The Commuter (2017)
Jan30

The Commuter (2017)

Blood on the Tracks: The Commuter (2017)     It’s not a super hero movie and Liam Neeson isn’t playing one – as such.  Still, as Michael MacCauley, he does get to run faster than a speeding locomotive; dodge bullets; and leap mighty rail tracks in a single bound.  And it all happens right here in his latest comedy, The Commuter. What’s that you say?  It’s meant to be a thriller?  Well, that’s OK too; I can get into that. It...

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The Post (2017)
Jan24

The Post (2017)

Serving the Governed, Not the Governors: The Post (2017)     Best be warned:  if you are suffering from even the mildest form of schizophrenia, then a viewing of Steven Spielberg’s The Post is very likely to trigger an attack.  Because it’s two films. [Triggering: another one of those whining, nonsensical concepts for a whining, nonsensical age; and yet it seems strangely appropriate here.] Having had a surfeit of superhero...

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Justin Cronin’s The Passage
Jan24

Justin Cronin’s The Passage

Regions of Blackness: Justin Cronin’s The Passage     Being the busy season that was in it – you know, when you attempt to be vaguely sociable whilst making a reasonable go at a happy face – I had only read a few short stories and a couple of comic books over the Christmas and New Year period.  So when the rather stunning cover photograph on the paperback edition of Justin Cronin’s The Passage caught my eye, I paused. Paused...

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Anno Dracula 1899 And Other Stories
Jan24

Anno Dracula 1899 And Other Stories

Anno Dracula 1899 And Other Stories   Buried deep within this grab-bag of odds-and-ends from the wonderfully eccentric Mr. Newman is a story so exquisitely beautiful that it is worth buying this collection for alone.  But I’ll return to that later because, sadly, Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories is in most other ways a bit of a con. I was under the impression that it was a volume of uncollected tales that were set in the Anno...

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Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Jan18

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

  Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)     Right from the opening scenes, there is no messing about from writer-director-producer Martin McDonagh as he plunges us into the thick of his small town American setting. Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) has been living with the aftermath of her daughter’s murder for seven months now and wants to know why Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) and the local police force are...

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