Is Liam Neeson becoming the new Charles Bronson, a staple of the routine, shoot-em-up vengeance vehicle? With films like Taken and its sequels, Neeson has become the action hero du jour, and he manages to acquit himself well in these testosterone heavy roles. He has a solid and dependable presence, and he always delivers the…
“Thank you and goodnight” is what you could hear after the opening track, “EKG,” on Wilco’s new surprise ninth record Star Wars. The disjointed instrumental affair is loose and free and would fit nicely into this veteran groups encore to say goodbye. Instead, it is the greeting and welcome mat on this solid and free…
I could watch Carol Burns paint a fence and enjoy the experience. She is such a great character creator she could make anything work. So it was with the monumental task of playing Winnie in this Beckett absurdist piece. She speaks a 90 minute monologue buried from the waist down in Act One and up…
Of Mice and Men, is an adaptation for the theatre of a 1937 novella of the same name, both written by John Steinbeck. The original production won Best Play in 1938 from the New York Drama Critics Award, and since has been adapted many times for other mediums – radio, television, opera and twice for…
I love a good psychological thriller so I was keen to get stuck into Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica (author of The Good Girl). Here’s the blurb: She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away….
There is school spirit and then there is a school’s spirit. An horror story set in a US high school, The Gallows started life as a promotional trailer from a couple of newcomers. Twenty years after an accident caused the death of the lead actor during a play, students at the same small town institution…
Having reformed with their original line-up back in 2013, Veruca Salt has returned with their new LP, Ghost Notes. This is the first record featuring Louise Post and Nina Gordon, since 1997’s Eight Arms to Hold You. For all review purposes, this record could be and probably should receive a shrug of the shoulders but…
The barbarity of the Nazis comes into sharp focus in a botched attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the start of the second World War. The man at the helm is Oliver Hirschbiegel, who directed Downfall, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2005 Oscars. The centerpiece of 13 Minutes is a…
If only I had more time to live my life? Perhaps the catch cry of many as the years go by and as regrets build. But what if that were, indeed, possible? In this provocative psychological science fiction thriller, director Tarsem Singh explores the consequences of living on for an eternity. Billionaire industrialist Damian Hale…
Ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first created the fictitious character of Sherlock Holmes in 1887, he has become one of the most enduring and popular character in detective fiction. Holmes has become a staple of the big screen, where he has been played by the likes of Basil Rathbone (who gave us arguably the…
