When I first watched and reviewed Pitch Perfect I wasn’t blown away by it. I liked it, I thought it was a lot of fun but I didn’t love it. In the three years since it was released I’ve seen it a few more times and become something of a fan. It’s easy viewing, cheerful…
Woman in Gold
2 February 2016 by Leave a Comment
As you know, one of my particular areas of interest is the Holocaust and Nazi persecution and I think about it a lot this time of year. It’s been a privilege to work with survivors of the Holocaust and hear their stories. One of the striking aspects of the Jewish experience …
Cinderella
28 January 2016 by 2 Comments
It’s not enough for Disney to make huge profits from the Star Wars and Marvel universes, the House of Mouse is now exploring its own back catalogue in the search for more money-making schemes. The latest wheeze is to produce big-budget, live-action versions of the classic animations…
Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie
20 January 2016 by Leave a Comment
I have a confession and I know some of you might think less of me for this but I don’t hate Mrs Brown’s Boys. I don’t love it either and I wouldn’t call myself a fan but will watch episodes when they are on and generally have a couple of laughs throughout. It’s not clever…
Avengers: Age of Ultron
18 January 2016 by Leave a Comment
I’ve been watching films long enough now not to be too disappointed when sequels don’t match the brilliance of original films. I don’t mind that and have an inbuilt expectation of diminishing returns when film series go into multiple instalments. So I wasn’t expecting Avengers: Age of Ultron to be as good…
The Theory of Everything
10 December 2015 by Leave a Comment
Because I’ve given up on going to the local cinema I have to wait until films are on DVD or Sky Movies until I see them, which means coming completely late to all of this year’s Oscar Winners. I’m just now starting to catch up with most of the films (or at least the ones I want to see…)
Holiday Inn
8 December 2015 by Leave a Comment
One of my favourite Christmas films, in fact one of my favourite films, is White Christmas. I’ve been known to cry when the soldiers turn up at the end to honour the General, and I was DESTROYED one Christmas Day when I was watching it with my mum and we looked outside and it was actually snowing…
We’re No Angels
18 November 2015 by Leave a Comment
For the past two years we have had a dreadful, dreadful internet connection. Our estate didn’t have fibre and the connection speed was worse than in the bad old dial-up days. No Netflix, no Amazon Prime, no Spotify. It was the very epitome of a first world problem…
Unbroken
11 November 2015 by 2 Comments
Today is Armistice Day (Veterans’ Day in the US) and the BBC Festival of Remembrance on Saturday had a focus on the war in South East Asia, including testimony from a British prisoner-of-war who suffered in a Japanese camp. It seems fitting…
Spooks: The Greater Good
4 November 2015 by Leave a Comment
I’ve always been a big fan of the BBC TV series Spooks, the first few series with Matthew MacFadyen and then Rupert Penry-Jones were sublime and even when it got a little bit silly in its later years, the appeal was still strong. Part of that appeal was the brilliance of Peter Firth …