2016’s Deadpool is technically Ryan Reynolds’ second big screen outing as the eponymous antihero. The less said about the first incarnation in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine the better. It was not well-received. Which is a shame because on the evidence of the 2016 movie and its 2018 sequel, Reynolds was born to play Deadpool. Fortunately, as…
Category: review
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 12
1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes could, and possibly should, have been a beloved classic from my childhood. It ticks a lot of the boxes of the kind of light-hearted adventure film that would definitely have appealed to me in my pre-teen years. But it seems to have passed me by. Which is perhaps no bad thing with…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 11
Time for Door 11 of The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and in honour of the date we’re going to ‘turn it up to 11’. Because today’s entry is the 1984 ‘rockumentary’ known as This is Spinal Tap, a poignant and compelling insight into the trials and tribulations of a touring rock band. Or,…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 10
1995’s Jumanji is an interesting concept (interesting enough to spawn spin offs and reboots in more recent times) but the movie itself feels a bit generic. Perhaps the special effects were good at the time, but they feel a little dated now. Not a great deal happens in the way of character development. The demonic titular board…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 9
1998’s The Waterboy is the kind of juvenile comedy you tend to associate with Adam Sandler. Which is maybe unfair to Adam Sandler because he has, in his time, been in some good films. But he’s also done a lot of this kind of thing. When The Waterboy came out I would’ve been 19. I quite liked…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 8
As with most Wes Anderson films, I didn’t really like 2009’s Fantastic Mr Fox when I first saw it, but I have come to appreciate it more with subsequent viewings. Still, while it often takes multiple viewings for me to ‘get’ most of Wes Anderson’s output, I generally don’t hate them initially with the level of vitriol…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 7
I was a pretty big fan of Kevin Smith movies in the nineties, but I haven’t really kept up to speed with much of his output in the last twenty years. I’m not sure why. I loved 1994’s Clerks and I’m nostalgically fond enough of 1995’s Mallrats (although it obviously isn’t as good as Clerks) to have continued…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 6
Door 6 of The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and maybe it’s time to sort out that Christmas shopping. We could head to the mall. Except we don’t tend to call them that in the UK. I think we’d be more likely to refer to them as Shopping Centres. And we…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 5
Door 5 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and perhaps it’s time to take it easy. Maybe kick back and relax in a hot tub. But don’t drink any Russian energy drinks while you’re in there or you may end up travelling back in time to the eighties. And if none…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 4
The Office is one of my favourite TV shows of all time. I actually like all versions of it that I’ve seen. I loved the US incarnation, which evolved from being a rehash of the UK original in series 1 to establishing its own identity and thriving for multiple seasons thereafter. I liked the French edition,…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 3
Door 3 of The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and we’re off to a magical land. Narnia to be precise. Today’s film of choice is 2005’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is far too long a title. It’s based on the novel entitled The Lion,…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 2
Door 2 of The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films brings us Martin Scorsese’s 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas. It would be foolish for a hack like me to try and offer any critical insight into a film as universally acclaimed as this one, but it truly is extraordinary. Although probably one to avoid…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 1
As if by magic December 2020 is upon us. And so must begin, whether anyone wants it to or not, The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films. And to kick off this year’s festive countdown of films, is a movie that really highlights the difference between the worldviews of children and adults.…
The Fourth Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Preamble
As November 2020 draws to a close, it’s fair to say that even by the pretty low standards normally set by the eleventh month of the year, it has not been an especially enjoyable 30 days. This may well be in keeping with 2020 as a whole, which has largely been a year of fear,…
May The Thirtieth Be With You: The Mandalorian
‘The Mandalorian’ arrived late to the UK, given that Disney Plus didn’t launch here until March, having been available elsewhere as early as November. However, the hype arrived a long time before that and, consequently, this show had a lot to live up to by the time I got around to watching it. Probably more…
May The Twenty-Ninth Be With You: Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales
When I was a kid, Lego was essentially a load of plastic bricks that you tried (and generally failed) to build stuff out of. Even back then you could buy kits that had particular themes, I remember having a space themed set, but by and large most new packs of Lego were just dumped in…
