Shenmue III is finally here, and once again, his name is Ryo and he dances on the sand… yes, that old rubbish joke still works for me after 19 years since I first tried it out. Although this title had a Kickstarter launched to fund it at E3 2015 – where it eclipsed the $2m […]
Anna and the Apocalypse is a film which was released in UK cinemas just before Xmas 2018, with the DVD in April 2019. For some unknown reason, like Upgrade, it’s taken some time for a Blu-ray to get released, but thankfully, the wait has been worth it as it has a ton of extras. Now, […]
The Irishman centres around former mob hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) as is starts off in a care home, where he’s talking to someone about his life, but who? Even now I’ve watched the film, I’m not entirely sure… He talks about “painting houses” when he’s actually referring to whacking guys, in a film […]
Resident Evil 5 is a game where it was no surprise to me that the powers to be decided to re-release on the Nintendo Switch. Originally it received relatively positive reviews, but I never felt it really stamped its name down in the Resident Evil history. Please do not buy this game if you are […]
8 Days is so-called because there’s 8 days left until the world ends… Well, it’s a German drama so it’s actually called Acht Tage, but anyway…. A comet is due to hit the planet in just over a week, and all efforts to bring it down have failed. Of course, if they watched The Simpsons, […]
Resident Evil 5 is a game where it was no surprise to me that the powers to be decided to re-release on the Nintendo Switch.
Originally it received relatively positive reviews, but I never felt it really stamped its name down in the Resident Evil history. Please do not buy this game if you are expecting a massively upscaled version of the original PS4 port, or even the original 2009 PS3 version, because that is not what you will get.
Scoob! brings the unnecessary back to the big screen in cartoon form, and apparently this is the first full-length, theatrical animated Scooby-Doo adventure.
Wow, who cares?
Apparently, it reveals how Scooby Doo (Frank Welker – who?) and his best friend Shaggy (Will Forte) became two of the world’s most beloved crime busters. The story takes us back to where it all began, when their younger selves first meet, and team up with Velma (Gina Rodriguez), Daphne (Amanda Seyfried) and Fred (Zac Efron – Dirty Grandpa) to launch Mystery Incorporated.
Sticks And Stones is a three-part psychological drama focused on the competitive world of middle management. Set in a business park in Reading, it centres on the personal and professional life of Thomas Benson (Ken Nwosu), a hard-working father and husband. Reliant on bonuses and winning pitches, Benson often finds himself leading the team when trying to win new business. When he freezes during a pitch the fall out is monumental.
Determined to win back the client Thomas goes to increasingly desperate lengths to remain successful. But as he does, he begins to feel undermined, under attack and out of control. Has he lost his confidence and just feeling paranoid or is his own team, and maybe the wider world, now out to get him?
This week, there are FOUR new films out for you to choose from, led by The Irishman. Here are the titles, with more info below:
New DVD and Blu-ray releases UK & Worldwide from now until the end of time…. well, the UK DVD releases for 2019, and we’re starting to go into 2020.
Also check out upcoming videogame releases!!
Date TBC:
8 Days is so-called because there’s 8 days left until the world ends… Well, it’s a German drama so it’s actually called Acht Tage, but anyway….
A comet is due to hit the planet in just over a week, and all efforts to bring it down have failed. Of course, if they watched The Simpsons, they’d see that it’ll actually just be burnt up into a small rock and affect nothing… except Moe’s Bar, perhaps.
Upright is a new comedy/drama from comedian/musician Tim Minchin, and the first thing I noticed online is that there’s a review from the Financial Times (reviewing comedy shows? They must be desperate for clicks) branding it as being short on laughs. Well, it’s NOT a laugh-a-minute comedy. It’s more a bittersweet comedy/drama, so bear that in mind while you’re watching it.
Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans brings the series to the big screen (for the second time, following 2015’s Shakespeare comedy, Bill), and begins with Claudius (portrayed – as with the 1976 TV series – by Derek Jacobi) being very unwell due to poison, but a quick vomit joke makes him feel a lot better, much to the annoyance of his wife, Agrippina (Kim Cattrall)…
QT8: The First Eight (aka 21 Years: Quentin Tarantino) takes a look at the first eight films directed by Quentin Tarantino, a man who started off with a perfect trilogy of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.
