, Freddy Highmore and Max Thieriot – manages the unenviable task with surprising aplomb. The result is a […]
★★★☆☆ Touted as the final film in British filmmaker Richard Curtis’ sparse directorial career, About Time (2013) is his third and perhaps most considered feature: a sci-fi-inflected romantic comedy that very much slots into – but arguably attempts to depart from – the storytelling techniques Curtis has become known for. Typically schmaltzy, optimistic […]