Review: Joker – Folie à Deux

How can a film of 139 minutes achieve so little? After his killing spree, Arthur Fleck lives his life in prison. But when psychologists and a fellow rehab client, Harley, believe he can be free… Maybe there’s time for one last laugh? Returning director Todd Phillips and lead star Joaquin Phoenix are joined by Lady…

Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Not entirely without merit, the sequel rewards with great practical effects. Decades after the frightful events that befell the Deetz family in their new home, Lydia and her mother Delia struggle with their new lives. Meanwhile, the underworld trickster known as Beetlejuice has an unwelcome visitor… Director Tim Burton has had a spotted creative history…

Review: Inside Out 2

Disney’s had a slew of mistakes lately, but this is not one of them. The emotions within Riley are having a blast since the last time we saw them. But when a big warning light labelled “puberty” appears on their control console… things are about to get crowded. 2015’s Inside Out was a very strong…

Review: Dune – Part 2

As it was with past franchises, a second part of a narrative always feels a little… awkward. But Dune: Part 2 delivers the same quality and mystique as the first part. Following the events of Dune (2021) Paul Atreides finds himself among the Fremen, the natives of the planet Arrakis, hiding out from the Harkonnens,…

Review: Avatar – Way of Water (3D)

The film is absolutely gorgeous. But it caused a lot of head-scratching. Following the events of 2009’s Avatar, we see Jake Sully’s avatar at peace with his family; two sons, a daughter, an adopted daughter, and an adopted human son, as well as Neytiri. But when the humans return to Pandora, he sees that they…

Review: Black Panther – Wakanda Forever

Marvel could have had a real moment here… but the film is found lacking. King T’Challa is dead. Wakanda is left vulnerable to attack from foreign nations vying for acquisition of vibranium, the country’s rare metallic resource. But there is another nation, beneath the waves, that also enters this power vacuum. Losing someone is never…

Review: Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness

Poor Sam Raimi… It feels like he was left holding the bag… Doctor Stephen Strange finds himself defending a mysterious young woman whose powers allow her to move through the multiverse at will. But others are looking to take her powers from her… When Marvel Studios announced the first schedule for the MCU’s “Phase 4”,…

Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

After a pretty successful first outing, the sequel has some of the hero’s… overconfidence. Doctor Ivo Robotnik has returned from being marooned on an alien world, hellbent on destroying the blue hedgehog hero that put him there. But he isn’t alone; a new adversary joins him, while Sonic himself gains a new ally. This is…

Review: Mass Effect – Legendary Edition

As a huge, huge fan of the video game series Mass Effect, produced by Bioware, I feel it necessary to go in depth with my thoughts on the games and their recent “remastering”. The trilogy went through a lot, and changed a great deal between games, and today there is still division between fans as…

Video Games of 2021

It is this time of year again! 2021 wasn’t quite the bright new dawn expected after 2020, with the persistent danger of Covid-19 variant “Omicron” this winter. So while I might have caught a couple more films this year in the cinema, I’ve been reluctant to see as many as I originally planned to. With…