Film

The Happytime Murders is the first feature film presentation from the production company, Henson Alternative, a relatively new arm of the Henson Company and it is a shame that the first feature length film to come from them is a woefully unfunny, cold picture where the initial humour wears off within a matter of minutes. The film stars Melissa McCarthy as Detective Connie Edwards in the human role as she and a hardboiled ex-Muppet cop Phil, voiced and manipulated by...

Okay, what do I write here? So far, Flashbacks To 93 has consisted of a mix of movies I’ve seen and love, ones I’m revisiting after a long time away from them and a few that I’d never seen before. I think it’s been going well. Even when I’ve not been wild about the films, there’s been something interesting to say, whether looking back at my childhood love of the characters for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III or gawping in...

So far this series has been about horror films, a theme that will continue through most of the entries, but there are other kinds of films that the BBFC, historically, has had issues with. Martial arts and other action films sometimes struggled with the board under James Ferman, not least because of his dislike of certain weapons. Throwing stars came under great scrutiny and nunchucks were completely prohibited, to such an extreme that a scene was cut from the Tom...

Whether it is the overtly racist Birth of a Nation – a film that President Woodrow Wilson screened at the White House – or Gone with the Wind which denies the truth about slavery,cinema for a long time failed in its depictions of race. 1989 was a monumental year on the global stage but it also saw a young black director called Spike Lee cover the topic of race with the intricacies and understanding that it deserved. Do the Right...

Best known for her editing work on the long-running television documentary series Panorama and Dispatches, Renee Edwards takes the director’s seat for the first time with her underwhelming documentary, One Note at a Time, an examination of New Orleans’ music scene post-hurricane Katrina. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, which devastated the city and claimed the lives of over 1,800 residents, many residents chose to leave.  Amongst them were the stalwarts of the Crescent City’s music scene, a number...

When George Osborne initiated sweeping austerity cuts in the wake of the financial collapse it soon became apparent that the arts would be the first on the chopping board. Unlike hospitals, policing and defence the creative sectors don’t have the immediacy or even the public sensitivity boasted by their counterparts, and so with relatively little fuss cash spent on museums, libraries, dance and music was taken away. It’s hard to quantify the effect that has had on communities. Where we...

Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow. Read with discretion. Avengers: Infinity War is not the film it was three months ago. In most cases, the labeling of any moviegoing experience as “an event” is a mark of excellence. Infinity War is absolutely an event film, but that’s just about all it is. Without its promises of shock and awe, the film crumbles. It’s a vapid action-adventure inspired by comics made with more zeal and more confidence, which is a damn shame considering the richness of that...

Hollywood has, from its very beginnings, been importing talent to serve both in front of and behind the cameras. John Woo had made his directorial debut in 1974 with the martial arts movie The Young Dragons (featuring action choreography by one Yuan Lung Chen, you may know him as Jackie Chan), but it was only with his 1986 film A Better Tomorrow that he came to greater international prominence. A Better Tomorrow was a film that cemented Woo’s personal style,...

In 2014, Antoine Fuqua’s screen adaptation of the popular 1980s series The Equalizer took the box office by storm and went on to break more records by making almost 4 times more than it cost to make, not least thanks to the star power of its lead actor and all around Hollywood nice guy Denzel Washington. Now back for a second outing with the unimaginatively titled Equalizer 2, Fuqua offers up pretty much more of the same action-packed vigilante themed...