December 8, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Sam Mendes

Writer: Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Cast: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Mays

Producers: Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Sam Mendes, Brian Oliver, Jayne-Ann Tenggren

Music: Thomas Newman

Cinematography: Roger Deakins

Editor: Lee Smith

Cert: 15

Running time: 118mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: 1917, France. Lance Corporal Blake (Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (MacKay) are sent on a mission through No Man’s Land and into enemy territory. Their orders are to stop an ill-conceived attack on German forces that would mean the death of 1,600 British soldiers.

What’s the verdict: If Skyfall was Sam Mendes doing for Bond what ...

December 4, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Edward Norton

Writer: Edward Norton (script), Jonathan Lethem (novel)

Cast: Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Suplee

Producers: Michael Bederman, Bill Migliore, Daniel Nadler, Edward Norton, Gigi Pritzker, Rachel Shane, Robert F. Smith

Music: Daniel Pemberton

Cinematography: Dick Pope

Editor: Joe Klotz

Cert: 15

Running time: 144mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: In 1950s New York, private eye and Tourette’s sufferer Lionel Essrog (Norton) takes it upon himself to solve the death of his mentor Frank Minna (Willis). His investigation partners him with city worker and activist Laura Rose (Mbatha-Raw), pitching him against real estate tyrant Moses Randolph (Baldwin).

What’s ...

November 25, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Jennifer Kent

Writer: Jennifer Kent

Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr, Damon Herriman, Michael Sheasby

Producers: Kristina Ceyton, Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, Jennifer Kent

Music: Jed Kurzel

Cinematography: Radek Ladczuk

Editor: Simon Njoo

Cert: 18

Running time: 136mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: 1825, Tasmania. Following a terrible assault on her and her family by British soldiers, Irish ex-convict Clare (Franciosi) pursues them through harsh wilderness to exact revenge.

What’s the verdict: After scoring a bullseye with debut feature The Babadook, Jennifer Kent returns with the ferocious, and ferociously intelligent, The Nightingale.

The basic plot echoes grindhouse rape-revenge mov...

November 24, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Mirrah Foulkes

Writer: Mirah Foulkes

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Damon Herriman

Producers: Michele Bennett, Nash Edgerton, Danny Gabai

Music: François Tétaz

Cinematography: Stefan Duscio

Editor: Dany Cooper

Cert: 15

Running time: 105mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: In a town called Seaside, nowhere near the sea, Judy (Wasikowska) and Punch (Herriman) plan to relaunch their puppet show. But, when Punch commits a terrible wrong, Judy plots revenge against him.

What’s the verdict: Australian writer-director Mirrah Foulkes turns the traditional Punch & Judy story on its head, with Judy’s nagging shrew replaced by a vengeful heroine for the #MeToo generation.

So, is the actor-turned-director’s revisionist retelling of t...

November 21, 2019, Posted in  Podcast Comments: No comments

Episode 74 of The Electric Shadows Podcast picks up where episode 73 left off. Robs Daniel and Wallis found that Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep stayed with them, its themes and characters lingering in the mind.

Someone of the same opinion is regular Electric Shadows Podcast contributor Mr Ian Bird, who also happened to be in town and was up for explaining why he was so impressed with the excellent chiller.

We recorded this on Sunday 17th November, the day after the BBC’s interview with Prince Andrew...

November 6, 2019, Posted in  Podcast, Reviews Comments: 2 comments

Episode 73 journey back to The Overlook Hotel for a discussion of Doctor Sleep, the sequel to both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

Robs Daniel and Wallis also take this as an opportunity to review Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film, discussing why it still has such a hold on the imagination nearly forty years later.

Horror fans will know Kubrick changed large parts of King’s book, including the ending. So our intrepid casters in pod review how Doctor Sleep compares to King’s source novel and spins gold from referring back to Kubrick’s 1980 chiller.

They still find time for horsing around, including Rob Wallis pulling “Jack Nicholson frozen in the snow faces”. A lot of “Jack Nicholson frozen in the snow faces”...

October 27, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Tim Miller

Writer: David S. Goyer, Billy Ray, Justin Rhodes

Cast: Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Producers: James Cameron, David Ellison

Music: Junkie XL

Cinematography: Ken Seng

Editor: Julian Clarke

Cert: 15

Running time: 128mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: Dani (Reyes) is targeted for termination by a time travelling cyborg (Luna) and protected by enhanced human soldier Grace (Davis). Joining them is legendary “mother of the future” Sarah Connor (Hamilton).

What’s the verdict: The Terminator franchise is one based on a contradiction.

“The future is not set” might be the mantra at its heart, across the series passed down from father to mother to son and b...

October 26, 2019, Posted in  Podcast Comments: No comments

Last year, to mark the 50th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead, The Electric Shadows podcast looked back at the brilliance and influence of George A. Romero’s horror masterpiece.

And his first zombie trilogy. And his second zombie trilogy. And the zombie explosion. All across four podcasts.

For your convenience we’re grouping the podcasts together here, because we know you’re hungry for zombies and one just isn’t enough.

PODCAST ONE

Podcast One looks at the film that invented the modern horror film, we look at what made it so radical back in 1968, a year riven with civil riots violence, assassinations and the Vietnam quagmire.

We look at why it has endured, and the copyright foul-ups that inadvertently lit the fuse for zombie apocalypse tales that would explode...

October 25, 2019, Posted in  Podcast Comments: No comments

Episode 72 of The Electric Shadows Podcast is another one on location. This time our intrepid explorers in pod, Robs Daniel and Wallis, are at the London O2 braving the latest Terminator film.

In the last ten years paying to see Terminator films has been something of a fool’s errand and the trailers for Dark Fate were not promising. So, what did they think? You’ll have to listen in to find out.

Along the way the Robs also discuss the franchise overall, their love for the first two movies, a strange dream Rob D had about T2 many years ago and how a dream started this whole shebang in the first place.

Oh, and they briefly discuss which now-disgraced celebrity was in the running to play the role that made Arnie a superstar.

So, enjoy this run down of the latest Terminator mov...

October 24, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Abner Pastoll

Writer: Ronan Blaney

Cast: Sarah Bolger, Andrew Simpson, Edward Hogg, Jane Brennan, Rudy Doherty, Macie McCauley

Producers: Guillaume Benski, Junyoung Jang

Music: Matthew Pusti

Cinematography: Richard Bell

Editor: Abner Pastoll

Cert: 18

Running time: 97mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: In Northern Ireland, recently widowed Sarah (Bolger) cares for her two kids, Ben (Doherty) and Lucy (McCauley). Her life becomes more complicated when criminal Tito (Simpson) busts into her flat with drugs stolen from a fearsome local gangster (Hogg).

What’s the verdict: A Good Woman is Hard to Find is equal parts Ken Loach, Shallow Grave, Dead Man’s Shoes and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance...