Book, Film & TV Reviews
Directed by Sam Mendes and based in part on an account told to Mendes’ grandfather, 1917 tells the story of two young British soldiers – Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) – during the First World War who are ordered to deliver a message calling off an attack that will stop 1,600 men from walking straight into a deadly trap. This message is especially important as Blake’s brother is due to take part in the attack, but it is a race against time.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn and a sequel to the hugely successful 2014 film, Kingsman 2: The Golden Circle sees Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) begin a new journey when their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage. As they are led to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the United States – the Statesman – these two elite secret organizations must band together to defeat a common enemy, as the world is held hostage by Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore) and her drug cartel, “The Golden Circle”.
From Kick-Ass‘ director Matthew Vaughn and based on the comic book The Secret Service, created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar, Kingsman: The Secret Service tells the story of a super-secret spy organization, headed by Arthur (Michael Caine) and fronted by Galahad (Colin Firth) and Merlin (Mark Strong). When a global threat emerges from twisted tech genius Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), the organisation recruit an unrefined but promising street kid, Eggsy (Taron Egerton), into their ultra-competitive training program.
Continue reading “DVD Review: Kingsman – The Secret Service”
Written and directed by Rowan Joffe and based on a novel by S.J. Watson, Before I Go To Sleep centres on a woman, Christine (Nicole Kidman), who wakes up every day without any memory as a result of a traumatic accident in her past. With the daily help of her husband Ben (Colin Firth) and confidant Dr Nasch (Mark Strong), who work separately with Christine to help her piece together her past, a new terrifying truth emerges that forces her to question everyone around her.
Directed by Atom Egoyan and based on a true story, and in turn on Mara Leveritt‘s novel Devil’s Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, Devil’s Knot explores the savage murders of three eight-year-old boys in the small working-class community of West Memphis, Arkansas, in 1993. At the time, the murders sparked a controversial trial of three teenagers – Damien Echols (James Hamrick), Jessie Misskelley Jr. (Kristopher Higgins), and Jason Baldwin (Seth Meriwether) – known as the West Memphis Three, who are accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual and subsequently sentenced to life in prison. But the truth may be scarier as a mother (Reese Witherspoon) and investigator (Colin Firth) suspect all is not as it appears.
(Weekly feature written for BritScene)
This week we’re bringing back our weekly feature ‘Brits At The Box Office’, where we pull together all the information you need about the British cinema heading your way over the next seven days. It’s a great week for cinema too, with some brilliant films full of spies, sex addicts, and a little bit of Christmas. What better way to kick off December?
(Written for BritScene)
Rachel Weisz will star opposite Colin Firth in the classic war autobiography, The Railway Man, Variety have reported this week.
The film will be directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (Burning Man), and is based on the best-selling autobiography by Eric Lomax, who throughout his childhood has possessed a passion for trains.
Continue reading “Rachel Weisz To Join Colin Firth in ‘The Railway Man’”
(Read this in my publication In Retrospect – Issue 2 and on BritScene)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief.
This month has got many film critics talking about Gary Oldman and, with the release of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy this month, it’s not hard to see why. Alongside Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Hurt and Tom Hardy, this film adaptation, directed by Tomas Alfredson, is a traditional British spy thriller based on the novel written by John le Carré in 1974.
A Single Man, set in Los Angeles in the 1960’s, is Tom Ford’s directorial debut from 2009. The film tells the story of an English professor named George Falconer (Colin Firth), who opens the film awakening from a terrible dream about the death of his long-time partner Jim (Matthew Goode). George couldn’t visit his partner’s family with him as they didn’t agree with their relationship but, in his dream, George is able to lie beside Jim and kiss him goodbye. George thinks back to the day when he received the phone call telling him about the accident and remembers breaking down to his best friend Charley (Julianne Moore). One year later, still struggling to cope, we follow George through a single day as he decides whether his life is worth continuing without Jim or not.
Read, Watch & Drink Coffee 