Projected Film

Runtime: 100mins | Director: Johannes Roberts | Rating: 1 Star As some of you may know, Odeon occasionally do a fun event called ‘Odeon Screen Unseen’. The premise, as you’ve likely guessed, is they screen a film ahead of its release date. The catch, however, is that you don’t know what film you’re going to see until the titles start to roll. This week though, they did ‘Scream Unseen’ – the same premise, just with a horror film. Oh, Odeon – you’re so witty! Anyway, I don’t know about you, but I think this is a very fun idea. Unless, of course, the film turns out to be awful like it did for me. Rather than getting to see the upcoming Hereditary which I had hoped and prey’d (okay, I’m done.), it would be, instead, we were served The Strangers: Prey at Night . Sequel to the 2008 indie horror, The Strangers , the film tells the story of a family who goes on a road trip and ends up being stalked by a family of psychopathic killers wearing masks. Sound familia...

Runtime: 95mins | Director: Paul King | Rating: 5 Stars Whilst this review may not be the longest I’ve written, it’s in line with the tone of Paddington 2 - uncomplicated, yet extremely enjoyable. Having recently written reviews on films such as Blade Runner 2049 , Battle of the Sexes , and Loving Vincent , it’s nice to finally be able to write a review on a film which doesn’t involve deep thinking, sustained attention or nuanced sub-plots. Paddington 2,  instead, is an incredibly fun and amusing film which is as much of a pleasure for adults as it is the children they will presumably take. (Unless you’re like me, who went to see it regardless of not having a child. I’m still a big kid.) Having seen the first Paddington instalment and fallen in love with it due to its humour, innocence and quintessentially British nature, I couldn’t resist attending its sequel. Unfortunately, though, the cynic in me assumed it could never have held a candle to its predecessor – how wrong...

Runtime: 164mins | Director:  Denis Villeneuve | Rating: 3.5 Stars Before I delve into the review of Blade Runner   2049 , I feel it’s important to start from the beginning and give my two cents on the original Blade Runner . This sort of discussion is bound to cause controversy in some way or another given it’s now attained ‘classic’ status, but even so, I didn’t like it. At all. I also feel it’s worth mentioning I chose to watch the ‘Final Cut’ given that Denis Villeneuve, the director of 2049 , said that that is the one the sequel is canon to . Given that I deem myself a cinephile, I was somewhat ashamed of myself that I hadn’t seen Blade Runner until about two weeks ago. I went into it expecting great things given that almost everyone I had ever spoken to about it told me it was a masterpiece which revolutionised the sci-fi genre and explored the concept of A.I. better than anyone had done so before. Whilst I acknowledge, and admire it, for paving the way for the ...

Runtime: 141mins | Director: Matthew Vaughn | Rating: 4 Stars Back in 2015 (which feels like aeons ago now) Kingsman: The Secret Service came out. Having not been familiar with the source material originally, I went in blind not knowing what to expect and I came out loving it. It was slick and a lot of fun – think Bond on steroids. Thankfully, the exact same can be said for the recently released sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The film takes place a year later with Eggsy now balancing life between being a fully-fledged member of The Kingsman and being in a relationship with Swedish royalty, Princess Tilde. All seems to be going well for him until a mysterious organisation surfaces called The Golden Circle, who hack into The Kingsman’s network and brings about their destruction. With his old mentor Harry and the rest of the Kingsman now gone, Eggsy enlists the help of their American counterparts, The Statesman. *SPOILERS FROM HERE ON IN – BE WARNED* I’ll cut stra...