Review: “One Day” starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall

“One Day” is refreshingly different: it is a portrait of a romance but it is painted in generally dark colours. There is regret, memory, tears, bitterness, and yet it is beautiful.

Review: “Napoleon” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby

Ridley Scott turned the story of Napoleon Bonaparte into a big budget epic; how does it compare to 1970’s “Waterloo”?

Review: Superman: Red Son starring Jason Isaacs and Vanessa Marshall

I must admit that I’m not a “comic book” sort of person. I never collected them. I watched some superhero cartoons on Saturday mornings when I was a boy. I don’t recall specific plots, but I do remember that the Green Lantern’s powers were useless against items coloured yellow. Also, there was a “Bizarro” version […]

Review: “Gone Girl” starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike

Some films are meant to be taken at face value: a car chase is a car chase, an explosion is an explosion, and they are there solely to get the adrenalin pumping and to attract the eye. Other films are purposefully deeper: for example, the German film, “The Lives of Others” is designed to stimulate […]

Review: “The Spirit of 45” directed by Ken Loach

[AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=”B00B26XU62″] Ed Miliband has just announced revisions in the Labour Party’s relationship with the trade unions. Previously, affiliated unions automatically donated part of their members’ dues into the party’s coffers. The forthcoming changes mean that this will have to be a conscious choice by each individual member. This represents a dramatic shift: there was […]

Review: “Skyfall” starring Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem

[AMAZONPRODUCT=B006X040NY] I thought that James Bond had turned a page. Both of Daniel Craig’s initial outings in the role were markedly different from the blend of high-tech silliness and misogyny which characterised the previous episodes: his was a James Bond that could genuinely fall in love, get hurt (indeed nearly die), and was kept in […]

Review: “Sinister” starring Ethan Hawke and Juliet Rylance

Halloween offers few forms of entertainment for the middle aged. If one has friends who are throwing a party in the vicinity, then it’s probably best to put on a smudge of face paint, don a white smock with an anonymous red stain, and go. The evening can then be spent in good company while […]

Review: “Prometheus” starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender

[AMAZONPRODUCTS asin=’B005ZCHQKA’] I’ve long been a devotee of the “Alien” film series: the original 1979 motion picture provided a stark contrast to the optimism which suffused Star Trek and the boyish zeal of Star Wars. Rather, it presented the cosmos as vast, lonely and only the financially strapped or emotionally bereft would dare to venture […]

Review: “When the Lights Went Out” starring Natasha Connor and Kate Ashfield

I moved to Yorkshire in late 2011. Since that time, I’ve found much to admire: the area’s diversity, its many examples of beautiful 19th century architecture, the fine local ales and the friendliness of the people all do much to recommend it. In July, I went to Dublin and while there I attended a whiskey […]

Review: “The Dark Knight Rises” starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway

Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy has dramatically altered how we view “superhero” films. Prior to “Batman Begins”, there was an expectation that such movies would be as lurid as their printed counterparts; the audience’s suspension of disbelief was taken for granted, their willingness to accept a villain, say, who had fallen into a vat of […]

Me And My Blog

Picture of meI'm a Doctor of both Creative Writing and Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering, a novelist, a technologist, and still an amateur in much else.