Given recent terrorist attacks in Paris, this action-thriller cuts close to the bone. Paris is a powder keg of political and racial tension in the lead up to the titular national holiday. Michael Mason (played by Richard Madden, from TV’s Game Of Thrones) is a talented pickpocket eking out a living on the streets of…
In December 2009, people around the world downloaded a game to their phones and started something of a modern phenomenon. Little green piggies had invaded, intent on stealing the eggs of some flightless birds and these birds were … ANGRY! Well, how would you feel if someone came to your home and took away your…
Journalists are sometimes asked to do some pretty unpleasant things. Many will go to great lengths to break a story. It doesn’t always end the way they would have liked or wanted. Just think of the mess in which 60 Minutes was recently embroiled in trying to “recover” the abducted children of an Australian mother…
The Dandy Warhols are a staple indie band that had their most success in late 90’s – early 00’s and produced some severely infectious tracks such as “Bohemian Like You,” “Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth” and “We Used to Be Friends.” The Portland band never went away but have been taking…
Krampus was a movie I was really looking forward to. Partly because I picked up a radio report about a ban in some Austrian villages to use this folklore figure (I had never heard of it by the way) and his assistants. And partly because I was curious how a horror Christmas movie would look…
I’m a sucker for twisty thrillers, and You Sent Me a Letter by Lucy Dawson proved to be exactly that. Here’s the blurb: At 2 a.m. on the morning of her fortieth birthday, Sophie wakes in the darkness of her bedroom – and finds a stranger watching her from the foot of her bed. The intruder…
An audience giddy with anticipation clapped and cheered through opening night of the revival of the cult musical comedy, as well they might for the cast was in fine voice. When meek, down-and-out florist shop worker Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new plant species that he names ‘Audrey II’ after his co-worker crush, it seems…
Disgraced is the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winning play by Ayad Akhtar. This is the typical well made American play that I talked about in my entry about The Whale. A small cast of five in a single setting with a subtly disguised exposition that introduces the protagonists with their differences and backgrounds. Emily (Sophie Ross),…
Like the original that was released in 2014, the storyline of Bad Neighbours 2 is thin but the crude language and sight gags are plentiful, with the centerpiece again being Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, along with Zac Efron. Direction is once more from Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). The tone is set from the…
The three lead actors in Florence Foster Jenkins are picture perfect in their respective roles making this a far superior offering to the recently released Marguerite, which covered the same territory. This is an endearing and decidedly quirky comedy and period piece from acclaimed director Stephen Frears (Philomena, The Queen) starring Meryl Streep as Florence…