May The Twenty-Eighth Be With You: Star Wars: Resistance
As with ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’and ‘Star Wars: Rebels‘ I can’t claim to have seen every episode of this animated show. At the time of writing I have seen series one in its entirety but I’ve yet to see any of the second (and as it turns out final) series. In fairness to me,…
May The Twenty-Seventh Be With You: Star Wars: Rebels
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I have been somewhat unsuccessful in my attempts to watch every episode of every show in the Star Wars canon before the end of this month (although I’ve given it a pretty good go). Unfortunately this 2014 successor to ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ is one of the shows…
May The Twenty-Sixth Be With You: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (The Series)
In all honesty, when I started this month long homage to Star Wars, I wasn’t actually planning on doing much more than writing about the nine movies of the ‘Skywalker Saga’ in episode order over the first nine days of the month. Then I thought, given that I’d seen both ‘Solo‘ and ‘Rogue One‘, I…
May The Twenty-Fourth Be With You: Solo: A Star Wars Story
‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ has the dubious claim to fame of being the first Star Wars movie to make a loss at the box office and it’s perhaps the main reason that the focus for future Star Wars projects, after the release of ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ has been more geared towards content for…
May The Twenty-Third Be With You: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Day 23 of me writing exclusively about Star Wars, purely on the basis that it’s currently May and I can entitle each post ‘May the (whatever date it actually is) be with you’. Which possibly was never that funny. Or if it ever was funny, the joke is wearing thin now. Surely the end is…
May The Twenty-Second Be With You: Star Wars: Forces Of Destiny
I’m not sure too many Star Wars movies would pass the Bechdel test, but there’s no denying that there have been some great female characters throughout the franchise. Having said that, I approached ‘Star Wars: Forces of Destiny’, which is a series of short animated stories, predominently centred around the aforementioned female characters, with some…
May The Twentieth Be With You: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (The Movie)
So, what’s the worst Star Wars movie in existence? Many people will have their views. A lot will tell you it’s ‘The Phantom Menace‘ and they might have a point. Others will tell you it’s ‘The Last Jedi’ and, although they are entitled to their opinions, they would be wrong, because ‘The Last Jedi’ is…
May The Nineteenth Be With You: Star Wars: Clone Wars
Not to be confused (but very easily confused) with ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’, which is a different cartoon (and movie), this series of animated shorts aired between 2003 and 2005 and aimed to ‘fill in the gaps’ between Episodes II and III of the prequel trilogy. And it’s as bonkers as it is brilliant.…
May The Eighteenth Be With You: The All New Ewoks
Eighteen days into my month-long homage to Star Wars and I appear to have lost all reason. Not that I had much of that at the start of all this. I could have just stopped when I’d written about Episodes I – IX, though I’m sure no-one would have begrudged me writing about ‘Rogue One’…
May The Seventeenth Be With You: Star Wars: Ewoks
Alongside ‘Star Wars: Droids – The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO’, another Star Wars inspired cartoon was made in 1985. It was about the Ewoks. It was, appropriately enough, known as ‘Star Wars: Ewoks’. The two shows ran alongside each other, though aside from the fact they both notionally stemmed from the same source material,…
May The Fifteenth Be With You: The Great Heep
‘The Great Heep’ is a bizarre entry into the Star Wars ‘back catalogue’. A feature length special of an already cancelled TV show, which very few people actually watched. It would be easy enough to have viewed this as just an extended episode of the aforementioned show, which I wrote about yesterday, as it seems…
May The Fourteenth Be With You: Star Wars: Droids – The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO
I remember this cartoon from the eighties but I can’t really say I was ever that big a fan as a child. Which is strange because I loved Star Wars and I also loved cartoons. I suppose I just didn’t find a cartoon about C3PO and R2D2 that inspiring. But it wasn’t bad. No worse…
May The Thirteenth Be With You: Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
Following on from 1984’s ‘Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure’, 1985’s ‘Ewoks, The Battle For Endor’ was another TV movie that somehow found itself in cinemas in the UK. But you wouldn’t have found me in any of those cinemas. Because unlike the first Ewok film, which is firmly established as a seminal moment in…
May The Twelfth Be With You: Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
Originally a TV movie for American audiences simply called ‘The Ewok Adventure’ this 1984 Star Wars spinoff was retitled ‘Caravan Of Courage: An Ewok Adventure’ when it was released in cinemas internationally. I saw it in the UK. Which is where I lived in 1984. Indeed it is where I live now. And I saw…
May The Tenth Be With You: Star Wars Holiday Special
Can you truly call yourself a Star Wars fan if you’ve never seen the 1978 ‘Star Wars Holiday Special’? Yes. Of course you can. Indeed for your own sanity, you should avoid watching this at all costs. And back before the Internet, it was easy to not watch this. It was only ever shown on…
James Proclaims! 