Duplicity, comedy and crime make for a heady mix in the clever caper film, Game Night. Jason Bateman (Office Christmas Party) and Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) star as Max and Annie, a couple with a competitive streak. Their weekly game night with friends gets kicked up a notch when Max’s charismatic brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) arrives. Always looking…
Creativity abounds in The Drill, which is unlike anything I have seen – a combination of circus arts and interactive experiences. We’re in the midst of WWI and campaigners for peace are adamant they want politicians to listen to their pleas. A rally is planned and a petition for an end to the war is…
A little late for Halloween maybe, but Freaky will definitely scratch that comedy-horror itch. Co-writer and director Christopher Landon builds on the success of his Happy Death Day films with this enjoyable romp – even if he doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. While the Happy Death Day series riffed on Groundhog Day,…
A contemporary interpretation of the dastardly deeds of King Henry VIII, Six rocks. Its pop vibe is a sure-fire winner. The six wives of the Tudor sovereign are presented as modern-day heroines, complete with costumes and “moves” that would be at home in a superhero movie. They have all been wronged (two were beheaded, two divorced, one…
British musician Mike Oldfield was still in his teens when he recorded his first studio album, the iconic number one chart topper Tubular Bells. It was the first release on Richard Branson’s fledgling label Virgin Records and went on to sell tens of millions of copies. Sales surged when Tubular Bells’ opening theme was used in the…
Occasionally there are times when we get two films released dealing with similar themes or plot lines – we’ve had two “Die Hard in the White House” clones with Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down, two volcano films with Dante’s Peak and Volcano and two giant asteroids heading for Earth with Mimi Leder’s Deep…
A few films have looked at the Bosnian conflict of the 90s (Michael Winterbottom’s Welcome To Sarajevo, for one), but few have been as powerful, compelling or intelligent as this searing drama from Serbian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic. Quo Vadis, Aida? was apparently one of former President Barack Obama’s favourite films of the year. The film…
It’s not often that a dramatic play comes along that so generously pays out the trifecta to the audience. The New Theatre’s production of The Removalists does this in spades. With an outstanding script, flawless acting and incisive direction, the audience virtually has no choice but to return home fully satisfied! Written by David Williamson…
“This is the way the world ends; this is the way the world ends.” The final line in August: Osage County, taken from a poem by T S Eliot, is an apt conclusion to this damning portrayal of American culture and history. Considered one of the great 21st Century American plays, August: Osage County bares…
What more effective tool of terror is there than your own high school reunion looming on the horizon to make you take a long hard look at how far you’ve come – or not? Who We Were drags the past of a group of thirty somethings back into the present as the prospect of being…