Reservoir Dogs, despite borrowing the stand-off ending from City On Fire, showed how Tarantino had an incredible vision, even to the point where there’s a scene of Mr White and Mr Pink having a conversation in the back room of the warehouse while the camera is positioned on the floor, down the long corridor fom said back room; Pulp Fiction has so many scenes that still come back into my head on an almost daily basis, and Jackie Brown is a film I’ve only seen a couple of times, but do need to see as often as the first two.
Then… Kill Bill Vol.1 was good, but Kill Bill Vol.2 was overlong and lacklustre. Death Proof was another disappointment for me.
Inglorious Basterds was a return to form, but both Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight blew major chunks and saw the director run the film closer to three hours than two hours – when it really should’ve run for just under two, as well as using a ridiculously large and dull amount of the N-word. I’ve still to see his latest, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I would’ve gone to the cinema, but like with the last two, I don’t want a numb bum, so I’ll wait for the Blu-ray with that one, as well as following my earlier disappointments with his work.
Tarantino said he only ever wants to make ten films (with both Kill Bill movies being treated as just one) so will he quit after the next one? Only time will tell. Then again, he has already made at least ten because his first movie was 1987’s My Best Friend’s Birthday.
In QT8: The First Eight, There’s chat from so many cast and crew collaborators in this two hours as they go through every one of the films (so, naturally, expect spoilers), including the late, great Robert Forster, and it’s good that Taraninto tries to avoid using CGI as much as possible, although as we see from footage of a Kill Bill driving stunt with Uma Thurman, she sustained permanent neck and knee injuries when her car crashed into a tea.
Michael Madsen talks about after his final scene with Tim Roth in Reservoir Dogs, and how they were so covered in syrupy fake blood that when they hugged after it ended, it was so sticky that they had to be prised apart!
He also talks about how there were plans for a ‘prequel’ film with the Vega Brothers, so seeing him and John Travolta together onscreen would’ve been fantastic. Sadly, time has long since moved on, so we won’t get that now. Why didn’t we get it within a few years of Pulp Fiction? That would’ve been awesome.
As well as with Reservoir Dogs, there’s so many scenes in his films which will be ‘stolen’ from previous ones – and Tarantino, himself, says that he doesn’t pay homage, he “steals” from them. I can understand that. We’ve all made scenes from films in our heads, and thought how they’d like to see EXACTLY like something we’ve seen from another film.
Of course, you can’t talk about Tarantino’s films without mentioning the production company Miramax, and Harvey Weinstein – and they do go into the allegations, not just in conversation, but also in pseudo-Manga-style animation as they do with other films, before the topic returns towards the end of the film.
One thing we don’t see is Tarantino, himself, though.
Even though I only love around half his movies, with the other half not really doing it for me, this is still a roaring rampage of a retrospective through Taraninto’s career, and hugely enjoyable.
QT8: The First Eight is released in cinemas on Friday December 13th, and is also available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its December 16th release date.
At the time of posting this review, the Blu-ray is only £10 on Amazon, and the DVD is £7, so get this as an early Xmas present!
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 120 minutes
Release date: December 13th 2019
Studio: Wood Entertainment
Format: 1.85:1 (film clip ratios vary)
Rating: 8/10
Director: Tara Wood
Producers: Tara Wood, Jake Zortman
Writer: Tara Wood
Music: Doran Danoff, Tyler Wenzel
Contributors:
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Kurt Russell
Samuel L Jackson
Diane Kruger
Lucy Liu
Jamie Foxx
Christoph Waltz
Robert Forster
Tim Roth
Eli Roth
Bruce Dern
Michael Madsen
Zoë Bell
London Korean Film Festival 2019: Epic, intimate, diverse and diverting, this year’s festival has Helen M Jerome in raptures.
What an extraordinary year it’s been for Korean film in general, including Bong Joon-ho winning hearts, minds, awards and audiences with his latest global hit, Parasite. But there’s also a much wider, deeper pool of talent emerging, across all the genres and showcased in the Korean Film Festival 2019, that started its journey in London and moved out to a handful of fortunate cities around the UK.
