Banter: Force Awakens Predictions

Hi everyone, Cinema Cocoa here with a very short, off-the-cuff post about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I would like to make a handful of predictions about the film’s story before it releases, and see if I get any of them right. This post will be used for bragging rights, I won’t lie. I feel…

Review: Bridge of Spies

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ latest collaboration is a solid wartime drama, not extremely emotional, not extremely heavy, but simply a good watch. Following true events during the Cold War, Tom Hanks plays James B. Donovan, an insurance attorney who is called in for the spiky task of defending a Soviet Russian spy in American…

Review: Black Mass

Johnny Depp headlines this Boston crime lord biopic with a transformative performance, but excellence isn’t only reserved for him. Between 1975 and 1986, James Bulger started out as a low level criminal, but with a friend from the school yard now in the FBI and a senator for a younger brother, Bulger gained immunity for…

Review: The Hunger Games – Mockingjay (2D)

So The Hunger Games follows the lead of Harry Potter and – its own spiritual nemesis – Twilght, and splits its final chapter in half. The result… is not surprising. After the events of the trilogy’s second act, Catching Fire, Katniss wakes up surrounded by new allies with dubious motives. She desperately wants to rescue…

Review: Blade Runner – The Final Cut

Perhaps one of Sir Ridley Scott’s most visually striking films, Blade Runner is a narrow view of classic science fiction themes and values shot in a gorgeous film noir style. A Blade Runner is a special police officer tasked with the identification and neutralising of synthetic humans known as Replicants. Replicants appear by design exactly…

Tribute Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

This was originally intended as a Remake Rumble review (alongside the 2010 remake I have yet to see) but after watching it again I have decided this is far more fitting as a Tribute Review for the late brilliant Wes Craven, who died in August this year (2015) who brought about, almost single-handedly, the teen…

Review: The Lost Boys

(Originally published in November 2012) A movie completely trapped in the 1980s, but it is great entertainment! When a mother and her two sons move to California the eldest son Michael becomes fascinated by a group of bikers and the girl in their midst, while his younger brother meets two strange boys who are convinced…

Review: Spectre

After the colossal success of Skyfall director Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig return to bring Bond’s origin story to completion. It… is a bumpy ride. Bond is on the ropes once again at the MI6, M has him grounded after he causes chaos in Mexico City while hunting down a man the previous M had…

Review: Sicario

From the creator of 2013’s Prisoners, and getting ridiculously high critical acclaim, but Sicario is no Prisoners. An FBI agent who stumbles upon the dealings of a drug cartel is roped into a special Government taskforce to aid in the neutralisation of the drug trade on the US and Mexican borders. I don’t get the…

Review: Crimson Peak

My favourite director Guillermo Del Toro returns to give his horror stylised spin on a gothic romance. Edith, a naïve American girl who dreams of becoming a writer, is swept away from her father’s protective surroundings when a stranger from Britain arrives with a business proposition. But Edith has been receiving warnings, warnings from her…