As a film critic, you must often stay completely impartial and never go into a film with high expectations or preconceived ideas of what you will be getting from the film. However, in the case of the seventh Mission: Impossible film, Dead Reckoning Part One, I was excited as a little schoolboy going to an…
Author: Stuart Wren
Elemental
One thing Pixar has been very good at is dealing with issues that young people may face daily in a way they can understand. For example, Soul dealt with death and grief, Turning Red dealt with puberty, and Inside Out dealt with emotions. Their latest film, Elemental, covers several issues. While they can be commended…
Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny
1981, just two days after the wedding of Charles and Diana, my friends and I headed off to ABC 1 in Enfield for an opening day screening of a new adventure from the director of Jaws and produced by the man behind Star Wars, about an archaeologist looking for a religious relic. I remember spending…
Asteroid City
It’s not often you find people going to a movie because of a director, but Wes Anderson has such a unique voice and a style that every time he directs a new film, it’s almost a celebration. His latest outing, Asteroid City, is possibly the most Anderson-ish movie. A film packed with big screen names,…
The Flash
The Flash has had a troubled journey to get to the screen. There have been incidents with its lead actor, forcing the film to be delayed in its release and questions about the performance at the box office because of audience reactions to those events. It’s also one of the last films made before DC…
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
It is widely acknowledged that the Transformers franchise, while popular at the box office, is far from perfect filmmaking. Director Michael Bay’s bombastic style has led to the creation of a new word: Bayhem! The five films he helmed were loud, nonsensical, lacking in character and depth, and had a testosterone-fuelled attitude to violence, humour…
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
It’s not often that you leave a cinema almost breathless, having experienced something special, but I have to say Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is very special. This is more than just a cinematic experience. This work of art is more than just an animated action film. This has humour, excitement, heart, and emotion. In fact,…
The Little Mermaid
I was looking through some old movie posters and came across an advert for a film called Escape From The Dark. This was a Disney production about pit ponies in Northern England. Very dark and very moving. I remember vividly seeing this original tale and being blown away by it. A British-produced Disney live-action that…
Fast X
Trying to review Fast X is like copying the reviews of past Fast & Furious films. They have found a format that audiences enjoy and so why change things? The only real difference is that this is the start of what was supposed to be a two-part story that would end the series (although that…
Book Club: The Next Chapter
I am angry. Cinemas are really struggling to get bums on seats at the moment. Most of the films in the top ten charts are making less than £100,000, and yet, instead of the film companies trying their best to put out their finest products, we are delivered utter tripe such as Book Club: The…
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3
Over the past few years, Marvel has had a rocky journey with their cinematic universe. Eternals, Thor: Love and Thunder, and, more recently, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania haven’t hit the high notes of past successes since Avengers: Endgame. In fact, many have written the company off. Now we have Guardians of the Galaxy Vol…
Polite Society
Polite Society is a unique new film you may never have heard of. A British film from first-time feature director Nida Manzoor, a film brimming with more ideas than most mainstream movies, that breaks the mould of stereotypes and manages to skillfully jump from one genre to another in the blink of an eye. You…
Stu Loves Film 