Finding Dory

Finding Dory (Cert PG) 1 Disc (Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) Running Time: 97 minutes approx. Sequels are tricky business in cinema, especially if the parent film was a colossal success like Pixar’s Finding Nemo was back in 2003. Taking the unusual route of waiting over a decade before returning to the ocean may …

Elevator To The Gallows (Ascenseur pour l’échafaud)

Elevator To The Gallows (Ascenseur pour l'échafaud) France (1958) Dir. Louis Malle Sometimes one watches a film and wonders what the results would be like if another director was at the helm of it. In the case of Louis Malle’s feature length debut it is not hard to imagine Elevator To The Gallows as part …

WWE – The True Story Of The Royal Rumble

WWE – The True Story Of The Royal Rumble (Cert 15) 3 Discs DVD / 2 Discs Blu-ray (Distributor: Fremantle Media) Running Time: 65 minutes approx. The last of the “Big Four” WWE PPV’s and one of the most popular events on the calendar, the Royal Rumble, is nearing its thirtieth anniversary, so what better …

A Scene At The Sea (Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi)

A Scene At The Sea (Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi) Japan (1991) Dir. Takeshi Kitano “Beat” Takeshi Kitano’s first two films as director, Violent Cop and Boiling Point, are, as the titles suggest, gritty dramas with a strong Yakuza presence in the plots, not surprisingly involving scenes of bloodshed. So, it comes as quite a …

The Witch

The Witch US (2015) Dir. Robert Eggers The stereotype of witches as cackling, green-skinned crones performing hocus pocus magic spells wasn’t always so, especially many centuries ago when the devout believed in witchcraft was totemic of horrifying demonic arts. In 1630, a Puritan English family in New England are expelled from their plantation for their …

Nobunaga The Fool Part 2

Nobunaga The Fool Part 2 (Episode 14-24) (Cert 12) 3 Discs DVD/2 Discs Blu-ray (Distributor: MVM) Running time: 280 minutes approx. The concluding half of Nobunaga The Fool has a lot of work to do in making sense of the myriad of ideas presented in the first half, not to mention give air time to …

Cold War II

Cold War II Hong Kong (2016) Dirs. Lok Man Leung & Sunny Luk Back in 2012 Cold War was Hong Kong’s highest grossing domestic film which, along with the cliffhanger ending, encouraged the team behind it to pursue a sequel. Four years later the wait is over and we return to Asia’s safest city and …

The Human Condition Trilogy III: A Soldier’s Prayer (Ningen no jôken)

The Human Condition Trilogy III: A Soldier’s Prayer (Ningen no jôken) Japan (1962) Dir. Masaki Kobayashi “When it’s kill or be killed, you change” At the beginning of this classic anti-war trilogy it was unthinkable that we’d hear such bold words coming from the pacifist protagonist at the centre of it all, a man who …

The Human Condition Trilogy II: Road To Eternity (Ningen no jôken)

The Human Condition Trilogy II: Road To Eternity (Ningen no jôken) Japan (1959) Dir. Masaki Kobayashi This is the second instalment of Masaki Kobayashi’s hugely ambitious but rewarding 10 hour, three film adaptation of Jumpei Gomikawa’s epic six-volume novel The Human Condition, an anti-war story based on the writer’s own army experiences. At the end …

The Secret Life Of Pets

The Secret Life Of Pets (Cert U) 1 Disc (Distributor: Universal) Running Time: 86 minutes approx. After fifty years of enlightening documentaries on the animals, Sir David Attenborough has yet to explore what happens when domestic pets are left unattended during the day. As the owner of a pug, my experience is that she sleeps, …