When Charlton Heston uttered those immortal words, “Keep your stinking paws off me, you filthy apes!” back in 1968, who would have known that over 50 years later, those apes would still be famous with the audience enough to allow them a new movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. After Any Serkis’s Caesar…
The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy was a throw-away TV series that filled the schedules in the 80s, with Lee Majors as a stuntman who moonlighted as a bounty hunter. It followed the same vein as The A-Team when you could turn your television on a Saturday evening and watch without thinking. Now we get the feature reboot…
Love Lies Bleeding
How long have we been waiting for a film noir thriller with lesbians, bodybuilding, gun running and steroid abuse? Well, now we can wait no longer for Love Lies Bleeding, the new film by director Rose Glass, who gave us the excellent Saint Maud, has delivered all of this and then some. This stylish, imaginative…
Challengers
Tennis isn’t my go-to sport. I will watch it occasionally, and I have played it in the past, but it’s not a sport that makes me sit for hours while Wimbledon is on. There have been few films that have won me over, either. Battle of the Sexes with Emma Stone and Steve Carell was…
Back To Black
You wait ages for a musician biopic; two come along almost simultaneously. We had Bob Marley: One Love, which failed to capture the true spirit of the reggae star, and now we have Back to Black, the story of Amy Winehouse, the powerhouse singer whose life was cut so short. Both stars had documentaries covering…
Civil War
Cinema can be a powerful source of projecting what is happening today. Looking back to the 70s, one can see the paranoia of post-Vietnam and the 80s for its Regean-ite freedom and greed of the rich. Now, we are in a world where war seems to fill the news agenda, and America is divided politically….
The First Omen
The trend of rebooting classic horrors continues with a prequel to the 1976 classic The Omen. After the failure to capture the spirit (get it?) of The Exorcist with The Exorcist: Believer, The First Omen had meagre expectations. As the original was an Exorcist rip-off, would we get another generic horror film that relies on…
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Filmmakers have been fascinated with giant monsters knocking seven bells out of each other ever since the 1933 King Kong and the 1954 Japanese Godzilla. The 21st saw the return to the big screen of these two titans with both Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island introducing the MonsterVerse and a hit-and-miss affair it has been,…
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
It was 40 years ago when the original Ghostbusters hit our screens and became one of the most successful comedy films ever. The heady mix of giggles, special effects, and scares worked on every level, and even now, looking at the film, I think it might be dubious in some of its contents and is…
Monster
Hirokazu Koreeda is one of Japan’s most prolific and admired directors. His films are often slices of life, leading many to compare him to Yasujiro Ozu and even Ken Loach. With successful dramas Shoplifters and Broker under his belt, he now challenges his audience with a story seen from the point of view of three…
Dune: Part Two
There are not many films that can be classified as a masterpiece. The Godfather and Godfather Part II are masterpieces. So is Lawrence of Arabia. Many think the Lord of the Rings films fall into that category (controversially, I don’t). I will, however, add another movie to the list. Denis Villenuve’s long-awaited Dune: Part Two….
Wicked Little Letters
When you were young, you were told that swearing was neither big nor clever. Some would say that those who use excessively bad language do not have the vocabulary to cover what they are trying to say. On the evidence of Wicked Little Letters, the new British comedy-drama, these theories can be thrown out the…
Stu Loves Film 