Shameless Self Expression

Although I would argue Spandau Ballet are more Britpop/New Romantic than ‘Blue Eyed Soul’, this 2015 George Hencken documentary is a must for fans, and there are much lesser bands of the period that could’ve been covered I suppose. I’d much rather a Spandau Ballet documentary than say, an ABC, Duran Duran, Simple Minds, or Kajagoogoo documentary. I mean, let’s face it, they’re Duran Duran with more talent but crappier videos. Aside from a court case mentioned in the latter stages of the film, one could argue that there’s not enough dramatic material here, and it’s certainly no “Some Kind of Monster” . However, I kinda liked that it was a story about a bunch of pretty likeable lads whose only controversy comes from a bit of ego and the aforementioned (and frankly ridiculous) court case. No one died, no one was arrested to my knowledge or were involved in sex scandals etc. Aside from the court case, the only controversy here comes from an amusingly prick-ish attitude Tony Hadley expr...

Air Force One crashes down into the forest/mountains of Finland, leaving the President of the United States (Samuel L. Jackson) exposed in his escape pod in a land he doesn’t know and targeted by a rich terrorist (Mehmet Kurtulus) with a trophy hunting fetish. His only hope is a local boy (Onni Tommila) who has been left in the wilderness to slay a beast for himself as part of a manhood-type rite of passage deal every youngster in his clan (including his dad) has gone through before. Unfortunately, we see early on that the boy may not be quite up to the task of killing an animal, let alone warding off armed terrorists. Ray Stevenson plays POTUS’ chief Secret Service agent nearing the end of his assignment, who once took a bullet for his boss. Watching the events unfold from afar are the usual political/military talking heads including a hawkish general (Ted Levine), CIA terrorist expert (Jim Broadbent), the Vice President (Victor Garber), and CIA director (Felicity Huffman). ...

Set in a 29 th century Earth seemingly abandoned by humanity and visually resembling something like a giant junkyard, this is the story of the title robot (voiced by Ben Burtt, a “Star Wars” sound design whiz) who gets awful lonely all by himself. Then one day he happens upon a more modernised robot named Eve, and they are fast friends. However, their relationship hits a dead stop all of a sudden, as the ship Eve came from has come to pick her up. Wall-E manages to hitch onto the ship, and what he discovers you will have to see for yourself.   Oh, am I ever gonna catch hell for this, but here we go nonetheless. If not the worst Disney/Pixar film to date (and it probably is), this 2008 Andrew Stanton ( “Toy Story” , “Finding Nemo” , the rather dull “A Bug’s Life” ) animated flick is certainly the most tedious. Although I know many people love it, I think this one’s best left to snooty critics who will dig its “Short Circuit” and “ET” done by Godfrey Reggio ( “Koyaanisq...

Ella (Lily James) loves her father (Ben Chaplin) and tries to move on from the death of her mother (a strange-looking, blonde Hayley Atwell) to accept her father’s subsequent marriage to Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett). Lady Tremaine overhears a conversation between father and daughter confessing he will always love Ella’s mother. When Ella’s father suddenly dies whilst on business, Lady Tremaine and her two ‘ugly’ daughters Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) and Drizella (Sophie McShera) make Ella’s life a living hell. They force her to become their servant, eventually dubbing her ‘Cinderella’ and forcing her to eat scraps. Her only friends are the rodents in the house whom she talks to. One day she’s on an errand when she bumps into handsome Prince Kit (Richard Madden). They don’t know who the other person is, but there’s an immediate spark between the two. When he is forced by the ailing King (Derek Jacobi) to find a wife, the Prince decides to hold a ball for all the fair ladies in t...