‘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…
Tag: film review
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 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 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 Ninth Be With You: The Rise Of Skywalker
So here we are, on the last of the Star Wars movies, collectively known as ‘The Skywalker Saga’. Episode IX of IX. The official ‘end of the story’. The culmination of a journey some 42 years in the making. And by definition the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. No,…
May The Eighth Be With You: The Last Jedi
Expectations were quite possibly at an all time high when this one hit the cinemas. Not only had 2015’s ‘The Force Awakens’ been generally well-received by fans and critics, but the first standalone Star Wars movie of the modern era (though not, of course, the first standalone Star Wars movie ever), ‘Rogue One’ had also…
May The Seventh Be With You: The Force Awakens
‘Return of the Jedi’ is the end of the story. It wraps everything up neatly. The Empire is beaten, the rebels are victorious, Luke is a Jedi, Han and Leia are in love and Darth Vader has found redemption. In 1983 Star Wars was pretty much complete. What we didn’t need were any prequels. But…
May The Sixth Be With You: Return Of The Jedi
And so, to the last of the original trilogy, a movie that is not quite as good as its predecessors but still much better than the prequels. Which is not necessarily much of a compliment, but this is a good film with some really great bits that more than make up for the ‘not great’…
May The Fifth Be With You: The Empire Strikes Back
Today is not Star Wars Day. That was yesterday. But I’m still writing about Star Wars. Because I’m doing that all month. Or for as much of this month as I can manage. I explained why I’m doing this in a previous post, but in all honesty it’s not for any good reason at all…
May The Fourth Be With You: A New Hope
Happy Star Wars Day everyone! When did this become a thing? I think I first came across the notion that the 4th May was considered to be Star Wars Day around eighteen years ago when a colleague (in whatever mundane admin job I was doing at the time) told me their birthday was on Star…
May The Third Be With You: Revenge Of The Sith
So we get to the last of the much-lamented prequel trilogy. This one did at least have a slightly better title. And clearly no-one learned anything from the preceding two films about managing expectations because there was a massive hype surrounding this one too. To be fair, it actually did deliver in some respects. Although…
May The Second Be With You: Attack Of The Clones
Three years after everyone got upset by ‘The Phantom Menace’, we all failed to learn our lesson and flocked to the cinemas in our droves to see ‘Episode II’, the equally badly titled ‘Attack of the Clones’. I actually went to a midnight showing, so I could see it before everyone else. And I thought…
May The First Be With You: The Phantom Menace
Thus, begins my mission to write about Star Wars for days, if not weeks, on end. And where better to begin than Episode One? That would seem like the obvious place to start. Except for two important reasons: As most people know, it wasn’t even close to being the first Star Wars film to be…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 24
And so The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films comes to an end. But what film could be lurking behind door 24? Why it’s only the utterly brilliant 2019 superhero movie Shazam!. When it comes to superheroes on the silver screen, there’s no denying that Marvel/Disney have had considerably more success in recent…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 23
Time for door 23 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films, which, thankfully means we’re almost done with my delusions of film connoisseurship for another year. Probably. I have been known to throw in the odd film review that has nothing to do with Christmas in the past. But it’s hardly a…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 22
2015’s Run All Night is the third (of four to date) collaborations between director Jaume Collet-Serra and senescent superman Liam Neeson. Like all their other collaborations (Unknown, Non-Stop and The Commuter) it’s a pretty ‘by the numbers’ action flic. This is fine if you like that kind of thing. Which I do. Unfortunately, at times, Run…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 21
Barry Levinson’s 1982 directorial debut, Diner is an eminently watchable film. Although nothing much really happens. Set in 1959, it’s a sort-of coming-of-age story about a group of twenty-something guys who spend quite a lot of their time in a diner. Notionally focussing on the build-up to the imminent wedding of one of their number,…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 20
Door 20 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films brings us 1985’s Better Off Dead. Which is quite a strange film. At first I thought it was an 80s teen comedy in the mould of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Which would be no bad thing because that is a great movie. But, although…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 19
1998’s Soldier seems like exactly the kind of film I would have been watching in the late 90’s. It’s as generic a sci-fi action flic as you could hope to find and it was made at a time when I was watching little else. Somehow, however, it passed me by. Which was no great loss really. Because…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 18
It’s December 18th, which means we’re now only a week from the big day. Probably time to start wrapping the presents. Be careful with those scissors though. Particularly if your name’s Edward And the scissors are your hands. Yes, behind door 18 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films is none…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 17
If yesterday’s entry, Love Actually found me conflicted over my feelings about Richard Curtis as a filmmaker, then his directorial follow-up The Boat That Rocked did little to help resolve those conflicts. The Boat That Rocked is a ‘sort-of’ love letter to the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. I wasn’t alive then, so have no recollection…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 16
Richard Curtis is a man who divides opinions. Specifically he divides my opinions. In some respects the man achieved a God-like status in my esteem in my formative years, because he was one of the people responsible for bringing the world Blackadder. No-one linked with that peerless television programme could ever do any wrong in my…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 15
Door 15 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films reveals the third in this year’s collection, which is an adaptation of a novel by Brett Easton Ellis. And of the three it is by far the best. It’s also the second film in this year’s ensemble to have the word ‘psycho’ in…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 14
We’re up to door 14 The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and it’s as if time is literally flying by as we head toward Christmas. Maybe we could do with a time machine. Like the one in 2002’s The Time Machine. Although it doesn’t seem to be the most reliable of…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 13
It’s Friday the 13th. Which is considered unlucky by some. And possibly it is for the entire population of the UK who might well be waking up to find out that someone truly awful is now their prime minister. I wouldn’t know as I’m writing this in the past. Although given that both of the…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 12
It’s December 12th and, if my understanding of current events is in any way accurate, then I believe there is a general election happening in the UK today. I don’t think too many people are feeling very optimistic about the outcome of that election. Hopefully we won’t all feel the need to throw ourselves off…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 11
11 days into The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and we arrive at 2002’s About a Boy. Which is about a boy. And also some other people. Adapted from the 1998 novel by Nick Hornby (an author who occupies God-like status in my esteem) About a Boy is not really like…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 10
Door 10 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films brings us 2002’s The Rules of Attraction. Which is not the helpful guide that you might imagine it to be. Indeed I’m not sure that there are any rules of any description on offer. As with Door 7’s entry Less Than Zero, this…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 9
As it is very much the 9th Day of December, it seems only right that we open door number 9 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films. And behind the door we find John Shaft II, protagonist of 2000’s Shaft, which is a sort-of-reboot/sort-of-sequel to the 1970’s trilogy of movies. Starring Samuel L.…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 8
Door 8 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films brings us 2005’s Just Friends. Notionally a ‘rom-com’ it probably is a little more ‘com’ than ‘rom’. Which would generally make it more to my tastes. It’s not always as funny as it would like to be, but it deserves credit for effort…
