Jamie Neish
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DVD Review: Room
★★★★☆ Winner of the Audience Award at last year’s Toronto Film Festival and based on Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel of the same name, Room centres its attention on a complex, realistic mother and child relationship; its various ups and downs playing out against the most extreme of circumstances. Ma (Brie Larson) and her five-year-old son,…
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Film Review: Ratchet & Clank
★★☆☆☆ Some 16 years ago, action-packed third-person videogame Ratchet & Clank blasted into the hearts and minds of many when it was released for the long-shelved PlayStation 2. It was inevitable that, at some point down the line, a film adaptation would be made – and here it is. Even ith many of the original…
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Film Review: Kung Fu Panda 3
★★★★☆ Kung Fu Panda 3, the last part in DreamWorks Animation’s trilogy (unless another is announced once box office receipts are tallied), puts an end to unlikely hero Po’s adventures in the best possible way, delivering laughs aplenty and the most vibrant animation this year. Po (Jack Black), now a Dragon Warrior, has settled into…
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Film Review: Allegiant
★★☆☆☆ The penultimate instalment in the big screen adaptations of Veronica Roth’s bestselling YA novels, The Divergent Series: Allegiant is as dull as films come, hinged on some primary school level ideas and a range of A-list actors left sputtering out meaningless dialogue. After the collapse of the factions and the tyrannical Jeanine (Kate Winslet)…
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Glasgow 2016: Zootropolis review
★★★★☆ The latest feature from Disney Animations Studios, whose recent revitalisation has brought us such hits as Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen, Zootropolis (or Zootopia in the US) is rollicking entertainment with a side of ripe social commentary. Ever since she was a little bunny, Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) has had big dreams of becoming a…
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Glasgow 2016: Labyrinth of Lies review
★★★☆☆ Labyrinth of Lies – Germany’s official Academy Award submission – takes place in the late 1950s, around ten years after the end of World War II, with Germany is in a state of repair and most of the population in denial about the holocaust. It’s an undoubtedly fascinating topic, but is diluted somewhat by…
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Glasgow 2016: Hail, Caesar to open festival
Days after it was revealed that Hail, Caesar! and Anomalisa would act as bookends, opening and closing respectively, the full programme for this year’s Glasgow Film Festival (17-28 February) has been announced by co-directors Allan Hunter and Alison Gardner – and there’s plenty for cinema enthusiasts to look forward to. Not only are the likes…
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Film Review: Sleeping with Other People
★☆☆☆☆ American playwright turned writer-director Leslye Headland received a fair amount of critical praise for her debut feature Bachelorette (2012), which saw a trio of women asked to be bridesmaids to a former victim of their school bullying. Her sophomore effort, Sleeping with Other People (2015), is an unfortunately hideous affair. Toplined by two skilled…
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Film Review: ‘Chemsex’
★★★★☆ In many ways, drugs can benefit lives – even save them – but they also have a dark side, which is the focus of Chemsex (2015). This hard-hitting documentary explores a hidden underworld of the homosexual community, whereby men become reliant on drugs – taken mostly intravenously – to fuel their libidos, more often…
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DVD Review: ‘Legend of Barney Thomson’
★★☆☆☆ Robert Carlyle exhibits little flair in his dispensable directorial debut The Legend of Barney Thomson (2015). With a crack-shot cast and well captured locations in and around Glasgow, the film passes by easily enough but is a lightweight affair never aspiring to more than poking fun and raising the odd smile. Any – and…