The transmedia marketing for The Martian is EXACTLY what should be done for a space epic of this magnitude. Collated through You Tube and an “Ares Live” channel, it draws the audience in and stimulates their encyclopaedic need for knowledge and engagement via a whole bunch of innovative content. Real Science with a world-famous thinker…
Read moreInterstellar
Interstellar was – how shall I say this nicely? – underwhelming. It’s glorious to look at – even the dustbowl scenes are magnificent. But somehow the glitz can’t overcome the amalgam of problems. Can I just point out some of them? Yes, spoilers ahead…..
Read moreBehind the Candelabra
Oh, haven’t we all done things we regret? But poor Scott Thorsen – he gives up his job, his loving family, his health and his face (yes, his face) for that vile carapace of ego and guile, Walter Liberace. Soderbergh’s movie of the abusive, controlling and utterly dyspeptic relationship between between the two of them…
Read moreWe Bought A Zoo
I know. Matt Damon sunk low in a family tear-jearker about a widower who – guess what? – buys a run-down zoo. On the whole it’s completely dreadful – Elle Fanning plays home-schooled like she’s a a lobotomized moron, and Scarlett Johansson grins her way through the reflective bits with the glee of a complete…
Read moreContagion
I guess when you’re Steven Soderbergh, you’ve got your pick of A-listers prepared to do bit parts in your films. And I guess you also get to pretty much choose where you’re going to shoot. And I guess, therefore, when you’re Steven Soderbergh, and a script like Contagion lands in front of you, you get…
Read moreInvictus
It’s Rugby World Cup time down-under, and the Springboks are once again attempting to bludgeon their rivals into submission. I never quite know who to support here, being English AND South African, or Irish-Welsh-Scottish ancestry, with dollops of emigration to Argentina, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the United States along the way. And I even…
Read moreTrue Grit
The Cohen Brothers’ remake of True Grit, starring Matt Damon and an incomprehensible Jeff Bridges, filmed in New Mexico – I’m guessing because of the incentives as much as for the pristine Old West landscapes. You all know the story of the prissy teenage girl who hires a bounty hunter to track her father’s killer…
Read moreThe Adjustment Bureau
The Adjustment Bureau takes on some pretty big themes; fate, faith, chance, luck – good and bad – predestination, God. None of that matters though, because all you want is for the damaged Matt Damon to find love and happiness with the effervescent Emily Blount…. Stubby Matt (no favours done by that ill-fitting suit) plays…
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