Garfield, the lazy, pizza- and lasagne-loving cat created by cartoonist Jim Davis 48 years ago has become part of pop culture. He has appeared in a daily comic strip published in some 2500 newspapers around the world and is the most syndicated comic strip in the world. He has also appeared in several books, animated…
Where did it all go so wrong? After several era-defining movies, the Marvel franchise seems to be sputtering. Judging by the ill-conceived and frankly illogical The Marvels, it seems to have run out of ideas for these characters. The Marvels draws together Captain Marvel (2019), the Disney + mini-series Ms Marvel and a few scattered…
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) was an over-the-top action comedy. Now comes more of the same in Patrick Hughes’ standalone follow-up, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. The film opens with Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) accepting the Bodyguard of the Year Award, except … actually, he hasn’t won the prestigious gong. He only dreams of winning it, until…
Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the ninth film in the Saw universe, and an attempt to reboot a franchise long thought moribund. It’s been over a decade since the torture porn franchise came to a conclusion with Saw: The Final Chapter, although there was the disappointing attempt at a belated reboot with 2017’s…
What an amusing movie The Banker was. It’s the kind of movie you start watching and before you know it, the end credits roll across your screen. Even though the subject won’t get you very excited. The world of real estate and banking. A world populated with stiffs in perfectly fitting suits who prefer to…
The world is confusing. Events happen – and are reported – at breakneck speed thanks to digital technology. But that same technology can be manipulated by unscrupulous people. So how do we know what’s real and what’s fake? That’s tough to work out. But the surprising thing is that the latest Marvel movie, Spider-Man: Far…
[7:00 pm] I’m sitting with a drink and snack ready for Captain Marvel. The crowd at the (full) preview screening is buzzing. [7:02] Trailer for Avengers: Endgame. Seems appropriate. [7:05] Oh, they’ve done something cool with the opening credits. Nice. [7:15] Okay so Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is known as Vers (pronounced “veers”) and is…
In Glass, filmmaker M Night Shyamalan brings together the central characters from 1999’s Unbreakable and 2016’s Split for a climactic showdown that brings this unofficial trilogy to a close. At the end of Split, Shyamalan did include a post-credits sting hinting that the film was a part of the Unbreakable universe. But he had to…
A violent buddy action-comedy with a fierce soundtrack, The Hitman’s Bodyguard plays on its irreverence. Nearly everybody notoriously lethal hit man Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) has ever met wants him dead. But that will only happen if Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) – the bodyguard recruited to protect him – doesn’t shoot him first … out of sheer…
Is there really nobody else wondering why the female characters in a King Kong movie are so attracted to this giant ape? Honestly, I’m always asking myself the same question. Is it because Kong “King of all places he appears in” is such an impressive appearance, radiating power and protection? Or is it its primitive…
